Tal Memorial, Round 6: Morozevich Loses, Co-Leads With Kramnik In A Tight Field
Today's round at the Tal Memorial was huge for the standings. Alexander Morozevich entered the round a point clear of the field, facing the winless Hikaru Nakamura with the white pieces. A good place to be, and when Nakamura overlooked Morozevich's idea of 22.c6 Nb8 23.f5 it looked like things were going the leader's way. Nakamura thought for a very long time - around 50 minutes - and found the way to stay in the game and keep things unclear. Still, things weren't too bad until White played 38.Qd1??, a move described by a bitterly sarcastic Morozevich as a "study-like move", his self-mocking way of referring to what was perhaps the only losing move (that wasn't an overt blunder). After that everything worked like clockwork for Nakamura, and he won to get back on 50%.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Kramnik defeated tailender Evgeny Tomashevsky to catch Morozevich in first at +2. It looked like Tomashevsky was going to achieve an easy draw in a quasi-Meran. But Kramnik managed to get a nibble with White, and that little bit grew and grew until by the end of the first time control he was winning. Kramnik has complained before about his fairly regular failures over the course of his career to win won endings, and after 42.h5+? it looked like the painting painter had a new "artwork" for his gallery. Fortunately for him, he was able to keep enough pressure on his opponent to push him into a second bout of time trouble, and the result was that Tomashevsky finally lost the game a second time with 68...Ke5?
The bad news for Morozevich is not just that he was caught by Kramnik, but that Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana are all just half a point behind. Carlsen had the easier time of it against Levon Aronian, but the latter's patient defense in the Berlin eventually led to a draw. Radjabov held against Alexander Grischuk in yet another 5.b3 Rossolimo - one of the variations suddenly made trendy by Anand-Gelfand. And Caruana gained his second win in his last three games with a win over Luke McShane. The evaluation swung back and forth from White (Caruana) having a winning advantage to unclear/equal, and after several swings landed for the last time in Caruana's favor.
Tomorrow is a rest day, and Saturday the show looks like this:
Round 7 Pairings:
- Radjabov (3.5) - Caruana (3.5) (With both leaders having comparatively easy pairings, in theory, will these two take a little extra risk to stay close?)
- Aronian (2.5) - Grischuk (2.5) (Just playing out the tournament now, or will Aronian push on and attempt to avenge Kazan?)
- Nakamura (3) - Carlsen (3.5) (The perennial grudge match!)
- Tomashevsky (1.5) - Morozevich (4) (A fine opportunity for Morozevich to bounce back.)
- McShane (2) - Kramnik (4) (Likewise, a nice chance for Kramnik to consolidate his position at the top.)
Reminder: GM Ian Rogers' English-language commentary, which can be replayed on-demand, is here.
Reader Comments (2)
after 42.h5+? it looked like the painting painter had a new "artwork" for his gallery.
LOL, well played, sir!
Here's a factual but oddball-slanted way to describe the situation after Round 7: Poor Nakamura---mired in the bottom half of the standings, only a point out of clear last place. He has played far many more moves staring at a bleak 0.00 flatlined evaluation than anyone else in the tournament. He's tied for the fewest wins, and if you exclude the one game where by his own admission at the press conference he played "horribly", he has a winless minus score. Meanwhile those ahead of him are seizing the moment like Tiger Woods did today. Go Hikaru!