Tal Memorial 05: Ponomariov and Mamedyarov win

Tal Memorial in Moscow

The Tal Memorial is taking place from August 17th to 31st 2008 in the Exhibition Hall of GUM mall, located directly on the Red Square. The players are former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who won the tournament last year, Alexander Morozevich, currently the world's second highest ranked player, Vassily Ivanchuk, ranked fourth, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (8th), Alexei Shirov (9th), Peter Leko (10th), Gata Kamsky (17th), Boris Gelfand, (18th), Ruslan Ponomariov (19th), and Evgeny Alekseev (26th).

Time controls are two hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move after move 61. There is a blitz tournament on August 29th-30th, with a qualifier two days earlier. Magnus Carlsen and Antoly Karpov are seeded invitees.

Round five report

Games of the day

Is the Marshall in trouble? Ruslan Ponomariov defeated Peter Leko in the latter's favourite Marshall Gambit – but, we hasten to add, not because of a fatal flaw the former FIDE world champion uncovered in this opening system. Peter Leko

Ponomariov,R (2718) - Leko,P (2741) [C89]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (5), 22.08.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Be3 Bg4 16.Qd3 Rae8 17.Nd2 Qh5 18.Bc2 f5 19.f3 Bxf3 20.Nxf3 Qxf3 21.Bd2 Qxd3 22.Bxd3

22...f4N. This as far as we can tell is the first new move. In the above position an Email game Ingersol,H (2283) vs Mayer,E (2228), IECC 2004, continued [22...Rxe1+ 23.Rxe1 g6 24.a3 a5 25.c4 bxc4 26.Bxc4 a4 27.Re6 Rd8 28.Ba5 Rd7 29.Re8+ Kg7 30.Bxd5 cxd5 31.Ra8 Kf6 32.Bc3 f4 33.Kg2 Kf5 34.Kf3 fxg3 35.hxg3 Rf7 36.Ra6 Kg5+ 37.Kg2 Bb8 38.Rb6 Ba7 39.Rd6 Kg4 40.Rxd5 Bb8 41.Bd2 Rf5 42.Rxf5 Kxf5 43.Kf3 h5 44.Be1 Bc7 45.Bd2 Bb6 46.Ke3 Bc7 47.Kf3 Bb6 48.Ke3 Bc7 49.Kf3 ½-½.

23.Rxe8 Rxe8 24.Kf2 fxg3+ 25.hxg3 c5 26.c4 Nb6 27.cxb5 c4 28.Bf1 axb5 29.Bg2 Rf8+ 30.Bf3 Be7 31.Ba5

31...Na4?! This is probably the moment where Peter Leko got himself into trouble. 31...Nd5 was the better alternative. 32.b3 Bf6 33.Kg2 Bxd4? Somewhat reckless tactics. 34.Rf1 Rxf3 35.Rxf3 Nb2 36.Rf5 c3 37.Rxb5. White is a clear exchange up, Black is pinning his hopes on the c-pawn. 37...c2 38.Rb8+ Kf7 39.Rc8 Nd1 40.Bd2 Bc3 41.Bc1

The pawn is permanently stopped, Black has nothing left to play for. 1-0.

Kamsky,G (2723) - Mamedyarov,S (2742) [B46]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (5), 22.08.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 d6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Be3 Be7 9.f4 0-0 10.Qe1 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5 12.a3 Bb7 13.Qg3 g6 14.Bf3 a5 15.b4 Rc8 16.Rad1 axb4 17.axb4 Rc4 18.Kh1 Nd7 19.Be2 Rxb4 20.Nxb5 Bxe4

21.Bg7! What an unusual move, what a player to come up with it! If 21...Kxg7 White has 22.Qc3+ Kg8 23.Qxb4 Bxc2 and ends up with a rook for bishop and two pawns. Unfortunately this line is not a cruncher, and in fact Black has something stronger: 21...Bxc2 22.Bxf8 Qxf8 23.Rd4 d5 24.Rxb4 Bxb4 25.Rc1 Be4 26.Rc7 Qd8 27.Qe3 Qh4 28.Qg3 Qf6 29.Qe3 Qa1+ 30.Qc1 Qa2 31.Rc8+ Kg7 32.Qd1 Nf6 33.h3?

Here the alarm bells really start ringing in Fritz and Rybka, and Ponomariov indeed finishes his opponent off in just a few more moves. 33...Bd2 34.Qf1 Bxf4 35.Nc7 Qd2 36.Ne8+ Nxe8 37.Rxe8 Qe3 38.Bf3 Bxf3 39.gxf3 Qd2 40.Qg1 Qe2 0-1.

The 28-move Petroff draw in the game Ivanchuk-Kramnik was not unexpected – we remind you to watch out for Kramnik's big comeback starting from Sunday. Shirov played the black side of a Sicilian Sveshnikov against Morozevich and held him to a draw in 44 hard-fought moves. Gelfand was unlucky not to get his first full point against Alekseev's Catalan, although Levon Aronian showed us (see below) hat the Russian player always had good drawing chances.

Current standings

Remember: Saturday is a free day!

Levon Aronian in Hamburg

Friday evening is Radio ChessBase time in Hamburg on the Playchess Server. Why we don't announce it? Because it is in German. However, today we had an illustrious visitor, Levon Aronian, who graciously agreed to be a guest on the show. Although Levon understands German quite comprehensively and even speaks it, he insisted on sticking to English, a language he masters to an astonishing degree of perfection.

GM Levon Aronian in Hamburg to socialize and pick up software in the ChessBase office

Levon went on the Radio ChessBase show, with hosts André Schulz (left) and IM Oliver Reeh

The three followed and commented on games from the Tal Memorial and the Rising Stars in Holland

Visitors on Playchess got to see the show live while the games were in progress

If you want to see the show, which was recorded and saved, you can do so by going to the "Audio/Video" section on the server and there to Radio ChessBase room.

Ducats are the currency on the Playchess server, and two Ducats translates to about 20 Euro cents – a reasonable fee for a one-hour on demand broadcast. If you do not have Ducats you can buy some here.

Everyone had a great deal of fun with Levon, who was entertaining, humorous and profound. We can feel a few interesting DVDs with him coming. Oh yes, and this last series of pictures are for his girlfriend Ari in Australia.

Europe Echecs videos reports

These reports are provided by Europe Echecs.com, which is doing extensive coverage of the Tal Memorial Tournament

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site (in Russian) All games so far in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.