ChessBase
Magazine #154
The FIDE Grand Prix (Zug) saw Topalov dominate the field (1.5 points ahead
of Nakamura) and Aronian shared first place with Gelfand at the Alekhine
Memorial (Paris and St. Petersburg), with the former edging the top spot
on the 'most wins' tie-break.
Exciting as those two tournaments undoubtedly were, they still couldn't
match the London
Candidates Tournament for bloodthirsty drama. The latter rounds saw
an exciting two-horse race between Carlsen and Kramnik. Both suffered late
defeats and Carlsen went on to win his place in the next World Championship
match by way of an unsatisfactory tie-break method.
The best notes are often the players themselves. It was interesting to
read Kramnik's own thoughts on an important moment in this game against
Svidler.
Kramnik - Svidler, London Candidates 2013 (Round
8)
''This position used to be very popular some ten years ago, after my match
with Kasparov in 2000. 14 Kc2. A new idea, which I had
been studying already more than 10 years ago, but for some reason decided
to play it only much later. There were a lot of games played with 14. Ke1,
but it seems that, according to modern theory, Black finally managed to
find a way to equalise.'' 1-0 (40)
I find it incredible, in this day and age, that an idea can remain behind
the scenes for a decade (although I suspect Kasparov still has a few unused
novelties tucked away from even longer ago).
Both of the leaders lost in the final round. For Carlsen, it showed he
is not infallible after all and the pressure seemed to make him crack. Watching
such games live on the Internet won't teach a student much, but a grandmaster's
notes, written ''in the quiet of his study'', certainly will. Take a look
at this snippet, which really gets stuck into the position to demonstrate
that White was still capable of holding the game.
Carlsen - Svidler, London Candidates 2013 (Round
14)
31 f3? (and 0-1, 48) Marin gives 31 Bd5! and says: ''This
is not that difficult to spot, but evaluating the consequences requires
some effort. 31 ...Bxd5 32 Qxc5+ Kg7 33 Qxd5 Kxh6 34 Qxf7 Ba5 35 Qxe8 Bxe1
36 Qxe5 Bxf2+! 37 Kxf2 Qxh2 with a probable draw. If White interposes his
queen to one of the checks, Black can exchange and win the bishop with ...g5.''
Nevertheless, Kramnik couldn't take advantage. Commentators have lazily
blamed his use of the Pirc Defence in the critical last round encounter,
but there was far more to the story than that. Indeed, Kramnik seemed to
stand well in the middlegame, with just the sort of complex position he
could use to push Ivanchuk into the time trouble that afflicted him throughout
the event.
Ivanchuk changed the course of chess history with an unexpected idea. Who
would have correctly predicted White's next move here?
Ivanchuk - Kramnik, London Candidates 2013
(Round 14)
24 g3!? Nxh3+ 25 Kg2 Nhg5 26 Rh1 and 1-0 (47)
GM Gormally, who provides the annotation for the above game, was impressed
by the tournament.
''The 2013 Candidates tournament in London, had the most exciting denouement
of any tournament I can remember. The brilliant Norwegian Wunderkind
Magnus Carlsen, was eventually to stagger over the line, after a war of
attrition and nerves that will live in the memory for many years. But it
was the Russian Vladimir Kramnik who will perhaps feel most aggrieved -
he did not lose a game until the last round, a game we shall now analyse,
and his chess was of a very high quality indeed.
There are a lot of ifs and buts, but I would not criticise the format.
One player had to qualify, and if there had not existed the tie-break format,
and the tournament had gone to play-offs, perhaps you would have had a much
more cautious approach from the players, resulting in the veritable bore-fest
which was the previous candidates. Clearly this tournament format is the
way forward.''
It's good to be able to revisit these games and to enjoy the detailed of
expert commentators. With the information boom and strong tournaments coming
thick and fast in the international calendar, there's a danger of modern
classics being shunted off onto the minor paths of chess history. ChessBase
are doing their best to make sure that will never be the case.
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Sean Marsh is a freelance writer, specialising in interviews
and reviews. In the other half of his life he has been a professional chess
coach since 1988 and has also served time as a school librarian and Teaching
Assistant.
