Bucharest Kings Rd1: Kings tournament starts with win by Ivanchuk

Round one report

After five years as the latest fixture in the calendar for the elite, and part of the Grand Prix tournament circuit, the lovely Turneul Regilor or "Kings Tournament" came very close to not taking place at all. Days before its official start was scheduled, some months ago, the event was canceled due to political upheavals in Romania, and a big question mark was appended to its taking place, in spite of assurances by the organizers that it would.

The playing hall with some spectators and the players. Bear in mind it is a Wednesday
afternoon, so only expect a larger live audience toward the weekend.

Part of the problem was more than simply arranging the venue, and money, but rather the players. Both Anand and Carlsen who had been on the player list could no longer come at the later dates due to prior commitments, and the same was true of other top players. Skipping a year was not considered an option and exceptionally, the tournament will only have four players playing a double round-robin, but will still count for the Grand Prix, a sweetener for the players wishing to assure themselves a spot in next year's final.

Four players are playing, but the names are not synonymous of sedate chess, and though only two games take place at a time, they promise excitement and cutthroat chess.

The first game was between Veselin Topalov, who seems to finally be recovering from his difficult phase after his 2010 match against Vishy Anand, and Fabiano Caruana whose rise to the top in the last twelve months has been nothing short of extraordinary. The game was an extremely sharp opening in which the Bulgarian accepted to leave his king uncastled in exchange for a pawn that his Italian opponent desperately tried to find compensation for. Despite a significant edge, Topalov was unable to deliver a knockout blow and Caruana found resources to draw.

Although he failed to actually score, Topalov was still the moral victor as his preparation
gave him a nice opening edge, and he was the one calling the shots throughout the game.

Game annotations by GM Dorian Rogozenco:

The video post-mortem conducted by GM Rogozenco from the game Topalov-Caruana

Vassily Ivanchuk had an easier time about it, and explained in the post-mortem that the opening went very well for him, gaining him a bishop pair for no compensation, against poorly placed knights by his opponent. The top Romanian found no way to articulate his famous creativity and wnet from worse to lost, giving Ivanchuk first blood.

Things went bad for Nisipeanu quite early and he was unable to recover. A good start
for Ivanchuk.

Game annotations by GM Dorian Rogozenco:

Ivanchuk and Nisipeanu comment on where Black went wrong  

All photos by Ionut Anisca

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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