Tal-Mem R2: All games drawn, but not uninteresting

Round two

Leko-Grischuk, a Scheveningen Sicilian, began with a black novelty on move ten and an enterprising exchange sacrifice by the young Russian player on move 19. There followed a lot of complex manoeuvring, after which Black had the upper hand.

Peter Leko

Leko,P (2741) - Grischuk,A (2710) [B90]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (2), 07.11.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.Qd2 b4 9.Na4 Nbd7 10.Bc4 Ne5 11.Bb3 Rb8 12.0-0 Bd7 13.a3 a5 14.axb4 axb4 15.f4 Nc6 16.e5 dxe5 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.Bf4 Nc6 19.Bxb8 Qxb8 20.Rad1 Be7 21.Qf4 0-0 22.Qxb8 Rxb8 23.Nf3 Na5 24.Ne5 Bb5 25.Rfe1 h5 26.Nd3 Nxb3 27.cxb3 Nd5 28.Ne5 g5 29.Nf3 Nf4 30.Nd4 Bf6 31.Nxb5 Rxb5 32.Re4 Nd5 33.Rc1 Kg7 34.Rc2 Be7 35.Re1 h4 36.Rc6 Bf6 37.Re4 Be7 38.Re1 Nf4 39.Rc7 Bf6 40.g3 Nd5 41.Rc4 h3 42.Kf2 Be7 43.Re5 Kf6 44.Ree4 Kg6 45.Red4 f5 46.Rc6 Kf7 47.Ke2 Nf6 48.Rc7 Re5+ 49.Kf1 Nd5 50.Rc1 Ne3+ 51.Kg1 Ng4 52.Rd2 Re3 53.Kf1 Rf3+ 54.Ke1

We fail to fully comprehend why Black spurned the continuation 54...Nxh2 55.Rxh2 Rxg3, giving him four connected passed pawns and, one suspects, a winning position. Instead Grischuk went for 54...Re3+ 55.Kf1 Re5 and the game soon ended in a draw. 56.Nb6 Rc5 57.Nc4 Kf6 58.Ra1 f4 59.gxf4 Rf5 60.Ke2 Rxf4 61.Kd3 Bc5 62.Re2 Rf3+ 63.Ke4 Rf4+ 64.Kd3 Rf3+ 65.Ke4 Rf4+ ½-½.

The enterprising Mr Grischuk

Gelfand-Ponomariov was a classical Nimzo-Indian, with some attempts by White to gain a tangible advantage. But the game ended on move 23 with repetition.

Gelfand-Ponomariov, with arbiter Geurt Gijssen about to start the clock

Morozevich-Carlsen was interesting for a technical reason. White had some advantages but Carlsen locked up the position in sound defence. There was some shuffling around with the pieces, and at one stage Magnus Carlsen approached the deputy arbiter Eduard Dubov to announce that he intended to play the move 46...Qc7 and produce the same position for a third time on the board. The chief arbiter Geurt Gijssen was summoned and he started to check the game with Carlsen in the analysis room. Gijssen also informed Morozevich about Carlsen's claim and invited him to join in the checking. But Morozevich refused.

Alexander Morozevich

Carlsen and Gijssen replayed the game and came to the conclusion that indeed the final position had occurred for a third time. A draw was given and both players signed the scoresheets. Afterwards Gijssen had some doubts and again checked the game. It was then that he discovered that while the position had appeared three times on the board, it was not with the same player having the move. "It means that the claim was wrong and my decision was wrong as well," writes Gijssen in his report. He informed Carlsen about this and the young Norwegian was immediately ready to continue the game. The organizers tried to reach Morozevich, but he was nowhere to be found. In the end his coach Kuzmin informed the organizers that, in his opinion, the draw should stand. And so it did. Here is the game with the critical positions:

Morozevich,A (2747) - Carlsen,M (2698) [B33]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (2), 07.11.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Nxe7 Nxe7 11.Bd3 Nd7 12.c4 b4 13.Nc2 a5 14.Ne3 f6 15.Bh4 0-0 16.0-0 Nc5 17.f3 Be6 18.Re1 Qb8 19.Bf1 Kh8 20.Re2 Rc8 21.Rd2 Ra6 22.Rc1 Rac6 23.Bf2 Bf7 24.Nd5 Nxd5 25.cxd5 R6c7 26.Rdc2 Be8 27.b3 Bd7 28.g4 Kg8 29.Qe2 Nb7 30.Rxc7 Rxc7 31.Rxc7 Qxc7 32.Qa6 Nc5 33.Qa8+ Kf7 34.h4 h6 35.Bc4 Be8 36.Be3 Ke7 37.g5 hxg5 38.hxg5 Kf7 39.Kg2 First time, with Black to play. 39...Ke7 40.Kg3 Kf7 41.Kg4 Ke7 42.Kh4 Kf7 43.Kh3 Ke7 44.Kg2 Kf7 second time with White to move. 45.Bd2 Qb6 46.Be3 Qc7

Third time with White to move. ½-½

Magnus explains what happened to a reporter

Mamedyarov-Aronian was a QGD Ragozin and saw the Armenian (that's Aronian) swapping down to a queen ending with an extra pawn. But although he tried for 30 moves he could not convert this advantage into a win.

Aronian facing Mamedyarov...

...and explaining how it went afterwards

Peter Svidler and Alexei Shirov after their game

Svidler-Shirov was a Chigorin in which nothing spectacular happened and a draw by repetition occurred on move 32.

Standings

Links

• Official web site – very slow and very sparse
• All games so far in PGN

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