Alekhine R02: three wins again, Adams leads

The Alekhine Memorial is taking place from April 20th to May 1st 2013. The first part of the event takes place in Paris, France, (April 21-26, rounds one to five), the second in Saint Petersburg, Russia, (April, 26-May 1, rounds six to nine). The super tournament is dedicated to a great Russian chess player Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, a citizen of Russia and France, and is held at the initiative and with the support of Russian businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Andrey Filatov. Ten grandmasters from seven countries are playing in the Memorial starts with with five rounds in the Louvre Museum in Paris and ends with four rounds in Saint Michael’s Castle in Saint-Petersburg.

Round two report

Like a brushfire, the fighting spirit of the tournament keeps spreading. Aronian rebounded with a fantastic finish against Kramnik. Adams continues showing expertise in the Spanish by steamrolling Svidler. Vachier didn't want to be left behind and took care of Ding Liren. Anand and Gelfand comfortably held with black against Vitiugov and Fressinet respectively.

Adams, Michael-Svidler, Peter 1-0
Adams (above) proves that he can use the Spanish with both colors and with great expertise, no matter who he plays. Today he obtained a slight edge that kept being problematic for Svidler. After further pressure, the Russian couldn't hold on to all his pawns and relinquished one of them. White kept pressuring with his strong knights, and eventually the combination of a bad position and the material disadvantage was sufficient for Svidler to resign.

Fressinet, Laurent-Gelfand, Boris ½-½
Gelfand didn't have to work hard to show that the Gruenfeld is a reliable and solid defense against 1. d4. Fressinet played a strange move that yielded nothing and had to give up the half point without too much fight.

Vitiugov, Nikita-Anand, Vishy ½-½
Vitiugov had a slight edge throughout the game after being very active in a quick Ne4 Nimzo-Indian. However the World Champion was up to the task of defending the uncomfortable rook endgame; it's possible that the Russian had a better chance of seeking a full point had he kept queen's on the board for a little longer.

Vachier Lagraeve, Maxim-Ding Liren 1-0
A fabulous game! Maxim must have read our article yesterday in which he was going to be "thrown in to the fire". The truth is he was the one that brought the fire with him! In a bizarre advance Caro-Kann White's king quickly found himself on d2, as well as being down two pawns. However this was fully compensated by Black's bishop on f8. Calling it a bad bishop would be an unnecessary euphemism, and at times its possible Ding Liren would've liked to simply grab it and put it off the board. This allowed White a strong initiative as Black was playing without his f8 bishop and the trapped h8 rook, and the coordination of White's pieces proved to be too much. Our friend GM Giorgi Margvelashvili again annotates this game below.

Aronian, Levon-Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0
Yesterday guest commentator GM Margvelashvili pointed out how he expected Aronian (above in a screen grab from the live video) to rebound from his first round loss due to his strong will and his history of doing so. However, what a rebound it was! In this duel of titans Aronian played a model game in this unusual variation of the Queen's Gambit. His passed d-pawn caused enormous headaches for Black. However the truly remarkable feature of the game was the very end: in a pawn race White queens first, but Black counters by queening with check, which is counter-countered by moving the king out of check, and putting Black in a mating net! Simply breathtaking.

Standings

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You can watch live video of the games, with GM commentary in English, in the above player. Video streams of past rounds can be reviewed on this page. Information and videos provided by Mark Gluhovsky, press attaché of the Alekhine Memorial

Alekhine Memorial 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN All games will be 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.