Grenke, Aeroflot and Jurmala: Excitement Entering the Final Day
All three of the strong and interesting events listed above finish today (still tomorrow, for a few of you), and it should be a great day for chess fans everywhere.
1. The remaining rounds of the Grenke Chess Classic threatened to become a coronation for Fabiano Caruana after his fortunate victory over Arkadij Naiditsch in the antepenultimate round, but round 9 put a stop to that. Caruana had been almost Carlsenesque in his ability to gain extra half and even full points from his games, but today his run came to an end. Despite having the white pieces, it was Michael Adams who seemed more comfortable in the Closed Catalan they played, and after 31.f4? Adams started to take over. By the end of the first time control Adams had a nice space advantage, a better structure and a superior minor piece, and he quickly parlayed it into a crushing attack.
That, combined with Viswanathan Anand's smooth win over Daniel Fridman, led to a two-way tie for first going into the last round. As with most of Anand's victories of late, he was given a big headstart by his opening preparation; in this case culminating in the tactical trick 22.Bg4! Black's position was at least difficult for a human being to play on spec, and Fridman didn't come close to putting up a defense.
The third game saw Georg Meier continue his ascendancy while the star of the tournament, Arkadij "Mr. Volatility" Naiditsch, took another step back. When Meier wins, it's generally with technical play, and in contrast with practically all his other games in this event (whether successful or not) Naiditsch went out with a whimper, not a bang.
The final round pairings (with player scores in parentheses) are:
- Fridman (3) - Caruana (5.5)
- Adams (4.5) - Meier (4.5)
- Naiditsch (4) - Anand (5.5)
2. Aeroflot: Saturday's action reduced the field of finalists from 16 to four. In the round of 16, here's what happened:
Karjakin defeated Frolyanov 1.5-.5, on the strength of a nice finishing attack in the second game.
Grischuk blanked Shimanov 2-0.
Kamsky beat Sjugirov 1.5-.5.
Svidler also won 1.5-.5 over Mamedov. He won a nice ending in their first game, but was fortunate to get away with a blunder in that game - 41.Bf5?? could have been punished by 41...Rxf5+! - and a little fortunate in the second game as well, as Mamedov didn't make the most of his chances there either.
Nepomniachtchi beat Karpov 2-0. Karpov had chances to draw the first and was better for a while in the second, but youth won out.
Eljanov beat Korobov 2-1 - he dominated the regular games but allowed his opponent to escape both times with draws, but went on to win the Armageddon game anyway.
Mamedyarov beat Le Quang Liem 1.5-.5, thanks to a crushing attack in their second game.
Wang Hao beat Andreikin 1.5-.5, winning the second game in 90 moves, a real sitzfleisch special.
In the quarter-finals, the matches went like this:
Karjakin beat Wang Hao 1.5-.5, winning game two with Black. White sacrificed a pawn in the Scotch, but his compensation eventually dried up and Black used the pawn to win the endgame.
Kamsky beat Eljanov, like Karjakin by winning game 2 with Black thanks to an extra pawn (then two). Unlike the Wang Hao-Karjakin game, however, Eljanov didn't sac the pawn; he blundered it.
Grischuk won against Mamedyarov by a similar 1.5-.5 score, also winning with Black - in game 1. Grischuk could have easily made it 2-0, but rather than playing something like 42.Rg1, with a simple win, he liquidated to an utterly unloseable ending with 42.Rxd6.
The Nepomniachtchi - Svidler match went to the sudden death game before Nepomniachtchi won the match 2-1. The first game seesawed before Svidler blundered a roughly even position with 41...Qd3?? The second game was even for a long time as well, but Svidler won not on a blunder but by outplaying his opponent in the endgame. Finally, Svidler was better for much of the Armageddon game, and although Nepomniachtchi (with White) had obtained an edge after 36.Qd7, it was only an edge until the unfortunate 36...Ra8?? The game score ends at that point, so I assume Svidler resigned without waiting for 37.Qc6, winning on the spot. Black's rook can't leave the back rank (37...Ra5 38.Rd8+ Bf8 39.Bd6 is killing), while the alternative 37...Rf8 leaves White the exchange and a pawn ahead for absolutely nothing.
I'm not sure about the semifinal pairings, but assuming the foregoing represents bracket order they are Karjakin - Nepomniachtchi and Kamsky-Grischuk. It should be fun in any case.
3. The Vladimirs Petrovs Memorial in Jurmala is 11 rounds in (of 14), and Sergei Zhigalko, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Vassily Ivanchuk share the lead with 8.5 points apiece; Vladimir Malakhov, Alexandr Fier, Jaan Ehlvest, Chanda Sandipan and Grigoriy Oparin are half a point behind.
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