Candidates Tournament, Round 10: Carlsen Remains In Clear First After All Leaders Win

It's often Magnus Carlsen who turns up the "lucky" winner, but today he has grounds for annoyance if anyone does. He won a nice game with White in a Rossolimo Sicilian against Boris Gelfand. Maybe not a perfect game, but one that was clear and convincing. That assured him of remaining in clear first with four rounds remaining at the Candidates' tournament in London, but the margin is small.

Levon Aronian is just half a point back, thanks to another patented time trouble-induced suicide by Vassily Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk played the Budapest Defense and achieved a good game, but he played so slowly that he managed to lose on time making his 30th move. By then the position had been ruined, but while he had played too riskily given his time situation he was still objectively equal after Aronian's 28th move.

Vladimir Kramnik was also the recipient of a time trouble-induced gift. Alexander Grischuk went into the Berlin ending, and without being well-prepared. Kramnik enjoyed the very, very slightly better chances, but the game was headed for a draw when Kramnik played 27...Bf5. Objectively this is a terrible move, as it turned a slightly better position into one that would require almost a "miracle" (Kramnik's favorite word when his opponents save difficult positions against him) for him to hold - but only if Grischuk made the right decision on move 30. Grischuk was fully aware of the correct option, but happily for Kramnik thought that the move played, 30.Bxd4(??), was the simplest way to hold the draw. Unfortunately for him, it lost in elementary fashion (at least it's elementary when one has a little more time than Grischuk did to calculate things). The right move was 30.Ke3, after which Black must play very accurately not to lose! (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my analysis is flawed and Kramnik is losing that ending.)

Kramnik was rolling the dice, and given the tournament situation it was the right thing to do. His chances aren't very good a point behind with four rounds to play, but to catch up from a point and a half back would require a...miracle.

The fourth game was a bit embarrassing but understandable, a 21-move draw (by repetition, to avoid the tournament's 30-move rule) between Teimour Radjabov and Peter Svidler. Radjabov certainly could have played on, but in clear last place coming into the round he's clearly interested in putting this tournament behind him without suffering any further damage.

The games, with my notes, can be replayed here (and as ChessBase has deigned to fix their server you can finally see my analysis of the round 9 games as well).

Standings After Round 10:

1. Carlsen 7
2. Aronian 6.5
3. Kramnik 6
4-6. Gelfand, Grischuk, Svidler 4.5
7-8. Radjabov, Ivanchuk 3.5

Round 11 Pairings:

• Grischuk - Carlsen
• Kramnik - Radjabov
• Svidler - Aronian
• Ivanchuk - Gelfand

Candidates Tournament, Round 9: Gelfand Beats Aronian, While Carlsen Holds Off Kramnik And Leads

With five rounds to go, Magnus Carlsen finished today's round of the Candidates with a double dose of good news. First, though under serious pressure from Vladimir Kramnik, he managed to survive a pawn down to keep a full point lead over the ex-champion. Second, Levon Aronian, with whom he (Carlsen) was tied coming into the round, lost to Boris Gelfand. That leaves Carlsen in clear first with three white games left and no more games against his main rivals. Good news for him, and bad news for Aronian and Kramnik.

In the other games, Vassily Ivanchuk played more quickly against Teimour Radjabov, and was rewarded with his first win of the tournament. Finally, the game between Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk was a spectacular draw that was far more interesting (if less competitively significant) than the Kramnik-Carlsen and Gelfand-Aronian battles. You can check it out, with my notes, here.

Standings After Round 9:

1. Carlsen 6
2. Aronian 5.5
3. Kramnik 5
4-5. Gelfand, Grischuk 4.5
6. Svidler 4
7. Ivanchuk 3.5
8. Radjabov 3

Round 10 Pairings (Wednesday; Tuesday is a rest day):

• Carlsen - Gelfand (Gelfand is 2-0 this cycle; but 3-0?)
• Aronian - Ivanchuk (Also interesting, now that Ivanchuk seems to have realized that practicality has its place.)
• Radjabov - Svidler
• Grischuk - Kramnik (Kramnik is rapidly running out of opportunities, and may have to take some risks with the black pieces.)

Candidates Tournament, Round 6: Carlsen, Aronian Win and Extend Their Lead

Going into the second rest day of the 2013 Candidates' tournament in London, the tournament is quickly becoming a tournament of haves and have-nots. Near the end of the first half, there are two "haves": Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, both of whom sport impressive +3 scores (4.5-1.5). Aside from them, no one else even has a plus score. Eight rounds remain, so the tournament is not over by any means, but the clock is certainly ticking on the rest of the field.

Both of the leaders won today. Carlsen outplayed Peter Svidler in impressive fashion on the black side of a Ruy Lopez. As is sometimes the case in his games, he didn't seem to do anything amazing, but the result was the speedy demise of a great player and Ruy specialist who had seemed in good form in the preceding rounds. Such is chess in the Carlsen era. Meanwhile, Aronian overcame Teimour Radjabov, also winning with the black pieces. This game was roughly balanced for a long time, and although it was Aronian who did most of the pushing Radjabov was almost never in any serious trouble in the game. Exhaustion may have played a role in the end, when in a very tenable position Radjabov committed an outright blunder and resigned almost immediately afterwards.

Vladimir Kramnik has been playing good and interesting chess, and has been close to a win in several games. Today he went into sacrifice mode against Vassily Ivanchuk, first giving up a pawn, then an exchange, and then a piece for a pawn - the latter two sacrifices for the sake of a kingside attack. Ivanchuk burned lots of time, but defended perfectly, and after 27 moves Kramnik was faced with a fascinating decision. He could take a perpetual check (or something close enough to it), or try to play on. Ivanchuk had just over a minute left at that point to make 13 moves; the problem for Kramnik is that declining the perpetual wouldn't result in a murky position but a lost one. He looked for a long time to find some way to keep the game going without excessive risk, but he couldn't and took the right decision, painful though it clearly was to him. Six games, six draws for Kramnik.

Alexander Grischuk blundered a pawn in the early middlegame against Boris Gelfand, but although the latter had an advantage he objectively should have won with, he made a few errors - some even after the time control - and Grischuk escaped with a draw. The players are fighting hard, but some early signs of tiredness are seeping in. Hopefully the rest day is just what they need.

The games, with my notes, are here. Meanwhile, here are the standings in Noah's Ark after six rounds:

1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 4.5
3-4. Kramnik, Svidler 3
5-6. Grischuk, Radjabov 2.5
7-8. Ivanchuk, Gelfand 2

Finally, here are the round 7 pairings, for this Saturday:

• Carlsen - Radjabov
• Aronian - Grischuk
• Gelfand - Kramnik
• Ivanchuk - Svidler

Candidates Tournament, Round 4: Carlsen Wins, Catches Aronian in First

Magnus Carlsen is now fully awake, so his fellow Candidates had better stay (or get) sharp if they hope to compete with him. With his second consecutive win, Carlsen has caught up with Levon Aronian; both are +2 after four rounds.

Carlsen got there by defeating Alexander Grischuk on the white side of a 4.d3 Berlin. Grischuk played very aggressively, hoping that his bishops and space would offer him good attacking chances, but after some inaccuracies in the early middlegame it was Carlsen's structural pluses that gave him a material and a positional advantage. Grischuk did his best to complicate, but with plenty of time to work out the tricks Carlsen neutralized his opponent's attack and won the game.

Aronian came into the round half a point ahead of both Carlsen and his opponent in round 4, Peter Svidler. With the white pieces Aronian surely had some hopes, but Svidler parlayed some fine prep to the already drawish 3.Nf3 a6 line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted to split the point.

The world's #3 and #4 players (on the Live List) faced off, both hoping to move to a plus score in the tournament. Unfortunately for Teimour Radjabov and Vladimir Kramnik, their game was a draw. A well-played draw in the Karpov Variation of the Nimzo-Indian, but a draw nonetheless.

Finally, tailenders Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk drew their game as well, but it was probably the most interesting game of the round. Ivanchuk's creative play was sound, too, and the combination he initiated with 20...c5 was simply brilliant. These two don't look like they're going to fight for first place, but all the same this game is absolutely worth examining.

Speaking of which, you can replay the games (with my annotations) here.

Standings:

1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 3
3. Svidler 2.5
4-5. Kramnik, Radjabov 2
6. Grischuk 1.5
7-8. Gelfand, Ivanchuk 1

Round 5 Pairings:

• Ivanchuk - Carlsen
• Svidler - Gelfand
• Kramnik - Aronian
• Grischuk - Radjabov

Candidates Tournament, Round 3: Aronian Wins Again; Carlsen, Svidler Also Win

It didn't take long for the Candidates tournament to heat up. There were four draws in round 1, but all the decisive results the last two days have really stratified the field. Levon Aronian's score of 2.5/3 will pressure the other players to push a bit harder to keep up, while Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk's score of half a point out of 3 leaves them almost out of contention already, even with 11 rounds to go.

Let's review the round 3 action. Aronian won on time with Black against Vassily Ivanchuk. Aronian had been winning on the board with a crushing counter-attack after Ivanchuk's kamikaze handling of a Trompowsky-turned-Torre Attack, but in his opponent's time trouble got sloppy and let him off the hook at the board. From a competitive standpoint it didn't matter much, as Ivanchuk had something ridiculous like 15 seconds to make 17 moves, and that simply wasn't going to happen.

Peter Svidler defeated Teimour Radjabov, going to +1 while sending Radjabov back to 50%. Svidler's preparation on the white side of a Saemisch King's Indian was excellent, and Radjabov's attempt to handle it in a Benko Gambit style didn't give him anything for the pawn. Svidler had a hiccup on move 38 when he didn't play 38.Rc1, but that was just an aesthetic blemish; Svidler still won pretty easily and confidently.

The last game to finish saw Magnus Carlsen grind out a win with the black pieces against Boris Gelfand. A misjudgment at the end of the first time control turned a practically sure draw into something a bit less clear, but only the blunder 47.Qxd8+?? turned it into a loss.

Finally, the one draw was a well-played game between Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk. Kramnik prepared well and had Grischuk under serious pressure, but a well-timed pawn sacrifice by the latter gave him enough counterplay to hold the draw. Some commentators felt that Kramnik may have had better chances, and Kramnik didn't rule it out, but it was hard to find something that worked for him. They couldn't in the post-game press conference, and the engines don't reveal anything either, at least nothing obvious. (You can see what I did - or didn't come up with - by replaying this and the other round 3 games here.)

Standings After Round 3:

1. Aronian 2.5
2-3. Carlsen, Svidler 2
4-6 Grischuk, Kramnik, Radjabov 1.5
7-8. Gelfand, Ivanchuk .5

Monday is a rest day, and round 4 will be on Tuesday, with the following pairings:

• Carlsen - Grischuk
• Radjabov - Kramnik
• Aronian - Svidler
• Gelfand - Ivanchuk

Anish Giri's Candidates' Predictions

Excerpted here. (HT: Thomas Richter.) It's in German, but Google Translate does a passable enough job. His prediction (prepare to be shocked...): Magnus Carlsen! Despite the conventional answer, it's worth reading nonetheless.

Wijk aan Zee Finale: Carlsen, Naiditsch and Brunello Win Groups A, B and C, Respectively

The traditional calendar-opening super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee (properly, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament) has come to an end, and - as we already knew yesterday and could see coming several rounds back - Magnus Carlsen is the winner. His draw with Anish Giri today was very shaky, but Giri was either careless or overlooked something, and allowed Carlsen to force a perpetual. Carlsen finished with a fantastic score of 10/13, equaling Garry Kasparov's score in 1999 (though without winning a game as memorable as Kasparov's victory over Veselin Topalov). His performance was good for a TPR of 2932, and pushes his rating record to 2872.3, good for a 62 point lead over Vladimir Kramnik and 63 points up on Levon Aronian.

Speaking of Aronian, he finished second in the event after drawing Fabiano Caruana. He was outplaying Caruana on the black side of the Berlin endgame, but inaccurate play deep in the ending allowed Caruana to escape to a drawn rook vs. rook and bishop finale. For Caruana, it was a merciful end to what had become a very poor tournament. Thanks to losses in his three previous games, he finished third from last and lost 24 rating points - ouch.

By contrast, Viswanathan Anand gained points in the tournament, which had been his first good one in quite some time. Unfortunately for the world champion, he lost his first and only game of the event, getting pretty comprehensively outplayed by Wang Hao in a Scotch Four Knights. (Vladimir Kramnik's 10.h3 strikes again, but I don't think Anand had any problems out of the opening.) Had Anand drawn, he would have tied for second with Aronian.

Instead, the loss allowed Sergey Karjakin to catch him with a brutal victory over Loek van Wely. Van Wely was pretty reliable with White in the tournament, but with Black he was a hog waiting to be butchered - he won one game, vs. tournament tail-ender Ivan Sokolov, drew another, and lost five. Against Karjakin he repeated the Dragon line he used against Peter Leko in round 11, and it wasn't a good idea. Karjakin varied, and van Wely collapsed speedily. (Karjakin varied from the Leko game on move 16, made a novelty on move 18, and van Wely resigned on move 25.) It was a good tournament for Karjakin, who only lost one game (a long, painful one to Carlsen) and gained six rating points.

Leko played well the second half of the tournament and finished in clear fifth with a +2 score. He had no chances for a win today though, as he met Hou Yifan's Ruy Lopez with the Marshall Gambit (a first big step towards a draw) and Hou responded by repeating a line Aronian pretty conclusively solved last October. Hou offered an essentially meaningless novelty on move 25, and the game was drawn 12 routine moves later.

Hikaru Nakamura was alone in 6th place with a +1 score. As always, he tried hard to make something happen, in this case against Pentala Harikrishna (whose even score was good for solo 7th), but the game ended in a draw.

The other players' games have already been discussed, except for that of the tail-enders. Erwin L'Ami and Ivan Sokolov battled for a long time, but after 84 well-played moves they agreed to a draw. L'Ami finished with four points - not a terrible score considering his rating and the opposition, and good enough to keep a point clear of Sokolov.

The final round games (with my comments) can be replayed here.

Final Standings:

• 1. Carlsen 10 (out of 13)
• 2. Aronian 8.5
• 3-4. Anand, Karjakin 8
• 5. Leko 7.5
• 6. Nakamura 7
• 7. Harikrishna 6.5
• 8-10. Giri, Wang Hao, van Wely 6
• 11. Hou Yifan 5.5
• 12. Caruana 5
• 13. L'Ami 4
• 14. Sokolov 3

Group B came down to the wire; in fact, it came down to the last game of all three groups. Three players (Arkadij Naiditsch, Sergei Movsesian and Richard Rapport) came into the last round tied for first, with Jan Smeets half a point behind them. Movsesian drew and Smeets won, but they were eliminated from contention when Rapport won. Only Naiditsch could catch him with a win, but at the end of the first time control he and Sipke Ernst were in a drawn king and pawn ending. I haven't investigated it to see if it was forced, but Naiditsch was able to progress to a queen and h-pawn vs. queen ending that was still drawn, according to the tablebase, but not trivially. Indeed, Ernst eventually went wrong, and once he did Naiditsch never gave him a second chance to reach an objectively drawn position. Naiditsch thus caught Rapport, and due to better tiebreaks he gets the automatic invitation to next year's Group A tournament. (The Wijk organizers are often generous though, and I wouldn't be surprised if they found room for Rapport next year, too.)

In Group C, the two-horse race was finally settle in favor of Sabino Brunello. Both he and Fernando Peralta came into the round with 10 points and both players had the black pieces, but Peralta faced a strong GM (Alexander Kovchan) while Brunello faced an FM (Miguoel Admiraal [sic]). Peralta may have miscalculated in his opening prep, and that decided the issue. He chose the Pirc, perhaps hoping for a fight, but Kovchan forced Peralta to follow the quick perpetual check first known from Sax-Seirawan, Brussels 1988. That meant it was clear sailing for Brunello, and the Admiraal speedily went down with his ship. Brunello (whose TPR was better than any in Group B and was in theory good enough for sixth place in Group A) thus qualifies for next year's Group B tournament.

Wijk aan Zee, Rounds 11 & 12: Carlsen Clinches Clear First

I'm exhausted after travel and coaching, but with the final round coming up in a few hours I'll try to get caught up before hitting the hay. To no one's surprise, Magnus Carlsen has clinched clear first in the 2013 Tata Steel Chess Tournament (Group A). His crushing victory in round 12 over Hikaru Nakamura gave him a point and a half lead with a round to go, which means he wins unless the organizers decide to switch to a 3-1-0 format for the last round alone. That gives him a crazy score of 9.5/12, and with a draw in the final round he'll equal Kasparov's great 10/13 from 1999; a win, obviously enough, would break that record.

Levon Aronian defeated Nakamura in round 11 to keep within range (Carlsen drew Wang Hao in that round - and he was in deep, deep, deep trouble) of first, but in round 12 he didn't get much with White against Anish Giri and only drew. Aronian has 8 points, and so does Viswanathan Anand - though he could easily have reached 8.5. He was winning against Hou Yifan in round 11, but was swindled in the endgame and only drew. In round 12, Erwin L'Ami was fine out of the opening with Black, but Anand ground him down and won the endgame.

Hou Yifan had a good pair of rounds. In addition to the swindle against Anand, she defeated Ivan Sokolov in round 12. Another overperforming underdog is Loek van Wely, who bounced back from a loss to Peter Leko (the latter won a nice rook ending) by defeating Fabiano Caruana. Caruana also lost in round 11, crushingly, to Anish Giri, making three losses in a row for him.

You can see the other players' fates in replaying the last two rounds' games, here; I've offered some notes to three of the games. Here are the final round pairings, with player scores in parentheses: 

• Karjakin (7) - van Wely (6)
• Hou Yifan (5) - Leko (7)
• L'Ami (3.5) - Sokolov (2.5)
• Wang Hao (5) - Anand (8)
• Nakamura (6.5) - Harikrishna (6)
• Giri (5.5) - Carlsen (9.5)
• Caruana (4.5) - Aronian (8) 

While the drama in Group A has left the building, there's plenty left in groups B and C. Arkadij Naiditsch, Sergei Movsesian and Richard Rapport share the Group B lead with 8 points apiece, and Jan Smeets is just half a point behind. In Group C Sabino Brunello and Fernando Peralta have shared or flip-flopped with the lead all tournament long, and coming into the last round they each have 10 points, a whopping 2.5 points ahead of their closest pursuer.

Wijk aan Zee, Round 10: Guess Who Wins Again?

Who else? Magnus Carlsen. Not that he was the only winner, though, as five of the Group A games in round 10 at Wijk aan Zee had a decisive result. Carlsen did what he does best: take a small edge (sometimes not even that), grind away, and persist until the opponent crumbles. Eventually, Erwin L'Ami did, though he defended well for a long time. Carlsen now has a crazy 8/10 (7 of his last 8!), good for a 1.5 point lead; a 2954 TPR and a 2871.8 live rating.

Viswanathan Anand lost ground, as he drew again, against Sergey Karjakin. He tried pressing patiently, a la Carlsen, but without success. That's to Karjakin's credit, but maybe he should have tried longer, as Carlsen did in his earlier game with Karjakin. Or...as Hikaru Nakamura did in this round against Fabiano Caruana. Their game was dead equal for a long time, but at a certain point in the second time control Caruana fell prey to tactics based on Nakamura's bishop pair and lost. With the win, Nakamura caught Anand in second with 6.5 points, and they were both joined by Levon Aronian, who won rather easily against Wang Hao.

Tomorrow is a rest day, and on Friday the round 11 pairings for Group A look like this (player scores in parentheses):

• Leko (5.5) - van Wely (5)
• Karjakin (5.5) - Sokolov (2.5)
• Hou Yifan (3.5) - Anand (6.5)
• L'Ami (3) - Harikrishna (5)
• Wang Hao (4) - Carlsen (8)
• Nakamura (6.5) - Aronian (6.5)
• Giri (4) - Caruana (4.5)

The other Chinese representative fared better, as Hou Yifan defeated Pentala Harikrishna. Speaking of representatives of the same country, Dutchmen Loek van Wely and Anish Giri drew their battle. Finally, another game involving a Dutchman - Ivan Sokolov vs. Peter Leko - led to a disaster for the home player. Sokolov went all-in on a kingside attack that never looked close to succeeding, and the result was a 26-move wipeout.

Group B has some drama: Richard Rapport and Sergei Movsesian shared the lead with 7 points apiece, and Arkadij Naiditsch and Jan Smeets are just half a pont behind. In Group C, Sabino Brunello leads with a great score of 8.5/10; Fernando Peralta is half a point back.

Games (without notes) here; lots of good reports elsewhere, including the official site, have some annotations by the players. For example:

Wijk aan Zee, Round 9: Carlsen Wins Again, Leads By A Full Point

With a full point lead and all but one of his main rivals out of the way, Magnus Carlsen is in excellent shape to win the Group A event of 2013 edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Today's victim was Hou Yifan, who cheekily played the Ponziani against Carlsen. (Carlsen had played it against Pentala Harikrishna in round 4, winning that game too.) Hou lost a pawn, which (after some ups and down) Carlsen managed to convert in a queen ending. Here's commentary by the man himself:

World champion Viswanathan Anand remains in second place, but he's a further half a point back. He achieved an easy draw with Black against Peter Leko in a Najdorf Sicilian--a good result, certainly, but not good enough to keep pace with Carlsen, who has won five of his last seven games. Another half a point back are Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura. The former pressed against Erwin L'Ami; the latter was pressed upon by Anish Giri, but ultimately both games finished in draws.

The games Sergey Karjakin - Pentala Harikrishna and Wang Hao - Fabiano Caruana were also drawn, but Loek van Wely finally enjoyed a good result with Black, defeating Ivan Sokolov, who is having a very difficult tournament. (All the games can be replayed here, but without notes.)

Here are the round 10 pairings, with player scores in parentheses:

• van Wely (4.5) - Giri (3.5)
• Caruana (4.5) - Nakamura (5.5)
• Aronian (5.5) - Wang Hao (4)
• Carlsen (7) - L'Ami (3)
• Harikrishna (5) - Hou Yifan (2.5)
• Anand (6) - Karjakin (5)
• Sokolov (2.5) - Leko (4.5)

In Group B, Sergei Movsesian leads with 6.5 points, half a point clear of Arkadij Naiditsch (who defeated previous co-leader Jan Timman) and Richard Rapport. Group C is lead by Sabino Brunello with 7.5 points; Fernando Peralta is half a point back.