Ehlvest,J (2592) - Bareev,E (2698) [A11]
FIDE WCh KO Las Vegas USA (2.1), 03.08.1999

1.Nf3 Bareev does not play Grunfeld, but he plays Benko. Few years ago I played in NY OPEN against Federowich. I was white and somebody told me that he plays Benko. Unfortunately I mixed it with Benoni. He crashed me in Benko and also won the tournament. My misunderstanding had some excuse, because night before the game I spent in the company with beautiful Polish girls. 1...d5 2.c4 c6 I expected this. 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 Yes, he is playing this line. I had some experience and analyzed heavily this line before the WC. I did not find anything special for white, so my idea was te get just long game. Of course my real weapon was 1.e2-e4 but this I was going to try in active chess. Unfortunately I lost our second game. So, as I told in previous comments (Ehlvest-Nijboer) to play with white in first game has some disadvantage. 5.b3 Bg4 Gretarsson played 5. ...Bf5 against me in 1996 ,my chose was not surprise for Bareev. 6.Be2 e6 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Bb2 Bd6 9.h3 Bh5 Black are very careful to postpone the castle, now white are in some kind of zugzwang. Aggressive plan with g2-g4 and following Nh4 seems no appropriate because Black king is still in e8 and may choose to escape to queenside. 10.Rc1 Qe7! Still same idea, after 10. ...0-0 11.g4 Bg6 12.Nh4 white has good game. 11.d4 11.g4 Bg6 12.Nh4 Ba3 looks excellent for black. After the text move white can not hope anymore for opening advantage, but this was not my aim anyway. 11...0-0 12.Nd2 Bg6! Good move. Usually the bad kid in many similar structures are the white colored bishop, but despite general rules in chess you must evaluate every moment the truth. This makes chess indeed very complicated and to give advise how to play even more complicated. 13.Re1 Rook is looking to e7. 13...b5? Bareev is too optimistic, better was 13. ...Ba3 or 13. ...Rfd8 14.c5 Bc7 15.Bf3! Just in time, 15. ...e5 is met now with16.e4 15...Ba5 [15...e5 16.e4 Nxe4 17.Ndxe4 dxe4 18.Nxe4 f5 19.Ng3 e4 20.d5 Bxg3 21.fxg3 Rad8 22.Qd4 cxd5 23.Be2 Nb8 24.c6©] 16.a3 Bxc3 17.Bxc3 Ne4 18.Ba5 Nxd2 19.Qxd2 f5 Black is playing in style a la Dutch. two bishop are good in open position, it is difficult to brake black's position and white must be careful against potential attack in Kingside. 20.Bd1 Nf6 21.f3 h6 22.Qf2 Nh5 23.Bc2 Bh7 24.a4! this move is in defensive purposes, open lines are good against black's attack on kingside. 24...g5 25.g4!? same defensive mood, sometimes the possible g5-g4 is very unpleasant. 25...Ng7 26.Qg3 f4?! with my last move I provoke f4,it is understandable that black wants trade the bishops now, but much better was Rf7 with complicated game. 27.Bxh7+ Kxh7 28.Qf2 fxe3 29.Qxe3 Qf6 30.Kg2 Rf7 Black has no w structure often appears from French Defense. The night on g7 is horrible, but everything is well defended and black has in mind sometimes the sacrifice e6-e5 followed by Ne6. 31.Qd3+! In endgame the above mentioned sacrifice should not be so effective. 31...Qg6 32.Qxg6+ Kxg6 33.Bd2 Raf8 34.Rc3 Other rook controls the e5 square. 34...bxa4 Black hopes for tactics, because in long term white has sufficient positional advantage. 35.b4! Rb7 36.Ra3 a5 37.Rxa4!? In slight time trouble I did not have enough courage to play b:a5. [37.bxa5 Rb2 38.Re2 e5 39.dxe5 Ne6 40.Rxa4 Nf4+ 41.Rxf4 gxf4 42.Kf2 d4 43.Bc1 Rb1 44.Re1 Ra1=] 37...axb4 38.Rxb4 Rxb4 39.Bxb4 Ra8 40.Kf2?! Last move in time trouble usually not the best. After 40.Kg3 white has small advantage. 40...Ra4 41.Bc3 Ra3 42.Bb4 Ra4 43.Bc3 Rc4 44.Bb2 I was little depressed and chose to passive defense. After mistake in move 40.I was already worse position and active 44.Ba5 was the right and correct way to make a draw. of course I saw this but instead I forget the black's 45th move. 44...Kf7 45.Re3 e5!µ 46.Rxe5 Ne6 47.Ke1 Rb4 48.Bc3 Rb1+ 49.Kd2 Rh1 50.Re2 Nf4 51.Rf2 Nxh3 52.Rg2 Nf4 53.Rf2 Kf6 54.Kc2 Ne6 55.Kd3 Rh3 56.Bd2 h5 57.gxh5 Rxh5? [57...g4! 58.h6 Kf5 59.Rf1 Nf4+-+] 58.Be3 Rh3 59.Ke2³ Kf5 60.Kd2 Rh1 61.Rg2 Rh4 62.Rg3 Nf4 63.Bg1 Rh8 64.Rg4 Ra8 65.Be3 Ra2+ 66.Kd1 Ra1+ 67.Kd2 Ra2+ 68.Kd1 Rg2 69.Rxg2 Nxg2 70.Bc1 g4 71.fxg4+ Kxg4 72.Ke2 Nh4 73.Kd3 Kf3 74.Bg5 Ng6 75.Bf6 Nf8 76.Kc3 Ke4 77.Kb4 Ne6 78.Ka5 After 78. ...N:d4 79.Kb6 the draw is obvious. I must admit that all the endgame was played with cruel time control, after move 60 you have ten minutes and plus 30 second per move. 1/2-1/2

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