Tal Memorial 02: Kamsky beats Shirov with black

by ChessBase
8/19/2008 – Four games were drawn today in Moscow, one game resulted in a traumatic second loss for firebrand Alexei Shirov, who, playing with the white pieces, sacrificed a pawn unsuccessfully against US grandmaster Gata Kamsky. Yesterday's winners Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik lead with 1.5/2. Express report.

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Tal Memorial in Moscow

The Tal Memorial is taking place from August 17th to 31st 2008 in the Exhibition Hall of GUM mall, located directly on the Red Square. The players are former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who won the tournament last year, Alexander Morozevich, currently the world's second highest ranked player, Vassily Ivanchuk, ranked fourth, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (8th), Alexei Shirov (9th), Peter Leko (10th), Gata Kamsky (17th), Boris Gelfand, (18th), Ruslan Ponomariov (19th), and Evgeny Alekseev (26th).

Time controls are two hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move after move 61. There is a blitz tournament on August 29th-30th, with a qualifier two days earlier. Magnus Carlsen and Antoly Karpov are seeded invitees.

Round two report

Round 2: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
 Alexei Shirov 
0-1
 Gata Kamsky
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Evgeny Alekseev 
½-½
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Shak. Mamedyarov 
½-½
 Alex. Morozevich
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Peter Leko

The game of the day

Shirov,A (2741) - Kamsky,G (2723) [D15]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (2), 19.08.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 a6 5.c5 g6 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Be5 Bg7 8.e4N. An early novelty by Shirov, more ambitious than the obvious 8.Bxg7 Nxg7. 8...dxe4 9.Nxe4 Be6 10.Be2 Nd7

11.Nfg5. Shirov is bent on keeping things complicated and intense, once again spurning the obvious exchange on g7. 11...Qa5+ 12.Kf1 Bd5 13.Bxg7 Nxg7 14.Nc3 h6 15.Nxd5 hxg5 16.Ne3 Rd8 17.Qb3 Qc7 18.g3 Nf6 19.Rd1 Qd7 20.Bc4 e6 21.Kg2 Kf8 22.h3 Nf5 23.Nxf5 gxf5 24.Qe3 Rg8 25.h4 Ng4 26.Qe2 gxh4 27.Rxh4 Qe7 28.Rh3 Qg5 29.Qd2 f4 30.Be2 Nf6 31.Bf3 e5

32.Qc2? To defend the pawn on d4 it was important to play 32.Qa5. After the text move Black is able to simply take the pawn without any clear disadvantages. 32...exd4 33.b4 Qe5 34.Qd2 fxg3 35.Re1?! 35.fxg3 definitely looks better. 35...gxf2+! 36.Kxf2 Qg5 37.Qxg5 Rxg5 38.Rh8+ Ng8 39.Rd1 Kg7 40.Rh4 d3 41.Re4 Nf6 42.Re7 Rf5 43.Rxb7 Ng4+ 44.Kg3 Ne3 45.Re1 Nc4 0-1.


The winner Gata Kamsky is interviewed by Europe Echecs

Current standings


Europe Echecs videos reports

These reports are provided by Europe Echecs.com, which is doing extensive coverage of the Tal Memorial Tournament

Schedule and results

Round 1: Monday, August 18, 2008
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
 Alexei Shirov
Peter Leko 
½-½
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Alex. Morozevich 
1-0
 Evgeny Alekseev
Ruslan Ponomariov 
½-½
 Boris Gelfand
Vassily Ivanchuk 
1-0
 Gata Kamsky
Round 2: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
 Alexei Shirov 
0-1
 Gata Kamsky
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Evgeny Alekseev 
½-½
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Shak. Mamedyarov 
½-½
 Alex. Morozevich
Vladimir Kramnik 
½-½
 Peter Leko
Round 3: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Peter Leko 
-
 Alexei Shirov
Alex. Morozevich 
-
 Vladimir Kramnik
Ruslan Ponomariov 
-
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Vassily Ivanchuk 
-
 Evgeny Alekseev
Gata Kamsky 
-
 Boris Gelfand
Games – Report
Round 4: Thursday, August 21, 2008
Alexei Shirov 
-
 Boris Gelfand
Evgeny Alekseev 
-
 Gata Kamsky
Shak. Mamedyarov 
-
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Vladimir Kramnik 
-
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Peter Leko 
-
 Alex. Morozevich
Games – Report
Round 5: Friday, August 22, 2008
Alex. Morozevich 
-
 Alexei Shirov
Ruslan Ponomariov 
-
 Peter Leko
Vassily Ivanchuk 
-
 Vladimir Kramnik
Gata Kamsky 
-
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Boris Gelfand 
-
 Evgeny Alekseev
Games – Report
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Free day
Round 6: Sunday, August 24, 2008
Alexei Shirov 
-
 Evgeny Alekseev
Shak. Mamedyarov 
-
 Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik 
-
 Gata Kamsky
Peter Leko 
-
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Alex. Morozevich 
-
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Games – Report
Round 7: Monday, August 25, 2008
Ruslan Ponomariov 
-
 Alexei Shirov
Vassily Ivanchuk 
-
 Alex. Morozevich
Gata Kamsky 
-
 Peter Leko
Boris Gelfand 
-
 Vladimir Kramnik
Evgeny Alekseev 
-
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Games – Report
Round 8: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Alexei Shirov 
-
 Shak. Mamedyarov
Vladimir Kramnik 
-
 Evgeny Alekseev
Peter Leko 
-
 Boris Gelfand
Alex. Morozevich 
-
 Gata Kamsky
Ruslan Ponomariov 
-
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Games – Report
Round 9: Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Vassily Ivanchuk 
-
 Alexei Shirov
Gata Kamsky 
-
 Ruslan Ponomariov
Boris Gelfand 
-
 Alex. Morozevich
Evgeny Alekseev 
-
 Peter Leko
Shak. Mamedyarov 
-
 Vladimir Kramnik
Games – Report

Links

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