Linares, Round 6: Vallejo Gives Topalov a Present
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 4:08PM Gashimov-Gelfand was (relatively) short and boring, while Grischuk-Aronian was long and boring. (Don't believe me? You'll see.) Both games were drawn, and in between there was Topalov-Vallejo. Topalov played very sharply and was again happy to sacrifice material, and the result was similar to what happened last round. For quite a while, his opponent defended better than he attacked, but under the onslaught of Topalov's initiative Vallejo fell short on the clock and the evaluation leveled out. Still, Vallejo was in perfectly good shape until his incredible 37...Bc5??, gifting a rook for absolutely no reason and in a position where there was no reason to think it might be necessary. (My guess is that he assumed the rook was protected.) After this blackout the game was essentially over, and after making the time control on move 40 Vallejo resigned.
Standings After Round 6:
1. Topalov 4½
2-4. Aronian, Grischuk, Gashimov 3
5. Gelfand 2½
6. Vallejo Pons 2
Round 7 Pairings:
Gashimov - Topalov
Gelfand - Grischuk
Aronian - Vallejo
Reader Comments (2)
Two notes to Topalov-Vallejo:
1) The idea of an early black kingside expansion was played less than a month ago in van Wely-Shirov, Corus 2010 - the difference was that the players inserted 7.0-0 Be7 before 8.a3 g5!? My deja vu while watching the game, of course fully consistent with your writing!
2) After (finally) playing 37.-Qb4, according to the live transmission Vallejo had just four seconds left for three moves. So 38.-Bc5??? could also simply mean that he accidentally touched the bishop - this would be more plausible if he happens to be left-handed!?
By the way, the clock time after move 40 was 00:00:00 and 0-1 appeared almost immediately, so it is not clear if Vallejo resigned or if his flag had fallen (first)? Not that it really matters ... .
I just finished the reverse dragon line in Mihail Marin's English book, so I was giddy with amateur excitement to see that and how Topalov handled the TN. yay English! Maybe I'll be a Topalov fan for a few minutes...