Vu du pont

Evgeny Yurievich Tomashevsky – Ivan Aleksandrovich Bukavshin
68th Russian Chess Championship; Chita, August 18, 2015
Queen’s Gambit Declined D44

Notes by Grandmaster Andrey Alekseevich Deviatkin.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. Qc2. Tomashevsky (at the press conference with Sergey Rublevsky): “I’ve already played 10. Qc2, meeting 10. ... Nbd7 with 11. Nd2 [he meant his win against Matlakov in the Russian Championship Higher League in Vladivostok 2014 – Ed.]. Ivan has prepared a novelty suggested by all engines”. 10. ... Nh5 11. Be5 Rg8 12. h4 Nf4? “Vanya’s preparation was strange, because if I don’t react this way, White is perhaps just worse... Maybe he thought I’d play 10. Rd1 transposing to a theoretical line known to be drawish. It’s clear that 12. ... Nf4 shouldn’t be the main move here. I think Black has to play 12. ... g4, and this is just the beginning”. 13. hxg5 hxg5 14. Bxf4 gxf4

15. d5! Tomashevsky: “I remembered for sure that this is almost the end for Black... Okay, maybe I’m overoptimistic, but I had analysed this line for about two weeks two years ago. The only problem was that I didn’t repeat exactly this sideline before the game, paying more attention to other tricky variations – in the Anti-Moscow, there are quite a few. But I remembered this position to be extremely dangerous for Black, and also that I had to break through at once. If 15. 0-0-0 then Black is in time with 15. ... Na6, and 16. d5 already doesn’t work because of 16. ... Nb4”. 15. ... Nd7. If 15. ... Na6 then 16. dxe6 fxe6 17. e5 Qe7 18. 0-0-0 (Tomashevsky). 16. 0-0-0. The winner isn’t sure it was the best. In his opinion, the King might be better situated in the center than on the Queenside, since it could hide on f1 in some lines – 16. Rd1!?. 16. ... Qb6 17. dxe6 fxe6 18. Nd4 Nc5. In turn, Black should try to evacuate his King, but he doesn’t have time for that due to the following important line shown by Tomashevsky: 18. ... 0-0-0 19. Nxe6 Re8 20. Qd2! Ne5 [the same idea follows after 20. ... Nf6, while 20. ... Nc5 is no good because of 21. Nxc5 Bxc5 22. Qxf4 Bxf2 (the point is 22. ... Qc7 23. Qf5+ with the double attack] 23. Bxg4+ winning the Exchange] 21. Qxf4! Rxe6 22. Qf5 c5 23. Nd5 Qc6 24. Nf4, and the e6-Rook is lost. The move chosen by Bukavshin holds everything, but now his King is condemned to stay in the center forever. 19. Bh5+ Ke7 20. Be2!? White didn’t find any forcing ways, so he decided to switch to calm play, retaining strong initiative for a Pawn. His plan is to play e4-e5, Kc1-b1, and then “to look for something decisive” (Tomashevsky). In fact, Evgeny was reproaching himself during the press conference for not making best use of the Black’s 12. ... Nf4. According to him, Black should hold this position if he plays with mathematic precision. At the same time, Tomashevsky realized that “the e7-King is a very long-term factor” and Black had to solve many difficult practical problems. For instance, the attempt to simplify the game – 20. ... Nd3+ 21. Bхd3 Qxd4 – would be refuted by 22. Bxc4! Qxc4 23. Qd2 followed by the Queen’s invasion with enormous attack. 18 moves later, the leader’s strategy proved to be successful – Black wasn’t able to repel White’s numerous threats without big material losses. 20. ... Rd8 21. e5 Rg7 22. Nf3 b4 23. Ne4 Rxd1+ 24. Rxd1 c3 25. Nd6 b3 26. axb3 Nxb3+ 27. Kb1 cxb2 28. Bc4 Nc5 29. Nh4 Nd7 30. Ng6+ Kd8 31. Nxb7+ Kc7 32. Nd6 Qa5 33. Ba2 Rxg6 34. Qxg6 Qxe5 35. Ne8+ Kb6 36. Qxe6 Qxe6 37. Bxe6 Nc5 38. Ba2 1 : 0.

Evgeny Yurievich Tomashevsky has become the Russian Champion for the first time in his life. Photo: Суперфинал Чита (‏@SuperfinalChita).