Nakamura wins Tal Blitz

The Eighth International Tal Memorial Chess Tournament is being held from June, 13 to 24, 2013, with a rest day on June 16. The rounds generally start at 15:00h (=3 p.m.) Moscow time, with the first round starting at 6 p.m. and the final round at 1 p.m. Accommodation is in the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow, Tverskaya str. 3, while the event takes place in the in New Technologies Center Digital October, Bersenevskaya Embankment 6, in Moscow. The tournament has ten invited players and is a round robin with time controls of one hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move starting from move one. Full information on special rules, regulation, prize money, etc. can be found in our initial report.

Blitz Tournament

The draw for the tournament starting positions was determined by the Tal Memorial Blitz, which had its own prize fund of 15.000 euros. The time control was 3 minutes with 2 seconds increment. The blitz attracted a big number of espectators, among which was former World Champion Boris Spassky and former World Women's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Nakamura demolished Morozevich in the first round of the blitz with a relatively quiet opening.

No strangers to battling each other: Anand vs. Gelfand ended in a draw in which Gelfand had strong winning chances.

Mamedyarov won the recent Rapid World Championship, but was not up to par in this blitz.

From the very start of the tournament the lead was captured by American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. After three rounds he had 2.5/3, but he drew three rounds in a row and allowed Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand to catch up with him. Sensing that he couldn't afford more draws, the American finished brilliantly with three victories and ended half a point ahead of Vishy Anand. Kramnik lost to Karjakin and was relegated to third place while Carlsen, who had a less than stellar blitz showing, came tied for fourth.

Carlsen was the focus of attention, as usual.

Caruana consulting with his coach, GM Chuchelov, prior to the start of the blitz.

Blitz Final Standings

All Blitz Games

Participants

Schedule

All pictures by Etery Kublashvili

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.