Tal Memorial, Round 9: Carlsen Wins the Game and the Tournament

What a crazy event the 2012 Tal Memorial was! It seemed that practically the whole field led at one moment or another, and by the end the only predictor of success was playing against one of the leaders. Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik both collapsed at the end of the tournament, and they were replaced by Fabiano Caruana going into the last round just in time for him to lose to Levon Aronian.

The event was so topsy-turvy that Luke McShane, the lowest-rated player and until the last couple of rounds mired in either last or next to last (where he finished), would have WON the tournament on tiebreaks had he beaten Magnus Carlsen! McShane's play was uncharacteristically solid in this last game, but having ceded the initiative to Carlsen when the latter played 21...a5 he went for a positionally unjustified attack in pending time trouble with 27.Rde1? Carlsen took the material, beat off the attack, and collected the point and tournament victory once the players passed the time control on move 40.

Caruana would have clinched first place on tiebreaks with a draw, no matter what happened in the other games, but with Black even against a somewhat out of form Aronian that was not a guaranteed result. Aronian chose the 3.f3 Anti-Gruenfeld line that gave Boris Gelfand some trouble in a couple of games with Viswanathan Anand in their world championship match, and it looks like there's plenty of scope here to keep causing Black some trouble. Caruana's preparation was insufficiently broad, and Aronian acquired a significant advantage by the opening's end.

The other three games were drawn: Hikaru Nakamura didn't manage to get anything from a Rossolimo Sicilian against Teimour Radjabov and was even a little worse, but Radjabov preferred to play solidly than take serious risks and the game finished peacefully. Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich were not discouraged by their failures the last few rounds and played a long, hard-fought game. Kramnik had some chances to win - as he did in many games in the event - but couldn't bring home the full point. Finally, Alexander Grischuk had good winning chances with Black in a Saemisch King's Indian against Evgeny Tomashevsky, but the former's extra pawn proved insufficient for more than the more pleasant side of a draw.

Final Standings:

• 1. Carlsen 5.5 (out of 9)
• 2-3. Caruana, Radjabov 5 (in that order, on tiebreaks; likewise for the next two score groups)
• 4-7. Kramnik, Morozevich, Aronian, Grischuk 4.5
• 8-9. McShane, Nakamura 4
• 10. Tomashevsky 3.5

Tal Memorial, Round 8: Caruana Alone in First With One Round to Go (Updated: Carlsen Wins The Tournament)

There have been many exciting games and interesting rounds at the Tal Memorial this year, but round 8 was probably the craziest. Five players entered the round tied for first, but four fell back.

Alexander Morozevich started the event on fire with 4/5, and it could have been 4.5 or even a perfect 5/5. In rounds 6 and 7 he suffered completely unnecessary losses, but in round 8 a resurgent Luke McShane beat him soundly; there was no question of good fortune this time around.

Vladimir Kramnik had also enjoyed the lead the past two rounds, but he was handled surprisingly easily by Fabiano Caruana (send him back!). Caruana played the Scotch, Kramnik sacrificed a pawn at some point for play, and Caruana simply took it and neutralized Black's compensation. Eventually Kramnik blundered and resigned, but by then Caruana's winning chances were extremely high.

Magnus Carlsen pushed Evgeny Tomashevsky in the first part of the game, but most observers thought Tomashevsky had the better chances at the start of the bishop (Carlsen) vs. knight (Tomashevsky) ending. Carlsen apparently didn't think much of that assessment, but whatever its truth he did manage to pose his opponent some serious problems. He came close to pulling it off, but Tomashevsky found the only move when he needed to and the game finished as a draw. Teimour Radjabov also drew (against Levon Aronian), and thereby kept within half a point of the lead, with Carlsen, behind Caruana.

Finally, Alexander Grischuk won convincingly on the white side of a Sicilian Dragon against Hikaru Nakamura, eliminating the American from the race for first.

So there's one round to go; here are the pairings:

• Aronian - Caruana
• Kramnik - Morozevich
• Nakamura - Rajdabov
• Tomashevsky - Grischuk
• McShane - Carlsen

[Update: Aronian beat Caruana, Radjabov was held to a draw by Nakamura and Carlsen beat McShane, so Magnus Carlsen has won the event, regardless of what happens in the Kramnik-Morozevich and Tomashevsky-Grischuk games.]

Tal Memorial, Round 7: Five Lead After Morozevich and Kramnik Lose

It almost seems at this year's Tal Memorial that leading the tournament is bad for your subsequent play. Alexander Morozevich led entering round 6 and lost, when he was caught by Vladimir Kramnik. Both promptly lost in this round, and were caught by Teimour Radjabov (who co-led after round 4, if I recall correctly), Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. All five players are on +1 with two rounds to go, and lead Hikaru Nakamura by a scanty half-point margin.

Morozevich had Black against Evgeny Tomashevsky, and while Morozevich is the kind of player who presses with either color, the fact that it was against the tailender may have pushed him to go too far even by his own standards. Tomashevsky seemed amenable to a repetition before the time control, but Morozevich's 31...Ng7 indicated that he really wanted a decisive result. He got one alright, though it wasn't the one he wished for.

Kramnik, also a co-leader, also lost with Black against one of the "lesser lights". In his case, however, it wasn't "suicide" but an earned victory by Luke McShane that took almost seven hours to achieve. The play wasn't perfect, but matters came down to McShane's having the far more dangerous passed pawn and having far more play against Kramnik's king than Kramnik enjoyed against McShane's.

Had any one of Carlsen, Radjabov or Caruana won, that person would have enjoyed clear first. For Carlsen, it wasn't really a possibility. He was always defending against Hikaru Nakamura. The latter enjoyed a nagging pul in a Catalan, but it never turned into anything tangible. As for the other two, they played each other. Radjabov obtained a huge advantage straight out of the opening, but missed his best chance to win when he played 21.e6; 21.Rc7 puts Black at death's door. He missed that chance, and after another 42 moves of dour defense the young Italian pulled out the draw.

Finally, Levon Aronian had to work to save a draw as White against Alexander Grischuk, due to the latter's terrific preparation.

There are two rounds to go, and here's what we can look forward to in a few hours:

Round 8 Pairings:

• Carlsen (4) - Tomashevsky (2.5)
• Radjabov (4) - Aronian (3)
• Grischuk (3) - Nakamura (3.5)
• Caruana (4) - Kramnik (4)
• Morozevich (4) - McShane (3)

This Week's ChessVideos Show: The Triumph of Opening Principles

Many chessplayers opt out of studying openings, believing the task to be largely one of memorization. It can't be denied that some memorization is important, but an awful lot of opening theory has very little to do with the brute force memorization of long strings of incomprehensible moves. Instead, understanding key plans and motifs in the lines you play, and even just having a good grasp of opening principles is often enough to not only avoid trouble but reach a good position. What is certainly clear is that not knowing those plans and motifs and violating proper principles is often a guarantee of finding oneself in deep trouble.

To illustrate this, I take a look back in this week's ChessVideos show to a tournament where all my opponents were significantly lower-rated and whose knowledge of theory was considerably less than mine. If there was ever an event I could win by showing my showing how much I had memorized, this was it! I was successful in the tournament, taking clear first, and was very successful in the openings as well. But this is the important thing: my opening success had practically nothing to do with memorization and everything to do with the points mentioned in the previous paragraph. See for yourself!

As always, the show is free (one-time free registration is required) and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

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.

Kasparov Mulling a Run for the FIDE Presidency

Garry Kasparov really and truly doesn't like Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's "successes" as FIDE President, and although his attempt to help Anatoly Karpov win the presidency in 2010 failed, he wants to have another go at it in 2014, even if it means he himself will be the opposition candidate.

Kasparov has done a lot for chess over the years with his fantastic play, and his charisma and energy brought major corporations like Intel, IBM and Microsoft into the game for a time. On the other hand, he did more damage to the world championship title than a year's worth of Anand-Gelfand matches while helping to alienate those same corporations as well. (Most famously in the case of IBM, when in the second Deep Blue match he all but accused the IBM team of cheating.) So if it's a race between Ilyumzhinov and Kasparov in 2014, the best candidate may be "none of the above".

(HT: Brian Karen)

King's Tournament in Medias Postponed

Which will probably mean cancelled. This super-tournament in Medias, Romania, scheduled to go from June 23 to July 4, has been postponed due to financial difficulties; the organizers hope somehow to reschedule the event later in the year. The participants were to be (and maybe still will be, eventually) Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

More details in this ChessVibes article, which notes that in the last couple of years we've also lost Linares, Pearl Spring and M-Tel from the super-tournament calendar.

Karpov Defeats Seirawan in Blitz 6-4, Wins Overall Match By Two Points

The blitz portion of the three-part match between the former world champion Anatoly Karpov and 4-time U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan was entertaining and well-played. Neither player had much to offer by way of opening prep, and that mutual lack helped make the match. Neither player got much out of the opening, so that meant they had to play chess: no quick wins and no quick forced or semi-forced draws. Neither player is what he once was, but as if by mutual agreement they reached positions where they could both show some glimpses of their old greatness.

Anyway, after four draws in the first four games - the classical games on Sunday and Monday and the two rapid games on Tuesday - they had only two draws in ten blitz games today. Karpov never trailed, and by running off three wins in a row in games 6-8 he clinched victory in the match.

Question for my readers: do you think chess bloggers will write about the Carlsen-Nakamura nostalgia match in 2050?

Tal Memorial, Round 5: Morozevich Leads, Carlsen Gets His First Win

Round 5 of the Tal Memorial was still another good one, and it saw a shakeup at the top. Coming into the round Alexander Morozevich and Teimour Radjabov were tied for first, and with Morozevich getting Black against Levon Aronian and Radjabov the white pieces against Magnus Carlsen one would think Radjabov would have the better chance to come out of the round on top. And early on, that guess looked good. Radjabov didn't get anything with the Scotch, but his position looked pretty safe, like a draw was the inevitable result. Morozevich, had an extra piece in exchange for a horde of pawns - four of them, mostly in the center.

But then things changed. Carlsen finally got "his" kind of position, one where he could grind and grind, and he won the game a little at a time. Meanwhile, the Aronian-Morozevich contest was always very complicated, and in major time trouble Aronian was unable to negotiate the complications and the once thriving species of white pawns were soon an endangered species. Aronian made the time control, but the only effect was that it gave him time to resign.

Carlsen thus caught Radjabov in a tie for second, a point behind Morozevich. It would have been a tie for third, had Vladimir Kramnik managed to defeat Hikaru Nakamura, but while he managed to obtain an edge with the black pieces it wasn't quite enough to gain serious winning chances. The post-mortem was amusing. Nakamura felt that he had been caught in some typical great Kramnik preparation, but through very hard work he managed to avoid defeat. Then Kramnik spoke and seemed to be having a little too much fun. First, he indicated that it wasn't prep at all - just old theory he didn't seem to remember perfectly either. Then he pointed out several ways Nakamura could have completely equalized, where if anything it would have been him (Kramnik) who had to show a little accuracy. Nakamura had a look at that point that seemed to me a combination of embarrassment and "How could I not have seen this?" Nakamura clearly isn't happy with his play these days, judging by his tweets, but (as I'm sure he knows very well) these kinds of off-days happen to everyones, even 2780s! Fortunately for him, he played well enough to hold the game. Maybe it's too late for him to win the tournament, but there's still time for him to do some damage to the leaders.

Also suffering a lapse today, and also recovering, was Fabiano Caruana. Caruana had some fantastic preparation with Black in a Gruenfeld and obtained a big advantage against Alexander Grischuk. Had he played 19...Re8, he would have kept it and possibly gone on to win a truly great game; instead, he played 19...Qe7??, and after 20.Nc7 he was fortunate (and displayed some fortitude!) to still hold the draw.

Finally, Evgeny Tomashevsky and Luke McShane drew a crazy game that would have received more attention - deservedly - if they had been doing a bit better in the tournament.

Round 6 Pairings:

• Caruana (2.5) - McShane (2) (A good chance for Caruana to catch the chase pack.)
• Kramnik (3) - Tomashevsky (1.5) (Kramnik must win to keep his hopes for first place alive.)
• Morozevich (4) - Nakamura (2) (A win for either player will be huge.)
• Carlsen (3) - Aronian (2) (With Aronian's indifferent form, this is a good chance for Carlsen to build on round 5's victory.)
• Grischuk (2) - Radjabov (3) (Will Radjabov bounce back from today's mishap?)

Last Week's ChessVideos Show: Highlights from the 2012 Tal Memorial Blitz

Those of you who have been following the Tal Memorial will recall that the main event was preceded by a blitz tournament used to determine pairing numbers. The level of play was obviously lower than in the ongoing classical rounds, but there were still exciting, instructive and well-played games that merited a look; and so those games are the subject of this week's ChessVideos show. Magnus Carlsen's feature prominently, as do Vladimir Kramnik's battles against the Hippo and its near-relatives.

As always, the show is free (free registration required) and available on-demand for the next month or so.