Teimour Radjabov Scores First Win in Bazna Kings

Meanwhile Vassily Ivanchuk extends his lead to a full point

The third Bazna Kings Tournament is taking place on 14-25th June in Bucharest and Bazna. After six consecutive draws, Teimour Radjabov dismantled Gata Kamsky's Caro-Kann to sign his first win in this event. On the other board, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu tried everything possible to break that annoying Petroff defence, but Boris Gelfand comfortably defended and walked away with a draw.

But the game of the day was the clash between Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov, both renowned as very imaginative players. Shirov improved upon the variation he used against Radjabov in round three and already on move 18 initiated wild complications. The resulting position left Black with three pawns for a piece in a very interesting endgame. Ivanchuk contained and destroyed Black's connected passers but Shirov then rolled with his "e-g" pawns. White's only trump was that sneaky h6 pawn.

Shirov could have reduced to a draw on several occasions, but he pressed on for a win. Suddenly, however, an incredible geometrical lineup of White pieces saw Black losing all of his pawns. The cute finish 84. h7! creates a rare checkmating net, 84...Kg7 85. Bh6!+ Kh8 86. Kg5! and there is no way to prevent Bf8, Kh6 and Bg7++. A clinical finish!

Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk

Round 7 results:

Teimour Radjabov (AZE 2756) - Gata Kamsky (USA 2720) 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR 2746) - Alexei Shirov (ESP 2745) 1-0
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM 2675) - Boris Gelfand (ISR 2733) draw

Round 7 standings:

1. Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR 2746) - 5.5
2. Boris Gelfand (ISR 2733) - 4.5
3. Teimour Radjabov (AZE 2756) - 4.0
4. Alexei Shirov (ESP 2745) - 3.5
5. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM 2675) - 2.0
6. Gata Kamsky (USA 2720) - 1.5

Round 6 report

Official tournament website