Morelia first round pictorial report

by ChessBase
2/18/2007 – After struggling with such mundane things as jet lag and instable Internet connections your ChessBase team has finally settled down in Morelia and will be resuming normal reporting from now on. We start by supplying you with visual impressions of the first round, of the players taking up battle at the highest levels of chess. Pictures and videos.

ChessBase 18 - Mega package ChessBase 18 - Mega package

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

Round one photo impressions

By Frederic Friedel

We start our pictorial report with an apology and an excuse. We have brought you relatively few pictures in the past couple of day simply because we have been burdened, here in Morelia, with a very dicey Internet connection. Not that it did not work outright – it simply blocked FTP access to a secure server. Which is what we need to have if we are going to upload pictures and reports to our chess newspage.


Jorge Saggiante installing a wireless card on my notebook computer

The solution to our most acute problems came from the organiser of the next world championship, which will take place in Mexico city this September. Jorge Saggiante came into my room, yanked a PCMCIA card from his computer and installed it on my notebook. This give me mobile access, from anywhere, to the Internet, including any FTP connections my heart may desire.


Jorge has promised any players who needs one of these devices
will get one during the world championship in September

Let us return to the event that is taking place in Morelia. Our first round report contained results and analysis of the games by GM Mihail Marin. But no pictures. Using the wireless card we now bring you extensive photographic impressions of the chess that is taking place in this beautiful Mexican city. Please note that there are two videos by my colleague Nadja Woisin at the end of this report.


Chess poster all over the city center


The Theatro Ocampo where the games are held


In the lobby young chess fans trying to decide who their favourite is


Vassily Ivanchuk preparing himself mentally for game one. We remind you that he had travelled to Morelia to give a simul and attend some innocuous meetings with chess fans, but joined the Super GM tournament at short notice when Teimour Radjabov pulled out.


Peter Svidler, grandmaster from St. Petersburg


Peter Leko, Hungary's top GM and world championship challenger


Vishy Anand, the world's number two player, hails from India


Alexander Morozevich, an imaginative, dynamic player


Vassily Ivanchuk waits for the gong to go off to start the round


Peter Svidler, facing Armenian GM Levon Aronian, does the same


The games can start: Veselin Topalov makes his first move against Vishy Anand


The game of the day: 16-year-old underdog Magnus Carlson plays his first moves


In the end this would be the only decided game of the day – won by young Magnus


Topalov vs Anand, with Alexander Morozevich on the board behind the two


Here Peter Svidler is visible between the top seeds


Ivanchuk vs Leko started innocently but changed into a volatile and dramatic encounter


A moment of relaxed contemplation before the storm for Vassily Ivanchuk


Magnus Carlsen working on his first-round victory against Alex Morozevich


The audience in the packed Theatro Ocampo


The stage with the eight players on four tables


A view from the balcony with the games in full swing


Topalov vs Anand as seen from the higher rows


The final seconds of the dramatic Ivanchuk vs Leko game


... and minutes later trying to figure out what had gone wrong and what right


Discussing the game with members of the press – incidentally en español!


Anand chatting with chess fans after the game has ended


Peter Svidler and Levon Aronian analyse their game in the press center


Aronian struggling to follow what Svidler is trying to say


Afterwards Peter visits Kathy and Ian Rogers to – yes, check out the cricket scores

Links


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register