Amber, Round 1: Crazy Chess and Blunders
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 2:25PM One expects the occasional blunder in these Amber Blindfold & Rapid tournaments, especially in the rapid games, but today those numbers were more than usual. Let's recap the round, session by session. (Remember that the first two sessions are blindfold, the last two rapid [with sight of the board].)
Session 1:
- Nakamura - Carlsen 1/2-1/2
- Aronian - Giri 1-0
- Ivanchuk - Gashimov 0-1
Nakamura - Carlsen was an IQP Nimzo-Indian with 5.Bd3 and 6.Nge2, and the opening came out very well for Nakamura. He stood clearly better after 20.d5, but he couldn't find a way through. (Perhaps the best try was 22.Qa2.) After the mass exchanges finishing with 26.Qxe5, White had a choice to win a pawn but enter a completely drawn ending, or to maintain material equality but hope to use Black's weak light squares. Nakamura went for the latter plan, but it didn't pan out and they reached a dead drawn ending. Or at least, an ending that would have been dead draws with their eyes open.
In the game, Nakamura not once but twice played Rd7-c7 (on moves 44 and 46), and both times Carlsen failed to "see" ...Be5xc7! Then just a few moves later, White played 48.Bg6??, and again Carlsen overlooked or trusted Nakamura and didn't play 48...Rxg6 in reply. After that the blunders ended and the game finished normally, with a logical draw the result.
Aronian - Giri was an English, and while the line chosen by Black generally leads to pretty dry play (1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Nd4) Giri sharpened things up by holding on to a sacrificed pawn with 11...c5. Play got extremely sharp after that, and for a long time Giri outplayed Aronian in the complications. 25.c5 was a big mistake, and although Giri could have just about won on the spot with 27...Nxg2 28.Kxg2 Re8 he remained in control after his choice as well. Aronian's subsequent queen sac was objectively a bluff, but it allowed him to maintain the initiative and kept things crazy.
On move 36, Giri could have won with 36...f5!, but after his move it was equal. Aronian should have repeated moves with 40.Kg3, allowing a perpetual, but he went for broke with 40.Ke3. Now 40...Re1+ would have won, and later 43...Rxd5 might have held half a point, but Giri finally fell apart after the constant pressure. Aronian could have won more quickly with 45.d8Q, but 45.Bxg5 was a very practical decision. Rather than risk perpetual, he achieved a dominating position where the eventual advance of his a- and b-pawns would overload Black's queen.
Ivanchuk - Gashimov was rather unfortunate for the Ukranian great, who tied for first last year without losing a single game. That streak was broken in the very first round. An equalish Petroff turned into a disaster for White when he overpressed on the queenside. Ivanchuk's attempt to win a pawn led to his pieces getting tangled up, and in a bad, possibly lost position he hung mate in one.
Session 2:
- Karjakin - Gelfand 0-1
- Grischuk - Kramnik 1-0
- Anand - Topalov 1-0
Karjakin - Gelfand, like Ivanchuk - Gashimov, was a 5.Nc3 Petroff, and again one that won for Black. Most of the way, things proceeded pretty logically, and the position was always somewhere around equal to slightly better for Black. Unfortunately for Karjakin, he too was bit by the blunder bug, and his 36.Be4?? hung both a rook and a quick mate.
Grischuk - Kramnik, happily, was an exception to the blunderfest. Grischuk played very well and gradually outplayed Kramnik in a Ragozin. It took a long time, but he finally achieved e4, and then his subsequent queen sacrifice was very well calculated and assessed. Qualitatively, it was the best game of the round, at least in the blindfold sessions.
Anand - Topalov was a long torture session in the Berlin, which does seem a slightly odd choice for a dynamic player like Topalov. Anyway, Anand gradually outplayed him, but Topalov still managed to slip into bishop vs. knight and pawn that was barely drawn. After 65...Be4! Black holds, e.g. 66.Nd5+ Kf7! 67.c7 Bf5 68.Nb6 Ke8, or 66.c7 Bb7! ('!' here signifies 'only move', not necessarily one that's especially challenging to find) 67.Nd7+ Kf7! 68.Nc5 Bc8!, or 66.c7 Bb7! 67.Kd7 Ke5! 68.Na4 Kd5. Missing this one chance, he lost.
Session 3:
- Carlsen - Nakamura 1-0
- Giri - Aronian 0-1
- Gashimov - Ivanchuk 1-0
Carlsen - Nakamura was a sort of Chebanenko Slav that turned into a very pleasant kind of QGA position. White was doing fine in any case, but Nakamura's play with 12...Nxd5 and 13...Nb4 was too optimistic. After the piece "sac" (for three pawns and a huge initiative) 15.Bxh7 g6 16.Bxg6 fxg6 17.Qxg6+ Kf8 18.Ne5 Black's position was nearly hopeless for a human-human game, and Carlsen's subsequent exchange sac 27.Rxc6! (the exclam is for the idea, which needed to be seen beforehand; in the position itself it's the only move that makes any sense) decided the game.
Giri - Aronian was in a way a repeat of their first game. Aronian played sharply and too riskily, and Giri was soon much better in a Leningrad Dutch. Aronian then sacrificed a piece for play, and while objectively it wasn't enough, he once again managed to bamboozle his young opponent. (Aronian has won like this against everyone else, including Anand and Kramnik in classical time controls, so why not against Giri too?) The losing move seems to have been 31.Rd3; 31.Rf7, blocking the f-file, might have been enough for a draw.
Gashimov - Ivanchuk was a complicated Scheveningen where the game remained in a precarious balance until move 29. It seems that Ivanchuk should have grabbed the piece, as 29...Qxa2 30.Bc5 g6 31.Rh3 Bg7 32.Qxg6 h6 seems to leave White with nothing more than a perpetual with 33.Rxh6+ (now or very soon). If he tries for more, his own weak king comes into play, e.g. 33.Rf7 Qa1+ 34.Kf2? (34.Rf1 Qxb2 35.Rxh6+=) 34...Qxb2+ 35.Kf2 Qc1+ 36.Kf2? (36.Rf1 is better, but Black is still winning by now, as there won't be any Rxh6+ -based perpetual) 36...Rg8 and everything is covered. Black is a piece up, ...Be8 is a threat, and White's attack is finished.
In the game, Ivanchuk played 29...Be4?, and although the Black queen looks well-placed after 30.Nc3 Qc2 31.Nxe4 Qxe4, White is still much better after 32.Bc5. Black had to play 32...g6, when White has a big but not yet decisive advantage. Ivanchuk found a different way to deal with the threat of 33.Bxf8 Rxf8 34.Qxg7#, but it wasn't very good. He chose 32...Rxc5??, which is bad even if White isn't tactically alert. The boring 33.Qxe8 wins a full rook on the way to mate, but faster and simpler was Gashimov's choice of 33.Qxf8+, with mate next move. Oops. Not a good start for Ivanchuk, who managed to hang mate in one and then mate in two in consecutive games.
Session 4:
- Gelfand - Karjakin 1-0
- Kramnik - Grischuk 0-1
- Topalov - Anand 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Karjakin was yet another game decided by a blunder. In another Nimzo-cum-Queen's Gambit Accepted Gelfand managed to achieve the appearance of a bind, but one without any clear effect. The game remained about equal from start to finish - or rather, almost the finish. On move 39, with a board right in front of him, Karjakin played 39...Qxf2??, forgetting that 40.Qxc4 would come with check. He remembered only in time to resign before Gelfand executed the move.
Kramnik - Grischuk was a Makagonov King's Indian-turned-Modern Benoni, and a complicated game was in prospect until 18.Nc6. This swapped White's best (or co-best, with the Bg5) minor piece for Black's worst one (the Bb7) while sacrificing a pawn for unclear compensation. Later, White possibly should have tried 24.Nf5. As the game went, Kramnik was unable to cause Grischuk any difficulties, and Black won routinely. In the final position Black is a good pawn ahead, White's b-pawn is about to fall, and then Black's c-pawn will cost White some big material.
Topalov - Anand was a success story for Topalov, in the sardonic sense that it was the first time in three games that he managed to pull out a draw with White against Anand's Lasker QGD. (He had previously lost the last game of the world championship match to it, along with a second game late last year in Nanjing.) In fact, he might have enjoyed a very slight pull, but if so it dissipated after 24.Bg4 Bxg4 25.hxg4 b5! (Perhaps 24.c4 would have kept the mini-edge.) Surprisingly, this was only the second draw in twelve games today.
Overall Standings:
1-4. Aronian, Grischuk, Gelfand, Gashimov 2
5-6. Anand, Carlsen 1.5
7-8. Topalov, Nakamura .5
9-12. Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Giri 0
Round 2 Pairings:
- Session 1: Topalov - Karjakin, Kramnik - Anand, Gelfand - Grischuk
- Session 2: Carlsen - Gashimov, Giri - Ivanchuk, Nakamura - Aronian
- Session 3: Karjakin - Topalov, Anand - Kramnik, Grischuk - Gelfand
- Session 4: Gashimov - Carlsen, Ivanchuk - Giri, Aronian - Nakamura
Reader Comments (2)
" both times Carlsen failed to "see""
hahahaha. Sorry, light-hearted humor cracks me up.
A little update: Carlsen states on his blog that he thought the Bishop was on F6, not E5. You've got to love Blindfold Chess!
[DM: Thanks...it's also mentioned by Carlsen in the video I linked to in the next post.]