Bazna, Round 8: Everyone Draws, So Carlsen Still Leads
The antepenultimate round of the King's Tournament finished peacefully, with three draws by repetition.
The longest game was Nakamura-Karjakin, a 4.a3 Queen's Indian that saw White enjoy a middlegame edge. Somewhere around moves 22-28 Nakamura seems to have let Karjakin escape (not that the American was ever winning), and once Black played 30...Nd6 he was safe. In the final position White is set up to make progress on the queenside with a4-a5, but due to some tactical problems with his king he had no choice but to force a repetition.
Radjabov-Carlsen also ended in a draw by repetition. Carlsen has enjoyed some success on the white side of the QGD with 5.Bf4, so Radjabov decided to find out how Carlsen would handle things from the other side of the board. It turned out he had a pretty easy job of it with 5...0-0 6.e3 b6. It's rarer than 6...c5 and 6...Nbd7, but unless one of White's 7th move alternatives proves more successful than 7.cxd5 did in this game, it's liable to grow in popularity very soon. By the time the opening was over Carlsen had completely equalized, and while the way he decided to finish the game was both amusing and attractive, it was also unnecessary. Black was absolutely fine, and had just as much right to play on as White did. Rather than play on, Carlsen sacrificed a piece to force perpetual check, and that, with Karjakin's draw, kept him half a point ahead, in first place.
Finally, Ivanchuk-Nisipeanu, the battle of the tail-enders, was also drawn - again by repetition! In an English/Kan Sicilian/Hedgehog (of sorts) Nisipeanu found an interesting way to deal with the pressure against his b6-pawn: he sacrificed it on b5. Maybe Ivanchuk had one chance to battle for an edge after that, but missing it Nisipeanu used a series of small tactical tricks to keep his counterplay going. In the end Ivanchuk didn't want to play a pawn up with his king caught in the center, while Nisipeanu didn't want to play an ending with equal material but where White would have outside connected passed pawns, so they repeated moves to avoid their own evil fates.
Standings After Round 8:
- 1. Carlsen 5.5
- 2. Karjakin 5
- 3. Nakamura 4
- 4. Radjabov 3.5
- 5-6. Ivanchuk, Nisipeanu 3
Round 9 Pairings:
- Nakamura - Radjabov
- Karjakin - Ivanchuk
- Nisipeanu - Carlsen
The games, with my comments, are here.
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