Ivanchuk Triumphs in Moscow

Playing the clutch chess for which he is not known, Vassily Ivanchuk took clear first in the category 20 Tal Memorial in Moscow. It was a remarkably hard-fought event full of robust, complex chess. The tournament belonged to Alexander Morozevich for most of the way. On ICC Chess.FM we talked about how it might finally be his turn to at last tame his erratic genius and win the strongest tournament of his life. The 31-year-old Moro has put up countless impressive scores over his career and has won quite a few of the most spectacular chess games of the past decade (and lost a few too). He ran up a +3 score with wins over Alekseev, Ponomariov, and an impressive assault on Kramnik. Ivanchuk, a year shy of 40, has also been playing some of the best chess of his longer career. The maturity of years might be working well for both of them.

It came down to their match-up in the 7th round. Ivanchuk was a half-point behind at the time and had white against Moro's new weapon, the Grunfeld. Black played with his typical provocative style, practically forcing Ivanchuk to accept several sacrificed pawns. Ivanchuk gave one back to consolidate with a passed c-pawn. They got into crazy time trouble (not crazy enough to throw away a queen as the score first mistakenly gave) and Ivanchuk came out with a winning queen endgame and then a pretty winning pawn ending. That swapped them on the top of the standings and Ivanchuk had a half-point lead. Morozevich's fall from grace was completed the next day when he lost a hectic game against Kamsky from an equal, worse, better, worse, better, drawn (54.Qxf4 gxf4 55.Kg4 Bg5! 56.d5!=), lost position. Kamsky seemed indecisive throughout, twice pulling back from promising attacking lines. But as usual, his nerves of steel and sharp calculations carried him through when it counted. Mikhail Tal was famously world champion for just one year and five days. Morozevich was #1 in the world for one day. He pipped Anand on the unofficial live list after beating Ponomariov. 24 hours later he lost to Ivanchuk and his time was done.

Ivanchuk had to keep his own piano-wire nerves under control in a mad time scramble against Ponomariov in that eighth round. With a few seconds on his clock he went from a small plus to a pawn-down endgame that he managed to hold after 90 moves. After that it was basically over. Ivanchuk-Shirov was drawn in 12 moves in the final round, sealing clear first for the Ukrainian and last for Shirov. Morozevich played an opening against Gelfand that was incredibly provocative even for him. Even more remarkably it ended in an abrupt repetition draw when Gelfand missed a chance to play for a win with 11.h4! threatening to trap the black queen. GM Kaidanov and I looked at dozens of fabulous lines on ICC Chess.FM but they'll all be for the notes. It was left to the two dourest fighters in the world to battle on alone on the stage well after everyone else was gone. Ponomariov tried for hours to take clear second by beating Kamsky with a promising extra passed pawn on a2. But once again Kamsky's nerve and technique held. For the second day in a row, Ponomariov's game ended with promotion to a bishop. Silly, but fun. Nice to see a sense of humor after a tough fight.

That left a dog-pile for 2-5 with Morozevich, Gelfand, Ponomariov, and Kramnik all on +1. Gelfand's +1 =8 line looks less ambitious than his play. He's not exactly Genghis Khan, and the Petroff has numbed his black repertoire, but he did play plenty of interesting games. Kramnik scored two smooth wins against wild attacks by Shirov and Alekseev. He played a fantastical shot against Gelfand in the 7th. 32..Nce3 perhaps wasn't the best but it was certainly the most spectacular. One curious note was Kramnik's following a known drawing line against Kamsky's Grunfeld in the 6th. Kamsky varied so we were left wondering if Kramnik had anything cooked up. It didn't seem likely. Leko finished with an even score in an uneven performance. Check out the subtle Marshall prep in his loss to Pono.

A nice showing by Ponomariov, who hasn't shown his strength for a good while. Will he get back into the top ten at last? Peter Svidler joined us on the show for a very entertaining and enlightening 90 minutes and I brought up the Pono question. El Svid shares my theory that the aborted 2003 match with Kasparov really disrupted the young Ukrainian's mindset. Being totally lost against Morozevich by move 12 is another matter... With the bad positions Kamsky saved it's surprising to see him with -1. He got into serious trouble out of the openings over and over, saving some and losing three. Alekseev often looked outmatched but was alert enough to beat Mamedyarov when the Azerbaijani went for a Rubinstein French. He also forced another impressive Kamsky endgame save. Mamedyarov turned in another subpar supertournament performance. He was saved from last place by Shirov, who started out 0/3 and added another loss before blasting Mamedyarov with a nice exchange sac and attack in the eighth round.

All in all, a great event full of fighting chess. A pity for Morozevich, a triumph for Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian wizard sprinted to this event from the Sochi Grand Prix and now hustles to Bilbao for the Grand Slam final. He loves to play all the time anywhere, but taking on Anand, Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov, and Topalov with so little rest will tax even him.

Even before that the same Moscow site will host the blitz world championship that's already underway with qualifying rounds. I believe Carlsen is shipping in just for it before heading to Bilbao and Karpov is another special guest. Ivanchuk won last year by beating Anand in the final round. This time Vishy is conserving his energy for Bilbao and, of course, his October match with Kramnik.

Speaking of, Kaidanov mentioned Kramnik is now playing a funky blindfold exhibition against Russian politician/chess politician Alexander Zhukov. Zhukov gets to consult a computer every third move, which is similar to a suggestion I've made for man vs machine matches. I thought a "millionaire" game-show style gimmick of giving the human three opportunities to see the comp's eval, or to get a full line, would be a more interesting way to balance the playing field than giving the human pawns.