Candidates Tournament, Round 1: Four Draws
And...they're off! The Candidates Tournament in London got underway earlier today, and all four games were drawn. The site had some technical difficulties, and for some reason they're using horrid computer demo boards with red pieces, but as the game's the thing let's turn to the actual play.
The marquee matchup between Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen turned out to be a bit of a dud. It's not that Aronian, who had the white pieces, lacked fighting spirit. Rather, Carlsen did a good job of surprising him in the opening with the Bogo-Indian. It seems that in the particular line Black chose, Aronian would have had to try 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Bd3 for any hopes of an edge. Instead, after 9.Qc2 a6 10.a3 Nbd7 11.Be2 dxc4 12.Bxc4 c5 13.Be2 b5 Carlsen not only didn't have any problems; he even had some hopes of getting an edge. Aronian's 17.a4 prudently started the process of liquidating the queenside pawns (and most of the pieces as well), and the game was quickly drawn.
Peter Svidler's game with Vladimir Kramnik was even shorter in terms of moves, but although it was Kramnik who created the first surprise by his choice of opening (the Semi-Tarrasch), it was clear that Kramnik wasn't perfectly prepared for the line Svidler chose against it. Kramnik was very nearly in trouble, but with accurate play just managed to keep out of serious trouble.
Like Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov also employed the Bogo-Indian, but Boris Gelfand's treatment was different from Aronian's. Gelfand enjoyed a space advantage, but before he could consolidate it and put it to work Radjabov came up with the plan of 15...c6 and 16...d5, and that just about equalized the chances. One last accurate idea was needed, and with 31...Qe8! and 33...Nd7! the draw was secured.
Finally, in the battle of the "chuks", Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Grischuk followed main line Open Catalan theory for 19 moves before Ivanchuk's 20.Bf1 set the game on a new course. For a few moves it looked like f4-f5 ideas might give White a pull, but after 28...Nb6 the burden of maintaining equality had shifted to Ivanchuk. He met the challenge, and after 44 moves the players split the point in a dead-drawn king and pawn ending.
You can replay the games here, with my comments. As for the pairings for round 2, tomorrow, they are as follows:
- Carlsen - Kramnik
- Grischuk - Svidler
- Radjabov - Ivanchuk
- Aronian - Gelfand
Reader Comments (4)
I quite like the ChessCasting font with the red pieces...
Dennis enjoyed your notes to the games. They are always enlightening.
The question I have is why Kramnik would choose such a dangerous opening as Black, given it's poor reputation?
[DM: The move's reputation doesn't matter. Remember that "book" is based on players' repertoires, not the other way around. (MCO doesn't stand for Moses' Chess Openings!) Kramnik clearly had looked at the opening (which has been played by other super-GMs over the last decade, including especially Arkadij Naiditsch) and must have felt confident in what he had prepared, that it would enable him to reach a relatively painless draw. So the interesting question is what he missed in his preparation: did Svidler play a strong move he overlooked, or was it that he (Kramnik) didn't "feel" the danger in a position that he reached in his prep until he had to play it at the board. That can happen too, even to a Kramnik. Sometimes the computer says a position is equal, but it isn't, or it is in some objective way but subjectively one side is much easier to handle than the other.]
I dislike the black background & the red pieces.
how does this rank aongst strongest tournaments all time?
3 players in the same event over 2800 and none of them the world champ.
i could lose every game and get a mercy draw at the end and my new rating would be that of a minor grandmaster