The Arctic Securities Chess Stars Tournament with Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer was played on 28-30th August, 2010, in Kristiansund, Norway. Carlsen took the trophy after beating World Champion Anand in the final.
The game of our interest was played in the first round between Anand and Hammer. Anand is famous for his fantastic endgame technique in the positions where he has Bishop(s) and space advantage.
After a long struggle from the Italian opening, the players have reached the diagrammed position.
Anand continues to remove the barriers by trading Black b7-pawn.
48. a6! bxa6+ 49. Kxa6?
But here he missed to create a zugzwang with the brilliant 49. Kc6! The point is that Black Knight is totally out of squares. Black could try 49…a5, but White ignores the pawn and moves 50. Ba3!, keeping f8 and c5 under control, then 50…Nb8+ 51. Kb7 Nd7 52. Kc7! a4 53. Kc6 (now Black is running out of moves) Nb8+ 54. Kb7 Nd7 55. Kc7 and the Knight is lost.
The game was with the rapid time control and probably both players fought with the time trouble.
The play continued with…
49…Kf7 50. Kb7
50…f5?
And here Hammer panicked and simply threw away the draw. Anand’s maneuver with the King to a6 removed his key piece just that bit far to allow Black to save the game. 50…Nf8! was the correct move, even if Black is losing opposition, which is probably what Hammer saw.
But calculating a little deeper, 50…Nf8 51. Bxf8 (otherwise White would be in trouble if the Knight jumps to e6 and f4) Kf8 52. Kc6 (Preparing to take the opposition) Ke7 (The only move, 52…Kf7? loses to 53. Kd7 and White breaks through) 53. Kc7 Ke6!! (White has the opposition and Black King will be kicked out, but at least now Black can choose on which side to go – and he goes after the e4-pawn!) 54. Kd8 (54. Kc6 Ke7) Kd6 55. Ke8 Kc5 56. Ke7 Kd4 57. Kxf6 Kxe4 58. Kxg5 Kf3 (And in the resulting pawn race both players get a new Queen, with Black to check first and hold the draw) 59. h4 e4 60. h5 e3 61. h6 e2 62. h7 e1=Q 63. h8=Q Qd2+ etc
51. exf5 (Now Black is losing) e4 52. Kc6 Ne5+ 53. Kd5 Nd3 54. Bd2 Nf2 55. Bxg5 Nxh3 56. Be3 – the Knight is trapped 1-0
