The Chess Mind Mexico City, Round 13: Anand survives, maintains a one-point lead

Anand's game, and the round, is now over: he survived the ending by a single tempo and is poised to become the 15th real world champion (sorry, lovers of the FIDE k.o.). I annotated the two important games on the fly (though not throughout), and while there are surely errors and superficialities (the latter will always be there anyway, both because of human - and computer - finitude (especially mine) and especially under the constraints of trying to put out an instant analysis), at least those errors are mine and not those of the tin can. While in Mexico City I practically never had access to computer analysis, which was what I wanted. It's very easy to get addicted to seeing what Fritz, Rybka, Zappa etc. have to say, but while it's important to check when seeking the ultimate truth of the position, it's very easy to atrophy your mind by relying on the engines. So my intent is to reduce, though probably not eliminate, the presence of computer analysis in my posts, at least until such time as I'm feeling like a real chess player again.

So: here are my thoughts on today's two main games, in all their unvarnished glory, folly, or something in between.

Standings after Round 13:

1. Anand 8.5
2. Gelfand 7.5
3. Kramnik 7
4. Leko 6.5
5. Aronian 6
6-8. Grischuk, Morozevich, Svidler 5.5

Pairings for Round 14:

Anand - Leko
Morozevich - Gelfand
Kramnik - Aronian
Svidler - Grischuk

N.B. I won't be around tomorrow, so look for more blog action on Monday, maybe Sunday night if the mood strikes.

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inky (mail):

No one can be the 15th World Chess Champion until they have beaten Kramnik in a match. Anand may be the best around, but this was just a Super-GM tournament, not a World Championship match. That will come next year.

Thanks for your 'thoughts.'

9.28.2007 8:26pm

Andrey:

Dennis, you write: "34.Rc2 Ne5 35.Rxc3 Rxc3+ 36.Nxc3 Nd3+ 37.Kd2 Nxf2 38.Ke3 Ng4+ 39.Kf4 might be a promising approach for White, returning the pawn (but not his structural advantages) in return for a vastly superior king."
But here White wins a pawn by force: Nb5, then Nd6, then Nf5.

9.28.2007 8:50pm

Dennis Monokroussos:

Inky: Even if you disagree with what I said, they're still thoughts, not 'thoughts'.

Andrey: Maybe you're right (not that it contradicts what I said), but Black doesn't have to be a victim. For instance, 39...Nf6 40.Nb5 a5 41.Nd6 Ke7 42.Nf5+ Ke6/Kf8 43.Nxh6 Nd5+ followed by ...Nc3 and White's a-pawn drops off. Even if White can win Black's a-pawn back by bringing his king to the queenside, Black should be able to liquidate the kingside in the white king's absence.

9.28.2007 9:03pm

If Black goes for a-pawn, then h-pawn just goes forward and White should be able to at least win f7 pawn. Anyway, I think there were a lot more winning chances here than in a notoriously drawn rook endgame.

9.28.2007 9:10pm

Joshua Green (mail) (www):

In your analysis of Grischuk vs. Anand, you give a variation 71. Ke2 h1Q 72. Rg8+ Kh2?? 73. Kf2 +-, but in fact 72. ... Kh2 is not a blunder as 73. Kf2?? loses to 73. ... Qa1!.

9.28.2007 9:35pm

JaiDeepBlue (mail):

Inky, you forgot the match with Capablanca's ghost conducted via a seance.

9.29.2007 3:15am

Indeed, Joshua - a very silly error on my part: I knew years ago that that trick only works with queens (or if there are pawns blocking the diagonal), but perhaps the influence of Mitrofanov's famous deflection helped create a blind spot.

JDB: Do you mean to refer to Korchnoi's alleged game with Maroczy? At any rate, this blog is a no occult zone, so you'll have to spirit your discussion (pun intended) on these matters somewhere else.

9.29.2007 7:23pm

Dennis - you misunderstood...I was thanking you for your analysis. You called them thoughts to link to them.

I was serious about my comments on both subjects. I wasn't exactly disagreeing with you about the World Championship, just expressing my views. Many people share them, but since Kirsan Ilyumshinov got a good deal out of arranging this tournament in Mexico - and he told them it would be a World Championship tournament - everyone is pretending it really was.

I congratulate Anand on his win. I predict he will win the World Championship next year. Then I will call him World Champion.

9.29.2007 8:53pm

Thanks, Inky, but it was a grammatical point. Putting quotation marks around a word or words has three normal uses: to indicate a quotation, to refer to a word as a word (example: "It's called a 'dog' in English."), and to indicate something suspicious about the word's usage (e.g. my "brilliant" move cost me a piece). So, since I didn't think you were thanking me for a one-word quotation or for the word "thoughts", I wondered if you thought there was something subpar about what I had to say. Thanks for clearing it up!

10.1.2007 7:12pm

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