Peter Svidler brilliant 19.a3!

Russian super GM - Peter Svidler is leading the ongoing 61st Russian Championship SuperFinal which is taking place from October 3rd to 15th in Moscow . After 7 rounds, Svidler remain unbeaten and leading the tournament with 5 points .

One of intersting games played by Svidler is in round 3 when he beat Riazantsev with the quiet but powerfull queen sacrifice move starting with 19.a3 !

Svidler,P (2727) - Riazantsev,A (2656) [C11]
ch-RUS Moscow RUS (3), 05.10.2008

Below are the position arise after black 18th move

According to Svidler, he almost pick his queen to play the natural and safe 19.Qb3 Qxb3 20.axb3 - exchanging the queen which would probably end the game with a draw but at a very last minute he found the strong 19.a3!! Rxc2 19..Nc6?! will give white a free hand on the kingside with move like Nh2-g4-f6+ and another strong queen manuavere Qf2-h4-f6-g7 !20.axb4 Rc1+ 21.Kxc1 Qa1+ 22.Kc2 Rc8+ 23.Qc3! the move that probably missed by Riazantsev

23...Rxc3+ 24.Kxc3 Now Svidler achieve a profitable trade by sacrifiece his queen for two rooks and a knight and win the game quiet easily 24...Bb5 25.Kd4

Forget the rules, king is better place in the centre ! - Hairulov

25...Bxf1 26.Rf2 Qc1 27.Rfxf1 Qxf4+ 28.Kd3 Qe4+ 29.Kd2 Qxb4+ 30.Ke3 Qb6+ 31.Kf4 f6 32.exf6 Qxb2 33.Kg4 Qxg2+ 34.Kh4 Qb2 35.Rhg1 Qxf6+ 36.Ng5 Qb2 37.Kh3

According to Svidler, his only pawn on h6 perform as the bone of the position!

37...a5 38.Nxe6 1–0

Source and photos from the official site