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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.
GM Mihail Marin in his analysis kitchen at home in Romaina
The following express commentary was provided by Romanian Mihail Marin, who is the author of a number of very popular ChessBase training CDs and articles for ChessBase Magazine. GM Marin will study the games of the World Championship tournament in much greater detail and provide the full results of his analysis in the next issue of ChessBase Magazine.
A slightly dissapointing start of the World Championship. True, in all the games the position after the opening promissed a sharp and spectacular fight, but after the 20th move the players' fighting mood suddenly dropped down and all the games ended peacefully before the 30th move was reached. In one case, one of the player would have been entitled to play on at least for a while; in another game the position was simply too complicated to be adjucated as "drawn". Let us hope that it was all about fatigue after the long trip and problems of aclimatization and that we shall see longer games in the next rounds!
Morozevich (2758) - Aronian (2750)
World Championship Mexico (1), 13.09.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3. The so-called Petrosian (or Petrosian-Kasparov) Variation, played for the first time in the game Sultan Khan-Capablanca. The mysterious Indian player won in great style, but we cannot know whether he was aware of the subtle character of his invention, since he used to play a3 or ...a6 in the opening quite frequently. (This was how the so called Chebanenko Slav was born, too). 4...Bb7 5.Nc3 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.e3
In one of the two Gruenfelds Aronian lost with White against Svidler, the structure was almost identical. Now, he shows that he learned something from the unpleasant experience. White cannot maintain his stability in the centre for too long. 18.Rc1 exd4 19.Qxe7 Rxe7 20.cxd4 Re4 21.Kf1 cxd4 22.exd4 Nf8 23.g3 Rd8 24.Rc7. A curious situation. White is not fully developed yet, but the hyper-activity of some of his pieces allows him maintain the balance even. 24...Ree8 25.Rxa7 Ra8 After exchanges on a8 anf f8, followed by Kg2 and Rb1, the game will transpose to a dead drawn rook + 2 pawns vs rook + 2 pawns ending. For once in this round, the draw agreement looks entirely well timed. 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Kramnik (2769) - Svidler (2735)
World Championship Mexico (1), 13.09.2007
1.Nf3. This is precisely the starting move that led Kramnik to the highest peaks of his carrier. He abandoned it for the slightly more aggressive 1.d4 only with the occasion of his match against Kasparov. Later, he experimented with 1.e4, without too much success. Now, the cycle seems to start again. 1...d5. Svidler occasionally employed this move as an emergency exit after losing three games with the Gruenfeld in Morelia/Linares 2006. His overall result in t e closed openings was not really satisfactory either, but we can assume that for the World Championship he is better prepared. 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Bd3
It looks as if Black has adequate counterplay in the centre, but the position is anything but drawish. On the other hand, travelling from Europe to Mexico must have been quite tireing and the opponents know eachother so well since childhood, so that the abrupt end is not completely illogical. 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Grischuk (2726) - Leko (2751)
World Championship Mexico (1), 13.09.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d6 10.a3 Qd7 11.Nc3 Rfe8
The position has changed to White's favour. All his pieces are more active than their rivals. 27...Qf4 28.Qxf4 At first glance, White's decision to offer a draw looks premature. Grischuk (2726)-Leko (2751)/Mexico 2007 [After 28.Qxf4 Bxf4 29.Nc5 Bc8 30.Bc4 Black loses a pawn. However, after 30...Bd6 31.Bxa6 (31.Nxa6 offers Black a choice between 31...Bxa6 32.Bxa6 b3 33.cxb3 Bb4 with a dead draw and 31...c5, trying to trap the knight.) 31...Bxa6 (Black can obtain an opposite coloured bishops ending with 31...Bxc5 32.Bxc8 , but the structure is complex and the a-pawn rather advanced. It is not easy to be 100% sure this is a draw.) 32.Nxa6 c5 the knight is trapped.] 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Anand (2792) - Gelfand (2733)
World Championship Mexico (1), 13.09.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 Gelfand is a renowned Najdorf specialist. However, for sich important events he seems to prefer more solid openings. He defeated Kasimdzhanov with the Petroff Defence in the third and last game of their play-off in Elista, but it should be said the result of the opening was anything but encouraging for Black. 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 Nd7 8.Qd2 Ne5 9.0-0-0 0-0 10.h4
White starts advancing his kingside pawns, openly declaring his intentions to mate the enemy king. His own king is out of any immediate danger. 10...Re8 11.h5 Bf6 12.Nh2 h6 13.Be2 Be6 14.f4. However, this might be a bit exaggerated. Black did not do anything wrong yet (he just developed in natural way) to deserve such a treatment. White weakens his central squares, while his centralisation is far from optimal. Just look at his knight. 14...Nc4 15.Bxc4 Bxc4 After the elimination of White's light-squared bishop, Black can regroup easier. 16.b3
16...Bb5. This is the kind of move one plays without too much thinking. However, Black had here the stunning 16...c5!! (suggested by Frederic Friedel on Playchess during the live broadcast) at his disposal. The idea is simple: to clear the queen's way to a5 and deprive the white bishop's access to d4. With his knight on h2 and his bishop relatively inactive and slightly hanging, White would have faced serious problems of coordination. He could get out of trouble with 17.Ng4 Be6 18.Nxf6+ (unfortunately, forced) 18...Qxf6 but this would leave his light squares desperately weak. 17.Rhg1 Re4. Yummy! What a square... 18.Ng4 Qe7 19.Rde1 Re8 20.Bf2 Qd8. Just in time. To be compared with the way Grischuk exchanged rooks, keeping his kingside defended at the same time. 21.Rxe4 Rxe4 22.Re1 Rxe1+
Personally, I would prefer Black's position. The light squared bishop looks sooo powerful! He could retreat with his bishop to f8 and then make some progress in the centre. But it is around 2 a.m. in Romania and my judgment might be wrong, so I must give credit to the players. If they agreed to a draw, it must be a forced draw, or something alike. 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]
Round 1: Thursday, Sept. 13th 2007, 14:00h | ||
Vladimir Kramnik |
½-½ |
Peter Svidler |
Alexander Morozevich |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian |
Viswanathan Anand |
½-½ |
Boris Gelfand |
Alexander Grischuk |
½-½ |
Peter Leko |
|