Anand extended his lead in Morelia Linares

Anand is now full point ahead of competition. Report and replayable games

Spanish leg of the 2008 Morelia Linares tournament continues in fighting spirit established in Mexico, with three decided games and only one draw. Vishwanatan Anand wins again against Alexei Shirov, extending the lead to full point. Topalov and Shirov, both tied on 2nd prior to this round, lost their games and were relegated to 4th place, while Aronian and Carlsen broke through to the 2nd place by scoring by winning against Topalov and Ivanchuk respectively. Radjabov sacrificed a piece against Leko, but this crazyhouse evaporated into a draw. After the scoresheet signing, the two were analysing depths of the position for at least an hour.

Round 8 results:

Vishwanatan Anand - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen 0-1
Teimour Radjabov - Peter Leko draw
Levon Aronian - Veselin Topalov 1-0

Round 8 standings:

1. Vishy Anand 5.5
2-3. Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen 4.5
4-5. Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov 4.0
6. Teimour Radjabov 3.5
7-8. Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk 3.0

Magnus Carlsen surprised yet again by choosing rare setup in Berlin Ruy Lopez, and already on 8th move he was able to play a novelty. Most likely, this was not a good idea, because it allowed a valuable c3 to Vassily Ivanchuk, and he got upper hand after the next 10. Qc2. Magnus, however, kept his coolness and continued to press after the temporary piece sacrifice when Ivanchuk had problems with the back rank and development. White also missed stronger 15. c4 or 16. c4 Qe6 17. Nxg5 Rxe5 18. Bb2 and kept burning his clock down to 20 minutes for 20 remaining moves. Very soon, the position was reduced to an unbalanced endgame, where white is probably slightly better but the time trouble started to take its toll. Ivanchuk committed number of inaccuracies and resigned after black forced queen promotion.

Teimour Radjabov played a fashionable line that includes pawn sacrifice against Peter Leko's Queen's Indian defence. On 10th move he deviated from Leko's earlier game against Aronian with the daring Qc2-e4. Knight sacrifice kept Leko's king in the center, but he has a reputation of an ultra-solid defender. He gave some material back and then traded queen for two rooks. Remaining light pieces coordinated well, and Radjabov was unable to break through during the time scramble, so draw was agreed on move 39.

Alexei Shirov played his pet Sveshnikov Sicilian, but Anand was first to slip a very strong novelty with 18. Qe2! The main point is that white delays h2-h4 for one move, and since black hardly has anything better than 18...f5, pawn can't be taken on the 19th move because 19. h4 Bxh4 20. exf5! Bxf5 (20...gxf5? 21. Qh5 +-) 21. Nxf5 Rxf5 22. g3 Bg5 23. Bd3 is very unpleasant. Therefore, black was forced to trade on e3, and after 21. h5 g5 white already enjoyed solid advantage. Shirov tried everything to activate his pieces, even at the cost of two pawns, but Anand held the events under control and took the game into winning rook ending. Theoretically very important game, Sveshnikov devotees will have to search for improvements.

Levon Aronian didn't manage to get rid of his weak isolated pawn in the Four Knights Variation of the English Opening, and Veselin Topalov gradually increased advantage with black pieces. Aronian was already much weaker when he sacrificed an exchange for a pawn during the time trouble. Topalov almost instantly mistakes with the move order, and suddenly white knight wins another pawn to start ragging over the central squares. GM Vladimir Dimitrov pointed in the live commentary that 39...Bd6! would not allow white to earn full compensation. Black rooks were lacking with space and Aronian simply advanced his d-pawn to take the point home.

Goran Urosevic

Round 9 pairings:

Levon Aronian - Vishwanatan Anand
Veselin Topalov - Teimour Radjabov
Peter Leko - Vassily Ivanchuk
Magnus Carlsen - Alexei Shirov

Join us on Friday at 10:00 EST / 16:00 CET for the live commentary on the 9th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!