Ongoing Events: Unive Bores, Nakamura Scores (and Scores...)
The starting gun went off for the Unive Crown Group today, and the players immediately fell over and took a nap. Tiviakov-Giri was drawn in 14 and a half moves, while Vachier-Lagrave and Shirov made it to move 25 before calling it a day. Hopefully the fans will have better luck tomorrow.
Meanwhile, after two (of three) days and five (of seven) rounds of preliminaries at Cap D'Agde, Group A is led by Nakamura with 5/5, half a point ahead of Bu Xiangzhi, while Ivanchuk and Le Quang Liem head the Group B with 4/5. I think (but am not positive) that four players from each group will qualify for the final stage (knockout matches), so I'll add that GMs Nguyen and Polgar have the inside track for the third and fourth spots in Group A (both have 3/5), while Group B is a mess: Pelletier has 3, while Gharamian, Lahno, and Hammer have 2.5.
The players are on a rest day in Nanjing. Carlsen leads with 4/5, half a point ahead of Bacrot, a point and a half ahead of Anand and a full two and a half points ahead of Topalov. It's not at all likely that Topalov will contend for first, but before consigning him to the bottom there are three things to consider.
First, during his best runs of form he would sometimes start a tournament poorly and then go on a big winning streak. There's no obvious reason why that couldn't happen again. Second, he's due for three white games in the second half, which doesn't hurt. And third, with the conclusion of the European Club Cup a couple of days ago, it's possible that his manager (Danailov) and his long-time second (Cheparinov) might show up. If they do, that should help lift his spirits and perhaps help his preparation as well.
Can Bacrot keep up his great tournament? I would be shocked if he went 3.5/5 in the second half, especially since his points in the first half were as much his opponent's gifts as his earnings. Still, even if he were to score 50% in the second half, it would be one of the greatest results if his career, if not the greatest.
As for Carlsen, his first cycle wins were all convincing, but in every case his opponent played the opening or early middlegame very badly. That's not his fault, and he won each game in good style. But whether this means he's "back" remains to be seen. Still, given his big lead over his main rivals, it would take a near disaster for him to finish anywhere but first.
Reader Comments (2)
Overall Nanjing is a very interesting tournament with a decent number of being decisive.
I believe what Carlsen's fine performance shows, is that whatever ailed him in the last month he found a cure. [DM: The cure is finding opponents who make big mistakes by move 20?] As you noted he not beating up on his opponents, instead he just playing solid chess and exploiting mistakes with his usual precision. [DM: I don't think this represents my view. His chess doesn't seem solid to me. With Black he has been a little shaky, and with White he has played with some aggression.]
Topalov just doesn't seem to have the fire that got him to the top. He always had that ability to keep the game complicated and used his energy and skills to find an edge. Right now he just seems to make bad moves in similar circumstances.
Great coverage Dennis thanks.
Dennis, I agree with your words about Carlsen - Carlsen fans or fanboys might not ... . Part of the "cure" is also that he doesn't make mistakes or dubious moves himself before move 20 - as early as move 2 in his Olympiad game against Adams.
I also wondered how he can have a bad, an at best mediocre and then a fine event (certainly in terms of TPR) within just a few weeks - I think its isn't only recovering from a crisis, but also having the "right" opponents: From the top five he always had good results against Topalov, and often had problems against Kramnik (not enough recent games against Anand and Aronian to make a meaningful assessment?). Furthermore, Nanjing has established subtop players which may suit him better than the absolute world top in Bilbao and rather unpredictable opponents at the Olympiad.
To some extent, there is a similar pattern throughout the last year:
- Nanjing 2009 and Bazna 2010 are comparable to Nanjing 2010
- Tal Memorial is comparable to Bilbao
- London and Corus are partly comparable to his Olympiad opponents