King's Tournament, Round 7: Carlsen, Gelfand Win Again
Magnus Carlsen is on a roll! By defeating Teimour Radjabov in his characteristic way (winning what should have been a drawn endgame), he managed to win his fourth game in a row, and he leads with a very impressive score of 5.5/7. That's good enough for a TPR of 2955 and a live rating that will probably be about 2826 or so - he's threatening to enter video game territory.
Fortunately, there's still some battle, as Boris Gelfand also managed to win, and with the Petroff! Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu was offered a salutary reminder that although the Petroff is a solid opening that's often used as a drawing weapon, chess is still a complicated enough game that Black can sometimes win even there. Gelfand's score of 4.5 points (and 2835 TPR) is none too shabby, and since he'll have White against Carlsen tomorrow it's not too late for him to put on his superhero cape (or maybe just his kryptonite?) and do something extra-special.
As yesterday, so today: Ruslan Ponomariov started well against Wang Yue, and enjoyed a winning advantage before things went wrong. Yesterday that meant a loss; today, it was only half a point squandered.
After 7 rounds, here are the standings:
1. Carlsen 5.5
2. Gelfand 4.5
3. Radjabov 3.5
4-6. Nisipeanu, Wang Yue, Ponomariov 2.5
And these are the pairings for round 8:
Wang Yue - Nisipeanu
Gelfand - Carlsen (Probably the last chance to stop the Carlsen Express.)
Radjabov - Ponomariov
The tournament site is here. As for notes, I'll send you to this page, where GM Dorian Rogozenko seems to have done a nice job with today's action.
Reader Comments (5)
Why are you saying about Carlsen - Radjabov; "winning what should have been a drawn ending"? It sounds pretty condescending to both Carlsen and Radjabov.
Carlsen had an advantage in the endgame and Radjabov did his best defending his position in the 5th hour of the game in the 7th round of a straining tournament. In the end he failed to do so. There was not one decisive blunder, he erred slightly on several junctions.
We know that your favorite player used to consider the game over (and drawn) if the position was equal out of the opening but why you would promote this uninteresting view of the sport chess is a mystery.
I didn't interpret Dennis in this way...
He says that Carlsen has a characteristic way of winning "drawn" endgames. If something is characteristic, then it obviously isn't a matter of luck... but rather skill.
So, i don't think Dennis meant to imply in any manner that Carlsen was lucky in this game.
Why do you guys have to nitpick? This is Dennis' blog and he does a good job. In the end though, however he semantically chooses to present his OWN point of view is well... HIS RIGHT.
@Baznaobserver: Yes, Carlsen is proving that = or +/= does *not* mean drawn. :-)
Baznaobserver: Carp elsewhere - it's boring to me and a waste of our time. My statement was intended objectively only, and I don't believe it's incorrect, let alone condescending. Note that I didn't say it was "dead drawn" or anything like that. Finally, I've expressed my admiration for Carlsen's ability to regularly win games that should have been drawn; he does this more often than anyone else in top-level chess, and is probably among the greatest of all time in that respect. Carlsen isn't my favorite player (this doesn't mean I dislike him, only that there are some players whose chess I enjoy more), but I have tremendous admiration for his ability. (What chess fan doesn't?)