r8 pairings: Topalov-Leko 1/2, Adams-Svidler 1/2, Anand-Polgar 1-0, Kasimdzhanov-Morozevich 0-1. After round seven, the halfway point, Topalov still leads by two full points, an unassailable lead unless A) Peter Svidler starts playing like Topalov has been playing and B) Topalov is hit by a train. I added some light notes at the top of the r7 ChessBase report.
After this third loss, when asked if his disastrous match against Hydra had perhaps affected his form, Mickey Adams quipped, "I'm having more trouble with humans than with computers." Btw, after so many people posted kind comments lamenting Mickey's poor run of form, I sent him a note passing them on (along with some recommendations on Argentine Malbec). I'm sure he'll appreciate the thoughts.
Anyone for seconds? It took half the tournament, but I finally got some Dirt on who the players' seconds are. Not definitive, but a start. Only real surprise is Beliavsky with Moro.
-Topalov is with IM Silvio Danailov (manager) and young GM Ivan Cheparinov, both also Bulgarian.
-Anand is with Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen and his wife Aruna. (Anand's wife, not occasional Dirt poster PHN's.)
-Leko is with trainer/father-in-law GM Arshak Petrosian of Armenia and his wife Sofie. (Again, PETER's wife, Arshak's daughter. Are you getting this down?)
-Svidler is with former Russian champion Alexander Motylev. No wife.
-Morozevich has GM Alexander Beliavsky and appears to be hanging out with IM Vladimir Barsky, who is filing reports with the Russian mag 64.
-Adams is with long-time girlfriend Tara. (Not wife, also no second.)
-Polgar is with Romanian GM Mihai Marin. Her husband Gustav arrived today.
-Kasimdzhanov is there with his "mesmerizing" (quoth my spy) wife Firuza. I just saw a captioned pic of her recently and don't remember where. She's on the left in this one. Ah, one old one here. Also no visible second.
Let me run this one up the flagpole and see who barks: I believe that Topalov's 6.5/7 in this field is more impressive than Fischer's 6/6 against either Taimanov or Larsen.
The reason? Well, the competition in both cases was similarly strong: Taimanov may have been around the #10 player in the world at the time, and Larsen was probably around #5. But domination in a short match is less impressive, because things can go downhill quickly for the losing player: they can become "psyched out," or the stronger player can figure out their style and dominate. Topalov is putting up this score in a round-robin tournament, playing against a different top-10-ish player (except for Kasim, who's still bloody strong) every round. To me, that's more amazing.
Mind you, Fischer's 12/12 against Taimanov AND Larsen is still more impressive than what Topalov has done so far, but not by much. And Topalov is certainly within range of Karpov's achievement at Linares 1994.
Do others agree?
You may have a point in that Taimanov and Larsen were so distressed during their matches against Fischer that they became physically ill, as I recall. At this point, it's too early really to tell how well Topalov will do. He might end up losing a few and then I don't think we'll all be so very impressed any more.
Ok, I'll bite.
While Topalov's achievements are spectacular, I believe it's far too early to put San Luis in historic perspective.
I wouldn't be talking about Topalov vs. Fischer yet. Topalov vs. Anand+Svidler+Leko is impressive enough.
Mig,
I'd appreciate if you could tell Mickey that I've been supporting him since 1999 and I won't stop now either.
I'll still take Fischer but Topalov isn't done yet!
As far as Mickey goes, I think some tough love is needed: Snap out of it! Work harder then you ever have before! Work as hard as Topalov! Oh, and consider bringing a second the next time you play in the biggest tournament of your career (if there ever is a next time).
This is very serious for Mickey. I think he is well on his way to saying good-bye to Wijk and Linares with a performance like this.
I hope he rededicates himself and gets a second wind.
Mig: I thought your pre-rewarding of the point to Topalov is hilarious. It's got me smiling this afternoon.
GM Peter Heine Nielses wife name is Aruna? What a coincidence, Anands wife name is also Aruna!
Strange I thought Arshak Petrosian is GM.
Dazzling: Leko takes both his parents-in-law to the WC.
Ha, beat you to it! Was just changing that and adding some jokes.
On this week's "Chess and Books" chessfm show, GM Susan Polgar said that her sister Judit had told her that Adams was the only one there without a GM second. So perhaps Kasimdzhanov has one as well.
Isn't Moro and Bela a strange tandem? I mean, are they both superstitious and star-mongers?
On the other hand who would suit Moro? RFJ? Steinitz in his "pawn odds giving days"? Marilyn Manson?
C'mon Mig, splash out a L for our mariner...
Polgar getting crushed again by Anand. Poor Judit.
While the other players have been booking up, Topalov has been bulking up.
Yes, my friends: steroids.
Have you noticed how aggressive he's been?
Also, the goatee is meant to hide hyperdevelopment of the jaw, one of the telltale signs of steroid abuse.
Look at this picture of Topalov, taken before he began his steroid regimen:
http://www.chesslive.de/scripts/server.dll?getplayer?Topalov&Veselin&15
I'm afraid an asterisk will have to appear by his name in the record books.
Topalov is NOMBER 1. He is THE BEST . He is THE ONE
Looks like Topa drew. Maybe he IS human, after all. Someone at chessgamesonline.com referred to this tournament as a FIDE fairy tale, Veselin and the Seven Dwarfs!!
Mig is up for another correction. Topalov and Leko just drew. Smart move by Topa in taking(offering?) a draw, why take chances when there is no clear advantage in the game and there is ample opportunity for losing?
Topalov held to a draw by Leko!
As Topa made the last move, it would appear that he offered the draw, and Leko accepted; not the other way around.
Usually but not always the custom
> Topalov held to a draw by Leko!
Well, he did have the disadvantage of playing with the white pieces...
Topalov took a day off.
Mig, could you tell Mike that there Brazilian fans supporting him?
Good chess tonight, aside from yet another '??' treatment from certain 'grandmasters'...FIDE should introduce a rule against embarrassing blunders...
This is not over yet. Anand and Svider can turn the tables to catch Topa. Morozevich won again today. 2 beautiful wins to treasure!!
Way to go, Mig...ya jinxed Topa!
The last chessbase update on r8 reports that Topalovīs rating performance is 2788 + 743(?) = 3531. It must be wrong. How possible could someone perform so high drawing Leko?
Note also the outstanding performance of Svidler, whom Seirawan said was a probable winner, at the tournamentīs beginning. If there will be a challange to Topalov, I guess that it will come from the Russian. The last rounds will be a battle of nerves, and Svidler (ok, Anand too) can show what he is up to.
Don't be counting Leko out of it yet, either. He may not be close to catching Topalov, but he has a decent shot at beating out Svidler and Anand for second.
Saturday will be a telling day.
As of writing, the ChessBase table is wrong: it misses the rd 8 results (but has the correct overall score), and the perfomance ratings are way off.
Seems to be a chessbase bug - when I download the pgn-file with all the games and ask chessbase to create a tournament table, I get the same table they have on the website. It's like chessbase can't make up it's mind whether to count round eight or not.
On behalf of Judit Polgar Fan Club, we are all 100% behind you - despite your result.
Give 'em hell Judit !!!
Adams psychy was crushed by that silicon monster. Too bad.
bondegnasker: It's sort of a bug. It won't automatically detect the double round-robin for another round or two. But you can do it manually by just clicking the RR button at the top, then it will show the round 8 game results and expand the table. I guess the Freddy didn't notice when he made his table, probably in a hurry now that he's on-site. Don't have time to fix it myself, a bit late for that anyway.
Mig,
Will it be possible to get the trnascript of the daily Q&A of the players with the journos? Or the sponsors have made that also a paid item :)
Thanks
Amit
Mig,
Will it be possible to get the transcript of the daily Q&A of the players with the journos? Or the sponsors have made that also a paid item :)
Thanks
Amit
I don't know that any such thing exists. It's up to each journo to record it if they can. Now that Freddy and Nadja are there for CB they will be videotaping everything for CB Magazine, so that's something. But as for the past week or so, who knows? I don't know if anyone has been recording them in full. Maybe Barsky? Frederic should be able to find out if the organizers or anyone else has such material.