The Chess Mind

There weren't any whiz-bang games, but all the games were long and decisive. Both the locals - Topalov and Cheparinov - won, and they were joined in the winner's circle by Ivanchuk.

Radjabov - Ivanchuk was a balanced game most of the way, with Radjabov having a slight edge at a few points, but the decision to play 31.Rd5 was self-destructive. Maybe he wasn't losing there, but the trend was negative and by move 38 at the latest he was lost.

Aronian - Topalov started without any problems for White, but Topalov's play offered a nice demonstration of "Capablanca's Rule", that queen and knight typically work better together than queen and bishop.* Topalov's 36th move was especially interesting: a brilliant rook sacrifice initiating an 11-move combination resulting in a winning knight vs. bishop ending. It was a very nice idea, but it has to be said that it was an error - see the game page for details.

Finally, Cheparinov - Bu Xiangzhi was a nice case of light-squared domination by White. Especially instructive was Black's mistaken decision to open the position up with 26...g6 and 27...f5. Black possibly hoped to achieve counterplay with the break, but it didn't really happen. Worse, White's knight was able to reach f5, with great effect.

For round 2, these are the pairings:

Topalov - Ivanchuk
Bu Xiangzhi - Radjabov
Aronian - Cheparinov

Links and videos here; the games with my comments here.

* Whether this really deserves the status of "rule" is disputable - I believe John Watson has called this into question in Secrets of Modern Strategy. Still, while there are always loads of exceptions to such rules of thumb, there's enough to it that it deserves consideration.

Today's round at the MTel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria, was rather less thrilling than yesterday's, but thanks to the no-draw offer policy the spectators still got a full show.

Taking the drawn games first, Aronian-Cheparinov looked like an argument to repeal the anti-draw offer policy. I don't think the players were going out of their way to make a draw from the opening, but by move 22 the game was clearly headed in that direction. For almost 20 moves, almost nothing happened, so the players probably realized that if they wanted to avoid spending the night in a glass cubicle, they'd need to swap off some material. Being super-GMs, they were up to the task, and the resulting opposite-colored bishop ending was so drawn the arbiter was forced to broker a peace deal. The Bu Xiangzhi-Radjabov game was livelier, with a Carlsbad-ish structure resulting in the usual race between White's queenside hopes and Black's kingside counterplay. White had the better chances, but Radjabov's aggressive counterattack forced White to be very precise. Bu missed his one big chance on move 29, and after that the game rapidly petered out into a king vs. king finale. (That's a draw, the tablebases inform me.)

One game was not drawn, and that was the battle between Topalov and Ivanchuk. Despite what you may have read recently, White does not win by force in the Classical French, especially if he fails to achieve a good knight (on d4) vs. bad bishop ending. In fact the roles were reversed: White wound up with the bishop and Black with the knight, but the decisive factor was Black's control of the half-open queenside files.

Standings after Round 2:

1. Ivanchuk 2
2. Cheparinov 1.5
3. Topalov 1
4-6. Aronian, Bu Xiangzhi, Radjabov .5

Pairings for Round 3:

Cheparinov - Topalov
Radjabov - Aronian
Ivanchuk - Bu Xiangzhi

At least two of the games are potentially interesting in light of back stories. Cheparinov has been Topalov's main second for several years, so it will be interesting to see what openings they choose and how they react psychologically. As for Ivanchuk vs. Bu Xiangzhi, their only previous game featured one of the Ukranian great's many legendary crack-ups.

Tournament site here; games (with my comments) here.

Today's round was rather funny. Ivanchuk defeated Bu Xiangzhi easily, as a series of bad moves (which formed a single idea, so perhaps we can award a shared '??' to the series as a whole) left Bu with a totally lost game after White's 9th(!!) move. Objectively, the young Chinese star could have resigned at that point, but no one wants to lose such a ridiculously short game. So, after 46 minutes thought, he continued, but although he lasted to move 32 his position was never anything but completely lost.

That kept Ivanchuk perfect at 3/3. In clear second with 2/3 is Topalov, who showed good judgment against Cheparinov, his regular assistant. Topalov got a fair-to-lousy position against Ivanchuk's Classical French yesterday, which suggested that Team Topalov's prep in that variation was somewhat lacking. Accordingly, Topalov chose the Black side of that opening today, and Cheparinov too avoided the normal 8.Qd2. Yesterday Topalov played 8.a3 and got nothing; today, Cheparinov chose the even more unusual 8.Ne2 and also got nothing. On the other hand, he wasn't worse, and on move 26 he could and should have forced a draw with 26.Bc5. Failing to do so, he was objectively lost, and despite a move repetition a few moves later Topalov pretty confidently reeled in the full point.

The third game, Radjabov-Aronian, was drawn. Their game was the ever-popular Anti-Moscow Gambit, and although Radjabov achieved a threatening-looking position, it's not obvious that there was ever anything concrete. After a flurry of exchanges, the players reached a dead drawn ending after 37 moves, and 19 moves later they reached the deadest of all drawn endings: K vs. K.

Standings after Round 3:

1. Ivanchuk 3
2. Topalov 2
3. Cheparinov 1.5
4-5. Aronian, Radjabov 1
6. Bu Xiangzhi .5

Pairings for Round 4:

Radjabov - Topalov
Ivanchuk - Cheparinov
Bu Xiangzhi - Aronian

Tournament site here, video reports here, games with my comments here.

It's a good thing he did, too, as the other two games were quick, dull draws. Ivanchuk and Cheparinov went at it hammer and tongs in a Classical King's Indian with 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3 f5 11.Bd2. It's a slightly old-fashioned line with tons of theory, but it's still lots of fun seeing if White's queenside breakthrough will come before Black delivers checkmate. Ivanchuk played a novelty on move 25, though it was his opponent's reply that probably constituted the more significant new idea. In any case, the position remained in a complicated balance for a long time, but starting at move 32 Cheparinov - possibly in time trouble, despite the 24 "free" moves - lost the thread (maybe the whole spool) and resigned on move 40 about to be a rook down.

There's plenty of time left, but things look good for Ivanchuk at this point:

Standings after Round 4:

1. Ivanchuk 4
2. Topalov 2.5
3-5. Radjabov, Aronian, Cheparinov 1.5
6. Bu Xiangzhi 1

Round 5 Pairings:

Topalov - Bu Xiangzhi
Aronian - Ivanchuk
Cheparinov - Radjabov

Tournament site here, the games with my comments here.

That's five in a row for Ivanchuk, whose current TPR is a ridiculous 3537. (This seems more a quirk of the system when a player's score is at 100% - even if he scores 9.5/10 that number will drop significantly.) His fifth win was a surprisingly easy one, with Black against Aronian, but it seemed less a matter of his brilliance and more that Aronian's novelty and the next few moves afterwards were suspicious at best.

Despite Ivanchuk's tremendous success so far, Topalov is not out of range. He won easily against Bu Xiangzhi, who is finding himself outclassed so far. (This happens to almost everyone breaking into top-class events - not long ago Magnus Carlsen was getting whupped in these tournaments, and now he's winning them.) That leaves Topalov with a very respectable 3.5/5, a point and a half behind with five games to go.

The third game, Cheparinov-Radjabov, was an exciting draw in a Bayonet King's Indian. The game was dynamically balanced most of the way, but Cheparinov's errors on moves 30-32 gave Radjabov a winning position. Radjabov, who has understandably complained of exhaustion (he played in the FIDE Grand Prix event just before this tournament), returned the favor on move 34, and his opponent escaped with half a point.

Now the players get to enjoy their one rest day, after which they play the second round-robin. Can Ivanchuk make it 10 in a row? Probably not, but who knows? Meanwhile, it will be fun watching him try, and it would be nice if he could at least achieve a Fischerian 6-0 score.

Here are the games from round 5, with my comments.

Standings after Round 5:

1. Ivanchuk 5
2. Topalov 3.5
3-4. Radjabov, Cheparinov 2
5. Aronian 1.5
6. Bu Xiangzhi 1

Pairings for Round 6: (On Wednesday)

Topalov - Aronian
Bu Xiangzhi - Cheparinov
Ivanchuk - Radjabov

Tournament site here.

Nothing like a rest day to kill the momentum! Ivanchuk only managed to draw against Radjabov; in fact, despite having the White pieces, he was even a little worse near the end. The Bulgarian contingent moved up in the meantime: Cheparinov won, with Black, against the slumping Bu Xiangzhi; more importantly, Topalov defeated Aronian (with White) to pull within a point of Ivanchuk.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Ivanchuk 5.5 (3140 TPR)
2. Topalov 4.5 (2929 TPR)
3. Cheparinov 3
4. Radjabov 2.5
5. Aronian 1.5
6. Bu Xiangzhi 1

Remarkably, neither Radjabov, Aronian nor Bu have won a single game.

Pairings for Round 7:

Ivanchuk - Topalov (The big game! If Topalov wins, it's a new tournament; if Ivanchuk wins, the tournament is essentially over.)
Radjabov - Bu Xiangzhi (I sense someone making it to 50% tomorrow)
Cheparinov - Aronian

Tournament site here; games with comments here.

The Ivanchuk-Topalov game lived up to expectations but wound up a draw, keeping Ivanchuk a point ahead of his opponent with three rounds to play. Topalov will have an extra White, Ivanchuk an extra Black, so the battle for first remains real. In other games, Radjabov got his first win of the event and made it back to 50%, defeating poor Bu Xiangzhi, while Cheparinov-Aronian was drawn.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Ivanchuk 6
2. Topalov 5
3-4. Radjabov, Cheparinov 3.5
5. Aronian 2
6. Bu Xiangzhi 1

Pairings for Round 8:

Topalov - Cheparinov (This pairing worked well for Topalov the first time around.)
Aronian - Radjabov
Bu Xiangzhi - Ivanchuk (Ivanchuk has Black, but considering Bu's performance so far this is a good chance for the Ukranian.)

Tournament site here, games (unannotated) here.

Vassily Ivanchuk's once big lead and dominating play are fading into the past. After his third consecutive draw, his lead is down to a single half point, and he was probably fortunate to draw. Bu Xiangzhi may be having one of the worst tournaments of his adult life, but he's still a 2700, and today he was demonstrating his normal level quite convincingly. He was better throughout and had a clear advantage in the ending, but after choosing 40.Rc6 instead of 40.Rb7 (keeping Black's king bottled up) Ivanchuk played very well to achieve the draw.

A good thing, too, as Veselin Topalov absolutely butchered his countryman and frequent second, Ivan Cheparinov, to reach an impressive +4 total for the event.

Finally, in the game Aronian-Radjabov, zeitnot played a decisive role in the result. White's position was precarious after 37...g5, but with more time to think Aronian probably could have maintained the balance. Instead, his 38.f5 misfired, and the follow-up, 39.Rg3, more or less lost on the spot. A good result for Radjabov, who has climbed to +1, but another blow in an ongoing disaster for Aronian.

Standings after Round 8:

1. Ivanchuk 6.5
2. Topalov 6
3. Radjabov 4.5
4. Cheparinov 3.5
5. Aronian 2
6. Bu Xiangzhi 1.5

Pairings for Round 9:

Bu Xiangzhi - Topalov (Topalov will win)
Ivanchuk - Aronian (Ivanchuk may win, but I'm expecting a draw)
Radjabov - Cheparinov

Links, videos (check out the Spassky "interview" [really a press conference]), and the games on replayable boards (at least once you install Silverlight) here.