King's Tournament, Round 1: Gelfand, Nisipeanu Win
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 4:56PM Experienced triumphed over youth today at the King's Tournament in Romania. When the youngsters had Black, they lost , and White was only good enough for a draw - with effort.
The first game to finish was Carlsen - Ponomariov. With White in a Catalan, Carlsen had an imposing-looking position, but it turned out that the most important single factor was White's backward d-pawn. Ponomariov held with ease, and was perhaps a tiny bit better at the end.
Next to finish was Nisipeanu - Radjabov. Radjabov played one of his pet lines, the Sveshnikov Sicilian, and seemed fine until his rash 21...f5. After 22.exf5 gxf5 23.Bxc6 Rxc6 24.f4 Black's counterplay was over before it started, while all the static features favored White. Black's position quickly deteriorated, and in time trouble his attempts to stir up tactics led to his demise.
The last game to finish - and it was a long one - was Gelfand - Wang Yue. Gelfand played c5 against his opponent's Chebanenko Slav, and managed to consolidate his big space advantage. From there he built up an attack on the h-file and won a pawn, then went over to the queenside and opened the board over there, and finally won by stretching Black's defenses too thin. The game is a technical masterpiece.
So it was a fine batch of games today; here are tomorrow's:
Wang Yue - Ponomariov
Radjabov - Carlsen
Gelfand - Nisipeanu
Meanwhile, you can replay today's games, with my annotations, here.
Reader Comments (6)
The linked page is refusing to work properly for me; I can't use the interactive board or switch between games. This problem is replicated on different machines and different browsers.. is this just me, or are other people having similar issues?
Thanks - there were a couple of files I neglected to upload; it works fine now.
Do so few people replay these games on here that only one person noticed? That's a little depressing.
I would have noticed, and told you so, if I'd gotten to it sooner. And there must be those who noticed but did not tell you. So, don't get discouraged. I'm sure there are many who replay the games, and greatly appreciate the annotations.
I noticed late last night UK time, and predicted that the fault would be remedied in time for me to enjoy the games over breakfast, which it was. It's been a long time since I haven't played through a game you annotated.
And I (along with BBBB, CCCC etc etc if you remember) weren't here only for the W.Ch..! Love your annotations :)
OK - thanks, people. It's useful to me if you let me know when the boards aren't working, though! Best of all is if you write me via the contact page, as that way I get the message as soon as possible.