The Chess Mind

There weren't too many short draws, but there were no changes in the overall standings. (There were, however, important changes in the specifically rapid and blindfold standings.) The Kramnik-Karjakin, Anand-van Wely, Leko-Aronian and Morozevich-Carlsen matches consisted only of draws, while in the Mamedyarov-Gelfand and Topalov-Ivanchuk contests the first-named player won with White in blindfold and lost with Black in rapid chess. Here are the complete final standings:

Final Blindfold Standings: (In tiebreak order)

1-4. Kramnik, Aronian, Morozevich, Topalov 6.5 (of 11)
5-7. Leko, Anand, Carlsen 6
8-9. Karjakin, van Wely 5
10-11. Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov 4.5
12. Gelfand 3

Final Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 8
2. Ivanchuk 6.5
3-5. Gelfand, Leko, Carlsen 6
6-7. Kramnik, Topalov 5.5 (United again - and in both disciplines.)
8. Anand 5(!)
9-11. Mamedyarov, Morozevich, Karjakin 4.5
12. van Wely 4

Final Combined Standings:

1. Aronian 14.5
2-5. Kramnik, Leko, Topalov, Carlsen 12
6-8. Ivanchuk, Anand, Morozevich 11
9. Karjakin 9.5
10-12. Gelfand, Mamedyarov, van Wely 9

All the games can be replayed on the tournament website, while Gelfand-Mamedyarov, with my notes, is here.

As promised. Also, for your convenience, here's the automatically updated video bar:

All the leaders drew their matches, and that means that Levon Aronian has won the event. After he drew both games with Vladimir Kramnik and the Peter Leko-Magnus Carlsen contest was also split, he maintained a 2.5 point lead with just 2 games to go. Congratulations to Aronian are in order, and while this is just one event, it is becoming increasingly possible that Anand's tenure on top of the rapid chess pile (at least post-Kasparov) is at an end.

In other action, Topalov defeated van Wely 1.5-.5 and joined the tie for second. Anand defeated Gelfand in the blindfold game, and had he won the rapid game he'd have joined the tie; unfortunately, he lost, and with White. Finally, Mamedyarov and Morozevich defeated Ivanchuk and Karjakin, respectively, by identical 1.5-.5 scores.

Leading Blindfold Standings after Round 10:

1-3. Kramnik, Aronian, Morozevich 6
4-7. Topalov, Leko, Anand, Carlsen 5.5

Leading Rapid Standings after Round 10:

1. Aronian 7.5
2-5. Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Leko, Topalov 5.5

Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 13.5
2-5. Kramnik, Topalov, Leko, Carlsen 11
6-8. Anand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 10
9. Karjakin 8.5
10-12. Gelfand, Mamedyarov, van Wely 8

Final Round Pairings:

Kramnik - Karjakin
Leko - Aronian
Morozevich - Carlsen
Topalov - Ivanchuk
Anand - van Wely
Mamedyarov - Gelfand

(These are the colors for the blindfold games; flip it around for the rapid games.)

All the games can be found on the tournament site; I'll have a selection of games from rounds 9 and 10 in a subsequent post.

This will be a "just the facts" post; annotated games will appear later. The most important bit of info is that Aronian extended his lead in the combined standings by giving Morozevich a 2-0 pasting, while Carlsen lost to Kramnik 1.5-.5 and Leko drew his match with Karjakin 1-1. That leaves Aronian a whopping 2.5 points ahead of the Kramnik, Carlsen & Leko trio with just 4 rounds (two days) to go.

Leading Blindfold Standings:

1-3. Aronian, Kramnik, Morozevich 5.5
4-6. Carlsen, Leko, Topalov 5

Leading Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 7(!)
2-4. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Leko 5
5-7. Anand, Kramnik, Topalov 4.5

Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 12.5
2-4. Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko 10
5-6. Ivanchuk, Topalov 9.5
7. Anand 9
8. Morozevich 8.5
9. Karjakin 8
10. van Wely 7.5
11. Gelfand 7
12. Mamedyarov 6.5

Round 10 Pairings:

Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov
van Wely - Topalov
Gelfand - Anand
Karjakin - Morozevich
Aronian - Kramnik (The match of the day!)
Leko - Carlsen (Not bad either - all four leaders are paired.)

(First-named players have White in the blindfold game.)

Tournament website here.

As promised, or at least threatened, here are a couple of games from Sunday's rounds at the Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice, France. Both are blindfold games, but that's where the similarities end. The first game, Carlsen-Mamedyarov, was a very interesting game that holds up on its own merits, without any qualifiers about its being a blindfold contest. The second game, however, shows a peculiarly blindfold error, one that has occurred more than once in this event. van Wely's problem in his game with Leko was not that he forgot Leko's move, but apparently that he misread it in the first place! As I note in my commentary, he might have been able to realize his error, but that chance vanished in what may have been a moment of overconfident euphoria. Next time, he might take a page out of Anand's book (see the round 6 video covering his blindfold game with Karjakin).

Despite the presence of a substantial chase pack, the tournament had looked like a two-man race between Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand for the past several rounds. This is no longer so. While Aronian has maintained his lead, thanks to his 1.5-.5 win over the aforementioned Anand, his closest competitor is now Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen blanked Mamedyarov 2-0, thereby leapfrogging Anand and taking clear second, a point behind Aronian and half a point ahead of...Peter Leko. With three days to go and seven players within two points of the lead, almost anything could happen, but the top spots in this tournament - and soon in the world - look like the inevitable possessions of Mssrs. Aronian & Carlsen.

Round 8 Results - Blindfold:
Aronian - Anand 1-0
Carlsen - Mamedyarov 1-0
Karjakin - Topalov 1/2-1/2
van Wely - Leko 0-1
Gelfand - Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Kramnik 1/2-1/2

Round 8 Results - Rapid:

Anand-Aronian 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov-Carlsen 0-1
Topalov-Karjakin 1-0
Leko-Van Wely 1/2-1/2
Morozevich-Gelfand 1-0
Kramnik-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Leading Blindfold Standings:

1. Morozevich 5.5
2. Carlsen 5
3-6. Aronian, Kramnik, Leko, Topalov 4.5

Leading Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 6
2-4. Anand, Carlsen, Leko 4.5

Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 10.5
2. Carlsen 9.5
3. Leko 9
4-7. Anand, Kramnik, Morozevich, Topalov 8.5
8. Ivanchuk 8
9. Karjakin 7
10-12. Gelfand, Mamedyarov, van Wely 6

Round 9 Pairings: (On Tuesday; Monday is a rest day)

Leko - Karjakin
Morozevich - Aronian
Kramnik - Carlsen
Anand - Ivanchuk
Mamedyarov - van Wely
Topalov - Gelfand

(You know the drill: the players in the left column have White in the blindfold games and Black in the rapid.)

All the games can be replayed on the tournament website; I may post notes to a selection of games sometime tomorrow.

Having mentioned both a completed and an upcoming (ok, freshly started) event, let's return to an actually ongoing contest, the annual rapid & blindfold super-tournament in Nice. Yesterday's round saw a paucity of decisive results, but a bit more blood was spilled in today's action. In the blindfold games, Anand defeated Carlsen while Morozevich beat Ivanchuk, and in the rapid games Carlsen took his revenge while Aronian beat Topalov. Those rapid results were quite important in the battle for first. Anand's blindfold win put him in a tie for first with Aronian in the combined standings, but after the rapid Aronian retook the sole lead, and by a full point.

All the games can be replayed on the tournament site, while the Anand-Carlsen games and the rapid draw between van Wely and Kramnik are here, with my brief comments.



Leading Blindfold Standings:

1. Morozevich 5
2-5. Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Carlsen 4

Leading Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 5.5
2-3. Leko, Anand 4

Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 9
2. Anand 8
3-5. Leko, Kramnik, Carlsen 7.5
6-8. Topalov, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 7
9. Karjakin 6.5
10. Mamedyarov 6
11-12. Gelfand, van Wely 5.5

Day 8 Pairings: (Surprisingly, they're playing on Easter. Eric Liddell is turning over in heaven.)

Aronian - Anand
Carlsen - Mamedyarov
Karjakin - Topalov
van Wely - Leko
Gelfand - Morozevich
Ivanchuk - Kramnik

(The first-named player has White in the blindfold game and Black in the rapid.)

There were interesting, hard-fought and dramatic games in today's action at the Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice, France, but in the end only two of the twelve games were decisive. Anand had equalized with Black against Karjakin in the blindfold game when his opponent (figuratively) went to sleep. The position seemed tactics-proof, but Anand very alertly demonstrated otherwise, whipping up a decisive attack almost out of nowhere. Morozevich's attacking intentions were more evident in his blindfold game against van Wely, but when the Dutchman failed to take them seriously, he too lost in a hurry.

I've presented both games here, and the other games can be accessed on the event website.



The standings are essentially unchanged, with the one important exception that Anand has pulled to within half a point of Aronian in the overall standings:

Leading Blindfold Standings:

1-2. Morozevich, Carlsen 4
3-5. Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Topalov 3.5

Leading Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 4.5
2. Anand 4
3. Leko 3.5

Leading Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 7.5
2. Anand 7
3-7. Topalov, Leko, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Carlsen 6.5

Round 7 Pairings:

Morozevich - Ivanchuk
Kramnik - van Wely
Leko - Gelfand
Mamedyarov - Karjakin
Topalov - Aronian
Anand - Carlsen

(The first-named player has White in the blindfold game, Black in the rapid.)

The old Topalov is back! By this I don't mean the 2004-2006 edition that won almost everything in sight, but the Topalov of the previous decade: a strong, aggressive player with a habit of losing brilliant games.* Today's rapid loss to Kramnik (these bosom buddies drew the blindfold game) doesn't go into the immortal game category, but it was a spectacular display of power chess by the newest member of the ex-world champion club.

Morozevich's win over Anand in the blindfold game was almost as spectacular, and possibly a better game overall, a real demolition job from the White side of a Meran Semi-Slav. Unfortunately for him, Anand extracted his revenge in the rapid game. Anand was starting to outplay his opponent, but when Moro dropped a pawn and then blundered a piece on successive moves, it was effectively over.

In the battle between two of the three co-leaders entering the round (Topalov was the third), Ivanchuk got nothing against Aronian's Marshall Gambit in the blindfold game, and then Aronian won the rapid game in an unusual Queen's Gambit.

In kiddom, Carlsen kept a half point lead over Karjakin, as both won their matches 1.5-.5; Carlsen over Gelfand and Karjakin over van Wely. Finally, the sixth match saw Leko defeat Mamedyarov 1.5-.5, putting him in a giant tie for second place in the overall standings.

Leading Blindfold Standings after Round 5:

1. Carlsen 3.5
2-5. Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Morozevich, Topalov 3

Leading Rapid Standings after Round 5:

1. Aronian 4
2. Anand 3.5
3. Leko 3

Leading Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 6.5
2-7. Kramnik, Topalov, Anand, Ivanchuk, Leko, Carlsen 5.5

All the games can be replayed on the tournament site, while Kramnik's and Morozevich's wins can be viewed here, with my comments.




* There's a long list of games to choose from, but have a look at his losses to Karpov and especially Bareev in Linares 1994, the ...Bh3!! game against Shirov from Linares 1998, to Ivanchuk in Linares 1999, his blindfold loss to Kramnik from the 2003 Amber tournament, and above all the famous game with Kasparov in Wijk aan Zee 1999.

I responded to this in the comments section of this post, but it seems interesting enough to merit its own discussion. So here is Bernard Kobes' comment:

Kudos to Karjakin for playing on as long as he did. I hate the notion that this is in some way disrespectful -especially in a rapid game! No doubt it is perceived as disrespectful, and perception makes it so. But to some degree this is a convention, and it's bad for chess because it makes top-level games less accessible to lower-rated players. You should not be reinforcing the convention.

To which I reply:

Hi Bernard,

Whether I should or not depends on both objective and subjective factors. Since I think this convention is a good thing, it's subjectively proper that I reinforce it. As for the objective propriety, that depends on the truth of the matter. Is the claim that that top-level games are less accessible to lower-rated players by virtue of "premature" resignations good evidence, if true, that the convention is a poor one?

To this I have doubts on many levels. First, unless every game goes until mate, there may always be some lower-rated player who doesn't "get it". Unless you want to do away with resignation altogether, there are going to be boundary problems here.

Second, even if we can find some reasonable approximate threshold (e.g. the "average" club player - approximately 1500), I think that this particular game easily satisfied that standard. Even if the 1500 couldn't beat Kasparov with White, there's nothing conceptually difficult about White's task.

Third, eliminating (relatively early?) resignations may be bad pedagogy for lower-rated players. One learns better when motivated by curiosity than when spoonfed. Some spoonfeeding is ok, and that's what the 20,000 beginners' books on the market by Reinfeld, Horowitz, Chernev, Pandolfini and so on are for.

Fourth, how does knowing how to win an ending with a huge material advantage make GM play more accessible? The part of the game that makes it GM play has to do with the adventures surrounding 14.Qxe6, not the trivial remainder that would have ensued.

Fifth, even if it would be a good idea from the pedagogy/accessibility standpoint for GMs to continue playing positions out, that's not the only value worth considering. Why should the players have to waste their time and energy on a game that is de facto over in the absence of a natural disaster, heart attack, stroke, criminal act or divine intervention? It's also an aesthetic blight. Playing the game until mate could take 40 or 50 moves, if Black attempts to put up "quality" resistance. That would turn this mini-masterpiece into something akin to a quarter and a half of a great basketball game followed by two and a half quarters of garbage time. The amateur, like most basketball fans, will simply change the channel.

Three final comments. First, even if the convention should be changed, Karjakin's action is still disrespectful, given its existence. (Or if one thinks that in this particular case it was justified even given the convention, substitute a different case of your own choosing.) Second, the "rapid" element doesn't seem to be relevant - Ivanchuk had three times as much time as Karjakin, and there were increments as well. Finally, going back to a point I made earlier, one of the things I did as a kid was to play out positions where one side resigned. Generally it was pretty obvious, but occasionally I learned something, and it's very unlikely that I would have learned it had it been given in the text. Chess strength is a skill, and solving problems for oneself, or at least trying to, is the best way to improve.

As fantastic as Ivanchuk's 14.Qxe6!! really is, it's possibly not quite as original an idea as one might think, for three reasons.

The first is that it was discovered in home prep and not over the board - unlike his famous Qg7!! against Shirov. (This game is linked below.) To my mind, this isn't a blemish, but there are some who find themselves less inclined to rate a game highly when significant portions of it are the product of home analysis. A notable example is game 10 of the Kasparov-Anand match, where Kasparov won with a stupendous torrent of sacrifices that not only won the game, but went a long way towards winning the match as well thanks to the big chance of momentum. Another example, albeit on a smaller scale, comes from the USCL 2007 Game of the Year countdown. On its merits, the game Martinez-Zilberstein is arguably the cleanest and most brilliant of the contenders. The key tactical ideas had been discovered beforehand, though, and in an online poll for the GOTY it seems to have received a bit less credit than I think it would have, had Martinez found all the moves over the board (or at least not admitted he hadn't).

The second is that 14.Qxe6 is discovered by chess engines; not right away, but it doesn't take them hours, either. I don't know if Ivanchuk found it or his computers did, but supposing it was Rybka or Fritz, should the game be valued less highly?

Third, while I can't think of any similar sacrifices, the position after the sac does remind me of a position that arose in a famous Elephant Gambit game between Tal and Lutikov. (A side note about Lutikov: he's probably best known, for those who know him at all, for this game. As usual with those who get "posterized", that's a bit of bad luck. He's a GM, and one with an impressive 5-2 career advantage over Tal in decisive games.) Suppose Ivanchuk drew subconscious inspiration from that game. Would it count against the brilliance and originality of his idea?

By all means, readers, let me know your opinions. For your entertainment, you can replay all the games mentioned above here (except for the Ivanchuk-Karjakin game, which is here).

Happy Birthday, Vassily Ivanchuk! Today (Tuesday) is his birthday, and he celebrated by giving himself and the chess world a present. Himself, by moving into a tie for the lead with a 1.5-.5 win over Karjakin; us, by making a sac that had even the titled players watching online picking their jaws off the floor.



We're all used to seeing knights and bishops sacrificed on e6 in the Sicilian, but...

14.Qxe6!!

was something extraordinary. When the complications ended, Ivanchuk had three pawns for the exchange and a winning position. Then it was four pawns for the exchange, and then five - plus a hefty time advantage as well. When Karjakin finally realized that his opponent deserved at least as much respect as a club player in an online 1-minute game, he resigned.

Gelfand and van Wely had a "technologically challenged" pair of games. In the blindfold game, Gelfand lost on time unsuccessfully attempting to make his move (in a position where he's winning with the right move and still equal after his intended move), while in the rapid game the transmission ceased early on. (Very early on: it died on move 14, and the game went 130 moves!)

The Aronian-Carlsen match was also strange. The first game went 105 moves, while the rapid game was lost by Carlsen when, in a better position, he blundered the rook. He tried to "correct" the move, but a trip to the video revealed that he had really let go of the piece. (If only Polgar had been able to do that against Kasparov, all those years ago!) This put Aronian into a tie for first in the overall standings.

Kramnik bounced back after yesterday's failure, beating Morozevich 1.5-.5, while his chief rival for world supremacy (Anand) drew the blindfold game against Leko and then got butchered in the rapid. Leko played the unlekolike Perenyi Attack and was rewarded for his boldness. Finally, our third world champion, Topalov, joined Aronian and Ivanchuk in a tie for first by defeating Mamedyarov 1.5-.5 in their match.

All the games can be replayed on the tournament site, while my comments to the Ivanchuk-Karjakin game can be replayed here.



Blindfold leaders after round 4:

1-4. Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Kramnik, Topalov 2.5

Rapid leaders after round 4:

1. Aronian 3
2-5. Anand, Leko, Topalov, Ivanchuk 2.5

Overall leaders after round 4:

1-3. Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk 5
4. Anand 4.5

Round 5 Pairings: (On Thursday; Wednesday is a rest day.)

Topalov - Kramnik
Leko - Mamedyarov
Morozevich - Anand
Carlsen - Gelfand
Ivanchuk - Aronian
van Wely - Karjakin

The first-named player has White in the blindfold game, Black in the rapid.

The pattern of mostly drawn blindfold games and mostly decisive efforts in the rapid continued, but that doesn't entirely reflect the nature of the action. As a matter of fact, the game Aronian-Gelfand is one of the craziest games I've seen in my life. If chess engines could dream, that game would be the sort they'd dream about. And even the most nondescript draws had more content than one would suspect, as Mamedyarov missed an outright win against Kramnik. Ironically, the previous move was an Aronian novelty, but the irony doesn't end there - see the game for further details. Finally, I've also included Carlsen's win over Karjakin, proving once again that the drawish tendencies of opposite-colored bishops are, like the early reports of Samuel Clemens' death, greatly exaggerated.

From today's rapid action I've included two games: Kramnik's loss with White against Mamedyarov's Budapest Gambit, and Leko's win against Morozevich. The first game saw Kramnik sacrifice material and a positional advantage for attacking chances. The sac failed, but it was entertaining to see him go against type. The Leko game was remarkable too, as a defensive effort: he was down material to Morozevich and badly lost, but he kept hanging on and causing problems, and ultimately managed to win.

The games discussed above can be replayed here, with my comments; the rest can be found and replayed on the tournament website. And here is the updated list of Amber videos, c/o Macauley Peterson.



Round 3 Blindfold Results:

Mamedyarov - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Anand 1/2-1/2
Leko - Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Karjakin 1-0
van Wely - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Round 3 Rapid Results:

Kramnik - Mamedyarov 0-1
Anand - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Morozevich - Leko 0-1
Gelfand - Aronian 1-0
Karjakin - Carlsen 1-0
Ivanchuk - van Wely 0-1

Blindfold Standings after Round 3:

1-3. Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Carlsen 2
4-9. Mamedyarov, Anand, Kramnik, Karjakin, Aronian, Topalov 1.5
10-12. Gelfand, van Wely, Leko 1

Rapid Standings after Round 3:

1. Anand 2.5
2-3. Aronian, Topalov 2
4-9. Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Carlsen, Leko, Mamedyarov 1.5
10-11. Kramnik, van Wely 1
12. Morozevich .5

Overall Standings:

1. Anand 4
2-5. Topalov, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Carlsen 3.5
6-7. Karjakin, Mamedyarov 3
8-11. Gelfand, Morozevich, Kramnik, Leko 2.5
12. van Wely 2

Round 4 Pairings: (The first-named player has White in the blindfold game and Black in the rapid.)

Gelfand - van Wely
Karjakin - Ivanchuk
Aronian - Carlsen
Kramnik - Morozevich
Anand - Leko
Mamedyarov - Topalov

Blindfold Results:

Ivanchuk - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
van Wely - Carlsen 0-1
Karjakin - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Leko 1/2-1/2
Morozevich - Topalov 1-0
Anand - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2

Rapid Results:

Gelfand - Ivanchuk 0-1
Carlsen - van Wely 1-0
Aronian - Karjakin 1-0
Leko - Kramnik 0-1
Topalov - Morozevich 1-0
Mamedyarov - Anand 0-1

An unusual round! Normally we'd expect to see more decisive results in blindfold chess, but four of the six blind games were drawn while all six of the rapid contests were decisive. The games that caught my attention today were the games between Morozevich and Topalov, together with Anand's Carlsen's and Kramnik's wins in the rapid. You can replay them, with my light comments, here. (For the rest, you can read the report on the tournament site and replay the games as well. For the first, scroll down from the home page and click the "Read more" link; for the latter, use the Games tab, select Archived, and then choose round 2.)

Last but not least, we have video, courtesy of Macauley Peterson:



Blindfold Standings after Round 2:

1-3. Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Morozevich 1½
4-9. Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Topalov 1
10-12. Gelfand, Leko, van Wely ½

Rapid Standings after Round 2:

1-2. Anand, Aronian 2
3-5. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Topalov 1½
6. Kramnik 1
7-11. Gelfand, Karjakin, Leko, Mamedyarov, Morozevich ½
12. van Wely 0

Combined Standings:

1-3. Anand, Aronian, Ivanchuk 3
4-5. Carlsen, Topalov 2½
6-8. Karjakin, Kramnik, Morozevich 2
9. Mamedyarov 1½
10-11. Gelfand, Leko 1
12. Van Wely ½

Round 3 Pairings: (The first-named player has White in the blindfold game, Black in rapid.)

Mamedyarov - Kramnik
Topalov - Anand
Leko - Morozevich
Aronian - Gelfand
Carlsen - Karjakin
van Wely - Ivanchuk

The tournament exceeded expectations on its opening day: there were plenty of exciting games, and the ultimate highlight was the showdown of the world champions.

Session 1: Blindfold

The way the tournament works is this: it's a double-round robin, where the players face each other in both a regular rapid game (25' + 10") and a blindfold game (25' + 20"). The games aren't played back to back, but instead occur in a format that maximizes fan enjoyment. The field is split into two groups (call them "Group A" and the other half "Group B"; of course the identity of each group varies every round), and the day's action is divided into four sessions:

Session 1: Group A - blindfold
Session 2: Group B - blindfold
Session 3: Group A - rapid
Session 4: Group B - rapid

Now to the particulars of the day's action. Here are the results of session 1:

Mamedyarov - Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Anand - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Leko 1-0

Morozevich brought one of his signature openings, the Chigorin Defense (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6!?) out of mothballs, and with great success. He enjoyed an advantage from early on, and increased it until he reached what seems to have been a winning queen and bishop vs. queen and opposite-colored bishop ending. Unfortunately for Morozevich, Mamedyarov managed to trade queens, blockade his opponent's passed pawns, and sneak out with a draw.

Anand-Kramnik was an uneventful draw. Anand tried the trendy - or desperate - 5.Nc3, but Kramnik drew without any trouble at all.

In Topalov-Leko, Black's 11th move was unusual, allowing White to reach a comfortable middlegame with opposite-colored bishops. Black's position was passive and his bishop somewhat irrelevant, and Leko's attempt to ameliorate the drawbacks of his position at the cost of a pawn only added to the list of woes. A very convincing win by Topalov.

Session 2:

Aronian - van Wely 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Ivanchuk 0-1
Gelfand - Karjakin 0-1

Aronian-van Wely was a very sharp Vienna QGD. Aronian kept sacrificing things, and while they didn't some compelling at the time, he had enough to encourage van Wely to force a perpetual.

Carlsen likes to play the Open Ruy with Black from time to time, but this time he was forced to combat it. Carlsen's approach was to play for mate, building up on the kingside, but he underestimated Black's queenside counterplay. Ivanchuk won a pawn, neutralized Carlsen's threats, and pulled out a win.

Meanwhile, Karjakin, Carlsen's neglected contemporary, defeated Gelfand with the black pieces. Karjakin enjoyed an edge early on, thanks to his superior queenside structure. Eventually all the pawns were on the same side of the board, but although I believe Gelfand should have held the game, the opposite-colored bishops were a nightmare. Black's strong dark-squared bishop gave him an enduring attack, while White's passive light-squared bishop was only a spectator. Faced with mate or the loss of his queen, Gelfand gave up.

Session 3:

Kramnik - Anand 0-1
Morozevich - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Leko - Topalov 1/2-1/2

Let's discuss the less impressive games first: Morozevich again pressed Mamedyarov in a g3 Pirc (by transposition), but was again unable to collect the full point, while in Leko-Topalov the former world champ always had sufficient compensation for a sacrificed pawn, but not (much) more.

Now for the big game. Anand played the perenially popular 4...Ba6 QID, but he made things lively with the combative 12...f5. The game gradually took on the characteristics of a Dutch Stonewall, with White trying to break through on the queenside and Black on the kingside. Kramnik broke through alright, winning material and creating some dangerous, far-advanced passed pawns. The only slight problem was his lonely king, almost completely abandoned on the kingside. It took some sacrifices, including above all the spectacular 42...Qf3!!, but Anand's mating attack succeeded. A very nice win for the world champion, and a painful reminder to Kramnik that if he wants to win their match later this year, he'd better do it in the slow games.

Session 4:

Karjakin - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
van Wely - Aronian 0-1
Ivanchuk - Carlsen 1/2-1/2

In a Bishop's Opening Karjakin quickly obtained the bishop pair and a micro-advantage, but the structural symmetry secured safety for the sable forces: draw.

Van Wely-Aronian was a most interesting game. Aronian offer an exchange sacrifice for several moves in a row, but van Wely wouldn't bite. In fact, van Wely promptly offered his own exchange sacrifice! Aronian grabbed the material, though it looked pretty risky: White's material compensation of two bishops and a pawn for a rook (in addition to the other pieces) together with his apparent positional compensation seemed to favor White. Van Wely missed some nasty tactics, however, allowing Black to gain a pawn, the initiative, and ultimately the full point.

Finally, there was Ivanchuk-Carlsen. Carlsen blundered (or sacrificed?) a pawn, but his position was solid enough to make White's winning chances very unclear. Things continued normally through Black's 35th, which invited a N + 4 vs. N + 3 pawn ending with all the pawns on the same side. In the textbook case where the defender has f-, g- and h-pawns, the strong side ought to win; here, however, Carlsen would have e-, f- and g-pawns, giving him significantly better drawing chances. This is all purely hypothetical, however, because Ivanchuk played the stunning 36.Nxa3!?, pushing hard - almost too hard - for the win. After various adventures, the game was drawn.

All the games can be replayed on the tournament site (go to the Games tab), while my comments to Kramnik-Anand and Ivanchuk-Carlsen are here.

Tomorrow's pairings:

Session 1:

Ivanchuk - Gelfand
van Wely - Carlsen
Karjakin - Aronian

Session 2:

Kramnik - Leko
Morozevich - Topalov
Anand - Mamedyarov

For Sessions 3 & 4, flip the colors for sessions 1 & 2, respectively.

At 9:30 a.m. ET. I'd provide the first round pairings, but they don't seem to be available on the event site at this moment. Not that it matters, really; the tournament is consistently fun for fans just about every round. The tournament features almost all of the world's super-elite (you can find a player list here), but with fast time controls and no rating points at stake, they play a far livelier brand of chess than usual. Definitely worth checking out!