1.e4
At this point its a 3 way tie for first place going into the last round. Novikov, Yudasin and I all have 2.5 points. Yudasin had white against Sarkar, so had good chances to go 3.5, so I felt it was my duty to try to win this game.
1...c5
2.Nf3
d6
3.d4
cxd4
4.Nxd4
Nf6
5.Nc3
a6
The Najdorf of course. I had planned a variation ever since my last loss to Novikov. It's been about 4 tournaments later, but finally I will get my chance, although I must admit my preparation was not exactly "world class"
6.Be3
e6
At this point Novikov offered me a draw. Based on my chess beliefs, I simply could not accept. If I had the black pieces of course I would accept. I actually once declined an early draw offer by Novikov with the black pieces, but only because I didn't hear his offer. That was quite embarrassing as I suffered for 3 hours and eventually lost.
7.g4
This was my new plan, to mix it up and sacrafice a piece for a long term initiative...
7...e5
8.Nf5
g6
9.Bg2
Usual is 9.g5 instead of Bg2. I know that Novikov is very well prepared in the g5 variations, having recently defeated Krush with a novelty. This line was a little more offbeat and seemed to yield white reasonable positions. One downside was that one of the games I used to prepare was a game including Novikov, thus implying that he had some ideas up his sleeve. [9.g5
gxf5
This is the main line, favored heavily by Shirov. 10.exf5
d5
11.Qf3
d4
12.0-0-0
Nbd7
13.Bd2
dxc3
14.Bxc3
Ng8
This was Novikovs choice against Krush...]
9...d5!?
[9...gxf5
10.exf5
]
10.Bg5
gxf5
11.Nxd5
In my "lazy" home preparation, I saw that Svidler played this move against Leko. After the mvoes 11....Be7 12. Bf6 Bf6 13. ef5 idea Qe2 and 000, I liked whites play.....However I didn't suspect for a second that someone like Svidler would allow black such a forced quick draw in the opening....
11...Qa5+
12.Bd2
only move
12...Qd8
13.Bg5
Qa5+
14.Bd2
And now I have no choice but to take the draw. Back to the drawing board. Actually Novikov said that he thought black is better in these lines but that he was simply very tired from the Chicago Open. Yudasin ended up winning against Sarkar and so me and Igor got 100 bucks each. 1/2-1/2