Levon Aronian produced a powerful performance to win the Nalchik Grand Prix. The Armenian top seed logged 8.5 points from 13 games for a 2833 performance. Peter Leko and Vladimir Akopian tied for second place with 7.5 each. Grischuk and Bacrot tied for 4-5 with 7.
Nobody else had a plus score. Nalchik was very hard fought with a well-balanced, tough field. At various stages, Grischuk, Alekseev and Leko had the lead or a share of it. Nobody survived unbeaten. One feature was a large number of long draws where positions were played out till exhaustion.
Leko was in the joint lead when he met Aronian in the last round. It is to their credit that decided to fight rather than sharing joint first with a quick draw. Aronian found a creative middlegame exchange sacrifice to win crushingly. This victory also catapults Aronian to the top of the GP rankings because he’s won both the events he’s played.
While Nalchik was being played out, the 2009 European Championships (Men, Women, Club) that occurred recently in Budva and St Petersburg were being annulled by a court order! This is not just a question of money and titles.
The individual event was a qualifier for the World Cup, which is part of the world championship cycle. So this is especially bad news for Evgeny Tomashevsky, Baadur Jobava and Vladimir Malakhov who came 1,2,3 respectively at Budva, snaffling up the lion’s share of the Euro 120,000 prize fund and the three World Cup places at stake.
This shocker was part of a court judgement in favour of the Turkish Chess Federation, which had sued the European Chess Union (ECU) in October 2007 alleging that the ECU had unfairly awarded these events to other European Federations. The ECU will almost certainly appeal the verdict but its unclear what happens if the judgement is upheld. The Turkish Chess Federation will presumably organise a new event but it is blatantly unfair to the people who played and won at Budva and St. Petersburg.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Leko Vs Kasimdzhanov, Nalchik 2009) has arisen from an uncharacteristically violent Petroff Defence. Leko who is normally known as a peaceable type stormed the kingside with g4 and h4-h5-h6 in what must be a prepared line.
Black has just lashed out with the counter-attacking 27.-f5. Leko continued 28. gxf5 Nxf5 29. Be6 Qxd4 and it seems the inventive Kazakh GM has saved the position with the idea of 30. Bxf5 Qd1+. In fact, white could struggle if he is forced into a queen exchange. However, there is a devastating riposte and Leko found 30. Rxh7+! (1-0) which wins instantly due to the forced 30.--Kxh7 31. Bxf5+ Rxf5 32. Qxd4.