Tal 01: Carlsen, Caruana and Mamedyarov strike!

by ChessBase
6/13/2013 – The young Italian outplayed the World Champion quite easily, Carlsen exploited some strange endgame decisions by Kramnik to also take the full point. Nakamura had trouble after the opening in finding a plan and Mamedyarov capitalized easily. Morozevich and Karjakin held easy draws with black. Standings, GM commentary and pictures.

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The Eighth International Tal Memorial Chess Tournament is being held from June, 13 to 24, 2013, with a rest day on June 16. The rounds generally start at 15:00h (=3 p.m.) Moscow time, with the first round starting at 6 p.m. and the final round at 1 p.m. Accommodation is in the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow, Tverskaya str. 3, while the event takes place in the in New Technologies Center Digital October, Bersenevskaya Embankment 6, in Moscow. The tournament has ten invited players and is a round robin with time controls of one hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move starting from move one. Full information on special rules, regulation, prize money, etc. can be found in our initial report.

Round one report

Round 01 – June 13 2013, 15:00h
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Vishy Anand 2786
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Boris Gelfand 2755
½-½
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Magnus Carlsen 2864
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
0-1
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753

ex-World Women's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk graced the tournament with her presence.

Andreikin, Dmitry - Morozevich, Alexander ½-½
Morozevich is as unpredictable as ever! He opted for the Dragon variation of the Sicilian, against which Andreikin used a variation that had some popularity about a decade ago but is not considered critical anymore. Despite winning a pawn soon after entering the rook endgame, White's advantage was very slim due to his bad queenside pawn structure and the off-place rook on the h-file. Moro held the draw without problems in a well played game.

Gelfand, Boris - Karjakin, Sergey ½-½
Gelfand's Catalan was neutralized too easily and Karjakin had no problems forcing a draw early in the game. Last year many grandmasters made the comment that Gelfand's repertoire with black didn't have any problems, but that his white openings simply had no kick to them. Gelfand will have to improve this variation if he wants to repeat it in the tournament.

Caruana simply outplayed the World Champion today, and continues to approach the 2800 mark.

Anand, Viswanathan - Caruana, Fabiano 0-1
Caruana played a very aggressive opening in the style of the Marshall attack of the Spanish by giving up his pawn on e5 for active play. Anand declined Caruana's first sacrficie, but then the Italian insisted and sacrificed his a-pawn to obtain the bishop pair and a very active position. Anand was forced to accept and Caruana had enough compensation for the full pawn. When Anand allowed him to recover the pawn, Black was simply better with well placed pieces and a strong bishop on b7 that had no counter. A series of bad moves allowed Caruana to win two pawns, and the game was basically over for the World Champion.

Nakamura was gracious to provide commentary after the game, despite it not going his way.

Nakamura, Hikaru - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1
Nakamura chose a relatively quiet variation against the Ragozin, but Mamedyarov was able to neutralize it and obtained a comfortable equality. The followup from the American was definitely not the best, and within a few moves he had very uncomfortable position. His position deteriorated to a point where after 18...Neg4! it was difficult to find a move for him. 19.h3? allowed Black to sacrifice a piece for a devastating attack, and Mamedyarov brought home the full point without missing a beat.

[Event "Tal Memorial"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.06.13"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D38"]
[Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "62"]
[SourceDate "2013.06.13"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ {This move forces Nc6, which
means that Black will no longer have the possibility of breaking the center
with an early c5.} Nc6 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd2 dxc4 8. Bxc4 a6 9. O-O (9. Qc2 Bd6 10.
a3 $5 {with the idea of meeting e5 with d5.}) 9... Bd6 10. Rad1 e5 {if Black
can achieve this without any inconveniences, he has probably solved most of
his opening problems.} 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Be2 Qe7 13. Ng5 {A hard move to
understand. Maybe Hikaru wanted to trade some pieces on e4, which would have
put the d6 bishop in an uncomfortable position.} Bf5 $1 14. e4 {preventing
White's idea.} (14. Nge4 $2 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 b5 $1 16. Qc2 Rae8 $17 {and the pin
is very uncomfortable.}) 14... Bd7 15. Qc2 h6 16. Nf3 {White's maneuvers have
accomplished less than Black's. Mamedyarov holds a slight advantage as his
position is more pleasant in almost every way.} Rfe8 17. Rfe1 Rad8 18. g3 $2 {
the start of some serious problems.} (18. h3 Nxf3+ 19. Bxf3 Qe5 20. g3 {is ok
for White since after} Bxh3 $6 21. Bf4 Qe6 22. e5 {only Black can get into
serious problems.}) 18... Neg4 19. h3 {forcing Nxf2 which, unfortunately for
White, works quite well.} Nxf2 20. Kxf2 Bxh3 21. Kg1 (21. Nd4 Bc5 22. Be3 Qe5 {
is hopeless for White since the knight cannot move nor be sufficiently
defended.}) 21... Bxg3 22. Bf1 Bxe1 23. Rxe1 {Black's superior in Material,
but more importantly White's king is wide open and the attack has not stopped.}
Bg4 24. Bg2 Bxf3 $1 {Notice how important it was to trade the bishop for the
knight, as knights are known to be fantastic defenders.} 25. Bxf3 Qd6 26. Re2
Qg3+ 27. Bg2 Ng4 28. Nd1 Re6 29. Ne3 Rc6 30. Qb1 Qh2+ 31. Kf1 Qf4+ {A swift
victory by Mamedyarov.} 0-1

"Did you set the clocks right?!" - Being the arbiter of such a high profile tournament must be stressful.

Mamedyarov's Ragozin passed the test of fire, Carlsen is watchful of his opponent's openings.

Carlsen, Magnus - Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0
Continuing with the tradition of playing any opening he desires and then winning anyways, Carlsen chose the Trompowsky variation against Kramnik. The Russian's response was unorthodox to say the least and an unusual position arose, in which Black had the pair of bishops but an awkward pawn structure. The endgame which arose definitely favored White due to the superior pawn structure, but it all pointed towards Kramnik being able to hold it without an issue. Kramnik gave away one of his pawns to obtain counterplay with a passed pawn. This decision was fine, but was inexplicable was his giving up the h-pawn for White's f-pawn, which gave White two passed pawns, and on top of that trading rooks! Without the rook trade it would have been a lot of work for Carlsen to prove his advantage, but the way the game went it was a very easy win for the Norwegian who didn't forgive Kramnik's mistakes.

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Carlsen vs Krmanik 

Some strange decisions by Kramnik allowed Carlsen to take the full point.

The spectators have a strong set of commentators, including Svidler and Grischuk!

The commentary room was completely full during the entire round.

The spectacular set-up set up for the spectators.

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Schedule

Round 01 – June 13 2013, 15:00h
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Vishy Anand 2786
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Boris Gelfand 2755
½-½
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Magnus Carlsen 2864
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
0-1
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Round 02 –June 14 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Round 03 – June 15 2013, 15:00h
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Round 04 – June 17 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Round 05 – June 18 2013, 15:00h
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Michael Adams 2727
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Round 06 – June 19 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Round 07 – June 21 2013, 15:00h
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Round 08 – June 22 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Round 09 – June 23 2013, 13:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713

All pictures by Etery Kublashvili

 


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