Alekhine R08: Vachier falls, Gelfand leads solo

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 eight report

Important guests: commentator Judit Polgar, her mother Klara and Anand's wife Aruna all watching the games

Kramnik, Vladimir - Gelfand, Boris 1/2-1/2
Kramnik obtained an early extra exchange at the cost of a pawn, while Gelfand's position remained very solid. White never found a convincing plan to break through, but slowly as more pawns came off the board his rooks gained activity. Kramnik missed a win on move 64 with Rh8! after which Gelfand would have had to lose his knight. After that the game was simply drawn because of the very reduced material.

More than prepared for the game: one full glass of water AND a full water bottle

Ding Liren - Adams, Michael 1/2-1/2
The battle between White's pair of bishops and Black's superior pawn structure is a common one in the Nimzo-Indian. In this case Ding was the one that obtained the better part of the deal as slowly he was able to fix his structure and even obtain pressure against Black's weak e5 pawn while retaining the only bishop on an open board. Ding played a combination that won a pawn but dis-coordinated his pieces, at which point Adams pounced and forced simplifications into a drawn ending.

Anand, Vishy - Svidler, Peter 1/2-1/2
An equal game through and through. The piece exchanges accelerated the inevitable draw.

Fressinet takes some liquid courage before sacrificing those two pawns

Fressinet, Laurent - Aronian, Levon 1/2-1/2
White played an interesting double pawn sacrifice against the a6 Semi-Slav, and he obtained full compensation for them. Unfortunately it was only good enough to regain the pawns, at which point the positional advantages dissipated and Aronian was able to complete his development. White enjoyed the better pawn structure against the pair of bishops and the game was soon drawn.

Aronian doesn't seem as impressed with the computer's analysis as Fressinet is

Vachier Lagrave, Maxime - Vitiugov, Nikita 0-1
Vitiugov returns to the Caro-Kann and obtained a slight edge from the opening with Black. Vachier slowly repelled the threats and it seemed that he was well on his way to equalizing. However starting on move 31.Bd1?! he started giving Black opportunities to improve his position, which the Russian slowly but surely did. A subsequent mistake showed how powerful a knight and a queen can be against a weak king.

Vitiugov struck an important blow to Vachier, who will need to win tomorrow for a chance at first place

Standings

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Alekhine Memorial 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

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