The Chess Mind

Bring back Fischer, Kasparov and Topalov!

Of course it's early and that's an overstatement, but draws in 22, 23, 25 and 28 moves makes for a less than inspiring first round. Despite that, the games did have their interesting moments, as we will see.

Anand-Gelfand ended very strangely, as both players blundered on their final move! Anand's 22.Re1? simply hung a pawn to 22...Rxf4 (23.Qxf4? Bg5 is a queenectomy), but Gelfand missed it, played 22...Rxe1+ and offered a draw, which was accepted.

Kramnik's advantage against Svidler was less tangible than Gelfand's should have been, but with 22.Bd3 or especially 21.Bd3 he'd place the burden of proof on Black to prove real compensation for the sacrificed pawn. Either Kramnik disagreed with this assessment, or maybe he initially thought his approach gave him even more. If so, he was mistaken, and after 22.Nh2 Rxd4 Black had regained the pawn (at no other cost), so Kramnik played 23.Rxd4 and offered a draw, which was accepted.

Draw #3 was Grischuk-Leko. This game was always about even, with Leko never enjoying more than a micro-edge. His active possibilities were always constrained by Grischuk's mild kingside initiative, so Leko bailed out with a nice exchanging idea to force the draw.

Finally, Morozevich and Aronian turned into a big swap meet: another draw. Wheeee.

The games, with my comments, are here.

Today, the fight was on. Gelfand-Grischuk ended quickly, a Queen's Indian with a Bogo-Indian twist that was drawn in 23 moves, but the remaining games were fascinating struggles.

In Kramnik-Morozevich, the world champion played a gambit variation of the Catalan, and that was just the beginning. On move 8 he introduced a novelty offering two more pawns, and then a few moves later followed things up with a piece sacrifice to boot. ("Boring Kramnik" - riiiiiiight.) His conception appears to have been correct, and he continued forcefully, increasing his advantage until his most unfortunate 21st move. Had Morozevich played correctly, he could have escaped with a draw, but working everything out with the little time he had left was too difficult. Kramnik didn't give him a second chance, and he brought home the full point in the mostly brilliant game.

Aronian-Anand was a Moscow Variation, and unlike Kramnik against Svidler yesterday, Aronian went in for the sharp main line with 6.Bh4. He achieved a reasonable position, too, but after his poor 19th move the game went from better and promising to worse and uncomfortable. In fact, it seems he had only one more chance, on move 25, to keep things interesting, and after missing it he was ground down horribly.

The last game to finish was Svidler-Leko; amazingly, the only game the first two rounds to make it to the first time control. Svidler braved Leko's Marshall Gambit, grabbing and keeping the extra pawn, but the game was drawn just the same. I think he did have some winning chances, but maybe his play in the ending was a bit too straightforward.

Standings after round 2:

1-2. Kramnik, Anand 1.5
3-6. Svidler, Leko, Gelfand, Grischuk 1
7-8. Morozevich, Aronian .5

Games here.