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About this episode

Leon 31st May 2008.Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Spaniard Alexei Shirov 3-1 in the second semifinal of the XXI Ciudad de León chess tournament. In the first game Ivanchuk, playing with the White pieces, obtained only a small advantage after the opening, but a mistake by Shirov, 18…Bd8? led to a difficult position for Black. With 19.f4! Ivanchuk got a clear advantage, then a strong attack, and finally an easily winning endgame with Queen against 2 Rooks. In the second game Shirov repeated his well known game against Anand, in the Najdorf variation, from Linares Morelia 2008, but Ivanchuk did not play 12…Rc8, preferring 12…Be7. At first White's attack looked promising, but with several strong moves, Ivanchuk demonstrated that his attack was faster, and gained big material advantage, so Ivanchuk obtained a critical lead of 2-0. The third game followed the previous Carlsen – Shirov from Linares of this year, Ivanchuk varied with 18.Kh1 instead of 18.Ra6.The game was about equal after the opening, however Shirov tried very hard to win, and even with very few pieces he could win the game, but he overlooked the winning move 56…Rb1+!, so Ivanchuk won the match before the last game.

• Release Date

  Jun 1, 2008

• Runtime

  01:23