Tal Memorial, Round 3: Aronian Wins Again, Leads, and is #2 on the Rating List
Or at least he will be once the Live Top List takes today's games into account. With his very convincing win over Boris Gelfand (it looked like the kind of game I would lose to a super-GM), Levon Aronian has pushed into clear first in the Tal Memorial with 2.5/3.
Also winning today were Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Kramnik was worse against Pavel Eljanov, but Eljanov missed some chances and then completely lost the thread in an ending with two rooks and a minor piece on each side. Eljanov sent a rook on a long fishing trip, only to discover that it gave Kramnik an initiative that won the game. As for Mamedyarov, he had to win his game against Alexei Shirov twice, but he did it. Mamedyarov missed a couple of tactical chances just before the time control (one was especially beautiful), but when Shirov erred just after the time control Mamedyarov was given a second chance, which he converted.
The battle of ex-prodigies Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura was a long one, but the result was clear long before the game ended. Karjakin had enough of an advantage to play the rook ending out for a long time, but there was little doubt that Nakamura would draw, as he did. The other game, between Alexander Grischuk and Wang Hao, was a very short one, and it showed that when GMs believe the game is drawn and/or don't feel like playing, they will find a way to draw the game when they want to, Sofia rules or not.
Standings After Round 3:
1. Aronian 2.5
2-6. Karjakin, Wang Hao, Mamedyarov, Nakamura, Grischuk 2
7. Kramnik 1.5
8. Gelfand 1
9-10. Shirov, Eljanov 0(!)
Round 4 Pairings:
Nakamura (2) - Kramnik (1.5)
Wang Hao (2) - Eljanov (0)
Gelfand (1) - Grischuk (2)
Mamedyarov (2) - Aronian (2.5)
Karjakin (2) - Shirov (0)
The games, with my comments, are here. The relays were down for much of the round and the scores were messed up, but I have the correct moves for all five games.
Reader Comments (2)
43. Re5 in Karjakin - Nakamura is a major improvement imho and perhaps it's not such an easy draw as you'd like to believe.
@ bob: Can you give a plan explaining why this move is dangerous for Black? It seems to me that Black has at least two satisfactory responses.
First, he can play 43...Rb3, when 44.h5 (what else?) gxh5+ 45.Rxh5 doesn't seem importantly different from the game. The computer will probably says +1.5 or +2, but it doesn't mean so much here. White either does or doesn't have a winning plan, and I don't see what it is if Black (for example) keeps his king on the 3rd rank and his king on f6 or (if necessary) f7. (I just tried playing it vs. the computer and it was unable to come up with anything better than gradually pushing the pawn to g5, which essentially turns it into the game.)
Second, Black can "fall for it": 43...Rxe5 44.fxe5+ Kxe5 45.Kg5 Kd5 46.Kxg6 e5 results in an objectively drawn queen ending. This isn't Black's best option from a practical standpoint, though, both because it has its dangers and because the first approach looks pretty simple to me at this point. If I'm wrong, let me know!