Tal Memorial Rd8: Five draws, and Nepo leads

X Jubilee Tal Memorial is taking place from 25 September to 6 October 2016 in the Moscow Museum of Russian Impressionism. The tournament will be a continuation of the program "Chess in Museums", which is being implemented by the Russian Chess Federation together with the Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko. The General Partner of the Russian Chess Federation for the X Tal Memorial is the state company "Russian Highways" ("Avtodor").

The prize fund for the event is 200 thousand USD.

The tournament is a round-robin over nine rounds played at 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 50 minutes for 20 moves and 15 minutes until the end of the game with 30 seconds for each move starting from the first. The chief arbiter is International Arbiter Anatoly Bykhovsky.

Round eight

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Since Ian Nepomniachtchi was the leader, his game against five-time World Champion Vishy Anand was also the center stage of the round at first. The opening promised plenty of action in spite of a fairly early queen exchange as an English Opening left an unusually exposed white king that Nepomniachtchi carefully handled to avoid trouble. Though the game never really lost balance, it is unlikely to be an opening White will voluntarily repeat unless a more promising path can be found.

Ian Nepomniachtchi played a queenless but nervy game against...

...Vishy Anand, who tried his best to knock down the leader.

Boris Gelfand, whose tournament has been anything but inspiring, repeated the same ill-fated Rossolimo he challenged Anand with in the fifth round (and lost), but this time with an improvement that gave him full compensation for the sacrificed pawn, though not more. Svidler took up the gauntlet, but was unable to make a dent and they shook hands after 29 moves.

Peter Svidler did not shy away from Gelfand's attempt to repeat the opening from round five, even though he had to know the Israeli had prepared something very specific. He was right of course, but it was only good for equality.

Peter Svidler - Boris Gelfand

Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played a quiet Italian in which equality was reached fairly soon and ended with little ado about nothing

Levon Aronian’s game against Li Chao was one of the most interesting of the round, as an unusual position arose from a Queen’s Gambit Declined. Neither side castled and it was quite an open position in spite of the usual closed ones one expects out of this opening.

Levon Aronian has been about par with a plus one score so far

Levon Aronian - Li Chao

The final game was also the longest by far. Vladimir Kramnik came out of the middlegame against Evgeny Tomashevsky with an extra pawn and proceeded to try to grind down his opponent through attrition. Tomashevksy put in a no less stubborn effort to stay alive as they fought for over seven hours.

Vladimir Kramnik showed a relentless will to win, matched by Tomashevsky's stubborn refusal to wilt

Vladimir Kramnik - Evgeny Tomashevsky (annotations by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

The final round will see Ian Nepomniachtchi still nursing his sole leadership with 5.5/8 as the others try to challenge him. He faces Boris Gelfand with black, and though Gelfand is as tough as nails, it has been a difficult event for him. Still, should Gelfand win by any chance, the podium will lie wide open. Anish Giri is only a half-point behind with 5.0/8 and also plays black, though against Li Chao, and he too has a mountain to climb if he wishes to produce a miracle. Finally, Aronian, Kramnik and Anand are all tied one point behind with 4.5/8, with Kramnik playing black against Mamedyarov, and Anand with white against Aronian.

Replay today's games (with times per move)

Select games from the list below the board

Standings after round eight

Schedule and pairings

Links Official tournament site All blitz games in PGN All games in PGN 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.