Tal Memorial: Nepomniachtchi Wins, Giri Second
The pace slowed down at the end of the 2016 Tal Memorial, with every game but one in the last three rounds ending in a draw. (The one exception was Mamedyarov-Kramnik in the last round, won by Mamedyarov.) That allowed Ian Nepomniachtchi to shepherd in his half-point lead to the finish, resulting in a clear first place with six points out of nine rounds, half a point better than Anish Giri's five and a half.
In round 8 Nepomniachtchi had the white pieces against Viswanathan Anand, and in the non-standard positions that arose from the opening (an English) first Nepo was better and then Anand was. The game went only 29 moves, but it was a contentful game. Giri also had white, but failed to achieve anything against Mamedyarov and the game was agreed drawn on move 40.
In the last round the tournament could easily have finished with the players switching positions. Nepomniachtchi was in some trouble against Boris Gelfand until the latter played 37.Ne5. Perhaps Gelfand didn't take seriously the possibility that Black could take on e5 (after trading rooks), but this was not only forced but good. By the time control White's advantage was between minimal and non-existent, and Nepomniachtchi held without any further difficulty.
Even so, Giri had excellent chances to catch up. Despite playing black against Li Chao, he soon equalized in a Nimzo-Indian and then was better and pressing thanks to his superior queenside pawn structure. The critical moment came just after the time control. On move 41 Giri had an important decision to make, and he spent almost 19 minutes on it. Nevertheless, he chose wrongly. Instead of 41...Ne3, Giri would have kept a large, possibly winning advantage with 41...Kf4 or 41...Ne1 (the two moves can lead to the same position). Unfortunately for him, his move surrendered most of his advantage, and his very last move, 46...Nxa5, surrendered the rest, although even more testing moves like 46...Kg3 are likely to result in a rook and knight vs. rook ending - at best.
Final Standings:
1. Nepomniachtchi 6
2. Giri 5.5
3-4. Aronian, Anand 5
5-8. Svidler, Mamedyarov, Li Chao, Kramnik 4.5
9. Tomashevsky 3.5
10. Gelfand 2
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