Morelia/Linares, Round 9 Recap
Round 9 Results:
Aronian - Anand
Topalov - Radjabov
Leko - Ivanchuk
Carlsen - Shirov
Another hard-fought round! Aronian-Anand was a slight exception: Aronian sacrificed a pawn in the opening for enduring pressure, but his 25.Qe2 allowed Anand to return the pawn and reach comfortable equality. That kept Anand in first, a full point ahead of Aronian, but Carlsen closed to within half a point by winning an amazing, tragic game against Shirov. The game see-sawed throughout between a big Carlsen advantage and near-equality (19…c6 and 25…Rfd8 helped Carlsen, while 19.Na3 and 27.Bxd5 made Shirov’s life a bit easier), but Shirov’s stubborn defense led him to an objectively drawn position – albeit one in which a good deal of preliminary suffering was required to achieve the half-point. Unfortunately, his 79…Ke5?? spoiled 7 hours of work, and the game ended immediately.
Topalov utilized an anti-Schliemann line that has been advocated by a flock of IMs (John Shaw, Larry Kaufman, Andrews Martin and Greet), and it went pretty well according to the recipe: White had a position where he could torture Radjabov indefinitely with no risk whatsoever. Unfortunately, when Topalov seemed to have a genuine winning chance, it slipped away: 44.Kg4 e2 45.Rxe2 Rxd5 (or 45…bxa5 46.bxa5 Rxd5 47.Re7+ Kb8 48.Kxf4 Ra5 49.g4+-) 46.Re7+ Kb8 47.axb6 Rb5 48.Re4 Rxb6 49.Kf5 won.
Finally, Ivanchuk outplayed Leko on the Black side of the Classical Caro-Kann. It was an impressive performance, and had it not been for his “accidents” in rounds 4 and 8, he’d have been in the thick of the race for first.
Games here.
Standings after Round 9:
1. Anand 6
2. Carlsen 5.5
3. Aronian 5
4. Topalov 4.5
5-7. Radjabov, Shirov, Ivanchuk 4
8. Leko 3
Pairings for Round 10:
Anand - Carlsen (The big game! For the third time in a row, Anand plays a player in second place.)
Shirov - Leko
Ivanchuk - Topalov
Radjabov - Aronian
You can watch the games live tomorrow on the Playchess.com server - I'll be presenting live commentary starting at 10 a.m. ET/4 p.m. Central European Time. Hope to see you there!
Aronian - Anand
Topalov - Radjabov
Leko - Ivanchuk
Carlsen - Shirov
Another hard-fought round! Aronian-Anand was a slight exception: Aronian sacrificed a pawn in the opening for enduring pressure, but his 25.Qe2 allowed Anand to return the pawn and reach comfortable equality. That kept Anand in first, a full point ahead of Aronian, but Carlsen closed to within half a point by winning an amazing, tragic game against Shirov. The game see-sawed throughout between a big Carlsen advantage and near-equality (19…c6 and 25…Rfd8 helped Carlsen, while 19.Na3 and 27.Bxd5 made Shirov’s life a bit easier), but Shirov’s stubborn defense led him to an objectively drawn position – albeit one in which a good deal of preliminary suffering was required to achieve the half-point. Unfortunately, his 79…Ke5?? spoiled 7 hours of work, and the game ended immediately.
Topalov utilized an anti-Schliemann line that has been advocated by a flock of IMs (John Shaw, Larry Kaufman, Andrews Martin and Greet), and it went pretty well according to the recipe: White had a position where he could torture Radjabov indefinitely with no risk whatsoever. Unfortunately, when Topalov seemed to have a genuine winning chance, it slipped away: 44.Kg4 e2 45.Rxe2 Rxd5 (or 45…bxa5 46.bxa5 Rxd5 47.Re7+ Kb8 48.Kxf4 Ra5 49.g4+-) 46.Re7+ Kb8 47.axb6 Rb5 48.Re4 Rxb6 49.Kf5 won.
Finally, Ivanchuk outplayed Leko on the Black side of the Classical Caro-Kann. It was an impressive performance, and had it not been for his “accidents” in rounds 4 and 8, he’d have been in the thick of the race for first.
Games here.
Standings after Round 9:
1. Anand 6
2. Carlsen 5.5
3. Aronian 5
4. Topalov 4.5
5-7. Radjabov, Shirov, Ivanchuk 4
8. Leko 3
Pairings for Round 10:
Anand - Carlsen (The big game! For the third time in a row, Anand plays a player in second place.)
Shirov - Leko
Ivanchuk - Topalov
Radjabov - Aronian
You can watch the games live tomorrow on the Playchess.com server - I'll be presenting live commentary starting at 10 a.m. ET/4 p.m. Central European Time. Hope to see you there!
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Friday February 29, 2008 at 4:49pm