(1) Ehlvest (2595) - Nijboer (2535) [D79]
FIDE WCh KO Las Vegas USA
[Ehlvest]

World Championship is something special for every chess player ,if you do not care so much in OPEN what opening to choose, in WC you preparation takes days and even weeks. Very important is in which order you are playing. In Groningen WC I played 1.e2-e4 against Van der Wiel and won, but it was second game of the match. In Las Vegas I was playing white in very first game. In my opinion it is better to play with white in second game. You are afraid to push to hard in first game and if you loose with white... .It happened by the way in Vegas that Shirov lost against Sokolov first game with white and later won with black but Ivan did not take in e5 in KID. He had some strange shame to do this and forget that everybody knows-in position with material advantages you must simplify the position. OK I choused solid move. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Trying to avoid Grunfeld. 3...c6 Of course this is not OPEN and Dutchman is playing most solid line. I was expecting King's Indian (KID). Probably he saw my game against Bologan in Vermont June 1999 and was convinced. 4.Nc3 d5 5.cxd5 After 5.Qb3 a5! is good for black. 5...cxd5 6.Bg2 Bg7 7.Nf3 0-0 8.Ne5 Nc6 9.0-0 e6 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.Bg5 Relatively new move. Bf4 immediately was played By Romanishin against Epishin in some OPEN this year and white won in good style ,unfortunately I was not familiar with this game during my encounter, my opponent also spent lot of time on every move. 11...h6 12.Bf4 Nd7 13.Qd2 Kh7 14.Bd6?! Better was 14.Rac1 e5 15.d:e5 N:e5 16.b3 with idea 17.Na4 and white has some positional advantage. 14...Re8 15.e4 Nb6 16.Bc5 Nd7 17.Ba3 You need to win somehow, objectively the position is equal. 17...Ba6 18.Rfe1 Rc8 Better was immediately 18. ...Qa5 with idea Rad8 19.Rad1 e5?? There is a well known saying among chess players. If you marry you loose some ELO points, you have baby you loose additional points. My opponent was in Vegas with his young wife and baby. [19...Qa5 20.Qf4 Kg8 21.Qd6 (21.Qc1! Rcd8 22.Qc2÷) 21...Bf8 22.Qxd7 Red8 23.Qxa7 Ra8 24.Qxa8 Rxa8 25.Bxf8 Kxf8 26.Rd2=] 20.exd5 exd4 21.Rxe8 Qxe8 22.Ne4! I believe my opponent just missed this simple move. 22...c5 23.Nd6 Qf8 24.Nxc8+- Qxc8 25.b3 Qc7 26.Rc1! h5 27.Bxc5 Nxc5 28.b4 Nb3 29.Rxc7 Nxd2 30.d6 Bc4 31.d7 Bf6 32.Rc8 Bxa2 33.d8Q Bxd8 34.Rxd8 Nb1 35.Bd5 You remember what I said about Ivan. 35...Bxd5 36.Rxd5 Nc3 37.Rd7 Kg7 38.Kf1 Nb5 39.Ke2 Kf6 40.Kd3 g5 41.Rb7 1-0

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