To comment rapid games on chess media is not very common and I like to fulfill this cap. Years ago there was the “Informator” a regular edition published in former Yugoslavia. Game collections contributed almost all of the top players. The fee for a single commented game depended on your status or rating. Today we have computers and the editors are not eager to pay for a commented games any more. Still someone needs to learn from his mistakes, even better from other players mistakes. Computer analyzes however do not tell you why these mistakes were made. I always tell to my students look only the games which are well commented by the actual participants. Nowadays it is harder and harder to find these games. The reason – I already mentioned. Here I try to represent some of my games from Berlin and I hope that these games are good enough to teach not only me, but the reader as well.
In round one I lost from promising position against a strong player from Ukraine.
[Event "World Rapid 2015"]
[Site "Berlin GER"]
[Date "2015.10.10"]
[Round "1.35"]
[White "Ehlvest, Jaan"]
[Black "Onischuk, Vladimir"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B08"]
[WhiteElo "2535"]
[BlackElo "2612"]
[Plycount "98"]
[Eventdate "2015.10.10"]
[Eventtype "rapid"]
1.Nf3 { In ideal World you must have a file for each player over 2600, but I
do not. This is why the modest 1.Nf3 was played. } 1...g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.h3!? { I played myself a lot of Pirc during my career and this subtle move
I never liked when playing with Black. } 5...O-O 6.Be3 { The plan is to wait with
the move Be2, because in some lines it may land onto c4. } 6...d5 7.exd5 ( 7.e5 Ne4 8.Nxe4 dxe4 9.Ng5 c5 10.c3 { is an other option, but again, I checked it once or
twice for Black side, but ofcourse, I could not remember during the game what exaclty is going
on here. } ) 7...Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.Be2 Qa5+ 10.c3 Rd8 11.O-O c5 12.Qb3 cxd4 13.Nxd4 Nc6! 14.Nxc6 bxc6 15.Bc4 e6 16.Rfd1 Ba6 17.Bxa6 Qxa6 18.Rxd8+ Rxd8 19.Rd1 Rxd1+ 20.Qxd1 Bf6 { Here I had few minutes left and my
opponent had only seconds left, but there was an increment of 10 seconds per
move. I was absolutely convinced that I have a decisieve advantage. White has
an winning advantage, but it is not trivial yet. Overestimating my position was and
is my weakness. It backfired again. } 21.Bc5?! ( 21.Qd7! { actually I was
right and this move was winning. I just missed on my calcualtions that after } 21...Qe2 22.Bh6 Qe1+ 23.Kh2 Be5+ { I have } 24.f4 { and White is winning. } ) 21...h5 22.Qd7 Kg7 23.g3 h4 24.g4 Qe2 { Now Black has enough counterplay, but
refusing to make a draw in several lines I finally
lost. } 25.Qxc6 Qxb2 26.Qd6 Qb1+ 27.Kh2 Qb7 28.c4 Kh7 29.Qf4 Bg7 30.Bd6 a5 31.a4 Kg8 32.Kg1 Qb1+ 33.Kg2 Qa2 34.c5 Qc2 35.Be7 e5 36.Qf3 e4 37.Qe3 Qxa4 { Now Black is better
already. } 38.Bxh4 Qc6 39.Be7 a4 40.Kg1 Qd5 41.Qc1 Qc6 42.Bd6 Bd4 43.g5 Qd5 44.h4 Qe6 45.c6 Qxd6 46.c7 Qg3+ 47.Kh1 Qxh4+ 48.Kg2 Qxf2+ 49.Kh1 Qf3+
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Somehow I recovered from the shock and after three rounds I had 50%. In round four I had black against Vitiugov.
[Event "World Rapid 2015"]
[Site "Berlin GER"]
[Date "2015.10.10"]
[Round "4.40"]
[White "Vitiugov, Nikita"]
[Black "Ehlvest, Jaan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A50"]
[WhiteElo "2725"]
[BlackElo "2535"]
[Plycount "66"]
[Eventdate "2015.10.10"]
[Eventtype "rapid"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6 { This line was especially prepared for the Berlin competition. } 3.f3 Nc6 4.e4 ( 4.Nc3 { this move is probably the best one and was played in recent blitz game between Kasparov and Short. } ) 4...e5 5.d5 { I think that most likely Vitiugov messed up something here,
but because he played very quickly and because he is extremely
strong handling the openings with White pieces I got worried and spend too much time in the opening. } 5...Bb4+ { Here I tried to play
something original, but the simple } ( 5...Nd4! 6.Ne2 c5 { and it is obvious
that this is not the position what the russian player was aiming for. } ) 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 Ne7 8.Nc3 d6 9.O-O-O O-O 10.h4 a6 11.Kb1 { Now White has solid space advantage and I decided to complicate matters. } 11...b5!? 12.cxb5 axb5 13.Bxb5 Bd7 14.Bc4 Qb8 15.Nge2 Qa7 16.g4 Rfb8 17.h5 Ba4 18.Rc1 Nd7 19.g5 Nc5 20.g6 { Somehow this move I did not considerand now I spend again a lot of time, assuming that I am already lost. } 20...h6 21.gxf7+ Kxf7 22.f4 Rb4 { Now I had less than a minute on my clock. } 23.fxe5 Rxc4 24.e6+ Kg8 25.Rhg1 Nxe4 26.Qxh6 ( 26.Nxe4? Bc2+ 27.Rxc2 Qxa2+ 28.Kc1 Qa1# ) 26...Nf5!? ( { Here I saw that after } 26...Bc2+ 27.Ka1 { it is mate in three } ( 27.Kxc2 Rxc3+! 28.Nxc3 Qf2+ 29.Kb1 Nxc3+ 30.Rxc3 Qxg1+ 31.Qc1 Qxc1+ 32.Rxc1 Nxd5 ) 27...Qxa2+! 28.Nxa2 Rxa2+ 29.Kxa2 Ra4# { but I did not have
enough time to calculate what happens exactly after 27.Kxc2, so I played the
safer move } ) 27.Qg6 Nd2+ 28.Ka1 Nb3+ 29.Kb1 Nd2+ 30.Ka1 { Here the game
ended. I had 15 seconds left here and somehow I could not see the winning move,
despite the fact that I saw the mating pattern few moves back. } 30...Be8! 31.Qxf5 Qxa2+ 32.Nxa2 Rxa2+ 33.Kxa2 Ra4#
1/2-1/2
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I was not very worried about the mate I missed, because in overall I was worse during the whole game. My best game of the day one was the following game against other veteran player Bologan.
[Event "World Rapid 2015"]
[Site "Berlin GER"]
[Date "2015.10.10"]
[Round "5.46"]
[White "Ehlvest, Jaan"]
[Black "Bologan, Viktor"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D15"]
[WhiteElo "2535"]
[BlackElo "2607"]
[Plycount "83"]
[Eventdate "2015.10.10"]
[Eventtype "rapid"]
1.Nf3 { This was my best game in rapid. Next day my opponent admitted it also when chatting with others in players room between rounds. } 1...d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.d4 Bf5 6.Be2 h6 7.Bd3 Bxd3 8.Qxd3 e6 9.a3 { not an improvement, but the
position after } ( 9.O-O Bb4 10.Bd2 { was played few times in recent Poikovsky
tournament where Bologan was one of the participant, so I just wanted to play
Magnus style. } ) 9...dxc4 10.Qxc4 b5 11.Qe2 c5 12.dxc5 Bxc5 13.O-O Nc6 14.b3! { keeping the option to play a4 later. } 14...O-O 15.Bb2 { This pawn structure is very common from Furman line in Queens gambit accepted. I played these positions with Black and White several times. Being familiar with it helped me find the right moves with easy. } 15...Qe7 16.Rfc1 Rfc8 17.Nd2 Bb6 18.a4 b4 19.Nce4 Nd5? ( 19...Nxe4 20.Nxe4 Na5 21.Nd2! ( 21.Rxc8+ Rxc8 22.Rd1 ( 22.Qxa6?! Qc7 23.Nd2?! Rd8 { and Black is better } ) 22...Nxb3 23.Qg4 f5 24.Qg6 Nd4! ) 21...Rxc1+ 22.Rxc1 Rd8 23.Rc2 { and for the
computer Black is doing fine, but for human’s eye the position looks
suspicious. } ) 20.Nc4 Bc7 21.Rc2! Rd8 22.g3 Na5 23.Ned2 Nb7 24.e4 Nc3 { Good practical decision, but White is controlling the positon on the board and
also on the clock. } 25.Bxc3 bxc3 26.Rxc3 Rd7 27.Nf3 f6 28.Rac1 Rad8 29.Kg2 a5 30.Nb2 Bd6 31.Nd3 Ba3 32.R1c2 g5 33.Rc8 Kg7 34.Rxd8 Qxd8 35.Rc3 Qb6 36.Qc2 g4 37.Nh4 Bd6 38.Rc6 Qd4 39.Rc4 Qb6 40.e5 fxe5 41.Rxg4+ Kf7 42.Nxe5+
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This was all my good and interesting moments from day one. About day two and the blitz, I will continou shortly. Also about the other players moments and the opening trends you find out in next articles.
Enjoy!
Jaan Ehlvest