Tal 06: Nakamura on Fire

The Eighth International Tal Memorial Chess Tournament is being held from June, 13 to 24, 2013, with a rest days on June 16 and June 20. 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, 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.

Round six report

Morozevich, Alexander - Karjakin, Sergey ½-½
Morozevich as usual employs a bizarre plan. The g4-g5 advance is anything but common in this variation of the Nimzo-Indian, and it was able to put some pressure on Karjakin's position. Morozevich emerged structurally better and eventually netted a pawn, but by that point Black's activity was significant and he was unable to convert his material.

A confident Hikaru has shown superb chess and leads the tournament.

Anand, Vishy - Nakamura, Hikaru 0-1
An off-beat variation in the Spanish gave Nakamura good counterchances. The middlegame was unique and complex, but it seems that the American was more on top of how exactly things should proceed. He managed to shatter the kingside structure of Anand, and though this was not come with a kingside attack, it did give Black a passed h-pawn, one of many advantages that Nakamura had in the endgame. A flawless technical endgame followed and Anand had to resign.

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Anand vs Nakamura 

Anand has had difficulties finding his groove and has lost two games with White.

Caruana, Fabiano - Kramnik Vladimir ½-½
The Berlin defense has brought Kramnik plenty of success. He is of course the one that made it popular by effectively employing it against Kasparov in their 2000 match. Usually the game is a long boring endgame in which either Black loses because his pawn structure is worse and he didn't solve his development problems, he wins because his pair of bishops is tearing the board apart, or more often than not it is a draw when White could simply not make any progress. In today's game Kramnik sacrificed a rook and a piece and the game ended in a wild perpetual. Very interesting resources were available for both sides, but it seems unclear if Caruana missed a real chance to improve.

Another person that is surprisingly in a tie for last place: Vladimir Kramnik.

Gelfand, Boris - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½
Once more Gelfand was unable to obtain anything concrete from the opening. The position was closed and Magnus was very solid. This however did not give Black any reason to play for a win, which he did after declining a three-fold repetition, and slowly but surely his position became worse and worse. Gelfand missed his best chance when on move 40 he could have broken his opponent's pawn structure with 40.f5! After missing this detail Carlsen regained his senses and was able to hold the draw.

Carlsen came close to pushing too hard today.

Andreikin, Dmitry - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½
Andreikin obtained the slightly better deal out of the massive simplifications that happened near the beginning of the game. However, Mamedyarov accurately and actively held the balance by consistently applying counterplay, never allowing his opponent to really utilize his structural advantages. The game was eventually drawn but not for lack of trying.

Mamedyarov keeps his +1 score and a good performance in the tournament.

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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.