Bazna Round 9: Carlsen, Karjakin Tied for First, To Play in the Last Round
Magnus Carlsen entered today's 9th round with a half point lead over Sergey Karjakin, and with a comfortable draw with Black against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu did his job. Unfortunately for him, Vassily Ivanchuk played an insanely poor game against Karjakin, and was destroyed in 22 pretty routine moves. They are thus tied for first going into the last round, and as if scripted they are paired in the last round, with Carlsen getting the white pieces.
In third in this strange tournament, at 50%, is Hikaru Nakamura, who was unable to achieve anything against Teimour Radjabov's Kalashnikov. With one round to go, then, here are the standings:
1-2. Carlsen, Karjakin 6
3. Nakamura 4.5
4. Radjabov 4
5. Nisipeanu 3.5
6. Ivanchuk 3
Final Round Pairings:
Carlsen - Karjakin
Ivanchuk - Nakamura
Radjabov - Nisipeanu
Reader Comments (4)
Watch out for another retirement announcement from Chucky after this one.
I know it doesn't count now, but I mentally predicted these exact standings. hah.
On a serious note, does this guarantee Karjakin is in the grand slam since Magnus and Nakamura are already in?
[DM: Yeah, I thought of the possibility of an Ivanchuk "retirement" announcement too, especially if he loses his last game! As for Karjakin's qualification, that's interesting. I don't know if he'd qualify automatically even if, say, he lost the last game. Maybe Thomas will help us out here.]
It was sad to see what happened to Chucky yesterday against Karjakin but this only shows the pressure these guys are under, one sign of weakness and they all pounce!
I have to say, I'm a huge Carlsen fan (like most) but its good to see Karjakin holding the lead with him! The last few rounds will hopefully be very exciting :) I thought Wimbledon might have stolen my attention but now, certainly not!
[SNIP: Please do not use my blog to advertise. You can put your website with the user info, but please don't turn the comment itself into an ad. Thanks.]
What I can do is share or spread some "informed rumors" based on a comment by "Peter" at Dailydirt before Bazna. This is Peter Doggers from Chessvibes: "Since negotiations with players for both wildcards are ongoing, in case Carlsen or Nakamura wins in Bazna, the second (or third) will qualify for what will most probably be the event with the highest average Elo of all time [of course he means Bilbao]." I kinda doubt they would have invited Nisipeanu if he had managed to finish in third place behind the two earlier qualifiers, but that's irrelevant by now. It would be truly odd if the Bilbao organizers neglected or omitted Karjakin because Carlsen happens to officially win Bazna based on 0.25 Sonneborn-Berger points.
I can speculate a bit about the wildcards: My gut feeling is it won't be (last year's winner) Kramnik, for two reasons:
- He never played Linares when it was Morelia-Linares, so it seems he doesn't like the idea of intercontinental travel in the middle of a chess event - and Bilbao is actually Sao Paulo - Bilbao.
- He will play the Unive event in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands - a four-player double round robin with Giri, Vachier-Lagrave and Polgar - which starts just two or three days after Bilbao. While Ivanchuk or Shirov are willing (and, more or less, able) to play two tournaments right after each other, I don't think Kramnik will.
Aronian is a very obvious name, the other one could be Ivanchuk (remember the comment, half-disclosing inside information, was written before Bazna) or Gelfand. Or Shirov if they want a Spanish player??
If Aronian (shared third with Carlsen at Corus, behind Nakamura and Anand) is already in, Karjakin should have been in even if he had lost to Carlsen today. The next name from the qualifying events would be Bacrot (third in Nanjing behind Carlsen and Anand, scoring 5/10).
This just from an ICC article confirms Karjakin will be in the Grand Slam. Here is an excerpt.
"History could well record 1990 as a vintage year for chess players: it was when Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin were born - and the two have become the strongest teenage players of all-time, and look set to be rivals for years to come. And we could have witnessed a portent of things to come at the Kings tournament, as both dominated the field.
The top two drew their last round game with a 3-fold repetition in 30 moves to be tied at the top unbeaten on 6.5/10, with defending champion Carlsen taking the bragging rights to the title with the better Sonneborn-Berger 3rd tiebreak score. However, both left the field standing in their wake by making sizable gains on the unofficial live rating list- Carlsen regaining the #1 spot from world champion Vishy Anand, with Karjakin moving up to #4, and also in the process reaching a milestone by replacing Vladimir Kramnik as the new Russian #1.
Karjakin now also claims a spot in the Grand Slam Masters Finalto be held later this year that will be split between Sao Paulo (Brazil)/Bilbao (Spain). He will be joined in the final by Carlsen (winner of Nanjing last year), Hikaru Nakamura (Tata Steel winner) and world champion Anand. The two remaining spots will be filled by wildcard selections from the Grand Slam organizers (a good guess could be Kramnik as the 2010 Grand Slam winner and Levon Aronian, the world #3).
In the also-rans at the Kings tournament, Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov took 3rd-4th place a full two points behind the winners on 4.5/10, while Vassily Ivanchuk and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu took 5th-6th place place on 4/10 - Ivanchuk though managing to salvage a little dignity for his disappointing overall performance with a last round win over Nakamura, which features in GM Jan Gustafsson's selection below for our final Game of the Day from the Kings tournament."