Live games with Rybka analysis
European Individual Chess Championship 2010
Live games with Rybka analysis
Discussions
Chess events 2009 - 2010
European Team Chess Championship 2009
World Blitz Chess Championship
World Junior Chess 2009
World Youth Chess 2009
Endorsements
Chessdom.com makes a real difference in the field of objective and reliable chess reporting.
George Mastrokoukos, CEO of ETCC 2007
Chessdom is setting new standards in organization and marketing of big chess events.
Milan Bozic
Gorenje Tournament Director
Magnus Carlsen - Vishy Anand 0-1
Peter Leko - Alexei Shirov draw
Veselin Topalov - Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0
Levon Aronian - Teimour Radjabov draw
1. Veselin Topalov 2.5
2. Vishy Anand 2.0
3-5. Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko 1.5
6-8. Teimour Radjabov, Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov 1.0
Veselin Topalov emerged as sole leader from the 3rd round of Morelia Linares 2008, after a fine win against Vassily Ivanchuk. In the English attack of the Naidorf Sicilian, Topalov introduced a new way of dealing with black's marching pawns by simply "striking them in the head" with 16. a3!? Previously used moves were automatic 16. 0-0-0 or more reserved 16. Nd2. Ivanchuk didn't react accordingly, as GM Vladimir Dimitrov explained in Chessdom live commentary, and soon found himself in trouble as heavy pieces were lacking air and king remained stuck in the center. 24. Bb6! was particularly nice as 24...Rxc3 25. Ne4! leaves black faced with material loss. Ivanchuk sacrificed a pawn trying to untie his pieces, but Topalov simply traded heavy pieces off, reaching a technically winning endgame which he converted to full point.
Magnus Carlsen is always playing for a win, and this time he also searched for opportunity to improve currently bad score against Vishwanatan Anand. He run into Semi-Slav, Anand's favorite as-of-late, and was forced to seek compensation for the gambited pawn. These positions are allowing black to follow clear plans once they hold against the initial attack. Carlsen played a rare variation, and perhaps Anand's 16...Rh6 took him off the familiar tracks as white is prevented from important finesse Qd6. After more or less forced exchanges, the resulting endgame saw Anand displaying wonderful zugzwang techniques.
The game between Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov, closely observed in their countries, took an unusual course in the rare variation of King's Indian Fianchetto. Actually, both players had this line in their practice, Aronian against GM Nataf and Radjabov only last month against Alexander Grischuk. Many thought that Aronian simply blundered temporary knight sacrifice that gives an extra pawn to black. However, strong pressure against b7 and e7 allowed Aronian to earn that pawn back. Further material reduction led to draw agreement on the 24th move.
After years of playing the Sicilian Naidorf English Attack, Peter Leko addopted Carlsen's approach from his 1st-round gem against Ivanchuk. Alexei Shirov returned to older 13...Qb8 instead of Ivanchuk's Nd7. Leko included novelty on the 15th move, but Shirov was able to hold the dynamic balance by inducting conflict on the kingside. Draw was agreed right before the time control, but we can expect further discussion in this opening line.
Goran Urosevic
Vishy Anand - Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk - Levon Aronian
Alexei Shirov - Veselin Topalov
Magnus Carlsen - Peter Leko
Join us on Tuesday at 16:30 EST / 22:30 CET for the live commentary on the 4th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!
More games
Top chess players
Copyright © 2007 - 2009 Chessdom. All rights reserved.
