Short wins in the Capablanca Memorial

Nigel Short combined well to overcome Evgeny Alekseev, whereas the leader Vassily Ivanchuk was easily held by Lazaro Bruzon Batista in a Queen's Gambit.
Ivanchuk is ahead on 3/4 followed by a group of four players on 50%.

Nigel Short's first win came from the Nimzo-indian defence, a line which the Cuban site proudly describes as the 'Capablanca variation'. The curious aspect of this game was that the Englishman left his king 'on starters' and simply got on with his central line-opening play, a tempo having been saved by not castling! The breakthrough came via an exchange sacrifice that left Alekseev tied up and unable to create sufficiently dangerous counterplay. Short had no problem demonstrating how to convert his advantage in the endgame of two bishops against rook.

White	Rating	Country	Result	Black	Country	Rating	No. Moves	Opening
Vassily Ivanchuk	2741	UKR	0.5-0.5	Lazaro Bruzon Batista	2668	CUB	34	Queen's Gambit Declined
Leinier Dominguez Perez	2713	CUB	0.5-0.5	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2695	RUS	43	Neo-Grünfeld
Nigel Short	2685	ENG	1-0	Evgeny Alekseev	2700	RUS	40	Nimzo-indian

Bruzon seemed to equalize easily and his control of the open lines on the queenside fully compensated White's extra space.

Leinier Dominguez fianchettoed his king's bishop against the Grünfeld and Nepomniachtchi replied with the most solid symmetrical defence. Although one could argue that White had the better structure, Black's queen was in the white camp and put a stop to any serious winning attempts.

Position	Name	Country	Official Rating	Highest ever Rating	Virtual Rating before Havana	World ranking	Age	Points after 2 rounds
1st	Vassily Ivanchuk	UKR	2741	2787	2726	12	41	3
2nd-5th	Leinier Dominguez Perez	CUB	2713	2721	2713	28	26	2
2nd-5th	Ian Nepomniachtchi	RUS	2695	Actual	2695	42	19	2
5th-5th	Nigel Short	ENG	2685	2712	2683	48	45	2
2nd-5th	Lazaro Bruzon Batista	CUB	2668	2677	2668	63	28	2
6th	Evgeny Alekseev	RUS	2700	2725	2711	37	29	1

Short's victory takes him back into the pack, whereas Alekseev is now a point adrift.

A poor start for Evgeny Alekseev @ Europe Echecs

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