Aerosvit 2008: Carlsen wins by a full point

Aerosvit-2008 Tournament in Foros, Ukraine

The "Aerosvit-2008" tournament took place in a sanatorium complex in the settlement Foros of AR Crimea, Ukraine, from June 8th to June 19th, 2008. It was a 12-player round robin with invited participants. The average rating of the players was 2711.7, time controls 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes to the end of the game, with an addition of 30 sec. after every move. In case of equal points at the end of the tournament the tiebreak is based on the (1) the result of the direct encounter; (2) the Sonneborn-Berger system; (3) the number of won games.

Round eleven report (final)

Onischuk,Al (2664) - Shirov,A (2740) [D27]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (11), 19.06.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Bb3 b5 8.a4 b4 9.e4 Bb7 10.Nbd2 Be7 11.e5 Nfd7 12.Nc4 0-0 13.Nd6 Bxd6 14.exd6 cxd4 15.Nxd4 Nc5 16.Bf4 Qf6 17.Bg3 Nbd7 18.Bc2 Rfc8 19.Re1 g6 20.Qd2 Bd5 21.Rac1 b3 22.Bb1 Nxa4 23.Rc7 Nab6 24.Rec1 e5 25.Nc6 Rxc7 26.Ne7+ Kg7 27.Rxc7 Qxd6

White had pinned his hopes on an attach with an advanced d-pawn, which Black has just taken on d6. Now Onischuk is two pawns down and in big trouble. He needs to act. 28.Rxd7? Nxd7 29.Qxd5. The idea was probably that Black cannot capture on d7 because of ...Qxa8. But Shirov has a zwischenzug: 28...Rc8, threatening ...Rc1+ and mate to follow. Black gets the knight on e7 and the score in this game is 0-1.

Volokitin,And (2684) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2711) [C67]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (11), 19.06.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ne7 10.h3 Ng6 11.Ne4 Ke8 12.Re1 h6 13.Bd2 c5 14.Rad1 Be6 15.a3 Rd8 16.Ng3 Bd5 17.Nh2 Nh4 18.f3 Be6 19.Ng4 Nf5 20.Nxf5 Bxf5 21.Ne3 Be6 22.f4 g6 23.g4 h5 24.f5 gxf5 25.gxf5 Bc8 26.Bc3 Rxd1 27.Rxd1 c6 28.Kf2 Rg8 29.Kf3 Be7 30.Ke4 Rg3 31.e6 Bg5 32.Nc4 fxe6 33.f6 b5 34.Nd6+ Kf8 35.Bd2 Bd7 36.Bf4 Bxf4 37.Kxf4 Rxh3 38.Ne4 e5+ 39.Kxe5 Be8 40.Rd8 Re3 41.Kf4 Re1

Black is already lost, but now he get mated: 42.Nd6 Rf1+ 43.Kg5 Rg1+ 44.Kh6 Rg6+ 45.Kh7 and mate in a few more moves. 1-0. [Click to replay]

Vassily Ivanchuk vs Pavel Eljanov in the final round

Ivanchuk,V (2740) - Eljanov,P (2687) [D37]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (11), 19.06.2008
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 Nbd7 5.Qc2 dxc4 6.e4 a6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Bxc4 Nxc3 9.Qxc3 Nb6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12.Bb3 Nd5 13.Bxd5 exd5 14.0-0 0-0 15.b4 Bf5 16.a4 c6 17.a5 Bg4 18.Nd2 Be2 19.Rfe1 Bc4 20.h3 Rfd8 21.f4 Rab8 22.Kh2 Qe6 23.Rac1 h6 24.Re3 Qf5 25.Rf3 b6 26.Nxc4 dxc4 27.Qxc4 bxa5 28.bxa5 Rb5 29.Qxc6 Rxa5 30.g4 Qd7 31.Qxd7 Rxd7 32.Rd3 g5 33.Kg3 Rad5 34.Rc4 a5 35.Kf3 Kf8 36.fxg5 hxg5 37.Ke4 Ke7 38.Rc6 Rb5 39.d5 Ra7 40.Rdc3 Rbb7 41.R6c4 f6

Black is a pawn down and in a dire situation. His last move, 41...Pf7-f6, made things worse: 42.Rc7+ Rxc7 43.d6+ Kd8 44.dxc7+ Rxc7 45.Rxc7 Kxc7 46.exf6. Ivanchuk has worked it all out: this is an endgame he can win. 46...Kd7 47.Kf5 Ke8 48.Kxg5 a4 49.Kh6 a3 50.Kg7 a2 51.f7+ Kd7 52.f8Q a1Q+

53.Qf6 Qh1 54.h4 Qh3 55.Qd4+ Ke6 56.g5 Qh1 57.Qf6+ Kd5 58.h5 Kc5 59.h6 Qb7+ 60.Kg6 1-0. [Click to replay]

Karjakin,Sergey (2732) - Carlsen,M (2765) [D86]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (11), 19.06.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bh6 exd4 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.cxd4 cxd4 16.Rac1 Bb7 17.f4 Rc8 18.Rxc8 Qxc8 19.f5 Nc6 20.Rf3 Ne5 21.Rh3 Rh8 22.f6+

Here Sergey offered Magnus a draw, which the latter rejected. 22...Kg8 23.Qh6 Qf8 24.Qxf8+ Kxf8 25.Nxd4 Ke8 26.Bb5+ Kd8 27.Rc3 a6 28.Ba4 b5 29.Bb3 Re8 Now things look a little bit tricks for Black, but Sergey was in a conciliatory mood and a draw was agreed. ½-½. [Click to replay]

The youngsters: Sergey Karjakin vs Magnus Carlsen (Photo Karlovich)

For Magnus this was a satisfying end to the tournament. He started off like something that had been flushed out of the Oort cloud (i.e. in cometary fushion), with intense, fighting games. Then he slowed down, feeling the strain of the long games – and of being the front runner. At least he did not crack and finished with an unblemished record and a remarkable full point lead. Currently Magnus can look back at 21 games without a loss.

Final standings (after eleven rounds)

The center of attraction: Magnus Carlsen after his victory

Vassily Ivanchuk receives his second place trophy

And Sergey Karjakin gets this third place prize

Magnus watch

Magnus Carlsen's overall performance in this tournament is 2877, and his live rating is 2791.5. Which means that if the FIDE world rankings were published today he would be second in the world, seven points behind Anand and one point ahead of (can you guess?) Vassily Ivanchuk! Yes, the Ukrainian GM has overtaken Vladimir Kramnik, who is 2788 and now number four on the list. Alexander Morozevich is a point (actually a tenth of a point) behind Kramnik and Veselin Topalov is number six, eleven points behind Morozevich. Just twelve days left for the official list with the exact figures to be published.

But will Foros be rated? In the Executive Board Minutes of the 78th FIDE Congress, 14-16 November, 2007, in Antalya, Turkey, we read:

On Thursday a FIDE ratings officer announced that Foros would be included in the July 1st rating list, but then on Friday the same member retracted his statement, saying that he had been made aware of the above decision and that FIDE was determined to stick by this rule.

We can only repeat what we said a few days ago: FIDE has in the past made exceptions to include key tournaments in the ratings lists. In April 2007 it rated Morelia/Linares although the results could only be submitted after the original deadline. The consideration is that the accuracy of the ratings and their up-to-dateness should take precedence over burocratic guidelines. This applies especially in cases where chess history is in the making. The pressure from chess fans and the media will be enormous. In 2007 1.1 billion chess fans were ready to launch a protest if Anand were not ranked number one. Under worldwide pressure FIDE had to relent and corrected its April list one day later to include Morelia/Linares and put Anand on the top of the rankings.

Live ratings

Independent of what FIDE decides, for the time being we have Hans Arild Runde's Live Top List, which is updated minutes after tournaments are completed. The Live Top List cover all players with a current, live rating above 2700, who are now generally known as "Super-GMs".

Live Top List – June 19th, compiled at 18:57 CEST.

Links Official tournament web site 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.