Tal Round 1: Nepo crushes

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 One

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Before the games started, a moment of silence was observed in honor of Mark Dvoretsky

Round one in Moscow started out with a bang: within the hour it was clear that one of the games was going to be decisive.

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Kramnik, Vladimir
A bit of a heartbreak from the hero from Saint Petersburg:

Peter Svidler let big Vlad go in a long struggle

Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1-0 Tomashevsky, Evgeny

Tomashevsky thinking about things to come...

Nepomniachtchi in the Russian press conference

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Aronian's first white of this tournament was used up in a quiet English variation, with a very high draw rate. His novelty of Ne5 is unlikely to put this variation back on the map, as Gelfand was easily able to equalize and reach an endgame without any kind of life in it. The game was drawn early in the day.

A quiet start for Levon in the Tal Memorial

Giri, Anish ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
The symmetrical pawn structure system that arose in this game always favors white: better pieces and slightly better structure give real chances to press. However Black was super solid, and the lack of weaknesses made it hard for Giri to make progress. Anand use his usual clever methods of defending and his timely advance of central/kingside pawns allowed him to simplify into a very drawish endgame. Giri kept trying, but had to concede the draw at some point.

Giri will never say no to pushing with a slight advantage, even if it doesn't translate into bucketloads of wins

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Li Chao
Another symmetrical pawn structure game. Li Chao's 12...Bg4 was a slight improvement over his 12...Qa5 that he played against Carlsen and lost with in Norway, though that was a blitz game. Even though Mamedyarov won a pawn, the resulting pressure that Black obtained was worth maybe even more than the material. After some simplifications the game simply fizzled out to a draw.

Mamedyarov isn't in a hot start like in the blitz, but a draw with Li Chao is ok

Replay today's games

Select games from the list below the board

Standings after Round One

Final blitz standings

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.