Tal R06: Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand win 11.11.2009– And Vladimir Kramnik has once again taken the sole lead, with plus three and a 2955 performance. In a remarkable game against former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Kramnik pressed for 81 moves until the Ukrainian's succumbed to zugzwang. Gelfand laid Aronian's Meran System to waste, Morozevich-Ivanchuk ended in a black victory by the masked chessplayer!
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Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating a Repertoire can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
More information...
Tal Memorial 2009
The Tal Memorial, which is taking place from November 4th to 19th, is the strongest
tournament of the year, and at category 21 (average Elo 2764) one of the strongest
of all time. It is a ten-player round robin with classical time controls –
40 moves in two hours, then 20 moves in one hour and then 15 minutes for the
rest of the game with 30 seconds increment per move in this phase. The first
four games take place in the National Hotel (Mokhovaya Street D15), the last
five in the mall GUM (Red Square 3). The games start at 15:00h local Moscow
time, which is 13:00h EST (Berlin, Paris), 12:00h London, 7:00 a.m. New York,
5:30 p.m. New Delhi, 11:00 p.m. Sydney. You can find the exact starting time
at your location here.
The World Blitz Championship (see below) will be staged after the main event,
from November 16-18 2009 in GUM.
Carlsen-Anand: draw Today's encounter between the current world champion and his soon-to-be
successor saw the employment of the Ragozin Defence in the Queen's Gambit Declined,
with 5.Bg5. Until Black's 11th move, the game was a transposition of Olesen-Hvid
(1992) – a rather tame 24-move draw. Where Olesen opted for 12.g3, leaving
his kingside pawns intact, Carlsen chose the much more daring 12.g4, with the
idea of a kingside pawn storm. Unfortunately, for fans of the ill prodigy, Carlsen
was ultimately forced to enter into a perpetual, which was much preferred to
facing the wrath of Anand's connected passers on the queenside. After 36 moves,
the players sealed it with a handshake.
Leko-Svidler: draw
Tied for a share of last place, these players chose to employ the Sicilian-Kan
in an effort to shake things up. Until White's ninth move, Kogan-Meier (2007)
was followed, where Kogan outplayed his significantly weaker opponent in 33
moves. With Svidler's 9...d5, the game promised to be a dynamic struggle. Unfortunately,
it steered its way into an opposite-coloured bishops ending, with no hope for
progress. So, after 41 moves, the players found themselves calling it a day.
Those were the undecided games of the day. Now to the more violent stuff.
Kramnik-Ponomariov: 1-0 It looks like Vladimir Kramnik has found a new his brand of Kryptonite
in his chess strategy: get an lone pawn to the sixth or seventh rank and chances
are good you will win the game.
R1: Carlsen-Kramnik (draw)
R2: Kramnik-Anand (draw)
R3 Morozevich-Kramnik (0-1)
R4: Kramnik-Svidler (1-0)
R5: Gelfand-Kramnik (draw)
R6: Kramnik-Ponomariov (1-0)
This sounds like voodoo, but hey, if you haven't tried it, don't knock it.
Kramnik has plus three in six rounds, and an Elo performance of 2955 –
you can argue with that if you like.
Anyway: round six was another day at the office for Kramnik, as he took Ponomariov
to task in the second Ragozin Defence of the day. On Black's 15th move, the
game deviated from a transposition of Novikov-Serper from the Soviet Championship
of 1991, in which a well-played game led to a 40-move draw. The game in question
saw 15...Bg4, where, today, Ponomariov went for the somewhat misguided 15...b5.
17...Qa3 proved painful, as it allowed an unhindered c7 advance only a couple
of moves later, which proved a thorn for some time. Ponomariov ultimately fought
his way back to a fairly even game, however, only to let it slip again with
37...f5, allowing the defender of the queening square to be removed without
a fight. A complicated endgame ensued, in which Kramnik put his edge to good
use in grinding down the fresh-faced Ukrainian.
There is a lot more to say about the round six game against Ponomariov, but
that will have to wait for the experts of ChessBase Magazine, who will have
a field day. We only want to show you the final moments of this exciting encounter:
79.Rd4 [not, of course, 79.Rxh4 Be7+=] 79...Bc7 80.Kg6
Bg3 81.Re4
At last: zugzwang (or "volkswagen", as Jon Speelman calls
it). Black is lost – Fritz tells us it it mate in 20 – because it
is his turn to play. He cannot defend the pawn directly or indirectly, and so
the only move is to resign. 1-0.
Gelfand-Aronian: 1-0
Today's struggle between age and beauty saw Aronian's Meran System in the Semi-Slav
laid to waste. The chosen opening has been heavily explored in the past, though
they finally deviated from reference games – most prominent amongst them,
a 61-move white victory for Bruzon over Dominguez in the 2004 Cuban Championship
– with 24...Nb6. Historically, the particular line chosen by these players
pays dividends to White, so one can only imagine what was running through Aronian's
mind as he pondered his options. The Armenian's experiment volunteered a pawn
to Gelfand, which was readily accepted. Thereafter, the Israeli steered towards
a pawn-up ending, which he ground out for a 66-move victory. After becoming
the newest victim on the black side of this line, Aronian's perpetual smile
must have lost some of its shine, though we can be sure his play will entertain
again tomorrow.
Morozevich-Ivanchuk: 0-1
This game saw the welcome union of two of the most unpredictable players in
the world's elite, indicating to the audience that they were in for some fireworks.
Until 11...a6, the game followed Ouakhir-Lecoq (2005), entering new territory
with 12.Bg5. Though Ivanchuk enjoyed an edge, life was tolerable for Morozevich,
until things derailed for him after 30.Bd3. Soon, Ivanchuk, who is playing with
a surgical mask to ward off the H1N1 virus, deftly arranged the exchange of
the f2-bishop, clearing the way for a punishing queenside pawn storm. In the
face of imminent disaster, Morozevich raised the white flag on his 49th move;
thus, entering into a three-way tie for last on the most current crosstable.
Michael von Keitz
Standings after six rounds
Video impressions
People are ill at the Tal Memorial, people are in fact ill all over the world,
with the H1N1 flu being given a derogatory porcine name that really turns the
public off. In view of all this one person is taking a stand: Vassily Ivanchuk
has started to play his games wearing a surgical mask. It is a loose gauze mask
and would seem more appropriate for keeping out flies, not viruses, which are
just microns in size. However, it is the thought that counts, and the entertainment
value, which Vasl has always been good to provide in copious amounts.
You will want to fast forward to 1 min. 20 sec., where Magnus Carlsen takes
his seat, spots Ivanchuk and then shares his mirth with first Levon Aronian
and then Peter Svidler. We love to see chess players having fun.
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
