Tal Memorial, Round 2: Nakamura Joins The Leaders
Today's games weren't bad, but there wasn't as much blood as in round 1.
Wang Hao - Aronian was an Open Catalan with 8.a4. They played a line that has been reasonably popular lately, where White plays Bg5 and takes on f6, followed by Black's Bc6 taking White's knight on f3. Black winds up with pawns on c6 and e6 (and no d-pawn), so it might be labeled the Fort Knox Catalan. That's certainly how it worked, as Wang Hao had no idea of how to break it down, especially when Aronian sent his king from g8 to c8 in advance of a possible kingside pawn storm. Drawn in 39 moves.
Kramnik - Grischuk was a Queen's Gambit Declined in which White had a pull, but a moment's hesitation allowed Grischuk to equalize. Again, drawn in 39 moves.
Mamedyarov - Karjakin was a Flexible (or Kasparov) Nimzo-Indian with 4...c5 5.g3. White took on the traditionally terrible c-pawns (double and isolated) in return for tricks involving Bxh6. It was Karjakin who enjoyed whatever chances were there in the game, but ultimately...drawn in 39 moves.
Nakamura - Eljanov was not a draw - how could it have been, when it went to move 40? Eljanov repeated the insipid 3...Bb4+ against the Catalan, but unlike Aronian's (successful) 4.Bd2 from round 1, Nakamura chose 4.Nbd2 instead. The position eventually reached something that looked like a comparatively favorable Tarrasch QGD from Black's perspective, but Nakamura managed to outplay him. White was a touch better after his 23rd move when Eljanov missed a nice tactic that netted Nakamura a pawn. That combination ended on move 29, and Eljanov proceeded to make a second, even worse tactical oversight (or more likely, he misassessed the situation), followed by a third on move 37. With the win, Nakamura joins the first-place tie with 1.5/2.
Finally, Gelfand - Shirov was a Slav-turned-QGA (where White gets in a4 in for free). Shirov had lost badly to Kramnik in this line in Bilbao, but he made the necessary corrections this time around and equalized out of the opening. As the pieces gradually left the board the position remained equal in a rook and knight ending, but then things started going wrong for Shirov. His 34th move in particular seems to have been a mistake, after which his pieces lost coordination and his queenside pawns were in trouble. Shortly after the first time control they reached a rook ending that was easily won for White, and Gelfand brought home the point in 61 moves.
Standings After Round 2:
1-5. Karjakin, Aronian, Wang Hao, Nakamura, Grischuk 1.5
6-7. Mamedyarov, Gelfand 1
8. Kramnik .5
9-10. Eljanov, Shirov 0
Round 3 Pairings:
Karjakin (1.5) - Nakamura (1.5)
Shirov (0) - Mamedyarov (1)
Aronian (1.5) - Gelfand (1)
Grischuk (1.5) - Wang Hao (1.5)
Eljanov (0) - Kramnik (.5)
Reader Comments (2)
It does look like Hikaru Nakmura has the stuff to stride past 2750 and keep it. I happened to catch the moment when Eljanov played 29...Re8(?). It is interesting to see a top-level game come down to such a matter of judgment. The Stockfish analysis in Chessdom's window likes 29...Re8? best, but Rybka 3 quickly and correctly tabs it a lemon compared to the active 29...Rd8! It is true that 29...Re8 embarrasses the Ne4 so that the Nf6+ trade is basically forced, and I guess it was something Eljanov wanted. But 29...Rd8 has its own attractions, such as ...Bxe3 in the air if White either defends or moves the centralized Knight.
I've noted several such cases where Rybka (3) and Stockfish (1.8/1.9) disagree, and in every instance Rybka has sided with the higher-rated player and/or the course of the game has borne Rybka out. Carlsen-Bacrot from Nanjing round 1 is another; the Stockfish anlysis in the ChessBomb window still shows -0.44 to Bacrot after 14.Qc2 and -0.08 even after 14...Bd7? upon which human commenters agree Black is in real trouble. It should be feasible for someone to do an automated in-depth comparison along those lines. Of course that someone could be myself, though I'm dealing with 6 weeks delay owing to a hard-drive crash and arduous teaching this term...)
Amazing story with Penn State getting Joe Paterno his 400th win 35-21 after being down 21-0 to Northwestern until 3 seconds left in the first half. That sure looked like Notre Dame subbed for Northwestern in the second half---gotta stay active in the bye week somehow, right?
[DM: Now that Paterno has his 400th win, can they finish embalming him? Anyway...please keep comments on-topic, even MVCs (most valuable commentators) like you should do this.]
Off-topic but related to Ken Regan's main comment: [Snipped, rightly or wrongly.]
[DM: Mr. Regan suggested that I revise/elaborate the comment. So here it is: I spend a lot of time on these blog posts, and would like comments to have something to do with what I spent my time doing. Sometimes tangents are interesting - or in this case, a tangent to the tangent - but when it's my work that turns into the tangent I get pretty grumpy and wonder why I'm wasting my time here. To be honest, that feeling grows every day....]