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Subject: Two positions from US Championships

Author: John Merlino

Date: 12:25:26 02/01/02


These two positions are from Ariel-Altounian, Round 8 of the recent US
Championships. This game won a Brilliancy Prize for Ariel.

[D]8/1p6/p1b1P3/P1Pn1Pk1/2P3P1/8/3KB2r/5R2 b - c3 0 46

The annotation on the Seattle Chess Federation's website (they hosted the
Championships) say that the next move, 46...Nf4, is "a huge blunder", since it
allows 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 (which was played, and White went on to win). However,
CM8000 doesn't see anything better for Black, nor does it see a big win for
White. What do other engines say?

Time	Depth	Score	Positions	Moves
0:00	1/3	0.94	810		46...Nf4 47.Re1 Kf6
0:00	1/4	0.71	2110		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Ke5
					49.f7
0:00	2/5	0.11	9816		46...Nf4 47.Re1 Kf6 48.e7 Kxe7
					49.g5 Kf7
0:00	3/6	0.00	16977		46...Nf4 47.Re1 Ng2 48.Rf1 Nf4
0:00	4/7	0.73	59578		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Ke5
					49.f7 Rf2 50.Ke3 Rf4
0:02	5/8	0.36	207798		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Ke5
					49.f7 Rf2 50.Ke3 Rf4 51.g5
0:08	6/9	0.41	668722		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Rh8
					49.f7 Rf8 50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6
0:31	7/10	0.27	2603901		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Rh8
					49.f7 Rf8 50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6
					52.Ke3 Ke7
1:38	8/11	0.39	8162267		46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Ke5
					49.f7 Rf2 50.Ke3 Rf4 51.g5 Re4+
					52.Kf2 Rf4+ 53.Kg3 Rf5 54.Bg4
5:57	9/12	0.29	29643766	46...Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Rh8
					49.f7 Rf8 50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6
					52.Ke3 Rd8 53.Kf4 Rd4+ 54.Kg3

The second position is from the same game, a little further on.

[D]5r2/1p3P2/p1b1P3/P1P5/2P2kP1/8/3KB3/8 w - - 0 50

It was described as "the tournament's prettiest move!!" (exclamation points not
added by me). This was the reason for the exchange sacrifice above, and the move
that CM misses. Now CM sees this one fairly quickly, and it is now a clear win
for White:

Time	Depth	Score	Positions	Moves
0:00	1/3	0.61	545		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6
0:00	2/4	0.61	2395		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6
0:00	3/5	0.46	4737		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6 52.Ke3 Ke7
0:00	4/6	0.61	14010		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6 52.Ke3 Ke7
					53.g5
0:00	5/7	0.49	36539		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6 52.Kd3 Rd8+
					53.Ke3 Ke7 54.g5
0:01	6/8	0.47	116295		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Kf6 52.Ke3 Rd8
					53.g5+ Ke7 54.g6 Kf8
0:04	7/9	0.38	383642		50.Bd3 Ke5 51.Bf5 Rd8+ 52.Ke3 Kf6
					53.g5+ Ke7 54.g6 Kf8 55.Be4
0:09	7/9	1.10	825866		50.Bf3 Kxf3 51.g5 b6 52.cxb6 Ke4
					53.b7 Rd8+ 54.Ke1 Ba4 55.e7 Rd1+
					56.Ke2
0:27	8/10	2.05	2432304		50.Bf3 Be8 51.fxe8=Q Rxe8 52.Bxb7
					Rxe6 53.c6 Re7 54.Bxa6 Ra7 55.Bb7
					Rxa5
0:52	9/11	2.43	4810115		50.Bf3 Be8 51.fxe8=Q Rxe8 52.Bxb7
					Rxe6 53.c6 Re7 54.Bxa6 Ra7 55.Bb7
					Rxa5 56.c7

Here's the whole game, which was quite exciting:

[Event "2002 US Championship"]
[Site "Seattle"]
[Date "2002.01.12"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Ariel, Donny"]
[Black "Altounian, Levon"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2367"]
[BlackElo "2442"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "2002.01.??"]
[SourceDate "2002.01.05"]

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.f4 Qa5 5.e5 Ne4 6.Bd3 Nxc3 7.Qd2 d5 8.bxc3
c5 9.Nf3 Nc6 10.O-O e6 11.dxc5 Bxc5+ 12.Kh1 a6 13.Qe1 Bd7 14.a4 Qc7
15.Qg3 g6 16.Ng5 Ne7 17.Qh4 h6 18.Nxf7 Kxf7 19.Bxg6+ Kg8 20.Qh5 Kg7
21.Bd3 Rag8 22.Rf3 Be8 23.Qh4 Ng6 24.Qf6+ Kh7 25.Qxe6 Qd7 26.Qxd7+ Bxd7
27.Bd2 Rf8 28.e6 Bc6 29.Re1 Rf6 30.f5 Ne7 31.Bf4 d4 32.Be5 Rhf8 33.cxd4
Bxf3 34.dxc5 Bc6 35.Bxf6 Rxf6 36.a5 h5 37.Kg1 h4 38.g4 hxg3ep 39.hxg3
Kh6 40.g4 Kg5 41.Be2 Kf4 42.Kf2 Rh6 43.Rf1 Nd5 44.Ke1+ Kg5 45.Kd2 Rh2
46.c4 Nf4 47.Rxf4 Kxf4 48.f6 Rh8 49.f7 Rf8 50.Bf3 Be8 51.fxe8=Q Rxe8
52.Bxb7 Rxe6 53.c6 Re7 54.Bxa6 Ke5 55.Bb7 1-0

jm



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