Morelia/Linares, Round 13 Recap
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!
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!
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Thursday March 6, 2008 at 2:31pm