Alekhine R03: Gelfand beats Adams

by ChessBase
4/24/2013 – Despite the four drawn games today in Paris, the atmosphere is still electrifying and many games went down to the wire. Ding-Fressinet was a particularly wild affair, Vitiugov had to sacrifice a rook to achieve a strange perpetual, while Vachier held on by the skin of his teeth in an inferior rook endgame against Kramnik. Gelfand showed that Adams is still human and took him down while Anand and Aronian went the peaceful route. Big pictorial report.

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The Alekhine Memorial is taking place from April 20th to May 1st 2013. The first part of the event takes place in Paris, France, (April 21-26, rounds one to five), the second in Saint Petersburg, Russia, (April, 26-May 1, rounds six to nine). The super tournament is dedicated to a great Russian chess player Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, a citizen of Russia and France, and is held at the initiative and with the support of Russian businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Andrey Filatov. Ten grandmasters from seven countries are playing in the Memorial starts with with five rounds in the Louvre Museum in Paris and ends with four rounds in Saint Michael’s Castle in Saint-Petersburg.

Round three report

The excitement in Paris was turned down a notch as the players settled down somewhat and had more peaceful games. However, some of the ones that ended in peace were as wild as the games we have been seeing in previous rounds.

Round 03 – April 23 2013, 14:00h
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Viswanathan Anand 2783
½-½
Levon Aronian 2809
Peter Svidler 2747
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Boris Gelfand 2739
1-0
Michael Adams 2727

Anand, Vishy – Aronian, Levon ½-½
As has been the norm this year, White fought the Spanish with an early d3 system. Aronian proved again that such systems don’t really give White any chance to fight for a strong advantage from the opening, and after many quick trades the game was drawn in a lifeless position.

Ding Liren – Fressinet, Laurent ½-½
A very wild game ended in a disappointing result. Fressinet was relentless with his pawn grabbing, and although it seemed that his position was always on the verge of collapse, it never actually fell apart. Ding kept putting up pressure, but at no point did he have a break-through. In the final position, Fressinet had the option of repeating again for a three-fold repetition or looking to get out of it with the move 30… Kc7! The variations are rather wild, and Fressinet would have had to find some very interesting variations which included him sacrificing his bishop with check just to deflect the White queen, but the resources were certainly there.

Laurent Fressinet and Ding Liren analyse in the press conference after their game

Svidler, Peter – Vitiugov, Nikita ½-½
Vitiugov’s poisoned pawn Winawer always promises fun games. Here Svidler castled very early on the queenside. This gave Vitiugov an obvious path for attack as the half open c-file provided many strong targets to compensate for the missing pawn. After some tactical blows Black was forced to sacrifice a rook, but he was on time to deliver a perpetual and seal the draw.

Nikita Vitiugov and Peter Svidler analysing

Kramnik, Vladimir – Vachier Lagraeve, Maxim ½-½
Kramnik continues with his somewhat unambitious setups with White. Vachier Lagraeve, or MVL as he likes to be referred as, was prepared and he valiantly sacrificed a pawn early in the game to obtain good piece placement and pressure on the a-file. Kramnik managed to consolidate his pawn, but Black’s position was still active. Eventually a strange rook endgame was drawn, in which although White had a passed pawn and his rook was powerfully placed behind it, there was simply no way to make progress.

Gelfand, Boris – Adams, Michael 1-0
Black’s unorthodox way of handling the Queen’s Gambit Declined structure landed him in a very passive, though solid, position. The resulting endgame in which White had a knight and a rook against a bishop and a rook was favorable to the White side only because of his piece activity, however it seems that was enough to cause the tournament leader some serious problems. A mistake with the move 24... Kg7? allowed Gelfand to swoop a pawn with a simple combination, and from then on Gelfand started torturing Adams. Eventually the Englishman broke down and committed further mistakes which gave Gelfand the full point.

An illustious GM crowd watching the games: Anatoly Vaisser (France),
Vladimir Tukmakov (Ukraine), Genna Sosonko and Jan Timman (both Holland)

Alekhine's grave at the Cimetière de Montparnasse in Paris. Jeff Sonas has pointed out that the placement of the glass vases on d2, b3, f3, c5, e6, and g5 represent a mini knight’s tour. Clearly a chess fan at work there.

Summary by GM Alejandro Ramirez, pictures by Boris Dolmatovsky

Standings

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You can watch live video of the games, with GM commentary in English, in the above player. Video streams of past rounds can be reviewed on this page. Information and videos provided by Mark Gluhovsky, press attaché of the Alekhine Memorial.

New in Chess editor Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam and Jan Timman doing English commentary

Ilya Smirin and Alexander Grischuk discussing the games in Russian

Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier analysing with Ukrainian GM Kateryna Lahno

Alekhine Memorial 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

Round 01 – April 21 2013, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2706
½-½
Laurent Fressinet 2709
Ding Liren 2707
1-0
Levon Aronian 2809
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
1-0
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Viswanathan Anand 2783
0-1
Michael Adams 2727
Peter Svidler 2747
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Round 02 – April 22 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Michael Adams 2727
1-0
Peter Svidler 2747
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Levon Aronian 2809
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
1-0
Ding Liren 2707
Round 03 – April 23 2013, 14:00h
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Viswanathan Anand 2783
½-½
Levon Aronian 2809
Peter Svidler 2747
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Boris Gelfand 2739
1-0
Michael Adams 2727
Round 04 – April 24 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
-
Michael Adams 2727
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
-
Boris Gelfand 2739
Levon Aronian 2809
-
Peter Svidler 2747
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
-
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Ding Liren 2707
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Round 05 – April 25 2013, 14:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
-
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Viswanathan Anand 2783
-
Ding Liren 2707
Peter Svidler 2747
-
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Boris Gelfand 2739
-
Levon Aronian 2809
Michael Adams 2727
-
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Round 06 – April 28 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
-
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Levon Aronian 2809
-
Michael Adams 2727
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
-
Boris Gelfand 2739
Ding Liren 2707
-
Peter Svidler 2747
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
-
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Round 07 – April 29 2013, 14:00h
Viswanathan Anand 2783
-
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Peter Svidler 2747
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Boris Gelfand 2739
-
Ding Liren 2707
Michael Adams 2727
-
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
-
Levon Aronian 2809
Round 08 – April 30 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
-
Levon Aronian 2809
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
-
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Ding Liren 2707
-
Michael Adams 2727
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
-
Boris Gelfand 2739
Viswanathan Anand 2783
-
Peter Svidler 2747
Round 09 – May 01 2013, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 2747
-
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Boris Gelfand 2739
-
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Michael Adams 2727
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
-
Ding Liren 2707
Levon Aronian 2809
-
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722

Links

All 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.


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