Tal Memorial Rd4 – Radjabov and Morozevich lead

by ChessBase
6/12/2012 – It was a highly entertaining round once again, but this time Magnus Carlsen was at the center of it. The number one took incredible risks throughout his game to try and beat Grischuk, but eventually they drew as the time control arrived. Morozevich and Radjabov played a lukewarm game and drew. Caruana was the only win, beating Tomashevsky. Full report with notes by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

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Seventh Tal Memorial in Moscow

The event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from June 8th to 18th in the Pashkov House (Vozdvizhenka Street 3/5, p.1), Moscow, Russia. Rest days are June 11 and 15. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (last round 13:00h). Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time control. The participants are required to comment on their games in the press center after each round. The prize fund is 100,000 Euros.

Round 4: Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Fabiano Caruana
1-0
Ev. Tomashevsky
Luke McShane
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Levon Aronian
Alex. Morozevich
½-½
Teimour Radjabov
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Alexander Grischuk

Round four

With four out of five games ending in draws and not changes in the top places, you might be inclined to conclude the round was uneventful or dull, but this was far from the case. In fact, the only win of the round was actually one of the least eventful games, in spite of the result.


After a first round loss to Morozevich, Caruana is back to 50% with his win over Tomashevsky

Of course, this is not meant to besmirch Fabiano Caruana’s win over Evgeny Tomashevsky. Tomashevsky mishandled the opening, gave up a pawn to try and get play, and eventually went down.  The two leaders, Alexander Morozevich and Teimour Radjabov,  banged heads, but neither made any real progress and the draw came as no surprise.

Vladimir Kramnik was actually annoyed after his draw against Levon Aronian, and had managed to achieve a very healthy advantage, one that he felt he might have better negotiated. Instead, he failed to find the best way to develop it, and the Armenian genius managed to neutralize the threats and liquidate into a dead drawn endgame.


Vladimir Kramnik was miffed that he was unable to do more with his advantage, but
is still in third, just half a point behind the leaders.

The game of the round was the incredibly complicated slugfest between Magnus Carlsen and Alexander Grischuk. Carlsen had been on the ropes in two games, and made nothing in his third, and was visibly anxious to stop the series of draws and promote his claims to the top prize.


Carlsen was in no mood for a quiet game, and went all out in his unique style, for a win.

This led to some highly unorthodox strategic ideas in which he deliberately allowed his kingside pawns to be shattered and dark-squared bishop to be boxed in, in exchange for play on the light squares and ideas of his own. Even Garry Kasparov, who has never been shy about his opinions, when he checked in to see how the games were going, took one look and refused to pronounce anything beyond it being a “strange game”.


Alexander Grischuk valiantly fought off a kamikaze Carlsen

Eventually the mess began to untangle and Carlsen threw more gasoline on the fire by sacrificing his exchange, but only managed to eat up all his and Grischuk’s time on the clocks, and with seconds left, forced Black into a repetition.

Annotated game by GM Alejandro Ramirez

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 b4 9.Nbd2 Bc5 An interesting idea that was used by Adams against Hunt last year, and was picked up by Aronian who used it to beat Karjakin earlier this year in Wijk aan Zee. The idea is that the bishop is out of the pawn chain, doing something productive. 10.Nc4 d6 11.Bg5 New: White immediately pins the knight which has no comfortable way of being defended. h6 12.Bh4 Bg4 13.Ne3 Bxf3 14.gxf3!? This strange move hopes to capitalize the light square weaknesses left by Black's next move. 14.Qxf3 Nd4 15.Qd1 Nxb3 16.cxb3 g5 17.Bg3 looks acceptable for Black. 14...g5 14...Nd4 15.Ng4 Qc8!? with a complex position. 15.Bg3 Nd4 16.Bc4 Nh5 17.c3 bxc3 18.bxc3 Ne6 19.Rb1 Nhg7 20.Bd5 Rc8 21.Kh1 Kh8 22.Rg1 Qf6 23.Bc4 a5 White has some obvious drawbacks in his position. His bishop on g3 is slightly worse than useless and his pawn on f3 is permanently weak. However Black has his own issues - a5 is weak, the g7 knight is not doing much and he lacks a clear plan. 24.Rb5 h5!? Trying to trap that bishop. This comes with a great amount of risk. 25.Rxa5 25.Bxe6! A surprising exchange that works due to very concrete reasons. fxe6 25...Nxe6 26.f4+- h5 is hanging and with it the game. 25...Qxe6 26.Bxe5 is a similar version of the trick but better for White since the f-file is still closed. 26.Bxe5 Qxe5 27.d4 Qf6 28.dxc5 seems better for White. 25...h4 26.Ng4 Qe7 27.Qf1 Black can't take the g3 bishop just yet, but he doesn't have to. It won't be saved any time soon. Ra8 28.Rxc5! Another surprising move! Magnus sacrifices the exchange for the following tactical reasons. In the post-game conference he admitted it was perhaps not as good as he had initially thought. dxc5 28...Nxc5 29.Bxh4 is 'the point' Nh5∞ 29...gxh4? 30.Qc1 And since the e6 knight was distracted to c5 by the rook sacrifice, the penetration on h6 is unavoidable and decisive. 29.Nxe5 29.Bxe5 f6 and the bishop is still trapped, though White has some rseources. .. like going back to g3! 29...Qf6 30.Qh3 Rxa4 31.Bd5 Ra6 32.Bc4 Rd6 33.f4! A well timed strike. Black must take with the knight, which means that the bishop on g3 is finally not hanging, and Black's pieces leave somewhat to be desired. Nxf4 34.Bxf4 Qxf4 35.Nf3 Now Black can't really defend the g5 pawn. Rg6 36.Rg4 Qc1+ 37.Rg1 Qf4 38.Rg4 Qc1+ 39.Rg1 Qf4 40.Rg4 Qc1+ Neither side can improve their position beyond this repetition. Black must always be defending the g5 pawn and White can't give Black time to consolidate. A wild wild game, look for full explanations on CBM. ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2835Grischuk,A2761½–½2012C847. Tal Memorial 20124

The longest game of the round was once more Hikaru Nakamura’s, showing his desire to fight and play to the bitter end. Luke McShane achieved a huge advantage, that Kasparov, checking in Playchess, summarily declared “strategically winning”. However, the Englishman lost the thread and when his chronic time-trouble appeared, deteriorated into a pawn-down rook endgame that was nevertheless a clear draw. When play continued even in defiance of its futile nature, GM Ian Rogers, commenting on the live feed (see below for link) jokingly suggested online spectators check the TV for a good football game instead. On the upside: it beats unfought draws.

Complete round four games

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 b4 9.d3 d6 10.Nbd2 Na5 11.Ba2 c5 12.c3 Rb8 13.d4 Qc7 14.dxe5 dxe5 15.Nc4 Rd8 16.Qe2 b3 17.Nxa5 Qxa5 18.Bb1 c4 19.Qxc4 Rb7 20.Qe2 Rbd7 21.h3 Rd6 22.Be3 h6 23.Nd2 Be6 24.Nc4 Qc7 25.Nxd6 Qxd6 26.a5 Rd7 27.c4 Qb4 28.Bd3 Bc5 29.Red1 Rc7 30.Bxc5 Qxc5 31.Qe1 Kf8 32.Qc3 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Caruana,F2770Tomashevsky,E27381–02012C887th Mikhail Tal Memorial4
Kramnik,V2801Aronian,L2825½–½2012C477th Mikhail Tal Memorial4
Morozevich,A2769Radjabov,T2784½–½2012C807th Mikhail Tal Memorial4
Carlsen,M2835Grischuk,A2761½–½2012C847th Mikhail Tal Memorial4
McShane,L2706Nakamura,H2775½–½2012B847th Mikhail Tal Memorial4

Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili

Standings after four rounds

Video stream of the round

Once again the Russian organisers are providing unprecedented coverage,
with HD video stream of the action and commentary by grandmasters.
In addition there is excellent commentary by GM Ian Rogers from Sydney.

Tal Memorial 2012 Round four Play of the Day by Daniel King: Carlsen-Grischuk


Tal Memorial Moscow 2012: Commentary on Aronian-McShane by IM Andrew Martin


Schedule and Results

Round 1: Friday, June 8, 2012
Alex. Morozevich
1-0
Fabiano Caruana
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 
Alexander Grischuk
1-0
Luke McShane
Teimour Radjabov
1-0
Ev. Tomashevsky
Levon Aronian
1-0
Hikaru Nakamura
Round 2: Saturday, June 9, 2012
Fabiano Caruana
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura
Ev. Tomashevsky
½-½
Levon Aronian
Luke McShane
0-1
Teimour Radjabov
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Alexander Grischuk
Alex. Morozevich
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Round 3: Sunday, June 10, 2012
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Fabiano Caruana
Alexander Grischuk
0-1
Alex. Morozevich
Teimour Radjabov
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Levon Aronian
0-1
Luke McShane
Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Ev. Tomashevsky
Round 4: Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Fabiano Caruana
1-0
Ev. Tomashevsky
Luke McShane
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Levon Aronian
Alex. Morozevich
½-½
Teimour Radjabov
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Round 5: Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Alexander Grischuk
  Fabiano Caruana
Teimour Radjabov
  Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian
  Alex. Morozevich
Hikaru Nakamura
  Vladimir Kramnik
Ev. Tomashevsky
  Luke McShane
Round 6: Thursday, June 14, 2012
Fabiano Caruana
  Luke McShane
Vladimir Kramnik
  Ev. Tomashevsky
Alex. Morozevich
  Hikaru Nakamura
Magnus Carlsen
  Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk
  Teimour Radjabov
Round 7: Saturday, June 16, 2012
Teimour Radjabov
  Fabiano Caruana
Levon Aronian
  Alexander Grischuk
Hikaru Nakamura
  Magnus Carlsen
Ev. Tomashevsky
  Alex. Morozevich
Luke McShane
  Vladimir Kramnik
Round 8: Sunday, June 17, 2012
Fabiano Caruana
  Vladimir Kramnik
Alex. Morozevich
  Luke McShane
Magnus Carlsen
  Ev. Tomashevsky
Alexander Grischuk
  Hikaru Nakamura
Teimour Radjabov
  Levon Aronian
Round 9: Monday, June 18, 2012
Levon Aronian
  Fabiano Caruana
Hikaru Nakamura
  Teimour Radjabov
Ev. Tomashevsky
  Alexander Grischuk
Luke McShane
  Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
  Alex. Morozevich

Playchess live commentary plan for the Tal Memorial 2012

11.06.2012 Free Day  
12.06.2012 Round 4 Daniel King
13.06.2012 Round 5 Robert Ris
14.06.2012 Round 6 Robert Ris
15.06.2012 Free Day  
16.06.2012 Round 7 Lawrence Trent
17.06.2012 Round 8 Daniel King
18.06.2012 Round 9 Yasser Seirawan

Links

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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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