Coming Up: The Sinquefield Cup Starts Monday

Only four players are participating in the Sinquefield Cup, but they aren't just any four players! The world's #s 1 and 2, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, will take on the United States's top duo of Hikaru Nakamura (#7 in the world) and Gata Kamsky (#19). The event will be a double round-robin running from Monday, September 9 through Sunday, September 15, with a rest day on Thursday after the first cycle. This is Carlsen's last event before his world championship match with Anand, and while one can expect he'll hide all his real openings he'll surely take this tournament very seriously as a tune-up. For Aronian it will be a chance to bounce back from his poor performance in the World Cup and to make an early statement in advance of next year's Candidates. For Nakamura, a great result would be a huge confidence boost, and for Kamsky his fans can hope that a strong result will lead to him to delay is plans to retire in a year or so.

Predictions?

A Small Super-Tournament in St. Louis

This ought to be fun: Rex Sinquefield is putting on an elite four-player, double round robin this September (the 9th to the 15th) at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. The participants are the world's #1 and 2 players, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, respectively, and the U.S.A.'s #s 1 and 2 - Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky.

The CCSCSL has put on some great events the past few years, and this is the most prestigious yet. It should be terrific as all four players are terrific fighters; let's just hope that their website will finally be worthy of the chess it's supposed to broadcast.

Zug Grand Prix, Rounds 9 & 10: Lots Of Action; Topalov Leads

I'm a bit too tired to offer a substantive report on the goings-on at the FIDE Grand Prix in Zug, Switzerland; so I'll confine myself to "just the facts" comments and a few links. The last two rounds have been something of a bloodbath with three decisive games (of six) in round nine and four of six in round 10. This is at least partially due to a pretty fair number of blunders.

The most important decisive games in round 9 were Kamsky-Caruana (a well-played win for Caruana [send him back!] in a Closed Ruy and Nakamura-Morozevich (in which Morozevich self-destructed, going from much better to worse to dead lost and resigning in a game of just 34 moves; that was his third consecutive loss). After the round Topalov (who drew with Mamedyarov) still led, but by just half a point over Caruana; Ponomariov, Karjakin and Nakamura were a further half a point behind. (For further, fuller reports on the round there are plenty of options including the official site and TWIC.)

So what pairing headlined the tenth round? Caruana-Topalov, naturally. The played a Byrne Attack Najdorf that saw Topalov eschew the eponymous Topalov Variation (8...h5) with one featuring an eventual ...a5. That's not the most common approach in the Byrne Attack, and the players agreed afterwards that White had some advantage. (Though they seemed to differ about how large the advantage one - Caruana seemed more sanguine.) Topalov played the second half of the game much more accurately and incisively than Caruana, however, and managed to grind out the full point. He thus increased his lead over the field, but only to a full point rather than a point and a half. That's because Nakamura won his second straight game, and even more quickly than in round 9. Nakamura defeated Mamedyarov in just 22 moves. (There is some feeling that Mamedyarov may have resigned prematurely, but his position was clearly inferior in any case.)

Standings After Round 10:

1. Topalov 7
2. Nakamura 6
3-4. Ponomariov, Caruana 5.5
5-7. Kamsky, Karjakin, Morozevich 5
8-9. Giri, Leko 4.5
10-12. Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Kasimdzhanov 4

Final Round Pairings:

• Leko - Kasimdzhanov
• Kamsky - Giri
• Topalov - Karjakin
• Nakamura - Caruana
• Radjabov - Mamedyarov
• Ponomariov - Morozevich

Unive, Round 3: Nakamura Wins Again

Hikaru Nakamura finished the first cycle of the Unive Crown Group in Hoogeveen with his second win in three games. Today he defeated Hou Yifan with the white pieces in a very sharp Schevingen line. After 5...e6 6.g4 h6 7.Rg1 Hou uncorked the new move 7...e5. It looks horrid at first sight, but in fact the concept is known from some similar positions (for example, on move 6). Nakamura went for a standard recipe (8.Bb5+ Nbd7 9.Nf5), and a few moves later the position took on a Perenyi-like character (compare the game sequence 11.g5 Nxe4 12.Nxg7+ Bxg7 13.Nxe4 with the variation 5...a6 6.Be3 e6 7.g4 e5 8.Nf5 h5 9.g5 Nxe4 10.Nxg7+ Bxg7 11.Nxe4).

Resemblances notwithstanding, the position was very tactical and had to be played on its own merits. For a time both players handled the position well, but Hou made a fatal error with 19...Bxc2. There was no way to avoid some sort of material loss, but the right way was 19...Rah8. There Black loses the exchange, but she'll win a pawn and will have a pretty stable position once White's knight is gone. The game continuation netted Black two pawns for a piece, but it wasn't enough - or at least shouldn't have been. Both players handled the subsequent play inaccurately, but the "normal" result came to pass.

The game between Anish Giri and Sergei Tiviakov was a Rubinstein French that finished in an unusual draw. Tiviakov's 22nd move may have looked like a blunder, but his superior minor piece together with White's brittle queenside gave him fully equal chances. If anything, Black could have continued at the end, as a line like 30...Qxe3 31.Rxe3 exf3! 32.Rxe8 fxg2 33.Rg1 (or 33.Rb8+ Kc6 34.Rc1+ Kd7 35.Rxb5 Rxb5 36.Rg1 Rb4 37.Rxg2 Rxd5) 33...Bf1 34.Re1 Kxc6 35.Rgxf1 gxf1Q 36.Rxf1 Rxd4 is marginally in Black's favor. I can't really see Giri losing that, but in the age of Carlsen it's getting a little tougher to know when a position is trivially drawn.

I believe the players are taking tomorrow off, and then finish up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. After three rounds, only Nakamura has won a game, while only Tiviakov has drawn all his games. (That should suffice to allow anyone to reconstruct everyone's score.)

Unive Starts, Nakamura Wins

Every year for some time now in Hoogeveen, their chess festival includes a four-player double round robin event. The usual formula called for a world champion, the world junior champion, a Dutchman and a woman*. (Preferably the women's world champion or the highest-rated woman.) They got the last two, but not the first two. Top dog in this year's Unive Crown Group is Hikaru Nakamura, who may have been #5 or #6 in the world when he got the invitation. Anish Giri is the #2 player in the world among those under 21, so I guess he's the ersatz world junior champ, though he also counts as a Dutchman, obviously. However, that status probably goes to Sergei Tiviakov, as he doesn't come close to fitting any of the other categories. Finally, they've usually invited Judit Polgar, but this time it's women's world champion Hou Yifan filling the role.

Round 1 took place earlier today, and Nakamura got to work on repairing the damage done to his rating in his recent events by grinding down Giri on the White side of the 5.Re1 anti-Berlin. For a long time it had a (deserved) reputation as a deadly dull, non-threatening system (when White plays 7.Bf1, that is; 7.Bd3 lines are much sharper), but in recent years White has found ways to pressure Black. So it was here: Giri never quite managed to equalize, and finally went down after a lot of suffering. In the other game, Tiviakov had to suffer a little with Black in a Rubinstein French, but not too much. Hou Yifan wound up with the better half of an opposite-colored bishop ending, but it wasn't enough to win (or even close).

* I have to admit, that formula always reminds me of former U.S. Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt's infamous remark about the diversity of an advisory panel. That was back in 1983, before the need for politically correct speech was as stifling as it is now, but by practically any standard his remarks were stratospherically impolitic.

London Grand Prix, Round 10: Five Draws and a Nakamura Win

All the leaders wound up drawing their games, but the one and only win in the penultimate round of the London Grand Prix was noteworthy. After four consecutive losses, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Anish Giri, and did it with a very nice combination coming soon to a tactics book near you. Ironically, he met Giri's Petroff (draw, anyone?) with 5.Qe2 (I'll see your draw and raise you to a boring draw), but he didn't do so to end the game but to avoid heavy theory. Nevertheless, Giri handled the position better until move 22 and in the players' opinion, stood better. Had Black played 22...Rd4, Nakamura said he would have played for a draw; instead, 22...Nd5 helped White, and soon Nakamura was the one pressing for whatever was there.

The next moment singled out by the players afterwards was when White played 28.h4. Giri opined that he should have played "like everyone else" (either his exact words, or very close) and erected the standard defensive setup with ...h5 and ...g6. Failing to do so let White tighten his bind, though the game was still tenable at this point. The last position to note came after Nakamura's 46.Re1, when Giri played 46...Bd6-e5. This was a mistake, but why?

The solution is spectacular, and to cheer you up even more you've got a better chance of solving it than your computer. (I let Deep Rybka try it, and I think it might have finally worked it out at depth 29.) Here it is: 47.g5!! (not for the move by itself, but for the whole concept) 47...hxg5 48.h6 gxh6 49.Rxe5 fxe5 50.f6 and White regains material with a won position. After 50...Bd7 (best) 51.f7+ Ke7 52.Bxd7 Black has a choice between a rook vs. two bishops ending (after 52...Kxf7) or trying his luck with pawns against a bishop (with 52...Kxd7 53.Bc5 followed by 54.f8Q). Giri went for the latter, but his kingside passers weren't enough of a distraction to save the game.

(Would 52...Kxf7 have saved the game? Mark Crowther apparently thinks so, but with all due respect to the chess world's most important amateur, I think he's guilty of looking superficially at the engine's initial evaluation. If you don't trust yourself enough to know that the bishop pair will massacre the rook, analyze with the computer for a few minutes and you'll see that it's utterly hopeless - Black has no chance whatsoever to save the ending.)

Tomorrow is the final round, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads with 6.5/10, half a point ahead of Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand. Here are the pairings, with player scores in parentheses:

• Mamedyarov (6.5) - Leko (5.5)
• Ivanchuk (4.5) - Wang Hao (5)
• Adams (4.5) - Dominguez (4)
• Giri (4) - Topalov (6)
• Grischuk (6) - Nakamura (3.5)
• Gelfand (6) - Kasimdzhanov (4.5)

One final note: the last round starts two hours earlier than usual, at noon London time/7 in the bleary morning ET and 4 a.m. for you night owls on the west coast in North America.

London Grand Prix, Rounds 6 & 7: Gelfand Still Leads, Mamedyarov Surges, Nakamura Falters

In round 6 of the London Grand Prix the action heated up after two rest days, one official and one not. Three games were decisive, and the other three were interesting as well.

The leader, Boris Gelfand, drew with Vassily Ivanchuk in just 25 moves, but it was extremely interesting and saw the players break new ground. After 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 b5 in a Queen's Indian, Gelfand played the relatively rare 6.Nbd2, to which Ivanchuk replied with the extremely rare 6...c5. Gelfand's response was a novelty, sacrificing a pawn with 7.d5. Such ideas are common, especially in the Queen's Indian, but with a knight on d2 and the pawn on b5 it was a genuinely different setting. Both sides had plenty of options along the way, so it would be interesting to see other players take up this variation. After a complex middlegame, the players repeated moves, and this was not a matter of laziness or fear: the repetition really was best for both players.

Alexander Grischuk's game with Michael Adams was instructive for those who play closed systems against the Ruy. Adams' 16...c4 inaugurated a typical idea for Black in the Ruy, though in an unusual setting. (The normal setup sees Black play ...d5 to create a center where both players' center pawns are attacking each other.) This more or less sacrificed a pawn to get the bishop pair and control of d5 with a light-squared bishop against an extra but isolated d-pawn. Adams drew without any special difficulty.

The draw between Peter Leko and Anish Giri was interesting as well. Leko gave up a pawn for a nasty initiative as White in a Byrne Attack Najdorf (sometimes mislabeled the English Attack, but that's only when Black meets 6.Be3 with ...e6; when it's ...e5 then American GM and former Candidate Robert Byrne gets the credit). It looked like Giri might be in some trouble, too, but 18...a5! was just the thing to spark his counterplay, and came just in the nick of time. Leko decided to keep things safe after that, and the result was a heavy piece ending where neither side could make any progress without serious risk to his king's safety.

On to the decisive games. Hikaru Nakamura lost his third straight game to Wang Hao. He played a Reti and the position soon locked up. In the trench warfare that ensued, the most important pawn break would be ...f5, so Nakamura might have considered (and probably did consider) 34.g4 (not just restraining Black, but with the idea of pushing on to g5) as well as meeting 34.Nb1 Bxd5 with 35.cxd5, even though it's a pawn sac. On move 37, Nakamura's 37.Bc1 either missed or underestimated Wang Hao's "sweeper sealer" 37...e4! 38.dxe4 f4, followed by the second sac 39.g5 f3! Black was clearly better by this point, but not yet winning in case of 40.Bh3. Short of time, Nakamura grabbed the pawn with 40.Bxf3, and after 40...Be5 was lost. Black finished off with a series of power shots and gained the full point after his 47th move.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov played a rare line against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's Meran and seemed to obtain an advantage, but he couldn't figure out what to do with it. One thing it seems he definitely should not have done was allow Mamedyarov's pawn to f3. There were plenty of inaccuracies and outright errors after that (notably, 29...fxg2 won pretty much on the spot - 30.Bxg2 Ng4 being the most obvious and straightforward point), but White's weak kingside eventually cost him the point.

Finally, Veselin Topalov won a nice game with White against Leinier Dominguez. A slow strangulation-style game finished in a more characteristically Topalovian way, as he gave up a piece for what was eventually three pawns. As those three pawns were far advanced, connected passers and Dominguez's bishop had little to do, White won in comfort.

That was round 6; on to round 7. Dominguez-Leko, Wang Hao-Topalov, Giri-Grischuk and Ivanchuk-Kazimdzhanov were all drawn; the last one, incredibly, in just 11 moves. If there's any mystery to this game it's around Kasimdzhanov's decision not to go for more with 7...Nb3. Then Black's queen has the c5 square, thus ruling out the "perpetual" in the game. The engines don't think White's compensation is sufficient, but judging by the speed with which the players finished I'm sure they know perfectly well what the engines have to say, and know that in the end White is doing alright.

As for the decisive games, there were two. In one of them, Mamedyarov-Nakamura, both players continued their trend from yesterday: Mamedyarov won again to reach clear second, while Nakamura lost again and fell into a tie for last. Mamedyarov just outplayed Nakamura from the jump in a Fianchetto King's Indian, and although Mamedyarov often failed to prosecute his advantage as cleanly as he might have, he never let Nakamura catch back up, either. After 33...Qxc5(?), White's advantage was decisive, and there were no further hiccups. 37.Rxf4 was a nice shot, and Mamedyarov handled the final tactics perfectly.

This would have put him into a tie for first, were it not for Gelfand's managing to win once again. Adams decided to put Gelfand's 2...Nc6 Sicilian to the test with the Rossolimo, but instead of an immediate swap on c6 (a la several of the Anand-Gelfand world championship games) he allowed Black to play ...Nge7 first and to recapture with the knight. Adams' position was certainly more pleasant to the eye and seemingly easier to play, but Gelfand's position relied on the power of the bishop pair. If he could unravel on the kingside, then the bishops (plus potential pressure down the c-file) could give him an advantage. Adams thus hastened to open the board before Black could finish his development, and with 24.c5 gave up a pawn. He never quite had enough, but he maintained some compensation until 34.Ng5?, a tactical error that allowed Gelfand to liquidate to a won rook ending.

Winning the game, Gelfand moved to plus three and maintained his lead over the field. He has 5/7, Mamedyarov has 4.5, while Grischuk, Topalov and Leko all have 4. Here are the round 8 pairings, with player scores in parentheses:

• Leko (4) - Grischuk (4)
• Gelfand (5) - Giri (3)
• Kasimdzhanov (2.5) - Adams (3)
• Nakamura (2.5) - Ivanchuk (3)
• Topalov (4) - Mamedyarov (4.5)
• Dominguez (3) - Wang Hao (3.5)

London Grand Prix, Round 2: Leko, Nakamura Win

In round 2 of the London Grand Prix, it was again the case that a majority of the games were drawn, though - again - most of the games were hard fought. There were two decisive results: Peter Leko outplayed Vassily Ivanchuk in a French Defense (Steinitz Variation), and Hikaru Nakamura managed to swindle Rustam Kasimdzhanov at the end of the second time control to get back to 50%.

In Leko-Ivanchuk, White had a token pull for a while, but nothing really until 29...Ke7. Ivanchuk either missed or underestimated the strength of the g4-g5 idea; had he realized it, he'd have played 29...Kf7 and met 30.g4 with 30...g5!, equalizing. From that point on he played quite badly, and rather than forcing Leko to grind out the point, Ivanchuk quickly self-destructed.

Kasimdzhanov-Nakamura was a tough battle in a Classical King's Indian. Kasimdzhanov seemed very well prepared, cracking out the moves up through 25.Nc5. Only after 25...Kh8 did White start using time, and soon both his lead and his advantage on the board had dissipated. (Or at least what the engine takes to be his advantage - in the Classical King's Indian, one must be very careful about trusting the engine. Black's threats take time to materialize, but once they do White's situation is as dire as the coyote's in a Road Runner cartoon.) From late in the first time control until late in the second one, the position fluctuated from equality to a very slight pull for Nakamura, but a more useful way to describe the situation is that Nakamura fought like crazy to keep his initiative and attacking hopes alive, even with the queens off, while Kasimdzhanov hoped to consolidate, when his bishops and outside passed a-pawn might give him some chances for the full point.

On move 59, with two moves left to the second time control, Kasimdzhanov's best move would have been 59.Ba5, when the bishop keeps the important d2 and e1 squares under control. Instead he played 59.a5, which left him in a precarious situation after 59...Rc6, threatening an immediate win with 60...Rh1+. Here 60.Bf3 was imperative, when after 60...Nf2+ 61.Kd2! he may be able to hold. It's complicated, which cannot be said of the move Kasimdzhanov played immediately: 60.Bd3?? Nakamura played 60...Rd2+, and that was that: White resigned as 61.Ke1 Rc1 is mate.

Of the draws, I'll note only Adams-Mamedyarov, because of the unusual repetition sequence that ended the game: 41.Rc3-g3 Kb8-c8 42.Rd7-d1 Rf8-g8 43.Rg3-c3+ (the rook goes back where it started) Kc8-b8 (likewise the king) 44.Rd1-d7 (likewise the second rook) Rg8-f8 (and ditto for Black's rook) and then White started it all over again with 45.Rc3-g3.

After two rounds, Boris Gelfand (who drew fairly quickly with White against Veselin Topalov) and Leko are tied for first with 1.5 points. Nakamura lost to Gelfand in round 1, so today's win put him back to 50%. Here are the round three pairings:

• Nakamura - Leko
• Topalov - Kasimdzhanov
• Dominguez - Gelfand
• Wang Hao - Grischuk
• Mamedyarov - Giri
• Ivanchuk - Adams

Olympiad, Rounds 8 & 9: USA Beats Russia, Four Teams Lead

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Naturally, I'm happy as an American that the U.S. team upset the Russians. But everyone else (except the Russians) should be, too, as it turned what was on the verge of becoming a runaway for the gold medals back into a dogfight with lots of teams still in the running.

First, though, let's get back to round 8. Russia entered the round with a one point lead over their closest pursuers (Ukraine and China), and left it looking like the luckiest team in the world. China drew with Azerbaijan, while Russia came away with a very fortunate victory over Ukraine. Vladimir Kramnik played terribly with White against Vassily Ivanchuk, but escaped in a rook ending a pawn down. (Ivanchuk seemed to think that he had missed a win, and was absolutely distraught afterwards.) Meanwhile, Alexander Volokitin failed to hold a pawn-down rook ending against Sergey Karjakin and lost, and so the Russians escaped with a 2.5-1.5 victory and took a two point lead going into round 9. Just three rounds remained, and they had played all their main rivals. (Or so it seemed.)

Round 9 didn't work out so well for the Russians. On board 4, Dmitry Jakovenko had a pretty easy time of things with Ray Robson. The game continued to move 71, but the result had seemed inevitable for a long time. On board 3 Alexander Onischuk got nothing against Karjakin, and that game was a quick draw. So it came down to Hikaru Nakamura vs. Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk vs. Gata Kamsky. In both games, the Americans were pressing, but whether it would be enough to win the match or only draw was unclear practically until the very end.

Kramnik was fine with Black coming out of the opening, and was even fine for a while after sacrificing the exchange. By move 40, however, he was clearly lost, but Kramnik kept hanging in there. On move 45, Nakamura's best was to take the h-pawn, but proably worried about Black's counterplay after 45.gxh4 Bf4 he chose 45.Ra2, surrendering a pawn and losing the lion's share of his advantage. Kramnik's 52nd and 53rd moves lost the progress he had made, and with interest (...Re8 would have been better on either move), and with 54.Rg5+ followed by 55.Rxg3 and 56.c7 the win would have been trivial. Nakamura's method was more complicated, and it seems that he missed some of Kramnik's subsequent defensive ideas, but after 59...Re7 he confidently executed a forced win with 60.Rxe7 Kxe7 61.c7 e2 62.c8N+! After that it was a routine technical task that I'm sure he enjoyed tremendously.

That game finished just a few minutes after Grischuk-Kamsky, which had gone back and forth between looking like a draw and a win for Kamsky. After 43 moves, Black was up a pawn in a rook and bishop ending, with all the pawns on the same side of the board. I'm not sure if the position then was objectively won or not, but obviously Black would have all the fun.

A curious moment came on move 48, when Kamsky chose not to play 48...Rxh2. The rook won't get trapped after 49.Kg1 Rh3 because Black has a little trick: if 50.Rh6 Kf7 51.Rh7+ Kg6 52.Rh6+ Kg7 53.Kg2 White would be able to draw, were it not for 53...Be5!, winning. Another interesting line is 52.Rb7 (instead of 52.Rh6+ in the previous variation) h4 53.Rb6. This might have been what concerned Kamsky. If 53...hxg3, 54.Be5 wins the bishop; if Black's king tries to run, then he'll either fail or drop the f-pawn: 53...Kf7 54.Rb7+ Ke8 55.Rb5=. But there is a solution: 53...Rxg3+! After 54.Bxg3 hxg3 55.Rb4 Bg5 followed by ...f4 Black is winning.

Having rejected this, Kamsky's advantage diminished greatly, and had Grischuk chosen 55.Ke1 rather than 55.Be3 I think the draw would have been achieved without much more sweat. Grischuk's move was objectively good enough, going for rook vs. rook and bishop, but unless you're a computer or a well-rested human with plenty of time, that's a very dangerous decision. Sure enough, just a few moves later, his 61.Re7? lost the game (61.Rd8, 61.Rf8+ and 61.Rh8 would have maintained the draw), and with that and Nakamura's victory a few moments later, the Americans had won and caught the Russians in first.

But not only the Russians. Armenia beat Germany 2.5-1.5, and China shellacked the Philippines 3.5-.5. Prior to this round, the Philippines had been one of the great surprise stories, and in particular their grand old man Eugenio Torre had enjoyed remarkable success, drawing Ivan Cheparinov in round 6, defeating Ferenc Berkes in round 7 and then Nigel Short in round 8!

Here then are the leading pairings for today's round 10:

China 15 - USA 15
Argentina 14 - Russia 15
Netherlands 14 - Armenia 15
Azerjbaijan 13 - Ukraine 14

Official site here, all the pairings here.

Biel 2012, Round 1: Wang Hao, Giri Win

The first showdown between the top two players in this year's big event in Biel was drawn, and if someone zipped through the game they might suspect that the Magnus Carlsen-Hikaru Nakamura contest was a non-event. Not so, though I confess to thinking that after 24.Rcc1 White's advantage was merely symbolic. Houdini 2 agrees (though I didn't look at any of the games with an engine while they were ongoing), but about three half-moves later "Faust" (Ian Nepomniachtchi) kibitzed on ICC that White had a very serious advantage.

It's true that White's advantage had increased in the meantime, but even so, his point that Black's bishop was especially awful was an important one. It may seem that White's bishop's prospects weren't much better, but that's only in the short-term. There are ways for that to change, and for White to lever open Black's kingside, and in the meantime Black must sit and wait. Nakamura did this, and did it well, and held. One important line to note is that 35.Qh6+ Kg8 36.h5 Qxb2+ 37.Kh3 would be absolutely crushing for White, were it not for 37...Qa1!

Wang Hao followed Vladimir Kramnik's recipe in the Bayonet Attack against the King's Indian with 10.g3 (Kramnik used this successfully against both Anish Giri and Alexander Grischuk, though in the former game Kramnik goofed and forgot his own preparation), and for that matter he followed his own game earlier in the year against Ding Liren. In the latter game, Black played 12...Rb8 and won a wild game, but Etienne Bacrot followed Kramnik's opponents and played 12...c6. Interestingly, Wang Hao followed Kramnik's "oops" game and played 13.Ba3 (rather than 13.Bg2, as in Kramnik-Grischuk). Bacrot's 15...h6 deviated from Giri's 15...Ne8, and then with 17...f4 he made the first new move of the game, varying from a game Grinev (2404) - Chircu (2190) from this past April.

All was well for him at that point, but 20...Qxc4 looks like the wrong pawn. Instead, 20...Qxe6 21.Bxf3 Qxc4 gives Black an extra pawn and White the bishop pair. The chances would be roughly equal, though I'd expect White's position would be a little easier to handle. In the game, White won his pawn back quickly, while keeping an "extra" bishop and the monster pawn on e6. Black was doomed.

Finally, there was the odd game between Alexander Morozevich and Giri. Through 32.Rxa5 the position had been more or less even throughout, but now the adventures began. If Giri had interpolated 32...Rb1+ and only after 33.Kh2 played Qd6, he would have been fine. Instead, 32...Qd6?? was a simple blunder: 33.Qh6+ won a pawn (33...Kxh6 34.Nxf7+ and 35.Nxd6; 33...Kg8 34.Qh8+ insists; 33...Kf6? 34.Qf4+ is even worse for Black). But Morozevich missed it (but let's not be too hard on him - Alekhine and Euwe both missed this same trick in one of their world championship matches!), and the game went on.

A little later, 35.Qxe5+ would have been the safest way to continue: 35...Qxe5 36.fxe5 c4 37.Rc5 Re1 38.Rxc4 Rxe5 is drawn. Instead, 35.fxe5 kept some life in the position, but that favored Black. Yes, White would win the c-pawn, but his king was rather exposed, and chronically so. White was living on the precipice, and after 44.Kg4?! (better to take the pawn - one fewer attacking unit!) 44...Kh6 45.Ra4? (45.Ra8 was the last hope) 45...Rxe5, Giri was winning. Luckily for Morozevich, Giri's 46...f6? was an error - 46...f5+ kept the winning advantage. Still, the basic problem remained: White's king was terribly overexposed, and anything but perfect play would lead to disaster. That disaster happened after 49.Re4?; 49.Rg4 was absolutely forced, and White gave up after 50...Qg3+. (Not after 51.Kd4 - that's the incompetent arbiter doing his thing on the incompetently designed DGT board, episode 12584. Sigh.)

Tomorrow's games:

Nakamura (.5) - Giri (1)
Bacrot (0) - Morozevich (0)
Carlsen (.5) - Wang Hao (1)