GOTW: Shimanov-Hambleton, Millionaire Chess, 2016

John Upper's picture
Submitted by John Upper on Wed, 11/09/2016 - 14:02

The third Millionaire Open was held in Atlantic City in August. It promised large prizes for section winners -- even the U1600 winner would pocket over $10,000 -- topped by a chance to win a 1/64 chance to win $1,000,000. 

The prize fund attracted many strong players, with dozens of GMs and 13 players over 2600. Unfotunately for organizers and players, for the third time the attendance was again below break-even levels, and so this will probably be the last Millionaire Open. 

Polish GM Darius Swiercz won the $30,000 first prize after beating English GM Gawain Jones in the final.

GM Christian Chirila won the U2549 prize ($12,000). You can watch his 1 hour Q&A lecture from St.Louis CC on one of his Millionaire games --a QID that transposed into a Benoni-- on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ms3tumfzI

USCF Video report with Interviews: https://new.uschess.org/news/a-winners-tale-gm-chirila-on-millionaire-chess-2016/

Canadian IM Aman Hambleton played in the Open section. Here he annotates his round 7 game against Russian GM Aleksandr Shimanov.

The position in the diagram arose after Black played 35...Qb7-d7. What should White play?

Hint: Choose between these two moves...
 

Spoiler: Highlight to view
36.Qd3 or 36.Bf4

Solution: see the game with notes by IM Aman Hambleton below...

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 Round:  Result:

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