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
Round 5: Friday, August 22, 2008 |
Alex. Morozevich |
½-½ |
Alexei Shirov |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
1-0 |
Peter Leko |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
½-½ |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Gata Kamsky |
0-1 |
Shak. Mamedyarov |
Boris Gelfand |
½-½ |
Evgeny Alekseev |
|
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.

"Radio am Freitag" is where you will find the "on demand"
recording

Click on the entry "Live mit Levon Aronian" in the "Games"
list

After a few minutes you will be asked for a two ducat payment
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.

Shock and awe: Lev Aronian annotating live

I don't like what Black is doing at all...

Well, maybe now he has some chances...

Much better – that is what we want to see...
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