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After yesterday's whitewash of the Macau squad, it looked like Canada would get at least a somewhat tougher pairing this round. However, perhaps not too tough. Since pairings are determined in part by game scores within similar match-scoring groups, Canada's favourable tiebreak would seem to give it a fine chance for relatively easy pairings the next round or two. Only time would tell if Trinidad and Tobago would be such an easy pairing.
Bluvshtein-Harper started normally enough until Black tried to blast it open with 10...c5?! I don't see how this can be good as White's pieces are just more active. Later Black played 20...Nce4 instead of Rybka's suggestion 20...Nfe4 perhaps overlooking that in the game 25...Be6 (guarding the c-pawn) can be answered by 26.f3! (Rybka) Ng5 27.h4, trapping the N (no e6-square to run to) 27...Nh3+ 28.Kh2 and that guy's dead soon. Black got tacticked out of another pawn, and with two Bs and those two extra Ps, Mark had no trouble converting. The final combination was nice.
Merritt-Zugic was a bit reminiscent of Noritsyn-Al-Qudaimi from round five. Igor sacrificed a P on e3 to inhibit White's development. He didn't seem to get very much, I think, and soon was just down a P. However, Merritt decided to mix it up rather than simply consolidate his extra P. I rather liked, instead of 37.Bc2, the superior 37.Bxb5. The idea is that on the natural 37...axb5 (trying to make play down the a-file), White can simply win another P with 38.Qd4+ and 39.Qxb4. If instead 37...Rxb5, Rybka proposes 38.Nd3! and thinks White is clearly better. I took some convincing, but now I think it is quite right about that. By the time move 40 rolled around, Black could have forced White to take the perpetual with 40...b3 41.Nf7+ Kg8 42.Nh6+ etc., but Igor seemed willing to roll the dice (perhaps because the match was already sewn up by that point?) with 40...Rf8. Rybka found a very cool tactic: 48.d7! (instead of 48.Rxe5? as played) 48...Rd8 49.Rc8! with the idea of mating on g8 if Black takes the d-pawn. As the game went too many pawns got exchanged and by the time White was back up a P, he had no winning chances. A somewhat lucky escape for Igor.
Roussel-Singh featured some high-class manouevring by Thomas. I particularly liked B/c2-a4-c6!, which helped favourably chance the pawn structure while dumping off White's potentially worst piece. Black sacrificed a pawn for some activity and when that didn't work, tossed in an Exchange. Thomas calculated a way to give back the Exchange (33.Qa5!?) and emerged with a crushing advantage culminating in the unplayed (though definitely not uncalculated) variation 37...e2 38.Qe5+! (Berry). This game really impressed me.
Chang-Noritsyn was another anti-Sicilian, in this case the Closed variation. Play was pretty thematic for the opening. A few highlights: Black's 6...Rb8 prepares the b-pawn space grab as well as trying to lengthen the diagonal for the B/g7, while 8...Nd4 is a direct way to slow down White if the latter is intending to push d3-d4 at some point soon. Finally, the inclusion of 9...h5 and 10.h4 is a clever (and fairly standard) way for Black to try and grab some control of g4. If he can trade off his N for the dark-squared B, then Black's B/g7 will become an even more powerful piece. Nikolay's 16...Qc7 was a nice move, pinpointing the weakness on g3. The early middlegame saw a lot of manoeuvring, the upshot of it was that White was left with a pretty passive set of pieces. Black detonated the position open with 32...g5, which posed White some problems he wasn't able to solve. Rybka likes 33.Rd2 (intending to trade Qs with Qd8+), but still thinks Black is quite a bit better. White compounded his troubles with 34.Kh3? when 34...Nxf3! is immediate death.
With big match wins like this, Canada's tiebreaks (and thus pairing prospects) are very good. Perhaps one more under-dog and then a final sprint into the top 30? It's certainly possible.
Bluvshtein-Harper started normally enough until Black tried to blast it open with 10...c5?! I don't see how this can be good as White's pieces are just more active. Later Black played 20...Nce4 instead of Rybka's suggestion 20...Nfe4 perhaps overlooking that in the game 25...Be6 (guarding the c-pawn) can be answered by 26.f3! (Rybka) Ng5 27.h4, trapping the N (no e6-square to run to) 27...Nh3+ 28.Kh2 and that guy's dead soon. Black got tacticked out of another pawn, and with two Bs and those two extra Ps, Mark had no trouble converting. The final combination was nice.
Merritt-Zugic was a bit reminiscent of Noritsyn-Al-Qudaimi from round five. Igor sacrificed a P on e3 to inhibit White's development. He didn't seem to get very much, I think, and soon was just down a P. However, Merritt decided to mix it up rather than simply consolidate his extra P. I rather liked, instead of 37.Bc2, the superior 37.Bxb5. The idea is that on the natural 37...axb5 (trying to make play down the a-file), White can simply win another P with 38.Qd4+ and 39.Qxb4. If instead 37...Rxb5, Rybka proposes 38.Nd3! and thinks White is clearly better. I took some convincing, but now I think it is quite right about that. By the time move 40 rolled around, Black could have forced White to take the perpetual with 40...b3 41.Nf7+ Kg8 42.Nh6+ etc., but Igor seemed willing to roll the dice (perhaps because the match was already sewn up by that point?) with 40...Rf8. Rybka found a very cool tactic: 48.d7! (instead of 48.Rxe5? as played) 48...Rd8 49.Rc8! with the idea of mating on g8 if Black takes the d-pawn. As the game went too many pawns got exchanged and by the time White was back up a P, he had no winning chances. A somewhat lucky escape for Igor.
Roussel-Singh featured some high-class manouevring by Thomas. I particularly liked B/c2-a4-c6!, which helped favourably chance the pawn structure while dumping off White's potentially worst piece. Black sacrificed a pawn for some activity and when that didn't work, tossed in an Exchange. Thomas calculated a way to give back the Exchange (33.Qa5!?) and emerged with a crushing advantage culminating in the unplayed (though definitely not uncalculated) variation 37...e2 38.Qe5+! (Berry). This game really impressed me.
Chang-Noritsyn was another anti-Sicilian, in this case the Closed variation. Play was pretty thematic for the opening. A few highlights: Black's 6...Rb8 prepares the b-pawn space grab as well as trying to lengthen the diagonal for the B/g7, while 8...Nd4 is a direct way to slow down White if the latter is intending to push d3-d4 at some point soon. Finally, the inclusion of 9...h5 and 10.h4 is a clever (and fairly standard) way for Black to try and grab some control of g4. If he can trade off his N for the dark-squared B, then Black's B/g7 will become an even more powerful piece. Nikolay's 16...Qc7 was a nice move, pinpointing the weakness on g3. The early middlegame saw a lot of manoeuvring, the upshot of it was that White was left with a pretty passive set of pieces. Black detonated the position open with 32...g5, which posed White some problems he wasn't able to solve. Rybka likes 33.Rd2 (intending to trade Qs with Qd8+), but still thinks Black is quite a bit better. White compounded his troubles with 34.Kh3? when 34...Nxf3! is immediate death.
With big match wins like this, Canada's tiebreaks (and thus pairing prospects) are very good. Perhaps one more under-dog and then a final sprint into the top 30? It's certainly possible.
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