C43 Bacrot Etienne (FRA) - Morozevich Alexander (RUS) Biel (Switzerland) 2003

[#]1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤f6 3.d4 ed 4.e5 ¤e4 5.£d4 f5 A rare ramification in the Petrov defence.

6.¥c4 ¥c5 7.£c5!?

[White obtained the advantage after 7.£d5 £e7 (7...¥f2!?) 8.O-O c6 9.£d3 b5 10.¥b3 ¤a6 11.¤c3 ¤b4 12.£e2 in an old game Medina-Villardebo, Barcelona 1946. It remained unknown how would Morozevich improve Black's play in that case. I take a risk to suppose 7...¥xf2!?]

7...¤c5 8.¥g5 £g5 9.¤g5 ¤c6 10.O-O ¤e6 11.¤f3 b6 12.¥d5 ¥b7 13.c4 O-O-O 14.¤c3 h6 15.¦ad1 g5 16.¦fe1 After havinf avoided complications in the opening, Bacrot has obtained a rather calm endgame and put all his pieces in the center. However, he failed to achieve a draw... 16...¦he8 17.¤b5 ¢b8 18.b3 ¤f4 19.¤c3 a6 20.¤d4?! ¤d4 21.¦d4

In some strange way the black b7-bishop turns out to be stronger than his white counterpart! 21...c6! 22.¥f3 ¢c7 23.¢f1 ¦e6 White experiences some difficulties with defending his e5-pawn. 24.g3

[Perhaps, White should have tried 24.g4!?]

24...¤g6

[Black only obtains some unnecessary trouble after 24...c5 25.¦d5!]

25.¥h5 ¤e5 26.f4 gf 27.gf c5 28.¦d2 ¤f3 29.¥f3 ¥f3 30.¦e6 de 31.¦d8 ¢d8 , and Black realized his extra pawn: 32.¤a4 ¢c7 33.¢f2 ¥c6 34.¤c3 ¢d6 35.¢e3 e5 36.¤e2 ¥d7 37.a3 ¥e6 38.¤g3 a5 39.a4 ¥d7 40.¤e2 ¥c6 41.¤c3 ¢e6 42.¤e2 ¥e4 43.¤c1 ef White resigned. [0:1]