The 48th edition of the Ilmar Raud Memorial was held from 30th June to 6th July 2014 at the Viljandi Sports Center in Viljandi, a town in southern Estonia.
The event was played in memorial of Ilmar Raud, member of the Estonian team that scored bronze at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires.
GM Aleksei Aleksandrov from Belarus emerged a clear winner with 7,5/9 points, leaving the nearest contenders a full point behind. Yours truly shared second place. Final results here .
These long traditional tournaments have a lot of impact on younger players. I participated in this festival long time ago when I was only 14 years old in 1977. In 1979 I won this event. Young Gata Kamsky won the event in 1986. Behind these long traditions usually are some devoted sponsors and organizers. Mr. Toomas Valgmae is a chess enthusiast, sponsor and organizer all in one. I am sure the Viljandi festival has bright future ahead.
I took this tournament too cautiously and made too many draws, still I managed to win some games. Late World Champion Tigran Petrosian from Armenia once lamented, that Kings Indian defence is an opening which is feeding his whole family. In his opinion this aggressive opening was not positionally sound and player who picked it up should be punished. In round seven I had white against young Vladislav Kovalev from Belarussia who was actually last year’s winner of the tournament. I new he might play Kings Indian and I was ready to play one of the most principle line.
[Event "Raua memorial 2014"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2014.08.04"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Ehlvest, Jaan"]
[Black "Kovalev, Vladislav"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A65"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[Plycount "101"]
[Eventdate "2014.??.??"]
[Sourcedate "2014.08.04"]
1.d4 { I use in my practise both moves, d4 and e4. Also, if your opponent
plays both Grunfeld and King’s Indian it is sometimes more tricky to start
with 1.c4. Somehow I was convinced that my opponent is going to play King’s
Indian and I did not care too much about the move order. } 1...Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3! { In my younger days this move was considered the best
line against KID. I used it very often in crucial games, but as White I lost
once very important game against King’s Indian specialist Ilya Smirin when I
got a winning position from the opening, but missed the winning move. Samisch
system was used with success by Soviet GM’s Razuvajev and Balashov. Beljavsky
was playing it frequently as well. My first coach Tonu Truus who graduated
from Moscow Sport’s Academy with as chess coach taught me this system. Not the
lines, but the idea that this must be the weopen against KID. Back then I was
not good on theory and I followed just the basic strategy in this system.
Later I lost somehow interest to this system and started to play other lines
because my upset againts Gelfand. } 5...O-O 6.Nge2 { Classical move is ofcourse } ( 6.Be3 { but after the game against Gelfand in 1996, when my opponent sacrifised a
pawn with 6…c5, I started to avoid it. Today however if you follow the games
of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Lev Aronian and our own American Alex
Shabalov they still prefer 6.Be3. } ) 6...c5 { I spent few hours preparing
against 6…Nc6. The text move came as suprise and now on I remembered some
ideas, but it was obvious that both of us were in unkown territory. } 7.d5 e6 8.Ng3 { This is the idea of keeping the bishop on c1 and moving the N first. I
faced once this idea in one of my games as Black. So I knew the idea. } 8...exd5 9.cxd5 a6 10.a4 { I like to notice that this position may occur from Benoni,
good news if you like to limit your opening preparation. Only thing you need
to remember is that you need to keep your N on g1. This is why the first move
1.Nf3 limits you only for positional play, agressive systems require to keep
the N on g1 for a while. } 10...h5 11.Bg5!? { This is it. White temporary contols
the h4 push. Usually the bishop is alredy on e3 and this idea does not work. } 11...Nbd7 12.Be2 Qc7!? { My young opponent also knew some ideas, but he spent some
time to figure it out. I was sure I knew this, but how to react exactly I was
not sure. } 13.O-O c4?! { I was considering only 13…Nh7. This is why in
previous move instead of castle I calculated also 13.Qd2. Now my life is
easier because Black made his plan clear-to push b5 as soon as possible. I
just need to react accordingly. Other idea for Black is to push White N back
from g3 and to prepare f5 and only later try to push b5 or c4 followe with b5.
This plan he could start with 13…Nh7. } ( 13...Nh7 14.Be3 h4 15.Nh1 f5 16.Qd2 Ne5 17.Nf2 Bd7 { with complicated game, but I like White. } ) 14.Qd2! Rb8 ( 14...Nc5 15.Bxc4! Ncxe4 16.fxe4 Qxc4 17.Bxf6 { and White is winning. } ) 15.Rac1 ( 15.Rab1!? b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.b4 { was also possible, but after 15.
Rab1 Black can play also 15…Nh7. I tried to force matters. } ) 15...b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.b4 { Now Black is forced to take on b3, because the blockading N
on c3 is too strong and W has free hands to play on Kingside or just double
the rooks on a file. } 17...cxb3 18.Nxb5 Qd8!? { I realized that W must have a huge
advantage, but when you have too many good options you can easily go wrong. I
wanted to control the position as much as possible to limit my opponent’s
counterplay in any cost. } 19.Nd4 { During the game I was sure that this might
be not the computer first choise, but as I mentioned in my previous comment,
this was not my aim to make the best moves. I was sure that I have a huge
advantage and I just need to convert it not giving any chances to my opponent. } ( 19.Rc6 { was a computer move and I considered it for a long time before
playing the text move. } ) 19...Qe8 20.Nc6 Rb6 { Here again I was on crossroads.
I badly wanted to play 21.Be3, but after } 21.Bf4 { The main target in Benoni
pawn structure is the d6 pawn. So I attacked it straitforward and it is not
easy to defend the pawn. } ( { After } 21.Be3 Nc5 { I was not sure what to do,
because winning the pawn gives him counterplay on black squares. } 22.Rxc5 dxc5 23.Bxc5 Rxc6! 24.dxc6 Qxc6 25.Bxf8 Bxf8 { and despite being excange down
Black has very strong counterplay. } ) 21...b2 { only move, the position after } ( 21...Ne5 22.Nxe5 dxe5 23.Be3 { is helpless, because the main player the
bishop on g7 is cut off. } ) 22.Rb1 h4 23.Nh1 Nc5 24.Nf2! { This move I
played instantly, the N belongs to f2. } 24...Qd7 25.Bh6! { Attacking the b pawn. } 25...Nb3 26.Qe3 Bxh6 27.Qxh6 ( { wrong was } 27.Qxb6 Nd2 28.Qxb2 Nh5 { and Black
has strong counterplay. } ) 27...Nc1 { My opponent tries to confuse me at any
cost. } 28.Bc4! Nh5 29.Qd2 Qb7 30.Nd1 Bd7 31.Rxb2 Bxc6 32.dxc6 Qxc6 33.Qxc1 { this move I played too quicly, I was sure that Black’s counterplay is
not enough and this is true, but after } ( 33.Rc2! { White was winning without
any problems at all. } ) 33...Qc5+ 34.Rff2 Rxb2 35.Nxb2 d5 36.exd5 Re8 37.Qd2 Ng3! { Looks nice, but W still has more ammunition. } 38.d6 Ra8 39.d7 Qb6 40.Na4! { Last move of the first time controll and I was expecting
resignation. My frustrated opponent decided to play till the very end. } 40...Qf6 41.hxg3 hxg3 42.Re2 Kh7 43.Re8 Qh4 44.Rxa8 Qh2+ 45.Kf1 Qh1+ 46.Ke2 Qxg2+ 47.Ke3 Qg1+ 48.Kf4 g2 49.Rh8+ { It must be winning and this move does the job.
Because of the importance of this game I calculated everything starting with
41.hxg3. } 49...Kg7 50.Qc3+ f6 51.Qxf6+ { and finally Black resigned. }
1-0
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After this game I made two more draws in final rounds, my job was done.