The Chess Mind

With four players having a chance to at least tie for first, the preconditions were in place for a thrilling last round. This might have seemed especially likely, given the very low percentage of draws (by super-tournament standards) so far, but as it turned out “safety first” was the rule of the day. With a win over Veselin Topalov, world champion Viswanathan Anand would have clinched clear first, but his choice to play to meet Topalov’s Najdorf with 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Bg5 indicated his desire for a quiet life. The game followed yesterday’s tragic Radjabov-Shirov game through 11.O-O-O, but here Topalov varied with 11…Qb6 (instead of 11…Nd4), offering a pawn. Anand rightly returned it with 15.Qd2, resulting in an opposite-colored bishops middlegame where neither side had much to play for. The result was a quick draw, and at worst a tie for first place with Magnus Carlsen

This would happen only if Carlsen defeated Teimour Radjabov, who once again defended the Black pieces with the Schliemann Defense. Carlsen repeated the line Topalov employed in round 9, like Topalov achieving a position with no losing chances and some chances to press. Press he did, for 69 moves, but the pawn-up rook ending the players entered on move 42 offered White no real winning chances, and Carlsen had to settle for second place. Still, it was a terrific result for him, especially in conjunction with his performance in the Corus tournament a month ago (he tied for first), and rumor has it he will be #5 on the next FIDE rating list. Be afraid…be very afraid!

Carlsen’s second place finish would have been shared if Levon Aronian had managed to defeat Peter Leko, but Leko was never in danger on the White side of an Anti-Marshall. The players clearly didn’t realize it, as they had been using responsible amounts of time, but they were exactly following a 2007 game between Laurent Fressinet and Arkadij Naiditsch all the way through White’s 29th move. The earlier game was drawn in 36 moves, but Aronian’s choice must have been a serious improvement, as it led to a peaceful handshake two moves earlier.

Finally, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk put an end to what must have been a very disappointing tournament for both men. This game seemed headed for a draw almost from the start, as Shirov turned the MacCutcheon French into an Exchange Variation on move 5 Nevertheless, it was Shirov who did what pressing their was in the game, trying to avoid exchanges, playing the prophylactic b4 and the space-gaining 20.g4, 24.h4 and 25.h5, but the symmetrical pawn structure and the open e-file led them to share the point as well. This is a tournament I’m sure they’ll both want to forget: Shirov, because he came in last place (with Peter Leko), and Ivanchuk because he lost two games he was winning (and had he won them and everything else remained the same, he’d have tied for first). They’ll be back.

Games (will be) here.

Round 14 Results:

Anand - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Leko - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Shirov - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Final Standings:

1. Anand 8.5
2. Carlsen 8
3-4. Aronian, Topalov 7.5
5. Radjabov 7
6. Ivanchuk 6.5
7-8. Leko, Shirov 5.5

Finally, let's take a look at my predictions:

1. Carlsen
2-3. Anand, Aronian
4. Radjabov
5-6. Shirov, Topalov
7-8. Ivanchuk, Leko

Pretty good! I wasn't off by more than a place for anyone, even if the ties gave me a little extra smudge room.

The leaderboard stayed steady, but that’s not to say there wasn’t any action today. Let’s start with the leaders: Anand played the Najdorf against Ivanchuk and was possibly surprised by his opponent’s choice of 6.Bc4. Anand returned the favor with 6…Nc6, transposing to the Sozin Variation, and Ivanchuk didn’t seem to have anything special prepared against this. Anand equalized without much difficulty, and the game was drawn in just 23 moves.

This gave Carlsen the chance to catch Anand with a win over Aronian, but that was never in the offing. White offered an interesting pawn sac in an old-fashioned line of the Queen’s Indian, but Carlsen’s 9…Bxd5 turned it into an exchange sacrifice for Black. The play from there through move 19 was more or less forced, and the question revolved around Black’s knight on c2. It’s stuck there, but it’s also restraining White’s rook on a2 – is the knight a strength or a weakness. The answer seems to be both, and in roughly equal measure. When the players agreed to a draw after 28.Bc1, White still hadn’t figured out what to do about the knight, but it hadn’t escaped, either. Play could have continued 28…Rc3 (this is forced, as White threatens 29.Bd2 followed by 30.Rc1, sending the steed to the glue factory) 29.Qxe4 (29.Qxb5?! d3!) dxe4 30.Bd2 Rc4 31.Rc1 d3 32.exd3 exd3 33.Rd1 (33.a4 Nd4) a6 (33…Re4? 34.Bc3!) 34.a4 Re4 35.axb5 axb5 36.Ra5 Re2 37.Kh1 Rxf2 38.Rxb5 Re2 39.Bxg5 Bxg5 40.Rg5+ Kf6 with equality, as Black’s d-pawn will let him regain the exchange.

It was a tough day for our cellar-dwellars, Shirov and Leko, who both lost, falling to -3. With Black against Radjabov, Shirov had completely equalized, and had he played 20…g5 (for example), the players could have agreed to a draw at any moment. Instead, his 20…Bh4?? left his rook trapped after 21.b4, and the resulting exchange-up ending was easy for White to win. Topalov-Leko was a much harder fight, and Leko was outplayed a little at a time. One early improvement was 21…c5, when 22.bxc3 Nxc3 23.bxc5 Rfe8 24.Bb2 Ne2+ 25.Kf1 Bxb2 26.Rab1 Bxf3 27.gxf3 Bd4 28.Rxe2 Rxe2 29.Kxe2 Bxc5 leads to a drawn Sveshnikov Sicilian-like ending. In the game, White’s pieces were too active, especially once Topalov’s rooks made it to the 7th (31.Rc1! was a good move, much better than 31.Ra1, winning the a-pawn but leaving a very difficult technical task after 31…Bb3 32.Bxe7 R8xe7 33.Rxe7+ Rxe7 34.Rxa6 Bg8). Maybe with perfect play Leko could have held the ending, but as a practical matter it was nearly impossible.

Games will be posted here.

Round 13 Results:

Ivanchuk - Anand 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Shirov 1-0
Aronian - Carlsen 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Leko 1-0

Standings after Round 13:

1. Anand 8
2. Carlsen 7.5
3-4. Aronian, Topalov 7
5. Radjabov 6.5
6. Ivanchuk 6
7-8. Leko, Shirov 5

Last round pairings:

Anand - Topalov
Leko - Aronian
Carlsen - Radjabov
Shirov - Ivanchuk

These are excellent pairings, because four players have a chance for some share of first place. Join me for the action tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. ET (4 p.m. Central European Time) on the Playchess.com server - see you then!

World champion Viswanathan Anand continues to lead, but Magnus Carlsen has closed back to within half a point of first as we head for the last two rounds after tomorrow’s rest day. Anand drew comfortably with Peter Leko, enjoying a slight, safe edge throughout on the White side of an Anti-Marshall. After his 20.Qxg5N hxg5 21.c4!, it looked like that advantage might become serious, thanks to Black’s weak pawns on g5 and c5, but Leko’s ingenious defense enabled him to hold the position. He had no choice but to give up a pawn, but he did so in a way that allowed his pieces to coordinate while Anand’s lost their harmony; the result was a draw.

Carlsen, meanwhile, was the recipient of some (partially earned) luck against Veselin Topalov. Carlsen achieved nothing from the opening, a reverse Sicilian, and his attacking plan with 19.Bg5, 20.Be3 and 21.f4 left him insufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn. His further sacrifice, 23.Rd4, probably could have been accepted, but Topalov’s safe 23…Rad8 sufficed for an advantage as well. On move 28.e6 would have been interesting (28…Qe7 29.f5 gxf5 30.Rf3 is one possible continuation), but Carlsen’s 28.f5 led to complex play as well, again sacrificing material for activity and headhunting prospects. The critical moments came on moves 33 and 34: Topalov could have avoided perpetual check with 33…Qd7, though after 34.Bh6 Nc6 35.Bxc4+ Bxc4 36.Qxc4+ Qf7 37.Qc1 Black will have a hard time creating real winning possibilities. His 33…Kxg7 was safer – or should have been – but after 34.Bd8 Topalov blundered into mate with 34…Nc6?? Instead, 34…Qd5 more or less forces White to take a perpetual check: 35.Bxa5 Qxa5 36.Qe7+ etc.

If Aronian had won his game, he too would have pulled within half a point of the leader, but he was rather fortunate to draw. Shirov found a tremendous improvement over his game with Leko from two rounds ago – not a new move (Aronian was the first to deviate from the earlier game, with 27…Rc8 instead of Leko’s 27…Bc4) but a new plan. Instead of meeting …Bc4 with b3, he put the pawn on a3, played 30.g4 to cement his knight on e4, and then prepared and executed the h4-h5-h6 advance. The result was that Black now had to worry about passed (or potentially passed) pawns on both sides of the board, and Shirov gradually achieved a winning position. (Note: I thought during the live commentary that Black could force a draw with 47…Bc6, taking for granted that 48.Nc5 Bxc5+ (or 48…Bd6+ 49.Ke3 Bxc5) would lead to a draw. Not so: as GM Mikhail Golubev pointed out, White puts his bishop on h4, the pawn on f6, and then brings the king to the queenside, winning.) By the time of 59.f8N+! Shirov was winning, but Aronian’s tenacious defense and White inaccuracies on moves 61, 67 and 73 led to a draw.

Finally, Ivanchuk-Radjabov was a typical Sveshnikov Sicilian draw, where the opposite-colored bishops were more significant than Ivanchuk’s extra pawn.

Games (will be) here.

Round 12 Results:

Anand - Leko 1/2-1/2
Shirov - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Topalov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Radjabov 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

1. Anand 7.5
2. Carlsen 7
3. Aronian 6.5
4. Topalov 6
5-6. Radjabov, Ivanchuk 5.5
7-8. Leko, Shirov 5

Pairings for Round 13: (On Thursday)

Ivanchuk - Anand
Radjabov - Shirov
Aronian - Carlsen
Topalov - Leko

World champion Viswanathan Anand is now the prohibitive favorite to win this year’s edition of the Morelia/Linares tournament, enjoying a full point lead with just three rounds to go. He took a short, easy draw against Teimour Radjabov; a fairly easy task against Radjabov’s anti-Caro-Kann sideline. White’s 6.Nh3 + 7.Nf4 garners the bishop pair, but the resulting position is so balanced that they offer no meaningful chances.

Meanwhile, it looked like Magnus Carlsen, his closest pursuer, would stay within half a point of the lead. When the queens came off against Leko on move 26, it looked like a typical drawish Sveshnikov ending with opposite-colored bishops. It turned out that White enjoyed a nagging edge, however, thanks to his passed b-pawn, and Leko did a great job of nursing the position for all it was worth. Utilizing the principle of two weaknesses, he turned to the kingside, first trying to loosen up Black’s pawns with 45.h5, then trying to create a cage for Black’s king by 47.h6. The position was still probably objectively drawn through White’s 52nd move, but after Carlsen’s decision to bring his king to the center with 52…Kg8 (maybe Black can hold with 52…Be3), 53…Kf8 and 54…Ke7, it was clearly over.

Topalov-Shirov saw the old exchange sac line against the Gruenfeld made famous by the late David Bronstein, and Topalov brought something new to the table. His 16.Qd4 was relatively rare, and 20.Bd3 was a novelty. Shirov reacted well, but it took him a lot of time on the clock, and this may have cost him. On move 26, 26…Qxd5 would have given him a playable position. Instead, Shirov played 26…Qb6+?, and after 27.Kh1 Qe3 28.Qh4 made an even more serious error, 28…Re5? Perhaps this was Shirov’s idea on move 26, thinking he would regain the d-pawn in a more active setting, but after 29.Qf6, threatening both d6-d7 and Bxg6, he was completely lost.

Finally, Aronian-Ivanchuk saw almost surreal play from the opening, and the game was lively from the start until it’s sadly premature finish. It seemed that Black still had chances for the initiative in the final position (e.g. with 22…Qa8), and before that he may have missed the nice shot 18…b4 (19.Qxb4 Nc6 and all Black’s pieces are on their way to terrific squares).

Games here.

Round 11 Results:

Radjabov - Anand 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Shirov 1-0
Leko - Carlsen 1-0

Standings after Round 11:

1. Anand 7
2-4. Aronian, Carlsen, Topalov 6
5-6. Radjabov, Ivanchuk 5
7-8. Shirov, Leko 4.5

Pairings for Round 12:

Anand - Leko
Shirov - Aronian
Carlsen - Topalov
Ivanchuk - Radjabov

Technical note: the ChessBase server had some problems with the audio system at the start of the round, but it was fixed in due course. Tomorrow's live commentary should go off without a hitch, so you're all invited to join me starting at: 10 a.m. ET, 4 p.m. Central European Time.

Andres Segovia - have a read and a listen.

Note: this article was originally published on ChessBase's Spanish language site - just scroll down below the round 9 recap. I note this for the benefit of Spanish readers and photo lovers, as that page often has a goodly amount of material (both text and photography) not on the English page and presumably not on the German page either. Here's an amusing gem of sorts; ironically with an English language punchline: GM Jacob Aagaard teaching en passant and the 4-move checkmate on what I guess is a whiskey commercial. I'm certainly not advocating the product, but it would sure be nice - and very different! - were such ads possible on American TV.

Four games, four draws:

Round 10 Results:

Anand - Carlsen 1/2-1/2
Shirov - Leko 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Aronian 1/2-1/2

After all the excitement so far in this tournament, a round like today’s was bound to happen – and even so it wasn’t really that bad. The first game to finish was unfortunately the round’s most attractive pairing: leader and world champion Viswanathan Anand enjoyed the White pieces against his closest competitor, “Wonderboy” Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen employed a slight sideline of the Sveshnikov Sicilian, and drew with consummate ease. One possible continuation from the final position shows the active resources latent in Black’s position: 22…Rxf5 23.Qe2 Qb7 24.Qg4 g6 25.Rfd1 Raf8! 26.Rxa5 Bxd5 27.Raxd5 Qa7, when White’s best is probably 28.Kh1 Qxf2 29.Qe2, when 29…Qxe2 30.Bxe2 leads to a stale equality.

Levon Aronian could have caught Carlsen in a tie for second, had he defeated Teimour Radjabov with the Black pieces, but that was never really in the offing. The game saw the popular and sharp Anti-Moscow gambit, and Radjabov introduced a novelty with 16.Qc1. Black responded reasonably, and White’s activity always looked like approximately enough for the pawn, but not more. One possible conclusion at game’s end was 32.Qb1 cxd5 33.Qxb5 Bc6 34.Qb2, when White needs to keep the d-pawn blockaded and Black can’t do anything to get it moving.

Shirov-Leko was a typical Marshall Gambit draw. Shirov tried almost to the first time control to make something happen, but despite retaining the extra pawn and trading off lots of pieces he was unsuccessful. Black’s bishop pair, and the light-squared bishop in particular, serve to give the second player both counterplay and excellent blockading possibilities, and Leko drew with ease.

Finally, Ivanchuk-Topalov was a tense game that seemed for a while to be headed for a decisive result. White came out of the opening with a nagging edge, though perhaps 17...Bd7 might have equalized. The cute point is that after 18.Nb6, Black can play 18...Qxb6!, as 19.Nxe6 Nh5! 20.Qe1 Qb8 21.Nxf8 Qxf8 is approximately equal. In the game, White might have increased his advantage with 25.Ra5 (eyeing a possible Bxc5), but after 25. Bd4 his advantage was minimal until Topalov’s shocking 34…d5(?) gifted White with a more or less free extra pawn. Ivanchuk probably should have remained in the middlegame with 37.Qc3, however, as the endgame starting from move 41 was very difficult to win – Black’s fantastic knight blockades the passed c-pawns while protecting the weakness on a6. Ivanchuk thought for a long time on moves 41 and 42 but failed to find a convincing plan; in fact, after his sloppy 45th and 48th moves, he actually needed to save the draw a pawn down – which he did (fortunately).

(ChessBase hasn't posted the games yet, but the link will most likely be this.)

Standings after Round 10:

1. Anand 6.5
2. Carlsen 6
3. Aronian 5.5
4. Topalov 5
5-7. Radjabov, Shirov, Ivanchuk 4.5
8. Leko 3.5

Round 11 Pairings: (On Monday; Sunday is a rest day)

Radjabov - Anand
Aronian - Ivanchuk
Topalov - Shirov
Leko - Carlsen