Carlsen leading by 1.5 point with two rounds to go
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
Pavel Eljanov beat his over-aggressive compatriot Andrei Volokitin with Berlin Ruy Lopez and approached the leading Magnus Carlsen to “only” 1.5 points distance. Young Norwegian didn’t object an early draw offer from Dmitry Jakovenko who led White pieces, and is in wonderful position to win the tournament. Carlsen is also fighting for the top of the FIDE rating list, see Hans Arild Runde’s list for more details and projection of the July rating list. Join us on Wednesday at 14:00 CET for the live coverage of Carlsen-Volokitin.
Round 9 results:
Karjakin, Sergey ½ – ½ Van Wely, Loek
Volokitin, Andrei 0 – 1 Eljanov, Pavel
Jakovenko, Dmitry ½ – ½ Carlsen, Magnus
Onischuk, Alexander ½ – ½ Alekseev, Evgeny
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 1 – 0 Shirov, Alexei
Ivanchuk, Vassily ½ – ½ Svidler, Peter
Round 9 standings:
1. Magnus Carlsen 2765 – 7.0
2. Pavel Eljanov 2687 – 5.5
3-4. Vassily Ivanchuk 2740 and Sergey Karjakin 2732 – 5.0
5-7. Dmitry Jakovenko 2711, Evgeny Alekseev 2711 and Peter Svidler 2746 – 4.5
8-9. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2684 and Andrei Volokitin 2684 – 4.0
10-11. Alexei Shirov 2740 and Loek Van Wely 2676 – 3.5
12. Alexander Onischuk 2664 – 3.0
Round 10 pairings:
Van Wely, Loek – Ivanchuk, Vassily
Eljanov, Pavel – Karjakin, Sergey
Carlsen, Magnus – Volokitin, Andrei
Alekseev, Evgeny – Jakovenko, Dmitry
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter – Onischuk, Alexander
Shirov, Alexei – Svidler, Peter
Peter Svidler received flowers for his 32nd birthday. GMs Alexander Motylev, Dusan Rajkovic and Branko Damljanovic also celebrating today.
Onischuk – Alekseev, one of the quick draws
Photos:
Round 1 / More on the tournament website
Mamedyarov, Radjabov and Adams also won in round 9
Round 9 results:
Radjabov Teimour 2751 1 – 0 Kamsky Gata 2726
Cheparinov Ivan 2695 ½ – ½ Gashimov Vugar 2679
Karjakin Sergey 2732 ½ – ½ Carlsen Magnus 2765
Navara David 2672 0 – 1 Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752
Grischuk Alexander 2716 1 – 0 Inarkiev Ernesto 2684
Adams Michael 2729 1 – 0 Svidler Peter 2746
Bacrot Etienne 2705 ½ – ½ Wang Yue 2689
Tomorrow LIVE on Chessdom: Magnus Carlsen vs David Navara. See you there!
All news about Baku Grand Prix
Successful round for local players: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov
Michael Adams and Alexander Grischuk
Round 9 standings:
1. Grischuk Alexander 2716 RUS – 6.0
2-3. Gashimov Vugar 2679 AZE and Yue Wang 2689 CHN – 5.5
4-7. Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 AZE, Adams Michael 2729 ENG, Carlsen Magnus 2765 NOR and Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE – 5.0
8-9. Kamsky Gata 2726 USA and Bacrot Etienne 2705 FRA – 4.5
10-11. Karjakin Sergey 2732 UKR and Svidler Peter 2746 RUS – 4.0
12. Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL – 3.5
13. Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 RUS – 3.0
14. Navara David 2672 CZE – 2.5
Round 10 on 2nd May at 15:00 local time
Kamsky Gata 2726 - Wang Yue 2689
Svidler Peter 2746 - Bacrot Etienne 2705
Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 - Adams Michael 2729
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 - Grischuk Alexander 2716
Carlsen Magnus 2765 - Navara David 2672
Gashimov Vugar 2679 - Karjakin Sergey 2732
Radjabov Teimour 2751 - Cheparinov Ivan 2695
Carlsen on clear second place. Report and replayable games
Another adventurous round in 2008 Morelia Linares super tournament! Even if Aronian-Anand ended in somewhat disappointing draw after the curious opening, the other games kept us glued for the chairs, with Carlsen and Shirov battling for almost 7 hours! Shirov ultimately blundered just when he was close to reach a draw. Leko-Ivanchuk had interesting development, where black castled short and actually attacked his opponent from the Caro-Kann. Topalov enjoyed microscopic advantage against Radjabov, but had to agree to a draw after black’s precise endgame play. Replayable games bellow, report to be updated soon.
Round 9 results:
Levon Aronian – Vishwanatan Anand draw
Veselin Topalov – Teimour Radjabov draw
Peter Leko – Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1
Magnus Carlsen – Alexei Shirov 1-0
Round 9 standings:
1. Vishy Anand 6.0
2. Magnus Carlsen 5.5
3. Levon Aronian 5.0
4. Veselin Topalov 4.5
5-7. Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk 4.0
8. Peter Leko 3.0
Levon Aronian was curious about Radjabov’s novelty from yesterday’s round and decided to try the same 10. Qe4 against Vishy Anand. Anand improved black’s play with 10…Bc6 and attempted to give the pawn back in order to achieve good pieces’ play. With pair of bishops in his hand, Aronian tried to gain the initiative, but gave up pretty quick by allowing Anand to push liberating 25…d5. With 25. Rad1 the game would be played on.
Teimour Radjabov is really confident about his Ruy Lopez Janish gambit. Here he played it on Veselin Topalov’s 1.e4. Bulgarian used Cuban recipe 7. Qd3 and earned some advantage in the view of more active rook. Radjabov demonstrated excellent endgame technique and reached a well deserved draw.
Vassily Ivanchuk managed to gain early initiative against Peter Leko as, imagine, black side in Caro-Kann. A few moments of Leko’s hesitation with Bc1, Qc2 and Ne5 were enough for Ivanchuk to setup wonderful position. Further penetration on the back rank, combined with pawn sacrifice, caught Leko all tied up. Black’s energetic play steadily increased the advantage until the final blitzkrieg against white king.
The game between Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov was probably the longest in this tournament to day. It started as Shirov’s favorite Arhangelsk Ruy Lopez, but he burned too much time to make a mistake with 19…c6. Carlsen quickly jumped on the opportunity and took the advantage with series of strong moves. Simple 19…Ra8 would have been roughly equal. Later on, Carlsen refuses to take a piece en price, because position was just too complicated and he couldn’t be sure if Shirov has perpetual check somewhere. Shirov gives his best during the horrible zeitnot, but Carlsen was the one to reach the time control with significant advantage. Developments after 43. Rd8 allowed Shirov to count on reduction to the theoretically drawing R+N vs R endgame. 43. Rc5!? might have been better way. Shirov is fantastic endgame player, and he held the position according to his plans, until one awful blunder on 79th immediately lost him the game.
Goran Urosevic
Round 10 pairings:
Vishy Anand – Magnus Carlsen
Alexei Shirov – Peter Leko
Vassily Ivanchuk – Veselin Topalov
Teimour Radjabov – Levon Aronian
Join us on Saturday at 10:00 EST / 16:00 CET for the live commentary on the 10th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!
