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FUN / COMPETITIONS

CHESS WITH LUKE MCSHANE

Sunday August 3,2008

Former World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca is the one Cuban master whose name will be familiar to most players, but the young grandmaster Lenier Dominguez earned at least his fifteen minutes of fame by winning the Biel Grandmaster tournament this week.

The prodigious world number 6 Magnus Carlsen had been leading until he overpressed against Evgeny Alekseev in the seventh round, allowing Dominguez to sneak into the lead after notching up consecutive wins in rounds 6,7 and 8.

But the Cuban could manage only one draw in the final two rounds to tie for first place with Alekseev. He then lost the rapid and blitz playoff to the Russian.

Currently world no. 25 Dominguez has a well rounded style, and in this game we see him ekeing out a narrow victory. The end to this game really emphasizes the value of basic endgame proficiency, not to mention dogged persistence. Rook and knight against rook should be drawn, but there are some winning chances and Dominguez had been shuffling around for thirty moves to reach the diagram position.

Now he saw an idea enabling him to close in.

Alexander Onischuk - Lenier Dominguez Perez (Biel, 2008)

82...Nc5!? 83.Ka2 83.Rb4 to shepherd the king away from the edge runs into 83...Ra8+ 84.Kb2 Nd3+! 83...Ne6 84.Ka3 Nd4 Moving the knight to here gives Black's king room to approach. 85.Rh7 Rb6 86.Ka2 Kc4 87.Rc7+ Kd3 88.Rd7? An unfortunate mistake, undoubtedly influenced by time trouble. 88.Rc8 Nb5!? looks dangerous, threatening Nc3+ and Kc2, but White can defend with 89.Rh8 Nc3+ 90.Ka3 with a check on the h-file if Black moves to c2 or c4.

Having lost the same endgame myself recently under time pressure, I can fully sympathise with Onischuk's mistake, but you also have to admire the fact that Dominguez has set White problems to solve. 88...Kc2! As 89.Rxd4 Ra6+ mates. 89.Ka3 Nc6! 90.Ka4 Rb4+! 91.Ka3 Rb5! White's rook is dominated, so mate is unstoppable. 0–1