Round one report and games

Round 1 results:

Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 0 – 1 Kamsky Gata 2726

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 ½ – ½ Svidler Peter 2746

Carlsen Magnus 2765 ½ – ½ Yue Wang 2689

Gashimov Vugar 2679 ½ – ½ Bacrot Etienne 2705

Radjabov Teimour 2751 ½ – ½ Adams Michael 2729

Cheparinov Ivan 2695 0 – 1 Grischuk Alexander 2716

Karjakin Sergey 2732 ½ – ½ Navara David 2672

The first game to finish today was Mamedyarov-Svidler after they run into drawing line of the Four Pawns variation in King’s Indian defence. As GM Joe Gallagher pointed in his books about this opening, 11…Nc5 12. Bf3 Be6!? was a line that allowed black to continue play with good chances. Karjakin-Navara took a forced course after white sacrificed a knight with 24. Nxg6. Karjakin won black rook in return, but Navara was able to force perpetual check thanks to the battery on the long diagonal.

Cheparinov and Grischuk engaged in a sharp Qg4 line in the French defence, but white’s unfortunate combination of 18. Rb4 next and Ne2 allowed Grischuk to take an early advantage. The execution was ruthless and Cheparinov never had a chance to come back into the game. He was finally forced to resign after the first time control.

Radjabov used his favorite Ruy Lopez Exchange variation, but Adams championed black’s cause with 5…Qf6 long time ago. Good central control and timely queen activation in the endgame allowed English grandmaster to earn a draw. Another Ruy Lopez was seen in Carlsen-Yue where Chinese player defended position with slight structural deficit. He did well and reached an equal rook endgame but Carlsen continued to push for a win for another 30 moves before finally agreeing to a draw.

Gata Kamsky

Kamsky allowed slightly weaker position with black against Inarkiev, but those are the waters where he swims the best. Inarkiev was tempted to do something and made a wrong sacrifice with 35. Bd4. Kamsky’s counterattack was furious and only couple of moves later white found himself in a lost position.

The longest game of the day was Gashimov-Bacrot where white reached better endgame but was unable to convert it to full point. Bacrot declared himself lucky after the game. Before the round start, Gashimov spoke in favor of the Sofia rule that is in power during this event. He suggested though that longer games will be causing strain and there should be more rest days with 13 rounds in the schedule.

Round 2 on 22nd April at 15:00 local time

Kamsky Gata 2726 - Navara David 2672

Grischuk Alexander 2716 - Karjakin Sergey 2732

Adams Michael 2729 - Cheparinov Ivan 2695

Bacrot Etienne 2705 - Radjabov Teimour 2751

Yue Wang 2689 - Gashimov Vugar 2679

Svidler Peter 2746 - Carlsen Magnus 2765

Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 - Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752

Round one report, replayable games

Mexican leg of the Morelia Linares 2008 super tournament started of with a nice surprise as we saw three Sicilians in the first round. Sicilian was rare animal in the last event that took place on the Mexican soil – World Chess Championship. Replayable games bellow.

Round 1 results:

Alexei Shirov – Vishwanatan Anand 0-1

Magnus Carlsen – Vassily Ivanchuk draw

Peter Leko – Teimour Radjabov 1-0

Veselin Topalov – Levon Aronian 1-0

Alexei Shirov attacked Vishy Anand without pardon, but one useless queen move proved to be a mistake as Anand started counterattack after solidifying with 24…Bd5. Already on the next move he missed crushing 25…e4! (cleaning e5 for the queen). Nevertheless, black had the game under control and used his second chance to deliver a cute combination (28…Nce4!) and call for curtains.

Alexei Shirov vs Vishy Anand

Magnus Carlsen enjoyed fine positional and time advantage against Vassily Ivanchuk but failed to find the winning plan. He tried his best though, but Ivanchuk used a moment to threaten back, thus exchanging the queens and reaching drawish endgame.

Levon Aronian didn’t react accordingly to Veselin Topalov’s aggressive 15. f4 and quickly caved into weaker position. Topalov’s bishops tenaciously harassed black pieces and Aronian was forced to drop the exchange. Game was over pretty soon.

It appeared that Teimour Radjabov was standing well with black against Peter Leko, but couple of precise moves (27. Qa3!, 28. Be6!) underlined the defects in black’s Sveshnikov structure. Faced with the threat of c4-c5, Radjabov had to dive into complications, but it turned out that white’s control of the 7th rank decided the outcome.

Round 2 pairings:

Vishy Anand – Levon Aronian

Teimour Radjabov – Veselin Topalov

Vassily Ivanchuk – Peter Leko

Alexei Shirov – Magnus Carlsen

Join us on Saturday at 16:30 EST / 22:30 CET for the live commentary on the 2nd round of Morelia-Linares. GM Vladimir Dimitrov and Goran Urosevic will cover Anand-Aronian and Shirov-Carlsen. See you there!