Sum of squares

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin – Pavel Eljanov
6th Chess World Cup; tie-break game 2; Baku, September 29, 2015
English Opening A11

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Bg4 3. Bg2 c6 4. c4 e6 5. cxd5 Bxf3 6. Bxf3 cxd5 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. d4 Nf6 9. Nc3 Be7 10. e3 0-0 11. Bd2 Rc8 12. Rc1 Nd7 13. Ne2. For 13. Qe2 a6 14. Bg2 Nb6 15. Rfd1 Qd7 16. Be1 Na7 17. b3 Nb5 see Efimenko – Solak, International Chess Festival, Baku 2013. 13. ... Nb6 14. Nf4 Nc4 15. Bc3 Bb4 16. b3 Nb6. Not 16. ... Bxc3? on account of 17. bxc4 Bb4 18. cxd5 exd5 19. Qb3 and Black loses material. 17. Bb2 Qe7 18. Nd3 Ba3 19. Bxa3 Qxa3 20. Nc5 Rc7 21. Nxb7 Rxb7 22. Rxc6 Qxa2 23. Qd3 Nd7 24. Rb1 a5 25. Bd1 Nf6 26. Bc2 g6 27. f3 Qa3 28. Qc3 Qb4 29. Qxb4 axb4 30. Ra1 h5 31. h4 Re8 32. Kf2 Ree7 33. Ke2 Rec7 34. Rxc7 Rxc7 35. Kd2 Rb7 36. Ra8+ Kg7 37. Bd3 Nd7. Eljanov is struggling to defend a most instructive endgame Rook and Knight vs. Rook and Bishop, “with possibly a nightmare structure f5, g6, h5 vs. f4, g3, h4 on K-side”, says International Master Malcom Pein. Karjakin afterwards suggested a possible improvement with 37. ... Ng8, eventually followed by ... Ng8-e7-c6. 38. e4 dxe4 39. Bxe4 Rb6 40. Ra4 e5 41. Ke3 Kf6 42. dxe5+ Kxe5 43. Ra5+ Kd6 44. Kd4 Rb8

45. Bd5! f6 46. Ra6+ Ke7 47. f4 Nb6 48. Ra7+ Kd6 49. Bf7 Rc8 50. Ra6 Kc6 51. Bxg6 Kb7 52. Ra5 Rc3 53. Be4+ Kb8 54. Rb5 Ka7 55. Rxh5 1 : 0.

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin vs. Pavel Eljanov
Photo: Eteri Kublashvili