Shirov vs Berg, Round 8, Chess Olympiad

30 September 2010, Khanty-Mansiysk – In the 8th round of the 39th Chess Olympiad, Spain, the 16th ranked team, played Sweden, 34th ranked team and GM Shirov, Spain, played GM Berg on board 1. The Sicilian Defense transpired and Shirov chose the 6. Bg5 option which is filled with tactical motifs throughout the game.

 

[Event "39th WCO"]
[Site "0:26.04-0:00.03"]
[Date "2010.09.29"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Shirov, Alexei"]
[Black "Berg, Emanuel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2749"]
[BlackElo "2616"]
[WhiteTeam "Spain"]
[BlackTeam "Sweden"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "SWE"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nbd7 8. Qe2 Qc7 9. O-O-O b5 10. a3 Bb7 11. g4 Be7 12. Bh4 Nb6 13. g5 Nfd7 14. f5 e5 15. Nf3 Nc4 16. Bh3 f6 17. gxf6 gxf6 18. Nd5 Bxd5 19. Rxd5 Ndb6 20. Rd3 b4 21. a4 Nxb2 22. Kxb2 Nxa4+ 23. Kc1 Nc3 24. Qe3 Rc8 25. Kd2 d5 26. exd5 e4 27. Bxf6 Bxf6 28. d6 Qd7 29. Ne5 Bxe5 30. f6 Nb1+ 31. Ke1 Qc6 32. d7+ Kf7 33. dxc8=Q Rxc8 34. Rd7+ Ke8 35. Re7+ Kd8 36. Rxe5 1-0

After 36.Rxe5, black loses an important defender, the black bishop on e5 and the white is winning. Black has no strong attacks except to exchange queens at c3. After exchanging the queens, white is still a piece up and all its pieces are active plus it still have a white pawn on the 6th rank, getting ready to queen. At this point, black simply resigned giving Shirov an interesting game and win for Spain. Spain won 3.5-0.5 over Sweden.