A telco service breakdown in Jaro District kept us out of circulation for two days. Sorry about that.
GM Babu Lalith of India unexpectedly won on tiebreak the 6th Vergani Cup which ended Sunday, January 9th, at Cattolica in Rimini, Italy. The 29-year old Lalith, ranked only ninth in the event, actually finished in a tie for first to fourth places with GMs Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and IM Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria) with each scoring 7 points in the 9–round Swiss event. The key to Lalith’s winning the tournament apparently hinged on his beating GM M. Amin Tabatabaei in Round 8, who was leading at the time.
Niemann took second place ahead of Bernadskiy who settled for 3rd. The 19-year old, whose do-or-die chess play produced four straight wins beginning Round 6, finished the event with 7 wins against 2 losses. The tournament’s big surprise, though, was IM Salimova who earned her first GM norm here. The
18-year old Ukrainian lass has a 6-win, 2-draw, 1-loss slate but got a lower quotient to settle for 4th.
Top seed GM Anton Korobov, GM Lorenzo Lodici, IM Bharath Subramaniyam, IM Evgenios Ioannidis, and GM Maxime Lagarde tallied 6½ points each and shared 5th to 9th places, while Tabatabaei led an 8-man group with 6 points apiece sharing 10th to 17th places. Veteran GM Nigel Short finished a dismal 18th place with 5½ points along with 17 other players.
Salimova,N (2353)-Kalyan,A (2537) [E11]
Cattolica (7.7) 2022
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.b4 c6 9.Qc2 b6 10.a4 Ne4 11.b5 Bb7 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Bc1 Rc8 14.Qd3 Rc4 15.Ba3 Bxa3 16.Nxa3 Rxa4 17.Nc2 Rxa1 18.Rxa1 Qb8 19.Nd2 Nd6 20.Ne3 Rc8 21.h4 Nf6 22.Qb3 Rc7 23.Qb4 Nfe8 24.Ng4 Bc8 25.Ne5 Bd7 26.e4 Bxb5 27.exd5 Qc8 28.Ne4 Rc1+ 29.Rxc1 Qxc1+ 30.Kh2 a5 31.Qb3 Qc8 32.Nxd6 Nxd6 33.Bh3 a4 34.Qb4 Qc7 35.dxe6 f6 36.Nf7 Nxf7 37.exf7+ Kxf7 38.Qxb5 Qc2 39.Qd7+ Kg6 40.Qe8+ Kh6 41.Qe3+ g5 42.hxg5+ fxg5 43.d5 a3 44.Qxb6+ 1-0
Short,ND (2633)-Salimova,N (2353) [A16]
Cattolica (8.3) 2022
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 e5 5.Nxe5 0-0 6.Be2 Re8 7.d4 d6 8.Nf3 Nxe4 9.0-0 Nc6 10.h3 Nxc3 11.bxc3 Bf5 12.Be3 Qd7 13.Re1 Na5 14.Rc1 a6 15.Nd2 Rab8 16.a4 Be4 17.d5 Qd8 18.g4 c6 19.Nf1 cxd5 20.cxd5 Rc8 21.f3 Bxc3 22.fxe4 Bxe1 23.Rxc8 Qxc8 24.Qxe1 Nc4 25.Bxc4 Qxc4 26.Nd2 Qd3 27.Kh2 b5 28.axb5 axb5 29.Qf2 Rc8 30.Kg2 Rc3 31.Kf3 b4 32.Qe2 Qd4 33.Kf2 Qe5 34.Kg2 b3 35.Qf2 Rd3 36.Bh6 b2 37.Qb6 Rxd2+ 38.Bxd2 Qxe4+ 39.Kf2 Qc2 0-1
Lalith, BMR (2553)-Tabatabaei,MA (2643) [E90]
Cattolica (8.2) 2022
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 e5 7.d5 Nh5 8.g3 Na6 9.Be3 f5 10.exf5 gxf5 11.Qd2 Nc5 12.0-0-0 f4 13.Bxc5 fxg3 14.Be3 Rxf3 15.Be2 Rf5 16.Bg4 gxf2 17.Rhf1 Nf4 18.Bxf5 Bxf5 19.Bxf4 exf4 20.Rxf2 Qf6 21.Rg1 Kh8 22.Ne2 f3 23.Rxf3 Bh6 24.Nf4 Be4 25.Rf2 Rf8 26.Rgf1 Rg8 27.Kd1 Qe5 28.Qc3 Qxc3 29.bxc3 c6 30.Re1 Bb1 31.Re6 Bg7 32.Rxd6 Bxc3 33.Ne6 Rg1+ 34.Ke2 Re1+ 35.Kf3 Bf6 36.Rd7 cxd5 37.cxd5 Be4+ 38.Kg4 Rg1+ 39.Kh5 Bg6+ 40.Kh6 Be8 41.Rxh7+ 1-0
Niemann,HM (2645)-Thybo,JS (2590) [B41]
Cattolica (9.3) 2022
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 e6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Nc2 b6 7.e4 Qc7 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.f4 d6 10.Bd2 Nbd7 11.b4 g6 12.0-0 Bg7 13.Rc1 0-0 14.Re1 Rac8 15.Na1 Qb8 16.Nb3 Rfd8 17.h3 Qa8 18.Qe2 Qa7 19.Qf2 Qa8 20.Qe2 Qb8 21.a4 Ba8 22.Qf2 Qc7 23.Be3 Qb8 24.Qe2 Bf8 25.Rc2 Bh6 26.Rb1 e5 27.f5 Bxe3+ 28.Qxe3 gxf5 29.Qg5+ Kh8 30.Qxf5 Rg8 31.Rf2 Rg3 32.Rf3 Rcg8 33.Rxg3 Rxg3 34.Rd1 a5 35.Kh2 Qg8 36.Qf2 Rg4 37.bxa5 bxa5 38.Bc2 Rf4 39.Qe3 Rg4 40.Qf3 Rg6 41.Nb5 Ne8 42.Rd2 Qf8 43.Qe3 Nef6 44.Nxd6 Ng4+ 45.hxg4 Rxd6 46.g5 Qe7 47.Rxd6 Qxd6 48.c5 Qc6 49.Qc3 Kg7 50.Qxa5 h6 51.Qd2 Qxa4 52.gxh6+ Kg6 53.Na5 Qd4 54.Qxd4 exd4 55.c6 Nb6 56.c7 Kxh6 57.Nc4 Nc8 58.e5 Bd5 59.Nd6 Be6 60.Bf5 Bxf5 61.Nxf5+ Kg5 62.Nd6 Ne7 63.Kg3 1-0
Bernadskiy,V (2599)-Short,ND (2633) [C15]
Cattolica (9.4) 2022
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bd2 dxe4 5.Qg4 Qxd4 6.0-0-0 Nf6 7.Qxg7 Rg8 8.Qh6 Bf8 9.Qh4 Rg4 10.Qh3 Qxf2 11.Nb5 Na6 12.Be2 Rg6 13.g4 Qb6 14.Nc3 h6 15.Na4 Qc6 16.Nc3 Nb4 17.a3 a5 18.axb4 axb4 19.Nb1 e5 20.Qf1 Qc5 21.g5 hxg5 22.h4 e3 23.Be1 g4 24.h5 Rh6 25.Bh4 Be7 26.Bc4 Be6 27.Bxe6 fxe6 28.Bg5 b3 29.c3 Ra1 30.Qd3 e4 31.Qxe3 Qa5 32.Bxh6 Bc5 33.Qe2 1-0
******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Nb4!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…d5 2.Qb8#; 1…exf5 2.Qe8#; 1…Ngxe3 2.Qh8#; 1…Bd5/c6/b7/xa8 2.f4#; 1…Ndxe3 2.Qa1#.
