In round 5 of the European Team Championship in Crete, the top-seeded Russian team put the young Azerbaijani squad over its knee and administered a firm 3.5-0.5 spanking. Svidler beat Mamedyarov, Morozevich beat Radjabov, and Alekseev beat Guseinov. Gashimov used white to play a short draw against Grischuk, which might look like the smart play considering what happened to his compatriots. After this win Russia is the only team to have won all its matches. Today is a free day and there are four more rounds to go. Russia has yet to face the tough Ukrainian team and a few other medal favorites, so it's not a done deal yet. Israel, Azerbaijan, and the unlikely Slovenian team (led by Beliavsky) have eight match points, two behind Russia's ten.
The game of the round might have been the wild one on the top board of Bulgaria-Czech Republic. And Topalov wasn't even playing! The Bulgarians lost him to a tournament in Spain after he won his last two with black, so it was his second, Cheparinov, who faced David Navara. We've been talking about Nakamura's ..Qxf2+! against Krasenkow in Barcelona just days ago, and here we got another one. Bizarre. Navara's 27..Qxf2+! was completely forced, however, and it also looks completely winning. And so it was, but the computer points out the saving move 31.h4! The difference is that after the game line White can give up his a1 rook with Kc1, allowing Re1+ and Rxa1 because then he has a miracle mate with Qc8+ thanks to the pawn on h4 controlling the g5 square. Other moves by Black allow a perpetual. There were no miracles in the game after 31.Bg8? and Navara finished cleanly.
"And Topalov wasn't even playing! The Bulgarians rested him" Topalov has left the tournament. As planned, but I don't know why.
Topalov went to play in a tourney in spain with Karpov, Pono and Polgar among others. there they will also test some special glass to "isolate" the audience from the players.
Topalov won his first game in Spain against Karpov with black.
In this greek thread http://pub22.bravenet.com/forum/1850788960/show/627445 there are Topalov's pictures during from his last day in Crete. Also a video interview by chessdom http://videos.chessdom.com/topalov-interview
[Event "Chess Champions League"]
[Site "Vitoria Gasteiz ESP"]
[Date "2007.11.02"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Karpov,Ana"]
[Black "Topalov,V"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2670"]
[BlackElo "2769"]
[EventDate "2007.11.02"]
[ECO "E36"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 dxc4 7. Qxc4 b6 8. Nf3 O-O 9. Bg5 Ba6 10. Qc2 c5 11. dxc5 bxc5 12. Rd1 Qa5+ 13. Bd2 Qb6 14.Bc3 Nbd7 15. e4 Bxf1 16. Kxf1 Qb7 17. Re1 Ne8 18. h4 Nd6 19. Rh3 Nb5 20.Rg3 f6 21. e5 f5 22. Ng5 Rfe8 23. Qe2 Nf8 24. h5 h6 25. Nh3 Nc7 26. Qc4 Nd5 27. Bd2 Kh7 28. b3 Qf7 29. Qe2 Rab8 30. Rc1 Nd7 31. a4 Rb7 32. Nf4 Nxf4 33.Bxf4 Reb8 34. Rcc3 Rb4 35. Bd2 Rh4 36. Kg1 Rbb4 37. f4 Re4 38. Qf3 Rxh5 39.Re3 Rd4 40. Rd3 Rxd3 41. Qxd3 Nb6 42. Qd6 Nd5 43. Rd3 Nb4 44. Bxb4 cxb4 45.Qxb4 Rh4 46. Rh3 Rg4 47. Qd2 a5 48. Qf2 Qc7 0-1
>>In this greek thread
Topalov may have nothing up his sleave, but where's his hand?
Karpov -Topalov, how come this is wining for Topa ?
What's this about Khalifman being in hospital? (from the Spanish site)
[01/11/2007]Última hora: Nisipeanu sustituirá a Alexander KhalifmanEl Campeón Mundial en 1999, el ruso Alexander Khalifman, ha tenido que ser ingresado de última hora en un hospital de Rusia; será sustituido por el Campeón de Europa Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Karpov-Topalov (Chess Base): "The game between Karpov and Topalov was more dramatic. The Russian played well and was close to winning, but he was under sever time pressure and at move 48, in a balanced position, his clock ran out."
"What's this about Khalifman being in hospital? (from the Spanish site)"
-- PK, that's he only information we got, in a very brief email, and it came from someone into his chess school (the email wasn't signed). I wrote back asking to keep me informed, but no further details were provided to us.
-- Topalov hadn't played for his national team since Moscow 1994, I think. Apparenty his Federation made an effort to get him back in Greece, but it has been just a "half-comeback" as he already had a comitment with out tournament. So that's why he could only play for some games.
-- Ferenc, Karpov lost on time. He was already well behind on the clock after move 15. But the man still loves chess: he analyzed both of the games he played for almost one hour!
"Karpov lost on time. He was already well behind on the clock after move 15. But the man still loves chess: he analyzed both of the games he played for almost one hour!"
Whereas in Round #3, Ponomariov was provoked into saccing a Knight, in what had been a Quiet looking position, and Karpov failed to counter Pono's heavy pieces from infiltrating.
The game had to be a bitter defeat--one wonders whether he spent quite as much time in the post-mortem analysis
With insides like Khalifman's after years of hard drinking, I'm not surprised that he's been hospitalized. It's got to have happened before.