Tal Memorial 06: Morozevich, Ivanchuk and Gelfand 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 six report

Games of the day

Morozevich,A (2788) - Ponomariov,R (2718) [E32]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (6), 24.08.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.Nf3 c5 6.dxc5 Na6 7.c6 dxc6 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 Nc5 10.Be3 Nce4 11.Qe5 b5?

12.g4! c5? Getting deeper into trouble. 13.g5 Qa5+ 14.b4 cxb4 15.gxf6. Black is a piece down and the discovered check brings nothing. 15...Bb7 16.Bd2 Rfc8 17.Bxb4. Now it is a clear piece with unclear compensation. 17...Qb6 18.c5 Qd8 19.Rg1 g6 20.Rd1 (20.Nd4 looks stronger) 20...Qxf6 21.c6 Bxc6 22.Rg4 Qxe5 23.Nxe5 f5 24.Nxc6 Rxc6 25.Bg2 a5 26.Bxe4 fxe4 27.Bd2 Rc4 28.Rg5 Ra4 29.Rxb5 Rxa3 30.Rb7 a4 31.Bf4 Rb3 32.Rxb3 axb3 33.Rb1 e3 34.Bxe3 Rb8 35.Kd2 Rb4 36.f3 e5 37.Bf2 1-0. Garry Kasparov, watching the game on the server, said admiringly "Morozevich is playing chess – refreshing and interesting chess. In a time where people are playing fifteen or twenty moves from preparation Morozevich is forcing his opponents to start thinking at move move seven – they can't take that kind of pressure!"

Kramnik,V (2788) - Kamsky,G (2723) [D93]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (6), 24.08.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Rc1 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Qxc5 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.0-0 Qa5 12.h3 Bf5 13.Qe2 Ne4 14.Nd5 e5 15.Bh2 Be6 16.Rfd1 Rfd8 17.Qc4 Nf6 18.e4 Rac8 19.Ng5 Nd4

20.Ne7+ Kf8 21.Nxe6+ Kxe7 22.Nxd8 Rxc4 23.Bxc4. White has two rooks for his queen (the white knight on d8 is not hanging because White will get the knight on d4 if Black takes it). All of this looks dramatic and complicated, but it has occurred a number of times before. Kamsky's next move is the novelty. 23...Ne8N 24.Nxf7 b5 25.Bd5 Ne2+ 26.Kh1 Nxc1 27.Rxc1 Qd2 28.Rc8 Qxf2 29.Bg1 Qf1 30.Ra8 Nc7 31.Rxa7 Kd7 32.b3 g5 33.a4 g4 34.hxg4 Qf6 35.g5 Qf4 36.axb5 Qh4+ 37.Bh2 Qe1+ 38.Bg1. Black now has a queen for rook, bishop and three pawns, but also a perpetual. Draw.

Mamedyarov,S (2742) - Gelfand,B (2720) [D43]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (6), 24.08.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.e5 Nd5 11.0-0 Nd7 12.Nd2 Qb6 13.a4 a6 14.Nde4 0-0-0 15.Bh5 Nf4 16.Bxf7 Nxe5 17.Bxe6+ Kb8 18.Ne2 Bg7 19.Nxf4 gxf4 20.Bxf4 Rxd4 21.a5 Qd8 22.Qe2 Re8 23.Rad1 Ka8 24.Be3 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Nd3 26.Bf5 Qd5 27.Qg4 Bxb2 28.h4 Bd4 29.Bg6 Rg8 30.Bxd4 Qxd4 31.Qe6 Qd5 32.Qe7 c5 33.f3 Qd4+ 34.Kh1 Qg7 35.Qxg7 Rxg7 36.h5 b4 37.Kg1 Bxe4 0-1. Hideously complicated, worthy of analysis.

Leko,P (2741) - Ivanchuk,V (2781) [C92]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (6), 24.08.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.d5 Nb8 13.Nf1 Nbd7 14.N3h2 Rc8 15.Ng4 Nxg4 16.Qxg4 Nc5 17.Bc2 c6 18.dxc6 Bxc6 19.Ne3 g6 20.Rd1 Bh6 21.b4 Ne6 22.Bb3 Kh8 23.Nd5 Bxc1 24.Raxc1 Rf8 25.Rc2 f5 26.exf5 gxf5 27.Qh5 Qd7 28.Qh6 Bxd5 29.Rxd5 Qe7 30.Rcd2 Rc6 31.g3 f4 32.Kh2 Rf6 33.Qh5 Qf8 34.R5d3 e4 35.Qd5 exd3 36.Qxc6 fxg3+ 37.fxg3 Ng5 38.Bd5 Qh6

The game started well enough for Peter Leko, but slowly went downhill. Now he is in big trouble and with 39.h4? he simply collapses: 39...Nf3+ 40.Bxf3 Qxd2+ 41.Kh3 Qxa2 42.Qb6 Qe6+ 43.Kg2 Qf5 0-1. This is not Peter Leko's tournament (Dortmund was), while Vassily Ivanchuk continues to show superb form in spite of his heavy schedule of events all over the world.

Current standings

With his latest victory Alexander Morozevich moves to rank one in the world on the Live Rating list, which calculates the ratings for all players above 2700 on a daily basis (i.e. minutes after a round has ended). On that list we see Morozevich 0.9 points ahead of Vishy Anand, who is followed by Magnus Carlsen in place three and Vassily Ivanchuk in place four. On the July FIDE rating list, of course, Anand is first, followed by Moresevich, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Topalov and Carlsen.

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.