Just two rounds to play after Thursday's off day in Linares. Round 12 was a lot of fun, with three games full of interesting imbalances and action. Only the leader's game was a fizzle. Anand got a bucket full of squat against Aronian's Spanish, but the draw was good enough to preserve his half-point lead over Carlsen, who also drew.
Aronian has had fine results with black in this popular anti-Marshall line so it could hardly have been a surprise. That showed on the clock as both players trotted through the line following the games Bruzon-Aronian and McShane-Aronian from a few weeks ago in the Bundesliga. Anand, Kasimdzhanov, and Shirov have all contributed a lot to it, including 14.Bg5 instead of c3 or Ne3. White didn't add anything to the discussion today and Black didn't have to. Taking on e6 doesn't seem to accomplish much for White in these positions. A snoozer.
The other short draw of the day had ten times the interest value in about the same number of moves. Topalov-Carlsen was previewed as a showdown between the world #1 (for how long?) and a potential future #1. Topalov badly needs a win or two to make a respectable showing and many have been buzzing about the possibility of Anand taking over the top spot on the next rating list at long last if the standings finish this way. Topalov gained at Corus while Anand shed a few, so it's going to be tight. I believe Anand will gain 13 points in Linares if he finishes on +3.
Getting back to the game, Topalov surprised at least the commentators with the unusual 8.d4 instead of 8.cxd5. It was hard to imagine White making much with the symmetrical structure that arose, but it's not the fight in the opening it's the fight in the players. Carlsen allowed the white queen into b7 and went for counterplay with his knights. GM Benjamin was expecting 19..f6 with good play for Black after 20.Bf4 or 20.hxg4. After the game it turned out that's what Topalov was expecting as well. But Carlsen went for the exotic with the remarkable move 19..Nc6!? The computer quickly works out that it's quite sound after 20.Nxc6 Nxf2 21.Ne7+ Kh8! 22.Qxc8 Nxd1 23.Kg2 Nxc3! Amazing stuff! You almost get the feeling that it would be hard to resist playing such a move for Black even if you saw that 19..f6 was also good. Topalov didn't take long to become a believer and chop on g4 instead. It didn't look like there was any reason for Black to try for more and avoiding the repetition is bad for White. A lot of action packed into three moves between a boring opening and a three-fold repetition!
Ivanchuk and Morozevich took another unpopular line, 5.Nb3 in the Scotch, and turned it into an opposite-side castling adventure. It looked like a sharp Sicilian with a rogue pawn on c7. Moro invited positional havoc with his 14..a3 but it paid off in the very long run. Black played to win, avoiding the repetition with 21..Ne8. It was interesting to see Morozevich retreat his knights to hang on to his weak pawns, biding his time to later exploit the a-file. Ivanchuk finally grabbed the d-pawn, but Black's clever ..b5-b4 created threats while White was simply running out of moves. Ivanchuk went for a big swap into a pawn race that never got started. Black's pieces were so active just about any white move created weaknesses. Very nicely done by Moro, who moves up to -1. He also repeated his technique of dragging his victim down to his score, first employed against Leko. It was Ivanchuk's second loss in a row.
Leko-Svidler was a battle between the only two winless players and it didn't peter out. We got another 7.Nb3 Najdorf and another lesson why White has been playing the calmer Nf3 lines so much lately. Not that the funny-looking 10..a5 is going to refute 1.e4, but Svidler must have liked the looks of it when Bu Xiangzhi played it against him in the Bundesliga in February (although Svidler won). Leko punted his a-pawn a square short to a3 instead of the expected a4. Black broke classically with ..d5 while White grabbed the a-pawn. Svidler had plenty of compensation with his bishops and safe king. Leko was also in time trouble, something that has been happening to him regularly in this tournament. White couldn't find a plan and went down hard and fast against Svidler's well-coordinated attack. 31.c4 may have been the last best hope to suffer on. Instead it came on the next move when it was a blunder. 36.Rxe4 loses to 36..Qxb2+! Svidler's first win after eleven consecutive draws.
The pairings in the final two rounds offer one hope for a wild finish. Carlsen has white against Svidler on Friday and Svidler has a troubling habit of getting his Grunfeld chopped off at the knees at inopportune moments. Peter's only a half-point behind Carlsen now though, so he has to go for it if he's going to make a move. It may turn into a difficult choice for Carlsen to go for it himself or play it safe. Anand has white against a dejected Leko and black against a fading Ivanchuk and can pick his spots.
We spoke on the air with Peter Heine Nielsen, Carlsen's second. He was also with him at the Tal Memorial and at Corus. As funny as it sounds, he said Carlsen matured a lot in the weeks between Corus and Linares. Note that he'll be at the Melody Amber rapid and blindfold elite event next month thanks to his top score at the NH Tournament last year.
On the subject of Melody Amber, is there a list of participants for the blindfold/rapid event available anywhere yet?
Mig on Moro: "He also repeated his technique of dragging his victim down to his score, first employed against Leko."
ROFL!
I wish I could mature to 2700+ level in the next couple of weeks. :-)
"Leko-Svidler was a battle between the only two winless players and it didn't peter out"
- nice!
Mig: I think Anand gains 8 points for a +3 finish and 13 for +4. Topalov sheds 8 with an = finish, so the swing would be 16 points from Linares. I think Topalov stood to gain about 9 points over Anand from Corus (+7 for him and -1.7 for Anand). That would make it +7 in Anand's favor, while the current gap between them is 4 points. Tight indeed!
Does anybody know how the decimals are treated in the rating system - are they accumulated and then ceiled/floored or ceiled/floored and then accumulated?
Hmm... bots posting on the blog. (Just a couple so far.) What do they get out of it? If it is clicks on ads, people won't buy anything advertised this way. I think word verification is coming to this blog.
Am I missing something, bs? Topa isn't = yet, is he?
Accumulated and then ceiled/floored. The other way around wouldn't make any sense now that they count it game by game.
Lineup for Melody Amber 2007 as published in Chess Today (I think) a few weeks ago:
Kramnik
Anand
Ivanchuk
Leko
Aronian
Morozevich
Gelfand
Radjabov
Svidler
Carlsen
Van Wely
Vallejo
RR: I think the purpose of blog posting bots are to generate more incoming links to the linked website. This will in turn make that web site appear higher in the search results when people are using search engies.
Since you are already using the rel=NoFollow attribute in your user submitted html anchor tags the search engine spiders will ignore the link. Thus there should be no effect like the bot author is hoping for.
But as with all forms of spam, the people running the blog posting bot probably don't bother to check such details.
@bs
i think Anand has a couple of points in the bank from his Bundesliga games. will they be carried forward for the april list?
more importantly, will linares be counted for april? FIDE will have a cutoff date for results entry.
Mig,
nice report from round 12. Keep it up!
What's up with Adams? He doesn't show up in major events now for longer time is my impression.
What's up with Leko. I expected a big performance from him. He's not rock solid like of old........
Has he ever fully recovered from Brissago or San Luis. His career seems to be at a crossroads....
Gawd, what's with this 'has he ever fully recovered'-rubbish that people keeps repeating? HE WON THE LAST TWO TOURNAMENTS HE PLAYED! He also won the first tournament he played after Brissago, Corus 2005.
How many points Anand lost in the last Olympiad with his loss to Pascal ? Why play when he is so tired ?
Go Carlsen! With his youthful energy and his new found confidence he has good chances to make a run for first place in the final two rounds.
On ACP's reaction to the FIDE's proposed WC cycle, can any one tell me where I can lay my hands on proposal 'B'?
"A lot of action packed into three moves between a boring opening and a three-fold repetition!"
--Mig
Mig, do you read Stephen King by any chance?????
How many points Anand lost in the last Olympiad with his loss to Pascal ? Why play when he is so tired ?
Posted by: shankar at March 8, 2007 09:28
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My theory is that Anand's poor Olympiad show has more to do with discovering that a cheater DP Singh was in the team than any amount tiredness..
To substantiate... there was a time when Anand skipped a couple of Olympiads under various pretexts but those in the know felt it was due to the presence of GM D Barua in the team who has not exactly been on good terms with him....
"a bucket full of squat".................yuckey.
After Adams was schooled by Hydra (0,5:5,5) he is not booked very much - indeed.
It is sad but seems like Leko's career high point so far was tying the championship match against Kramnik in Brisago. Lately, he has been really out of sync. He is actually a player with very strong and sound chess knowledge. His drawishness is a big turn-off but if he could overcome that he could be one of the more likable players out there. He is an extremely intelligent young man.
I don't hide that I dislike his play the way it is now but I like him a whole lot better than the other draw machine on the circuit - Svidler (then again, who could possibly like Svidler?!)
I thnik there is still time for a Leko comeback. He is only 27 I believe. Topa made a quantum leap at around 30, so let's hope we are yet to see the real great Leko.
Leko is a married man and that might have something to do with it. There are a great deal more responsibilies that come into play outside of chess when a ring is placed on your finger. He did change his style somewhat with a new trainer (his wife's father I believe) and had some good results, but it now seems he's gone back to his old style of play. Yes, 27 is young but sadly to say not so much in chess any longer with young lion after young lion entering the den these days.
What is there not to like about Svidler ? He is also a very nice man.
Not to deny that Leko is also a very likeable young man.
The only draw machine who is not likeable is Kramnik.
Hey guys, we can’t write the obituaries of these players after one bad tournament. Leko, or anyone… Every tournament has its own dynamic. One can go from high to low in a span of a few games. Things change so fast. Look what’s happening here – a month ago Radjabov was the talk of the town and now he is not even mentioned. Aronian was mentioned as the guy to beat. Topalov was supposed to keep winning everything that comes his way. Now Anand stole the show here, while Carlsen made some people eat crow. The only thing is that it is as unpredictable, as exciting…
D.
I have heard some talk that Adams will be at MTEL Masters in Sofia. But not 100 % certain as yet.
Dimi: "Things change so fast. Look what’s happening here – a month ago Radjabov was the talk of the town and now he is not even mentioned. [...] Anand stole the show here, while Carlsen made some people eat crow. The only thing is that it is as unpredictable, as exciting…"
Indeed, the post-Kasparov years have a lot of unpredictability.... a little less excellent chess, but much more things to talk about...
mmm...in Kasparov era there wasn't blog... Only Mig on Chess ...:)
wondering when Mig will notice that the us champs ...
"How many points Anand lost in the last Olympiad with his loss to Pascal ? Why play when he is so tired ?
Posted by: shankar at March 8, 2007 09:28
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My theory is that Anand's poor Olympiad show has more to do with discovering that a cheater DP Singh was in the team than any amount tiredness.. "
Yes, when Anand realized that DP Singh was a complete fraud and got a free vacation to Turin... he was understandably demoralized.
Pushing the G-pawn with castled king under attack was all DP Singh's idea ... He said if Fischer can do G-pawn push attack.. why cant Anand do the same.....
Pushing the G-pawn with castled king under attack was all DP Singh's idea ... He said if Fischer can do G-pawn push attack.. why cant Anand do the same.....
Posted by: great mo at March 9, 2007 02:30
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What are you talking about? Do you know some inside stories?