3/31/2013 – Another heart-stopping round. Vladimir Kramnik had a very nice position and looked right on the path to victory, in his game against Boris Gelfand and in the tournament. This because Magnus Carlsen had a very drawish position on his board against Teimour Radjabov. But the latter blundered in the endgame and Carlsen drew level with Kramnik. The event goes all the way to the wire.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
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 thirteen report
After the gut-wrenching events of round twelve, the question on everyone’s
mind was whether Magnus Carlsen will be able to yank the win from under Vladimir
Kramnik. The most probably scenario for that to happen is if the young number
one were to outscore the Russian by half a point and beat him on the second
tiebreak: number of wins. Still, the former World Champion could simply deny
this were he to win as well.
The venue: the Institution of Engineering and Technology
(IET) in London
Round 13 March 31 at 14:00
Teimour Radjabov
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Levon Aronian
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Boris Gelfand
Peter Svidler
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk
Playchess commentary: GM Daniel King
In spite of the understandable focus on the leaders’ games, the other
two games were not denuded of interest. Alexander Grischuk tried to take advantage
of a frail Levon Aronian, weakened by the unexpected rut he had run into, and
despite keeping a solid initiative for most of the game, was unable to set up
a knockout punch. They drew.
Peter Svidler had similar designs on Vassily Ivanchuk, as the latter has not
only been unable to maintain any consistency, and his tournament will be mostly
remembered for his dramatic victory of Magnus Carlsen, as well as the astounding
number of games lost on time. In the post-game conference, Svidler explained
that his choice of play had been designed around psychological analysis more
than chess. He felt that the Ukrainian would be steering for a principled continuation,
and that is why, in a French Advance, he deliberately went for a very double-edged
continuation at the cost of a pawn. Although he had great play for his risk,
he never needed to work out the hardest lines as Ivanchuk’s flag fell
on move 30.
Vladimir Kramnik’s game against Boris Gelfand was easily the most exciting
of the day, despite the pyrotechnics in Svidler-Ivanchuk, since so much hung
on its result. The opening was a Fianchetto Gruenfeld but somehow the transition
to the middlegame went sour on the Israeli as he found himself trying to avoid
disaster. After 23.b5! the Russian was suddenly in the driver seat as he broke
through on the queenside, positioning his pieces with his legendary precision.
The cost came at mutual time trouble with enormous complications for both, and
though he dealt what might have been a death blow with 32.Nxf7!, the computer
precise 36.g4!! eluded him and by the time control his edge was mostly gone.
He tried to keep his chances alive, understanding how valuable a win would be,
but Boris Gelfand, the great defender he is, held fast and a draw was concluded.
When Kramnik and Gelfand shook hands, things did not look so bad for the Russian.
Aside from Jeff Sonas’s calculations predicting a 65% chance for him to
win the event, Teimour Radjabov’s game against Magnus Carlsen looked about
as lifeless as the Gobi desert. The situation of the two players was crystal
clear. Radjabov knew that Carlsen had to play for a win at all costs, and the
question was whether he would be able to weather the Norwegian storm. This was
compounded even more by the fact that even a casual glance at Kramnik-Gelfand
for much of the game, would show that his Russian rival might end it all that
very day with a win.
Carlsen remained true to himself, and his style, and may have missed some attacking
chances earlier on, but tried to keep a simple, yet complex middlegame/endgame
going. It seemed quite hopeless as the Azeri held on, refusing to buckle, but
little by little the pressure built and the strain got to him. It brought to
mind a proverb in Portuguese that goes, “Agua mole em pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura”, which translates roughly as “Soft water will
keep on beating against the hard rock until it wears through”. Sure enough,
the chinks in Radjabov’s armor began to appear, and on move 80 he stumbled
fatally for a historic and miraculous win for Magnus Carlsen.
GM Daniel King analyses the game Radjabov vs Carlsen
Current standings
So what are the odds now? Jeff Sonas explains
With one round left, the tiebreak situation has clarified completely: if Magnus
Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik finish in a tie for first place, then Carlsen wins
the tiebreak because he will have one more win than Kramnik. So all of the previously
Sonneborn-Berger complexities, dependencies upon other games, etc., are no longer
relevant.
Kramnik needs to pull ahead of Carlsen in order to win the tournament, and
has the great disadvantage of playing Black in the final against Vassily Ivanchuk,
while Carlsen has the white pieces in the final round against Peter Svidler.
So everything hinges upon the outcome of those two games. It is possible to
simulate millions of possibilities, and to quote odds of each player winning
the tournament. But these are not as trustworthy because the two games are not
independent: obviously Carlsen and Kramnik will be paying close attention to
each other's games, and certainly adjusting their own plans accordingly. But
the simple calculation tells us this:
Carlsen's chances in Round 14
Win 37.4%
Draw 60.4%
Loss 2.2%
Kramnik's chances in Round 14
Win 24.1%
Draw 63.8%
Loss 12.1%
And it is easily seen from this, that the tournament odds have become:
Carlsen wins outright
36%
Carlsen and Kramnik share first place, and Carlsen wins the tiebreak
(more wins)
48%
Kramnik wins outright
16%
Carlsen therefore now has an 84% chance to win the tournament, and Kramnik
has a 16% chance to win the tournament.
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
Schedule and results
Round 1 March 15 at 14:00
Levon Aronian
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Boris Gelfand
½-½
Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Peter Svidler
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Playchess commentary: GM Daniel
King
Round 2 March 16 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Peter Svidler
Teimour Radjabov
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian
1-0
Boris Gelfand
Playchess commentary: GM Chris
Ward
Round 3 March 17 at 14:00
Boris Gelfand
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk
0-1
Levon Aronian
Peter Svidler
1-0
Teimour Radjabov
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Playchess commentary: GM Yasser
Seirawan
Round 4 March 19 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Alexander Grischuk
Teimour Radjabov
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Levon Aronian
½-½
Peter Svidler
Boris Gelfand
½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk
Playchess commentary: GM Daniel
King
Round 5 March 20 at 14:00
Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Peter Svidler
½-½
Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Teimour Radjabov
Playchess commentary: GM Yasser
Seirawan
Round 6 March 21 at 14:00
Peter Svidler
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Boris Gelfand
Teimour Radjabov
0-1
Levon Aronian
Playchess commentary: GM Chris
Ward
Round 7 March 23 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Teimour Radjabov
Levon Aronian
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Boris Gelfand
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Peter Svidler
Playchess commentary: GM Alejandro
Ramirez
Round 8 March 24 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Levon Aronian
Teimour Radjabov
0-1
Boris Gelfand
Alexander Grischuk
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Peter Svidler
Playchess commentary: GM Alejandro
Ramirez
Round 9 March 25 at 14:00
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Peter Svidler
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Vassily Ivanchuk
1-0
Teimour Radjabov
Boris Gelfand
1-0
Levon Aronian
Playchess commentary: GM Maurice
Ashley
Round 10 March 27 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Boris Gelfand
Levon Aronian
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk
Teimour Radjabov
½-½
Peter Svidler
Alexander Grischuk
0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
Playchess commentary: GM Yasser
Seirawan
Round 11 March 28 at 14:00
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Teimour Radjabov
Peter Svidler
1-0
Levon Aronian
Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Boris Gelfand
Playchess commentary: GM Chris
Ward
Round 12 March 29 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk
Boris Gelfand
½-½
Peter Svidler
Levon Aronian
0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
Teimour Radjabov
½-½
Alexander Grischuk
Playchess commentary: GM Daniel
King
Round 13 March 31 at 14:00
Teimour Radjabov
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Levon Aronian
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Boris Gelfand
Peter Svidler
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk
Playchess commentary: GM Daniel
King
Round 14 April 1 at 14:00
Magnus Carlsen
-
Peter Svidler
Vassily Ivanchuk
-
Vladimir Kramnik
Boris Gelfand
-
Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian
-
Teimour Radjabov
Playchess commentary: GM Maurice
Ashley
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.
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.
How do you play the Queen's Gambit Accepted? Does White have promising variations or can Black construct a water-tight repertoire? The Powerbook provides the answers based on 300 000 games, most of them played by engines.
The Queen's Gambit Accepted Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 11827 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 240 are annotated.
Rossolimo-Moscow Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 10950 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 612 are annotated.
The greater part of the material on which the Rossolimo/Moscow Powerbook 2025 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 263.000 games. This imposing amount is supplemented by some 50 000 games from Mega and from Correspondence Chess.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.