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After a not-too-shabby tie with Germany2, Canada got the mystery pairing with Nicaragua. On the one hand, they had to be happy to get another sweepable opponent, moving them further up the standings. On the other hand, I am sure the players aren't really happy spending two weeks of vacation time to play a bunch of 2200s.
Canda-Bluvshtein saw White play very tentatively in the early middlegame, unwilling to do anything commital; perhaps searching for a plan? His play seemed rather aimless (at least to me) as he allowed Mark a free hand on the Qside. Mass exchanges on d5 resulted in a position with White having two weaknesses: his a-pawn and his K; and Black having the two Bs. Mark made no mistake, and by combining play against targets all over the board, first won the a-P, then a Q for R and N, then a piece. He really made it look very easy.
Charbonneau-Espinoza was another sharp Sicilian. Black angled to sacrifice his e-pawn for some dark-square control with 16...Nd4. Rybka says White can take it, but instead Pascal charged headlong into the opponent's Kside with 17.f4!?. Play at that point became very sharp, so when Black blundered with 23...Nb6, he was bound to pay a heavy price. To his credit, Espinoza did find moves to keep the game going (27...Rf4!?; 28...Nxd5!?; 32...d5!?) but Pascal never came close to blowing it.
The opening in Picado-Zugic looked for a long while like White was overtly going about trying to draw. Igor played very solidly, and though his position was weakness-free, it wasn't clear how he was going to generate play. I guess I needn't have worried, as White took the bull by the horns and charged with h4-h5-h6. Igor turned this P into a weakness, and duly picked it off. It still seemed that White had some drawing chances as Igor's pieces didn't have a lot of room to enter into the White position. White solved that problem, too, with 45.d6!?, granting White a small initiative. However, when the Rs came off, the only question was whether Black could infiltrate on the dark squares. Many moves later, the answer was "yes".
Noritsyn-Bravo featured enterprising play by both sides. First Black sacrifced a couple of Ps to jam up the White Bs. That led to Black getting a slight initiative. White came up with a really clever plan - check out 28.f4!? Rybka isn't too impressed, but I like the spirit behind this move. Black got to triple on the seventh rank in exchange for donating more material (this time a piece), yet White held with the enterprising 31.Rg1!, a tough move to see a half-dozen moves earlier.
Looks like a win in the last round will catapult Canada into the top-30, a very creditable result. Good luck, guys.
Canda-Bluvshtein saw White play very tentatively in the early middlegame, unwilling to do anything commital; perhaps searching for a plan? His play seemed rather aimless (at least to me) as he allowed Mark a free hand on the Qside. Mass exchanges on d5 resulted in a position with White having two weaknesses: his a-pawn and his K; and Black having the two Bs. Mark made no mistake, and by combining play against targets all over the board, first won the a-P, then a Q for R and N, then a piece. He really made it look very easy.
Charbonneau-Espinoza was another sharp Sicilian. Black angled to sacrifice his e-pawn for some dark-square control with 16...Nd4. Rybka says White can take it, but instead Pascal charged headlong into the opponent's Kside with 17.f4!?. Play at that point became very sharp, so when Black blundered with 23...Nb6, he was bound to pay a heavy price. To his credit, Espinoza did find moves to keep the game going (27...Rf4!?; 28...Nxd5!?; 32...d5!?) but Pascal never came close to blowing it.
The opening in Picado-Zugic looked for a long while like White was overtly going about trying to draw. Igor played very solidly, and though his position was weakness-free, it wasn't clear how he was going to generate play. I guess I needn't have worried, as White took the bull by the horns and charged with h4-h5-h6. Igor turned this P into a weakness, and duly picked it off. It still seemed that White had some drawing chances as Igor's pieces didn't have a lot of room to enter into the White position. White solved that problem, too, with 45.d6!?, granting White a small initiative. However, when the Rs came off, the only question was whether Black could infiltrate on the dark squares. Many moves later, the answer was "yes".
Noritsyn-Bravo featured enterprising play by both sides. First Black sacrifced a couple of Ps to jam up the White Bs. That led to Black getting a slight initiative. White came up with a really clever plan - check out 28.f4!? Rybka isn't too impressed, but I like the spirit behind this move. Black got to triple on the seventh rank in exchange for donating more material (this time a piece), yet White held with the enterprising 31.Rg1!, a tough move to see a half-dozen moves earlier.
Looks like a win in the last round will catapult Canada into the top-30, a very creditable result. Good luck, guys.
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