Tuesday
Nov152011
Big Chess: The Tal Memorial Starts Tomorrow/Today
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 10:13PM
That is to say, Wednesday. This year's ridiculously strong edition of the Tal Memorial, taking place in Moscow, Russia, features the following players (ratings and their pairings numbers are given in parentheses):
Magnus Carlsen (2826, 10)
Viswanathan Anand (2811, 4)
Levon Aronian (2802, 1)
Vladimir Kramnik (2800, 2)
Vassily Ivanchuk (2775, 3)
Sergey Karjakin (2763, 7)
Hikaru Nakamura (2758, 5)
Peter Svidler (2755, 8)
Boris Gelfand (2744, 6)
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2730, 9)
The first round pairings (starting time: 3 p.m. Moscow time/12 CET/6 a.m. ET) are as follows:
- Aronian - Carlsen
- Kramnik - Nepomniachtchi
- Ivanchuk - Svidler
- Anand - Karjakin
- Nakamura - Gelfand
Predictions, readers?
Reader Comments (12)
If it's a memorial, shouldn't they all try to play like Tal? Like chess Globetrotters :)
Hey Dennis,
Do you have a pick to take the event? Or on the other hand a favorite that you hope prevails?
[DM: Pick: Carlsen. Rooting for: I'm a reliable Kramnik fan, and in general I'm rooting for the old guys - it warms my soul to see that people around my age can still succeed at the highest level.]
Magnus will contend for first place as usual, I think this time with Nakamura. Kramnik, Karjakin and Nepo will jostle for the 3-5 positions. Gelfand and Anand will not want to reveal a lot of prep so expect halves in games involving them. Svidler and Ivanchuk almost never do well in these super GM tournaments so I expect them to bring up the rear. I'm not sure about Aronian though, his play has been shaky of late and yet he's managed to do well. So I'm going with Carlsen, Nakamura, Karjakin, Kramnik, Nepomniatchi, Anand, Aronian, Gelfand, Svidler and Ivanchuk in that order.
[DM: I'll stick my neck out and offer an anti-prediction about Nakamura. I had said before that because of his collaboration with Kasparov, I predicted that if he maintained it and worked hard 2800 would be coming. Almost immediately after I said that, 2-3 weeks ago, Nakamura went on an ICC binge that continued through Sunday. So I'm not expecting anything special from him this tournament.]
With a lineup like this one, we're definitely up for some blood. I'm happy to see Nepomniachtchi start being invited to top events, he's a very interesting player. And it's good to see the Champ and the Challenger playing in the same event!
Nakamura will want to prove that his Wijk aan Zee result was no accident -- let's see how it goes.
I'll go for the new Tal-like Kramnik winning the whole thing. He's on the rise again.
Hmm..
Anand and Naka for a full point, the rest draws.
*I hadn't seen any part of the games when I made that prediction*
[DM: No problem. Any overall prediction?]
I'll be rooting for Anand of course, but I think Kramnik will be at his usual high level (uh oh - he is in trouble against Nepo?) and Gelfand may prove to be a suprise packet.
The obvious overall choice is Carlsen (duh), but for some reason my instincts tell me to pick Aronian.
This tournament IS 'nuts' though, (based on live ratings 16-11-'11)
Six top-10 players (1st through 4th places, 8th place and 10th place) and four others of "lower" (the art of understatement at its height!) calibre being at a "mere" 11th, 14th, 15th and 20th places.
"Big Chess"?
Is this anything like Andrew Breitbart's conservative U.S. political websites? See: BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, BigPeace.com.
To be consistent, BigChess would cover malfeasance in the chess world such as cheating scandals, toiletgate, or anything to do with Ilyumzhinov or Danailov!
:)
[DM: I borrowed the phrase from Soltis's Soviet Chess, referring to the major events sponsored there like Moscow 1925. Don't try to get me into BigTrouble. :)]
I know it's been one round, but I'm going with Aronian to show some teeth.
Recently you were posting about age... Carlsen vs Gelfand in round 2 was an amazing game.. Please post game with notes!!
[DM: Yes, but this was the opposite of what I had in mind!]
Carlsen wins. And that's bad news for him, because my predictions never come true.
[DM: You realize that "my predictions never come true" entails a prediction, right? :)]
I imagine that those who played in the recent Team Championship will struggle - its got to be tiring to have to switch events so fast surely? I include both those who did very well (Aronian) and those who didn't (Chucky, Svidler).
Hard to see Gelfand and Anand showing too much, so that leaves Kramnik and Carlsen to duel it out. And given how strong Carlsen is in tournaments I expect him to prevail. Shame he can't show that sort of strength in matchplay ...