Vassily Ivanchuk took a short draw with white against Svidler to cement his impressive victory in the 2007 Aerosvit tournament in Foros, Ukraine. Karjakin, the early leader, was the only player who could catch him but he had his own worries with black against Jakovenko and drew. Ivanchuk's solid +4 victory included several sparkling efforts typical of him at his best. He's been piling on rating points lately and might hit as high as #4. (He once reached #2, briefly pipping Karpov back in 1991.) Bonus trivia: one of the stem games of the wild Ragozin line in Ivanchuk-Nisipeanu was played by Adriaan de Groot, the Dutchman more famous in chess circles for his cognitive studies with chessplayers than for his play in the 30's and 40's. Getting back to the present day, in round 2, Nisipeanu gave up his queen instead of the usual piece, but couldn't hold the game.
The great show for the home team was completed by young Sergey Karjakin. He slowed his early impressive pace, drawing his last four games. It wasn't exactly the breakout performance I had wondered if he was ready for, but clear second in this category 18, and undefeated, is definitely his career best. It follows Magnus Carlsen's more sensational second-place showing at Linares this year so these 16-year-olds appear to be evolving in tandem. 3-6th places on +1 went to Onischuk, van Wely, Svidler, and Shirov. Svidler continues to go from grizzly to Yogi. He turned in 7 draws of fewer than 30 moves. Other than a late crush of Jakovenko out of the opening in round 10, it was a pretty tame show. He may be keeping powder dry for Mexico, but the pattern was similar in Linares too. I admit Kramnik's mid-career transformation from irresistible force to immovable object worked out pretty well for him, but it would be nice to have our growling Peter the Swede back.
A final jeer at the horrible single-control time control they used. Many of the games resulted in unsightly butchery unfit for anything calling itself a supertournament. The nervous stress caused, and/or threatened, by the control probably also contributes to more short draws. Overall it was a fine event with many interesting games, but any game that was still sharp after move 30 could turn into a blunderfest and several endgames were mutilated. Sasikiran was close to two wins -- against Svidler and Karjakin, although he first benefited from the time factor himself in the latter.
"...but it would be have our growling Peter the Swede back."
Is there a word missing in the above or is it just too late for me to properly parse English?
Maybe there are several words missing - I don't understand the sentence NimzoCapa quoted at all... and I don't get the "Peter the Swede" reference either. What does it mean?
Sorry, was still working on it.
The Swede thing is a joke about his last name. I think it was Frederic who started calling him Peter the Swede and Leko Peter the Lake. (Lacu is lake in Hungarian.)
Ah yes, Peter Swede-ler. Another reason for me to root for him. And btw, he WILL be very dangerous in Mexico, where he will be fully motivated. He said San Luis (a very good shared 2nd with +3) was pretty much the only event he was really well prepared for in 2005, other than that he used to prefer to spend time with his family.
Great for Karjakin. Perhaps now he will get at least a fifth or so of the attention Carlsen gets.
Ivanchuk must already be close to his highest ELO rating ever. It all means little if he cannot get the results in many of the Elite events. Right now, he doesn't even get the invitations, but I suspect that moving up in the rankings might garner some invitations. That, and his fighting, dynamic style of chess. Kortchnoi had a bloom in his chess strength when he was in his late 30s, and Ivanchuk has a real chance to solidify a higher rank in the pecking order for himself. If he can just master his nerves against the Top 10 players, he could be giving Anand and Kramnik a real run for their money.
"Lacu is lake in Hungarian."
Hm?
I know Frederic is perfect and never makes mistakes, but lacu sounds Romanian to me.
lac = lake
lacul = the lake
(in Romanian)
What if I say Lacu Roşu?
It seems that both Lacu Rosu and Lacul Rosu exist. Not being a native speaker of the Romanian language, I only understand the second form.
"Pete the Swede" also appeared in the Batman TV series as a Jimmy the Greek manque who assists the Joker in a college basketball point-shaving racket.
Does anyone else remember the interview where Korchnoi talked about "chess genius" and said Carlsen is a genius but Karjakin is not? The man is an a--hole, but he is probably right it seems