Tal Memorial Blitz tournament in Moscow
The Tal Memorial took place from August 17th to 31st 2008 in the Exhibition
Hall of GUM mall, located directly on the Red Square. After the main event in
with classical time controls there was a blitz tournament (on August 29th-30th),
with a qualifier two days earlier. It was attended by a large number of internationally
known players (see the first Europe Echecs video report below). Some players,
like Magnus Carlsen and Antoly Karpov, were seeded invitees.
A total of 18 players participated in the final, which was a double round robin.
The average rating was 2726 – a staggering figure when you consider the
number of players. After the first half of the tournament the table was as follows:
In the second half Vassily Ivanchuk won the games against his nearest rivals
Kramnik and Carlsen to move to the top of the scoresheet. He never relinquised
that spot and added another great victory to his resumé. This is how
it ended:
Final result of the blitz tournament
Click for a full cross table
Picture gallery
The following pictures were taken from the Europe Echecs report produced in
Moscow by GM Robert Fontaine. You can watch the videos themselves in the player
at the end of this report.
The big qualifier on the first day – readers with keen eyes and some
knowledge of chess history will recognise the portrait of a former World Champion
on the wall to the left.
Look who's playing blitz in Moscow: business tycoon Maxim Dlugy (the GM
on the left) against Zahar Efimenko. Neither qualified for the final.
A nice endgame to watch in the "Tal Blitz (01) Eng" report by Europe
Echecs below
The legendary twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov finished 14th with 14/34
points
Magnus Carlsen vs Alexander Girschuk – the Norwegian super-star had
a tough time with the Muscovite, losing both games to him. Carlsen beat Mamdeyarov,
Morozevich and Karpov 2-0 and finished in place three. No orange juice in Moscow?
These two old buddies finished second and fourth
The indomitable Vassily Ivanchuk wins yet another great event. The Ukrainian
beat Kramnik and Carlsen 1.5:0.5, dismantled Grischuk 2-0 and did not lose a
single mini-match in the tournament, which he won by a full point.
Europe Echecs videos reports
These reports are provided by Europe
Echecs.com, which did extensive coverage of the Tal Memorial Tournament.
