Sao Paulo/Bilbao, Round 6: Ivanchuk Wins Again
Vassily Ivanchuk hasn't always been the most resilient player in the world, but today was impressive. Neither a loss to Magnus Carlsen in round 5, getting mugged on his way to the airport, dealing with his wife's visa issues nor making the trip from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Bilbao in Spain threw him off his game. He picked up where he left off in rounds 1-4, defeating Hikaru Nakamura in a nice (though not completely clean) attacking game to extend his lead over the field.
The lead was extended, because the other two games were drawn. Carlsen had the white pieces against Viswanathan Anand, but never enjoyed more than a symbolic advantage. In a Classical Nimzo-Indian Carlsen enjoyed the slight advantage of the bishop pair, which transformed into a slightly better pawn structure after exchanges on f6 left the world champion with doubled f-pawns. There was no way for Carlsen to reach them, however, and Anand made a comfortable draw.
The game between Francisco Vallejo and Levon Aronian saw a very strange opening: 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 c5 3.c4 dxc4 4.e4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 (slightly unusual for top chess, but still well-known) Bd7 (very rare!) 6.Bxc4 Nc6 7.Qe3. The unusual play continued, with both players burning lots of time in the opening. Vallejo had some advantage, but the way he chose to avoid the repetition on move 17 left him with practically nothing, and despite the mutual time trouble neither player had any trouble afterwards.
Standings After Round 6 (of 10) (Note: 3-1-0 scoring is used; traditional scores are given in parentheses):
1. Ivanchuk 13 (4.5 points)
2-5. Carlsen, Nakamura, Anand, Aronian 7 (3 - all four players are +1 -1 =4)
6. Vallejo 4 (1.5)
Round 7 Pairings:
- Vallejo - Ivanchuk
- Aronian - Carlsen
- Anand - Nakamura
Reader Comments (6)
In the Ivanchuk game I don't think I've seen so many ?s in a top rated game - are they playing at normal time limits? I suppose the position is very complicated.
[DM: Very complicated, yes - and no time. The first control is pretty fast, yes - 40/90 with no increments.]
and his trip was Sao Paulo - Munich - Bilbao, not exactly the most optimal route! bravo Chucky! and he has this to say on the loss of his chess-set which had sentimental value for him: " I’ve even got a wish: perhaps that chess set can somehow fall into the hands of an intelligent child, and thanks to some sort of magical properties it’ll help that child to become a famous chess player."
There is only one Ivanchuk! :)
@jaideepblue Where is that quote?
@Marc both players were under 10 minutes by move 20. They literally were under a minute for the last 10 moves of the game.
@Daniel: I saw it in the ChessVibes laptop item, here.
@Marc too: Hikaru's tweet about the loss would have been fine IMHO if he'd tipped his cap more to Ivanchuk, though his tweet offering to postpone the game had done so. He may have a point about the time control that can be probed statistically.
I didn't realise it was 40/90 - I assumed it was 40/120. Has 40/90 become a norm for tournaments now?
[DM: Yes - but with a 30-second increment! The lack of an increment in a x/90 event is new.]
here: http://www.whychess.org/node/2177
and scroll down a bit