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From March 14 to April 1, 2013, FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s commercial partner – are staging the 2013 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013. It will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The venue is The IET, 2 Savoy Place, London. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007. The main sponsor for the Candidates is State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR, which has sponsored elite events chess in the past.
Round 3 March 17 at 14:00 | ||
Boris Gelfand
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0-1
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Magnus Carlsen |
Vassily Ivanchuk
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0-1
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Levon Aronian |
Peter Svidler
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1-0
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Teimour Radjabov |
Vladimir Kramnik
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½-½
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Alexander Grischuk |
Playchess commentary: GM Yasser Seirawan
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The playing hall in the Institution of Engineering
and Technology (IET) just before the start,
with arbiters Carlos Oliveira Dias (standing) and David Sedgwick preparing for
round three
Svidler-Radjabov
Radjabov went back to the King's Indian Defense in this game, and used a Benko
style gambit with a6 and b5!? At some point he got his pawn back, but at the
cost of a rook for two minor pieces. Svidler consolidated excellently and converted
a full point.
Ivanchuk-Aronian
A somewhat passive opening from Ivanchuk simply gave Aronian the pair of bishops.
After trying to be overly creative the Ukrainian's position kept getting worse
and worse, until it became impossible to stop both of Black's bishops, as White's
knights were slowly pushed back. Here's a quick description of what transpired:
[Event "London"] [Site "London"] [Date "2013.03.17"] [Round "3"] [White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"] [Black "Aronian, Levon"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A47"] [WhiteElo "2757"] [BlackElo "2809"] [Annotator "Albert Silver"] [PlyCount "69"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] [EventCountry "ENG"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 e6 3. Nd2 c5 4. e3 b6 5. Ngf3 Bb7 6. c3 Be7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. h4 {In many ways, this not only announces Ivanchuk's intentions, but also his state of mind. There can be no question he could not have been happy for the way he lost the day before, and one wondered how he would respond. The Ukrainian is notoriously unpredictable in such situations. This choice might make sense in a 'win at all costs' situation, but in just the third round of a 14-round tournament, the attitude is unwarranted.} Nc6 10. Ng5 g6 11. f4 Ne7 12. Qg4 h5 13. Qh3 cxd4 14. exd4 b5 15. a3 ({The refutation of} 15. Bxb5 {is more positional than tactical. Taking the pawn will cost White a lot of tempi and would allow Black to position his rooks and pieces to take over the queenside and center. White is already completely invested in his kingside operations, and has nothing else going for him at the moment.} Rb8 16. Be2 Bd5 17. b3 Qa5 18. b4 (18. O-O $2 {is not possible due to} Bxd4+ $1 19. cxd4 Qxd2) 18... Qa3) 15... Qb6 16. Rg1 Nd5 {targetting f4 and not letting Ivanchuk make any progress. Notice how the Qh3 and Rg1, two of White's most powerful pieces, are essentially positioned for one thing only: g4. If it does not happen, then their contributions are nil.} 17. Nge4 Bg7 (17... Nxf4 18. Nxf6+ Kg7 19. Nxh5+ (19. Nxd7 {is playable too, but not as strong.}) 19... Nxh5 20. Qh2 $1 { followed by g4-h5 and suddenly the attack would rise from the ashes.}) 18. Qf3 b4 $1 {Energetic counterplay by Aronian!} 19. axb4 Nxb4 $1 20. Nc4 (20. cxb4 f5 {wins back the material and White's pawns are all sitting ducks.}) 20... Qb5 { Black misses the strongest continuation.} (20... Qc7 {was crushing.} 21. cxb4 Bxd4 {There is no hurry with both f5 and d5 to win back the piece if necessary. }) 21. Ne5 Nxd3+ 22. Nxd3 Qf5 23. Ndc5 {Ivanchuk was down to five minutes on the clock at this point. It is worth noting that there is no increment before move 40, so the five minutes were exactly that.} Bc6 24. b4 {In spite of having only five minutes left, the Ukrainian spent over two minutes here, leaving himself with three minutes for the next sixteen moves.} Rfb8 25. Ra5 $2 a6 $2 ({Black misses another opportunity to shorten the game with} 25... Bxd4 $1 26. cxd4 Rxb4 {but he was no doubt very aware of Black's dwindling time.}) 26. Qe3 Qg4 27. g3 Rb5 28. Rxa6 Rxa6 29. Nxa6 e5 30. dxe5 Bxe4 31. c4 {At this point, the times left for both players were five SECONDS for White, and 40 minutes for Black.} Rb6 {In blitz and bullet games it is not unheard of to play nonsense moves to simply kill the opponent's time, and this rook sacrifice might seem like that, but it is actually the best move, and Aronian spent nearly five minutes before playing it.} 32. Qxb6 Qf3 33. Qf2 Qa3 34. Nc5 Qxb4+ 35. Kd1 {White's flag fell.} 0-1
Armenian GM Levon Aronian who played the most exciting game of the day
Kramnik-Grischuk
The Gruenfeld is always a solid choice, and this was proven yet again today.
Kramnik was able to obtain a structural advantage from the opening, but Grischuk
simply gave away his weak pawn for activity, which was sufficient to hold the
draw.
Gelfand-Carlsen
The Cambridge Springs makes a comeback to top level chess, but the opening results
were nothing out of the ordinary. Gelfand got a slight edge that kept slipping
away from him slowly. Carlsen eventually got two strong passed pawns in the
queenside, but his king was too weak to win and a Gelfand should've used this
to force a draw. Instead he relied on his passed h-pawn and kept allowing Black
to push his pawns until eventually they could not be stopped.
Magnus Carlsen worked his usual magic, winning an "equal" game against Boris Gelfand
Express summary by GM Alejandro Ramirez
Pictures by Ray Morris-Hill
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The games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. London time = 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. Note that Britain and Europe switch to Summer time on March 31, so that the last two rounds will start an hour earlier for places that do not swich or have already done so (e.g. USA). The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.
LinksThe games will be 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |