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From March 14 to April 1, 2013, FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s commercial partner – are staging the 2013 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013. It will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The venue is The IET, 2 Savoy Place, London. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007. The main sponsor for the Candidates is State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR, which has sponsored elite events chess in the past.
| Round 6 March 21 at 14:00 | ||
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Peter Svidler
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0-1
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Magnus Carlsen |
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Vladimir Kramnik
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½-½
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Vassily Ivanchuk |
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Alexander Grischuk
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½-½
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Boris Gelfand |
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Teimour Radjabov
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0-1
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Levon Aronian |
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Playchess commentary: GM Chris Ward
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The round was opened by Magnus Carlsen (above) who beat Peter Svidler (Russia) from the black side of a Closed Ruy Lopez. The top seed scored quite a smooth win in a more or less standard Ruy Lopez position, wheree the Russian grandmaster decided to “try something new” with his move 15.Bc2. He thought that he should have played h2-h3 earlier, perhaps instead of 17.Ne3. His play in that phase was “based on a miscalculation”.
A few moves later Svidler was “already struggling” until he missed 33…Qe4! which decided the game immediately. He did have a small compliment for his opponent: “As usual the conversion phase went quite smoothly.”
As computer engines pointed out, Carlsen in fact missed a strong move earlier on: 25…Bxh3. “At this point I was just thinking that straightforward moves were good enough for a huge advantage,” said Carlsen, who is more than satisfied after six rounds of play. “I’m very happy. I’ve had four blacks so far and I feel that I’m playing at a decent level so… as I said before: I am where I need to be. We’ll see what happens from here.”
Once again we bring you analysis by IM Zura Javakhadze.
[Event "Candidates"] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.03.21"] [Round "6"] [White "Svidler, Peter"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C84"] [WhiteElo "2747"] [BlackElo "2872"] [Annotator "Javakhadze,Zura"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "2013.01.12"] [SourceDate "2013.03.21"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 {Another Spanish with an early d3 setup.} b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. a4 b4 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. a5 {White gains extra space on the queenside and prevents his opponent from playing Na5-b7-c5, which is Black's typical idea in the Ruy Lopez.} Be6 11. Nc4 Rb8 12. c3 bxc3 13. bxc3 h6 14. Re1 Qc8 {Carlsen starts a very prosperous maneuvering to mobilize his pieces.} 15. Bc2 Rd8 16. Qe2 Bf8 17. Ne3 d5 {After putting all his pieces on the right squares, Black opens the center.} 18. exd5 Nxd5 19. Nxd5 Rxd5 20. h3 Bf5 21. Rd1 {White's position is gradually getting worse but it's hard to notice where he could have made an improvement.} Qe6 22. Bb1 Qd7 23. Be3 e4 (23... Rxb1 24. Raxb1 Bxd3 25. Qa2 Rxa5 26. Qd2 Rd5 27. Qa2 e4 { would also give Black some initiative.}) 24. Nd4 Nxd4 25. Bxd4 exd3 26. Bxd3 Bxd3 27. Rxd3 c5 28. Be5 Rxd3 29. Bxb8 c4 $15 {After further simplifications, Black has obtained a very pleasant position with reasonable prospects, where he is the only one who can play for the full point. White's queenside pawns are placed on the black squares - which makes them potential targets for the bishop - and the second rank can also become potentially weak.} 30. Be5 Bc5 31. Rb1 Qd5 32. Rb8+ Kh7 33. Qh5 $2 {A decisive mistake by the Russian grandmaster! Creating mating threats in time trouble is always tempting, but Black tactically defends everything and remains with an extra piece!} ({In case of} 33. Re8 $17 {White still has chances to survive and Black must work hard for his goal.}) 33... Qe4 $19 ({Besides Qf5 check, White has the following little trick:} 33... Qd7 $4 34. Rh8+ Kxh8 35. Qxh6+ Kg8 36. Qxg7#) 34. Rb2 (34. Rh8+ {doesn't work because of} Kxh8 35. Qxh6+ Qh7 $1 $19 {This is the move Svidler probably missed in time trouble.}) 34... Rd5 35. Re2 Qb1+ 36. Kh2 f6 0-1
Alexander Grischuk (Russia) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) drew an exciting Rossolimo Sicilian (3.Bb5), a line which the Israeli got on the board many times last year in his World Championship match against Vishy Anand. About his seventh move Grischuk said: “Unfortunately Boris was very well prepared for this rare line.” After the opening the Russian grandmaster lost a pawn and then he had to "fight for the draw", but he managed to get the game sharper. With little time on the clock for both players at the second time control, Gelfand decided to repeat moves.
Teimour Radjabov versus Levon Aronian (foreground right) was a relatively quiet Ruy Lopez. “I thought I had a decent position out of the opening and lots of time on my clock, so I thought I should pose some problems for Teimour,” said Aronian, who seemed to get an advantage after White’s pawn push 24.g5. Kramnik, who joined the commentary team when he was finished and even took the time to look at this game, said: “This g4-g5 looks like a nervous move. It seems people are a bit nervous here, especially the young guys!”
With a weakened king position Radjabov had to be careful, and he was for a long time. “I should say that till the very last moment he was defending very well. Only through luck I managed to break his resistance,” said Aronian. The Armenian (picture below) could profit from a blunder by his opponent on move 53 and thus scored an important point.
In a Closed Catalan, Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, above) sacrificed an exchange and then a piece, but despite getting into time trouble yet again, Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) defended well and held the draw. With that the world’s number two lost further ground on the overall scoreboard.
Once again the Ukrainian (above) got into serious time trouble. “I had to spend some time in the opening because the position was very dangerous and of course I understood that every little mistake can lead to a loss,” said Ivanchuk. Kramnik came up with a nice positional exchange sacrifice and then did away with another piece to create a dangerous attack on the enemy king. But it was just not enough: just when his opponent needed to make 13 moves in only 1 minute and 4 seconds, the former World Champion had to go for a perpetual check.
The game was so complicated and interesting that during the press conference Kramnik impatiently asked if the press room’s laptop could run an engine. After it was switched on, he grabbed the mouse and said: “I don’t know if I had anything. Let’s see what the guy says.” The players and host Anastasiya Karlovich had a good laugh about some of the amazing moves that were suggested by the machine. For sure Kramnik was also trying to find analytical support for the difficult decision he had to make on move 30...
About the tournament situation, Kramnik said: “I just have bad luck. I quite like my play but the ball is just not getting into the goal. Yesterday I was very close to a win, and today again... It was just amazing that I was not checkmating him. I’m afraid that if I don’t repeat moves I’m just lost. It would be a gamble because he is a very good blitz player. I am not happy about the way the tournament is going but I don’t think I can blame myself. The only thing I can do is continue to show good chess and hope that at some point I will have luck on my side.”
[Event "Candidates"] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.03.21"] [Round "6"] [White "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E01"] [WhiteElo "2810"] [BlackElo "2757"] [Annotator "Javakhadze,Zura"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "2013.01.12"] [SourceDate "2013.01.13"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bd6 $5 {This idea of Mickey Adams is pretty interesting. Many strong grandmasters include this move in their repertoire.} (5... Be7 {is a well-known continuation.}) 6. Bg2 ({Some months ago German grandmaster George Meier found an interesting way of developing his pieces.} 6. Nc3 O-O 7. Bg5 $5 c6 8. Bg2 Nbd7 9. e4 dxe4 10. Nxe4 Bb4+ 11. Nc3 Qa5 12. Bd2 e5 13. a3 Bxc3 14. Bxc3 Qa6 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. dxe5 Qxc4 17. Qd4 Qxd4 18. Bxd4 $14 {1/2-1/2 Meier,G-Adams,M/GRENKE Chess Classic 2013 (35)}) 6... Nbd7 7. O-O O-O 8. Qc2 c6 9. Nc3 dxc4 {This is the idea of putting bishop on d6 instead of e7. In case of 10.e4, black has a counter-strike in the center : 10...e5 !} 10. Rfd1 $146 (10. e4 e5 $132) 10... Qc7 {Black intends to play b5, so he needs to defend the c6 pawn.} 11. Ng5 { White's idea is to play Nce4, attacking the dark squared bishop and the c4 pawn at the same time.} Be7 (11... b5 $2 12. Nxb5 $16) 12. a4 {Kills ideas involving b7-b5 and also gains space on the queenside} e5 13. a5 $5 {Kramnik temporarily sacrifices the second pawn and gains an initiative.} exd4 14. Bf4 Bd6 15. Rxd4 Bxf4 16. Rxf4 h6 17. Nf3 b5 18. axb6 (18. Nd4 a6 19. Nxc6 Bb7 20. Ne7+ Kh8 {Despite White's activity , Black's position is very stable.}) 18... Nxb6 19. Rxf6 $1 {The computer says that Black is still okay, but from human point of view it's very difficult to play this position.} gxf6 20. Nd4 Bd7 21. Qd2 ({I think} 21. Ra5 {was worth a try} Nd5 (21... Qd6 22. Nf5 Bxf5 23. Qxf5) 22. Nxd5 cxd5 (22... Qxa5 $2 23. Nxf6+ Kg7 24. Nxd7 $18) 23. Rxd5 $36 {In my opinion this would give Kramnik good prospects, especially if we take in count that Ivanchuk had around 8 minutes on the clock !}) 21... Kg7 22. Bxc6 Bxc6 23. Nf5+ Kg6 24. Ra5 Rh8 25. Qd4 Rag8 26. Rc5 Qd7 27. Qf4 h5 28. Nh4+ Kg7 29. Nf5+ Kg6 (29... Kf8 {It's always dangerous to play with an unprotected king in time trouble, so Ivanchuk reasonably decided to repeat moves.} 30. Qb8+ Nc8 31. Qb4 $44) 30. Nh4+ Kg7 31. Nf5+ 1/2-1/2
By winning in round 6 Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Magnus Carlsen (Norway) increased their lead at the FIDE Candidates' Tournament to 1.5 points.
Round summary by Peter Doggers, pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich
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The games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. London time = 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. Note that Britain and Europe switch to Summer time on March 31, so that the last two rounds will start an hour earlier for places that do not swich or have already done so (e.g. USA). The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.
LinksThe 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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