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The World Championship 2007 will take place from September 12 to 30 in the Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City. Eight players are qualified – the tournament will be a double round robin. The prize fund is US $1.3 million.
Despite the relatively early draw, Svidler-Kramnik featured rich strategic content. Black countered White's attempts to attack on the kingside with active central play. The final repetition of moves was quite logical from this point of view.
Playing with Black, Morozevich tried to remount the variation that led him to defeat against Gelfand. He failed to do that, but saved half a point, helped by Aronian's imprecise play during the transition to the ending. Curiously, the final phase featured a theoretical ending that I had mentioned in my notes to a previous round.
Gelfand-Anand ended in a draw without too much fight. Anand employed a rare plan and obtained adequate play, but the final position was far from dead drawn yet.
Leko's win with White against Grischuk was a rather one-sided affair. Grischuk missed some possibilities of an early counterplay and was gradually squeezed. After two losses in a row, he must feel how true it is that missed wins (against Aronian and Svidler) tend to turn back as boomerangs.
Svidler,P (2735) - Kramnik,V (2769) [C42]
WCh Mexico City MEX (8), 21.09.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 0-0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0 Nc5 10.Be3 Re8 11.Bc4 Be6 12.Bxe6 Nxe6 13.h4 Qd7 14.Qd5 Qc6 15.Qf5
25...Qc6! Indirectly defending the f6-square. 26.Bc3. Threatening Qd4. 26.Ne4 was not dangerous because of 26...Be5 revealing the idea behind Black's previous move. There was no time for slow increase of the pressure with 27.Re2 because of 27...Rad8 the d-file serves Black quite well for starting his counterplay. 26...Bc5 27.Qg3 Bd6 28.Qf2. The only reasonable way to avoid an immediate draw was 28.Qg2 , but after the opening of the long diagonal the white queen would feel dominated by her rival. Just think about Leko's uninspired queen retreats in his game against Gelfand! 28...Bc5 29.Qg3 Bd6 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Aronian,L (2750) - Morozevich,A (2758) [E17]
WCh Mexico City MEX (8), 21.09.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.d5 Bf6 Despite his defeat in the game against Gelfand, Morozevich seems to maintain his faith in this variation. 9.Qc2
As I have mentioned in my comments to the earlier game Anand-Kramnik, this ending is drawn. Time has come to explain my comment on White's 36.h4. With the pawn on h3 or h2, White could have created a passed pawn on the f-file, which would ensure an easy win. However, Black could have prevented this undesirable outcome by advancing his g-pawn to g4, immediately after White's 41.a7. 48...Ra4+ 49.Kf3 Ra3+ 50.Kg2 Ra2 51.Kh3 Ra3 52.f3 Kh7 53.Kg2 Ra2+ 54.Kf1 Ra1+ 55.Ke2 Ra2+ 56.Kd3 Kg7 57.Kc4 Ra1 58.Kc5 Rc1+ 59.Kd6 Rd1+ 60.Ke5 Ra1 61.Kf4 Ra4+ 62.Ke5 Ra1 63.f4 Ra2 64.f5 gxf5 65.Kf4 Ra5 66.Re8 Rxa7 67.Kxf5 Rf7+ 68.Ke4 Rf1 69.Re5 Kg6 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Gelfand,B (2733) - Anand,V (2792) [E06]
WCh Mexico City MEX (8), 21.09.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Bd6!?
This move was played only once before. Since for the time being both sides are playing a watch and wait game, Black prepares in advance the thematic central break ...e5. 11.Rd1. White will fail to prove an advantage with this neutral move. We can only try to guess which was Anand's novelty over the game Speelman-Browne, Wijk aan Zee 1983, where White obtained the better chances with 11.Bg5 Nbd7 12.Rd1. 11...Nbd7 12.Ba5 Qb8 13.b4 e5 14.Nbd2 exd4 15.Nxd4 Bxg2 16.Kxg2 c5 17.bxc5 Bxc5 18.N2b3 Ba3 19.e4 Ne5 20.Nf5 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Leko,P (2751) - Grischuk,A (2726) [C88]
WCh Mexico City MEX (8), 21.09.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 b4 9.d3 d6 10.Nbd2
10...Be6. Grischuk refrains from 10...Na5 , which had led him to defeat in the previous round. Maybe it would have been wiser to pick up a completely different opening, in order to avoid specific preparation and the negative influence of... bad memories. 11.Bxe6 Curiously, in most of the previous games White refrained from this exchange. Curiosamente, en mayoría de las partidas anteriores las blancas evitaron este cambío. 11...fxe6 12.Nf1 Qd7 13.Ng3
10...Be6. Grischuk refrains from 10...Na5 que le había llevado a la derrota en la ronda anterior. Tal vez debío de cambíar la apertura por completo, para evitar la preparación especifica y la influencía negativa de... los malos recuerdos. 11.Bxe6 Curiously, in most of the previous games White refrained from this exchange. 11...fxe6 12.Nf1 Qd7 13.Ng3
Nowadays, it is not so easy to mate the opponent in the middlegame, especially at this level. However, the resulting ending is almost as good. 55...c4 56.Rd7 c3 57.Ne6 Rc8 58.Rgd1 Rd2 59.R1xd2 cxd2 60.Rxd2 1-0. [Click to replay]
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