Monday 18 January 2010

Beat them early, beat them often

One advantage older chess players have over juniors is that when they first meet, the junior player is often not yet the player they will become. By beating the 'newcomer' at the earliest opportunity an older player can often establish a psychological edge that proves useful in future encounters.
Now in the following game I'm not saying Caruana is a newcomer (he did towel up Adams at the last Olympiad) but I'm sure that Shirov was keen to demonstrate that the older generation isn't moving out of the way just yet.

Shirov,A (2723) - Caruana,F (2675) [C80]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (2), 17.01.2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 Be7 11.Bc2 d4 12.Nb3 d3 13.Bb1 Nxb3 14.axb3 Bf5 15.b4 0-0 16.Re1 Qd7 17.h3 Bg6 18.Ba2 Kh8 19.Bf4 a5 20.bxa5 Rxa5 21.b4 Ra4 22.Bb3 Rxa1 23.Qxa1 Nd8 24.Qa7 Ne6 25.Bd2 Rd8 26.Bxe6 fxe6 27.Nd4 Bxb4 28.Nxb5 Qxb5 29.cxb4 Rc8 30.Qa5 Qd7 31.Ra1 Be4 32.Qc5 Qd5 33.Qxd5 Bxd5 34.f3 Bc4 35.Ra5 c6 36.Kf2 Kg8 37.Ke3 Rc7 38.Kd4 Bb5 39.g4 Rd7+ 40.Kc3 Kf7 41.h4 g6 42.h5 gxh5 43.gxh5 Ke8 44.h6 Rd5 45.f4 Ke7 46.Ra7+ Rd7 47.Ra1 c5 48.bxc5 Bc6 49.Rg1 Be4 50.Rg7+ Kd8 51.Kc4 Kc7 52.Rg8 Kc6 53.Rc8+ Rc7 54.Re8 Kd7 55.Rg8 Rb7 56.Ba5 Rb2 57.Rd8+ Ke7 58.Rd6 Rc2+ 59.Bc3 Kf7 60.Rd4 d2 61.Kb3 Kg6 62.Bxd2 Kxh6 63.f5+ Kg7 64.f6+ 1-0

1 comment:

MachoM said...

Spassky often mentioned: "If you beat them the first time you meet them, then it's easier to get a draw later..."