Alekhine R06: Draws prevail in Saint Petersburg

by ChessBase
4/28/2013 – The first round of the Alekhine Memorial in Saint Michael's Castle in Saint Petersburg saw solid fortresses, perpetuals and even a miracle escape. Aronian was too trigger happy and his piece sacrifice should have lost him the game, but a wonderful resource found in time trouble allowed him to draw. The rest of the players split the point without too many complications. Full report.

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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 six report

The players took a charter flight from Paris to Saint Petersburg where, after two rest days, they continue their fight at the Alekhine Memorial. The Russians held their own inauguration ceremony for their part of the tournament:

Glinka, Balakirev, Tchaikovsky are just some of the famous composers from Saint Petersbug

FIDE president Kirsan Ilyuzhimov flew in for the concerto and to give Kramnik opening advice...

...While Anand and his wife Aruna keep an eye on them

The players went for a positional and somewhat passive approach today and most of the games were nothing too exciting. Hopefully the fire that they had in Paris will be rekindled soon.

Round 06 – April 28 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Levon Aronian 2809
½-½
Michael Adams 2727
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Peter Svidler 2747
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2783

Fressinet, Laurent - Vitiugov, Nikita 1/2-1/2
A symmetrical variation in the English left White with perhaps a little less than nothing. After simplifying into a rook ending the game was drawn without anything actually happening but mass simplification.

Levon, Aronian - Adams, Michael 1/2-1/2
Definitely the highlight of the day. Aronian sacrificed a piece for very murky compensation that was granted by Black's exposed king. However this was certainly not enough, and the attack was slowly repelled. In time trouble, Adams is one move away from sealing the game, but he makes a crucial mistake and out of nowhere White's remaining pieces coordinated and start threatening the Black king. Adams simplified into a rook endgame but it wasn't sufficient to win.

Aronian has just played his last hope, while Vachier and Gelfand take a quick glance after drawing their game

Vachier Lagrave, Maxime - Gelfand, Boris 1/2-1/2
A symmetrical game ended in a completely locked pawn structure with no winning chances. Maybe White had a slight pull out of the opening, but Gelfand was never in any danger.

Ding Liren - Svidler, Peter 1/2-1/2
A bizarre game that had many unusual looking moves (6...h5, 8.Rb1!?) surprisingly also ended in a locked up position in which White had a symbolic advantage with his control of the b-file but that clearly was going nowhere, so the players agreed to a draw.

Kramnik-Anand 1/2-1/2
Kramnik at some point was able to win a queen for a rook, bishop and pawn. However Black's position remained extremely solid, and by move 25 it was clear that Kramnik would most likely never break through. This was exactly what happened, and only eight moves later the Russian gave up a piece to force a perpetual.

 

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

Round 01 – April 21 2013, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2706
½-½
Laurent Fressinet 2709
Ding Liren 2707
1-0
Levon Aronian 2809
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
1-0
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Viswanathan Anand 2783
0-1
Michael Adams 2727
Peter Svidler 2747
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Round 02 – April 22 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Michael Adams 2727
1-0
Peter Svidler 2747
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Levon Aronian 2809
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
1-0
Ding Liren 2707
Round 03 – April 23 2013, 14:00h
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Viswanathan Anand 2783
½-½
Levon Aronian 2809
Peter Svidler 2747
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Boris Gelfand 2739
1-0
Michael Adams 2727
Round 04 – April 24 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
½-½
Michael Adams 2727
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Levon Aronian 2809
1-0
Peter Svidler 2747
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Round 05 – April 25 2013, 14:00h
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
0-1
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Viswanathan Anand 2783
1-0
Ding Liren 2707
Peter Svidler 2747
0-1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Boris Gelfand 2739
½-½
Levon Aronian 2809
Michael Adams 2727
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Round 06 – April 28 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
½-½
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Levon Aronian 2809
½-½
Michael Adams 2727
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2739
Ding Liren 2707
½-½
Peter Svidler 2747
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Round 07 – April 29 2013, 14:00h
Viswanathan Anand 2783
-
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Peter Svidler 2747
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Boris Gelfand 2739
-
Ding Liren 2707
Michael Adams 2727
-
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
-
Levon Aronian 2809
Round 08 – April 30 2013, 14:00h
Laurent Fressinet 2706
-
Levon Aronian 2809
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722
-
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
Ding Liren 2707
-
Michael Adams 2727
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
-
Boris Gelfand 2739
Viswanathan Anand 2783
-
Peter Svidler 2747
Round 09 – May 01 2013, 14:00h
Peter Svidler 2747
-
Laurent Fressinet 2706
Boris Gelfand 2739
-
Viswanathan Anand 2783
Michael Adams 2727
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Nikita Vitiugov 2712
-
Ding Liren 2707
Levon Aronian 2809
-
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722

Links

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.


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