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The 2009 Tal Memorial: First Round Pairings

Thanks to the many readers, who have already provided them in the notes to this post. For those who aren't comment-browsers or are brand new to this site, here's what we'll see if we watch live at 7 a.m. ET:

Carlsen - Kramnik
Morozevich - Leko
Ivanchuk - Anand
Gelfand - Ponomariov
Aronian - Svidler

Predictions for the games and the tournament? I'll go with the winner of the first game mentioned above. If it's a draw, then...I'm not sure.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Thursday November 5, 2009 at 12:02am

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Seena (mail):

As much as I wish "Moro" would get his own share of these Tal Memorial trophies, it doesn't seem likely in the presence of the Kasparov-backed Carlsen. Indeed, if Carlsen dropped the European Team Championship to save his energy for this tournament, he must have some really big surprises up his sleeve.
Here's my guess: Anand will show a mediocre performance, Kramnik and Carlsen will tie for the first place, and Ivanchuk will rock the second half of the table.

11.5.2009 1:50am

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Kajetan Wandowicz:

I'll go with Carlsen for the tournament, although you probably shouldn't bet your life savings on a tournament where Morozevich or Ivanchuk play. Still, even if one of them does what they do from time to time and have a beat-literally-everyone-with-ease week, I think the Wunderkind will prevail.

11.5.2009 4:24am

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whiskeytown (mail) (www):

And we're off - We have two Grunfelds, a Nimzo-Indian, a Catalan, and a Scotch - interestingly enough, I would have expected the Carlsen/Kramnik game to have the Scotch (they're the Nimzo-Indian) - and I don't recall seeing a Catalan in recent play

11.5.2009 7:42am

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Daniel:

FYI chessvibes has all the pairings for future rounds posted already: http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ five-draws-in-first-round-tal-memorial/

Round 2 features some pretty sweet matchups!!!
Kramnik-Anand
Carlsen- Morozevich
Svidler-Ivanchuk
Ponomariov-Aronian
Leko-Gelfand

11.5.2009 7:24pm

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