
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 fourteen interviews and postmortems
Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Candidates' Tournament in London on Monday after
a bizarre finish of what has become a historic event for chess. Both the Norwegian
and the other leader, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, unexpectedly lost their game
in the final round, and so they remained tied for first place and Carlsen won
on the second tie-break rule: higher number of wins. This means that in the
next title match, World Champion Viswanathan Anand will face Carlsen. On the
last day Levon Aronian of Armenia beat Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan while
Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexander Grischuk of Russia drew their game.

A Hollywood blockbuster couldn’t have had a more dramatic scenario with
the hero of the story going down just before the end, only to emerge as the
winner after all. This is what happened in rounds 12-13 with Carlsen losing
his lead to Kramnik on Friday and then recovering on Sunday, and it also happened
in a thrilling final round. The Norwegian unexpectedly lost his white game against
Peter Svidler, but because Vladimir Kramnik also went down against Vassily Ivanchuk,
Carlsen won the tournament anyway. It was quite a fitting scenario for April
1st, except that this is what really happened!
Round 14 April 1 at 14:00 |
Magnus Carlsen
|
0-1
|
Peter Svidler |
Vassily Ivanchuk
|
1-0
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Boris Gelfand
|
½-½
|
Alexander Grischuk |
Levon Aronian
|
1-0
|
Teimour Radjabov |
Playchess commentary: GM Maurice Ashley
|
Gelfand-Grischuk ½-½

The day started quietly with a draw between Boris Gelfand (above) and Alexander
Grischuk. Facing the Grünfeld, which he included in his own repertoire
last year against Anand, Gelfand tried the 5.Bd2 variation.

Grischuk was “surprised by 11.Bc4” but reacted well and about
the position after 17.f4 he said: “White at maximum can get a very slight
advantage but Black can get a winning position if something goes wrong for White.”
Already with 18…b4 Black “more or less forced the draw”, according
to the Russian. Joining the live commentary, Grischuk said: “I’m
quite happy to finish my game early so that I can enjoy this!”
Aronian-Radjabov 1-0

Then, the game between Levon Aronian (above) and Teimour Radjabov finished
in favour of the Armenian. “In general after the opening I got a big advantage
and it was very difficult to play for Black,” said Aronian.

Radjabov (above), who finally went for a proper King’s Indian –
the defence with which he has had so many successes – managed to trap
the white queen in the early middle game, but Aronian got two rooks for it and
combined with the presence of opposite coloured bishops, his attack on the king
was just too strong.
Ivanchuk-Kramnik 1-0 + Carlsen-Svidler 0-1

But, of course this last round was all about the other two games: Vassily Ivanchuk
(above) versus Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen versus Peter Svidler. Because
Carlsen was leading on tie-break, Kramnik basically had to outperform him in
the final round to emerge as the winner: he needed a win if Carlsen drew, or
a draw if Carlsen lost. It all went quite differently. Kramnik, playing black,
got under serious pressure right out of the opening, while Carlsen didn’t
get much of an opening advantage playing white.

To keep all options open, Kramnik (above) played the Pirc Defence, and Ivanchuk
responded with simple, healthy developing moves. However, the Ukrainian (again!)
needed quite some time to make his moves in this game, so even though he was
building up an advantage, the Carlsen fans weren’t sure at all about the
situation. Would Ivanchuk lose on time again...?

Meanwhile, Carlsen himself was using lots of time himself – too much
time. After making his 27th move, the Norwegian had only 5 minutes left for
13 moves, and 2 moves later his clock was down to 1 minute and 20 seconds. It
was a situation Carlsen hadn’t been in before in all previous rounds!
It must have been around this time that the home page of Norway’s biggest
newspaper online, vg.no, crashed (like several chess servers) due too the high
number of visitors trying to follow the games.
Carlsen only barely made the time control – he made his last three moves
in about nine seconds, knocking over some pieces in the process and losing precious
seconds there. After the dust had cleared, he found himself in a completely
lost ending. Svidler had simply played an excellent game, while Carlsen had
succumbed under the pressure and the tension. “I was trying to equalize
and then Magnus perhaps overestimated his position,” said Svidler (below).

“I was spending too much time in the middle game on reasonably good moves
but also on not too difficult moves. (…) I definitely overestimated my
position. Additionally, I just couldn't calculate very well today and then you
have to spend a lot of time, that’s the way it is. Obviously not as much
time as I did, because it became a serious liability at the end, but it's not
easy. From early on there were lots of things to calculate on every move,”
said Carlsen at the press conference, while Ivanchuk and Kramnik were still
playing.

Before leaving the press room, Carlsen asked whether he could get the position
of that last game on the laptop that was available. By that time Ivanchuk had
made the time control, and he had a winning position. Carlsen said: “I
think this cannot possibly go wrong,” and right at that moment Kramnik
resigned his game, and with it his fight for first place. Carlsen was congratulated
by his manager and by Svidler, and immediately gave a few interviews to mostly
Norwegian press.
Meanwhile, Ivanchuk and Kramnik arrived in the press room to comment on their
game. “I had to play for a win, to burn bridges in a way, because of course
I didn't think that Magnus was going to lose. I thought I got what I wanted
at some point. It was an interesting position but terribly complicated. Somewhere
around 20…Nhf4 I liked my position and then somehow I lost a bit of concentration
because I didn’t know what to do,” said Kramnik, who also kept an
eye on the other game.
“The problem was that Peter [Svidler]’s position was already promising
but not yet so clear so I didn’t know what to do, whether to play for
a draw… Somehow I got a bit lost between watching that game and trying
to understand what I should do. Then I made a few awful decisions and I was
unlucky that I had to make a tough decision on move 40, not 41.”
In time trouble the Russian missed an important tactic, and then his position
was lost. Ivanchuk agreed that the position was at some point drawish. “But
I noticed that my opponent started to play a bit risky and he gave me chances.”

Carlsen then returned to the press room to answer questions in his new status
as tournament winner. He said: “I never expected to lose and I didn't
really have any expectations for the other game. That didn’t make sense
to me since I couldn’t do anything about it. (...) I didn't really want
to resign before I was sure that Ivanchuk would win!”
The tournament winner felt that until the 11th round he “played the best
chess for sure”. “At the end everyone got tired, the quality got
lower and anything could happen. But overall I think I did pretty well and I
deserve to win.” Carlsen said he was “very impressed” by Kramnik’s
comeback in the second half of the tournament. About his match against Anand,
he said: “I think it’s going to be very interesting, a great event
but it’s a long time ahead so we’ll see what happens.”

Dejected? Heartbroken? It was sooo close, Vladimir!
Report by Peter Doggers, pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich
and Pascal Simon
Current standings

The table displays Kramnik ahead on traditional tiebreak points, but the Candidates
Tournament rules counts the number of wins – Carlsen five, Kramnik four
– to break the tie, after the first tiebreaker, score against each other,
was even.
Replay all games of the round
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
|
0-1
|
Peter Svidler |
Vassily Ivanchuk
|
1-0
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Boris Gelfand
|
½-½
|
Alexander Grischuk |
Levon Aronian
|
1-0
|
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.