Fine victory for Boris
By Malcolm Pein
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/04/2008
A defeat for Ural of Yekaterinburg in the sixth round did not deprive them of the leading position at the Russian Team Championships taking place at Dagomys in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Moscow 64 defeated the top seeds by the narrowest of margins thanks to an impressive victory for Boris Gelfand over Alexey Shirov on top board.
On board five there was a replay of the 1999 FIDE Championship final at Las Vegas when Alexander Khalifman defeated Vladimir Akopian. On this occasion the game ended in a draw.
Moscow 64 3.5-2.5 Ural: Gelfand 1-0 Shirov; Harikrishna draw Kamsky; Wang Hao 1-0 Grischuk; Bareev 0-1 Malakhov; Khalifman draw Akopian; Rodshtein draw Motylev.
Gelfand was badly beaten in the main lines of the Gruenfeld Defence by Shirov last year so he avoids them and achieves a big advantage in the opening.
Gelfand, B (2723) – Shirov, A (2740) [A16]
TCh-RUS Dagomys RUS (6), 07.04.2008
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qb3 Nb6 7.d4 Be6 8.Qc2 Bg7 9.e4 Bg4 10.Ne5 Bxe5 11.dxe5 Nc6 12.Bb5 Bd7 13.Bxc6 Bxc6 14.Be3 Qd7 15.Rd1 Qe6 16.0–0 0–0 17.f4 Rad8 18.Bd4 f5 19.exf6 exf6 20.f5 gxf5 21.Rxf5 Be8 22.Qf2 Bg6 23.Rf4 Nd7 24.Rf1 Ne5 25.Nd5 Nd3 26.Rxf6 Rxf6 27.Nxf6+ Kf7 28.Qe3 c5 29.Nxh7+ Ke8 30.Nf6+ Ke7 31.Bxc5+ Nxc5 32.Qxc5+ Qd6 33.Qg5 Qd4+ 34.Kh1 1–0
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Gelfand can still play chess. He’s rock solid.