CHESS

THE 11TH Verona Open took place from 2 to 9 January with a relatively small field of 44, which nonetheless included six grandmasters and four IMs. The top seed, Michele Godena (Italy), is rated 2,550, and with another three players over 2,500 the competition was fairly well matched.

The grandmaster Miroljub Lazic (Serbia and Montenegro) took an early lead on 3/3, but then decelerated with a number of draws to reach just 6.5/9. Normally with quite a substantial tail, you'd expect one or more players to get 7, but in this case 6.5 was sufficient for first equal. Lazic was, therefore, first on tie-break with GM Jozsef Horvath (Hungary), Godena and the untitled 15-year-old Italian Sabino Brunello.

The big surprise of the event was the bad performance of the second seed, Thomas Luther (Germany), who ended up with just 5/9. After a shock loss in the first round to the Italian Augusto Caruso, he recovered in the second by beating a low rated opponent. He was, however, then set back on his heels again by Brunello in this short but violent game.

Facing the Advance French, Luther, who was, of course, playing to win, chose quite a messy line in which he castled queenside.

Brunello responded with a fairly natural sequence, followed by 19.Nf5 trying to break up the Black pawn phalanx. It's far from clear that Black can't advantageously play 19...exf5 20.e6 Bf6 21.exd7+ Qxd7, but Luther naturally tried to keep it simple. However, Brunello kept going admirably and eventually created total chaos.

Luther was possibly still in the game right up until he played the natural looking but fatal 29...Nxa4? - instead, 29...bxa4 30.Qxc3 g3! 31.hxg3 h4 gives some counterplay, though it's hard to believe this really works.

As played, it all ends very suddenly. Luther resigned, since after 30...Kb7 31.Qxd5+ Qc6 (or 31...Kxa7 32.Qxb5) 32.Re7+ Kb6 33.Re6 Qxe6 34.Qxe6+ Kxa7 35.Qd7+ Kb6 36.Re1 is conclusive; or if 30...Qc6 31.Re7 Re8 32.Qc5! Nxc5 33.a8=Q+ Qxa8 34.Rxa8 mate.

Sabino Brunello

vs Thomas Luther

Verona Open 2005 (round 3)

Advance French

1. e4 e6

2. d4 d5

3. e5 c5

4. c3 Nc6

5. Nf3 Bd7

6. a3 f6

7. Bd3 Nh6

8. 0-0 Nf7

9. Re1 fxe5

10. Nxe5 Ncxe5

11. dxe5 Qc7

12. Nd2 0-0-0

13. Nf3 Be7

14. b4 c4

15. Bc2 g5

16. Qe2 g4

17. Nd4 Rdg8

18. a4 h5

19. Nf5 Bd8

20. a5 exf5

21. e6 Nd6

22. exd7+ Qxd7

23. Ba4 Qf7

24. Bf4 Ne4

25. Qe3 Bc7

26. Bxc7 Qxc7

27. Qxa7 Nxc3

28. a6 b5

29. Qd4 Nxa4

30. a7 1-0