Magnus Carlsen to start early celebration
Annotated games:
Carlsen – Ivanchuk / Svidler – Carlsen / Nisipeanu – Ivanchuk / Carlsen – Van Wely
Eljanov – Carlsen / Carlsen – Shirov / Shirov – Karjakin / Carlsen – Alekseev
Nisipeanu – Carlsen / Carlsen – Onischuk / Jakovenko – Carlsen / Carlsen – Volokitin
In spite of the nice leading edge when first place was almost guaranteed, Magnus Carlsen played for a win against Ukrainian Andrei Volokitin who owes him for a catastrophic 0-4 score in their earlier encounters. The long and tense battle finished in a draw after 80 moves, and after Eljanov drew with Karjakin, the first place at the 2008 Aerosvit Foros was secured for Carlsen. Vassily Ivanchuk once again “shocked” his opponent with an early Qf6, and this time it paid off as he forced Loek Van Wely to resignation practically right after the opening.
Alexei Shirov recovered after a string of bad results to beat Peter Svidler. See GM Mikhail Golubev’s game analysis for the official website. Hans Arild Runde’s list is a projection of the July rating list, see also his Measure Up column on the Chessdom pages. Join us on Thursday at 14:00 CET for the live coverage of Karjakin-Carlsen.
Round 10 results:
Van Wely, Loek 0 – 1 Ivanchuk, Vassily
Eljanov, Pavel ½ – ½ Karjakin, Sergey
Carlsen, Magnus ½ – ½ Volokitin, Andrei
Alekseev, Evgeny ½ – ½ Jakovenko, Dmitry
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ½ – ½ Onischuk, Alexander
Shirov, Alexei 1 – 0 Svidler, Peter
Round 10 standings:
1. Magnus Carlsen 2765 – 7.5
2-3. Pavel Eljanov 2687 and Vassily Ivanchuk 2740 – 6.0
4. Sergey Karjakin 2732 – 5.5
5-6. Dmitry Jakovenko 2711 and Evgeny Alekseev 2711 – 5.0
7-10. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2684, Peter Svidler 2746, Alexei Shirov 2740 and Andrei Volokitin 2684 – 4.5
11-12. Alexander Onischuk 2664 and Loek Van Wely 2676 – 3.5
Round 11 pairings:
Svidler, Peter – Van Wely, Loek
Ivanchuk, Vassily – Eljanov, Pavel
Karjakin, Sergey – Carlsen, Magnus
Volokitin, Andrei – Alekseev, Evgeny
Jakovenko, Dmitry – Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter
Onischuk, Alexander – Shirov, Alexei
Today it was Andrei Volokitin’s turn to receive birthday gifts
Shirov – Svidler 1-0
Photos:
Round 1 / More on the tournament website
Six games ended in draws, Grischuk still leading
Round 10 results:
Kamsky Gata 2726 ½ – ½ Wang Yue 2689
Svidler Peter 2746 ½ – ½ Bacrot Etienne 2705
Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 ½ – ½ Adams Michael 2729
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 ½ – ½ Grischuk Alexander 2716
Carlsen Magnus 2765 ½ – ½ Navara David 2672
Gashimov Vugar 2679 ½ – ½ Karjakin Sergey 2732
Radjabov Teimour 2751 0 – 1 Cheparinov Ivan 2695
Tomorrow LIVE on Chessdom: Alexander Grischuk vs Magnus Carlsen. See you there!
All news about Baku Grand Prix
Ivan Cheparinov found his form after the starting four defeats and scored 4 points in the last 5 rounds. Today he played Caro-Kann with black pieces, which is very rare in his practice, and grabbed a victory after refuting Teimour Radjabov’s attack. Both players agreed during the press conference that this simply was not Radjabov’s day and that he played aggressive, more than position was allowing. Radjabov added that loss is not a tragedy, there are still three rounds to go.
Teimour Radjabov and Ivan Cheparinov
The other six games ended in draws. Magnus Carlsen was slightly disappointed – “I wanted to win, but without much blood. It didn’t happen.”. The rest day did well to David Navara, who ended his bad sequence. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov picked a “rather risky, but promising line against the Chebanenko Slav defence”. He admitted that Alexander Grischuk set him into confusion with a brave yet strong 16…Be7 and that draw was well deserved result.
Round 10 standings:
1. Grischuk Alexander 2716 RUS – 6.5
2-3. Gashimov Vugar 2679 AZE and Yue Wang 2689 CHN – 6.0
4-6. Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 AZE, Adams Michael 2729 ENG and Carlsen Magnus 2765 NOR – 5.5
7-9. Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE, Kamsky Gata 2726 USA and Bacrot Etienne 2705 FRA – 5.0
10-12. Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL, Karjakin Sergey 2732 UKR and Svidler Peter 2746 RUS – 4.5
13. Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 RUS – 3.5
14. Navara David 2672 CZE – 3.0
Round 11 on 3rd May at 15:00 local time
Cheparinov Ivan 2695 - Kamsky Gata 2726
Karjakin Sergey 2732 - Radjabov Teimour 2751
Navara David 2672 - Gashimov Vugar 2679
Grischuk Alexander 2716 - Carlsen Magnus 2765
Adams Michael 2729 - Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752
Bacrot Etienne 2705 - Inarkiev Ernesto 2684
Wang Yue 2689 - Svidler Peter 2746
Four draws in Morelia Linares round 10. Report and replayable games
Carlsen is willing to fight until the bare Kings, but when World Champions offers a draw with white, one should carefully consider if declining is good option. Carlsen had a tough 7-hour game on the previous day, and with distinctively bad current score against Anand, he accepted the proposal. Shirov recently had good results against the Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack, but Leko was able to hold the balance and achieve a draw. Games between Azeris and Armenians are always full of emotion and so was this time. Aronian declined the initial attack in Anti-Moscow Semi-Slav, and just like in Morelia, he was the one to offer a draw. Ivanchuk and Topalov played a long Sicilian game, but neither of them managed to gain significant advantage and draw was agreed before the 2nd time control.
Round 10 results:
Vishy Anand – Magnus Carlsen draw
Alexei Shirov – Peter Leko draw
Vassily Ivanchuk – Veselin Topalov draw
Teimour Radjabov – Levon Aronian draw
Round 10 standings:
1. Vishy Anand 6.5
2. Magnus Carlsen 6.0
3. Levon Aronian 5.5
4. Veselin Topalov 5.0
5-7. Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk 4.5
8. Peter Leko 3.5
In his previous game with white, Vishy Anand beat Alexei Shirov in the Sveshnikov Sicilian. Magnus Carlsen was not intimidated by this fact and entered the same opening, only different subvariation. He didn’t repeat the mistake (15…a5?!) that caused him a defeat against Gata Kamsky at the 2005 World Cup. Anand thought there was no advantage from the opening, after black achieved optimal setup, and offered a draw which was accepted. The two have remained on the top of the crosstable.
Alexei Shirov – Peter Leko provided us anxiously awaited improvement for black in the Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack that served Shirov so good in the crucial games at the last World Chess Cup. Leko tracked Shirov-Karjakin before he struck with 21…b4 instead of Karjakin’s f6. Cleansing of the b-file increased the scope of black’s pair of bishops and he comfortably held a draw after the rooks trade.
The hot Anti-Moscow Semi-Slav received another review in the game between Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian. Aronian knows the secrets of this system as he plays it with both white and black, but Radjabov was the only one to defeat variation’s biggest advocate Vishy Anand in the recent months. He played a new move 16. Qc1, Aronian reacted accordingly and draw was agreed after it became clear that queenside pawns will disappear from the board.
The game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov took a regular course in the Sozin Naidorf Sicilian and the balance was provided until the time control approached. At one moment, Topalov was probably content with the moves repetition, but Ivanchuk suddenly deviates and continues to play. Topalov immediately overreacts with 34…d5 and white gets some advantage. However, after the queens exchange and with doubled c-pawns it was hard to accomplish much, even if both players tried everything until the theoretically drawn endgame.
Goran Urosevic
Round 11 pairings:
Teimour Radjabov – Vishy Anand
Levon Aronian – Vassily Ivanchuk
Veselin Topalov – Alexei Shirov
Peter Leko – Magnus Carlsen
Please note that Sunday, March 2nd, is rest day. Join us on Monday at 10:00 EST / 16:00 CET for the live commentary on the 11th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!
