Tal Memorial 08: Kamsky beats Morozevich, Kramnik, Shirov win

Time controls are two hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move after move 61. There is a blitz tournament on August 29th-30th, with a qualifier two days earlier. Magnus Carlsen and Anatoly Karpov are seeded invitees.

Round eight report

Games of the day

Morozevich,A (2788) - Kamsky,G (2723) [B12]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (8), 26.08.2008
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3 Nd7 7.0-0 Ne7 8.c4 dxc4 9.Na3 c3 10.Nb5 Nd5 11.Nxc3 Nxe3 12.fxe3 Be7 13.Qb3 0-0

14.Qxb7N In Dahlgren,J-Luzuriaga,N, Brazil CXEB 2000 the game continued 14.Rad1 Qc7 15.Nb5 Qb6 16.Bd3 Bg6 17.Bxg6 hxg6 18.Rd3 cxd4 19.exd4 a6 20.Na3 Qxb3 21.Rxb3 and was drawn in 34 moves. 14...Rb8 15.Qxa7 cxd4 16.exd4 Ra8 17.Qb7 Rb8 18.Qa7 Rxb2. Kamsky won't repeat moves – the top US grandmaster is after more.

Gata Kamsky deciding not to repeat moves – Ruslan Ponomariov watches

19.Bb5 Nb6 20.a4 Bg4 21.Kh1 Bb4 22.Na2 Be7 23.Nc1 Nd5 24.Nd3 Rc2 25.Rac1 Rxc1 26.Nxc1 Ne3 27.Re1 Nf5 28.Bc6 Bb4 29.Rd1 Bxf3 30.Bxf3 Qh4 31.a5 Be1 32.Ne2 g5 33.Qb7 Bxa5 34.g3 Qh6 35.Qe4 Ne7 36.Ra1 Bd8 37.Qd3 Ng6 38.Nc3 Be7 39.Ne4 Rd8 40.Qe3 Qf8 41.Kg2 Rb8 42.Bh5 Qc8 43.Rc1 Rb2+ 44.Kh3 Qb7 45.Bxg6 fxg6 46.g4 h5 47.Rc3 Qa6 48.Rd3 Qa1 49.Nd2 Qd1 50.Qf3 Qe1 51.gxh5 Rxd2 52.Rxd2 Qxd2 53.hxg6 Qf4

During the game the world's strongest kibitzer, Garry Kasparov, showed us how to save this position for White: 54.Qxf4 gxf4 55.Kg4 Bg5 56.d5! f3 57.Kxf3 exd5 58.h4 Bh6 59.e6 Kf8 60.Kg4 d4 draw. Check out how long it takes your chess engine to understand (or find) this line. Kasparov, incidentally, is not using an engine. These little gems come by telephone or Skype, and our illustrious friend is basically staring at a blank wall, receiving the latest move when we dictate them to him.

54.Qh5?? Morozevich throws away a game he had had pretty much under control. 54...Qh4+ 55.Qxh4 gxh4 56.Kg4 Kg7 57.h3 Bd8 58.Kf4 Bb6 59.Ke4

59...Bxd4! 60.Kxd4 Kxg6 61.Ke4 Kg5 62.Ke3 Kf5 63.Kf3 Kxe5 64.Kg4 Ke4 65.Kxh4 Kf4 66.Kh5 e5 67.h4 e4 68.Kg6 e3 69.h5 e2 and Black wins the pawn race (actually the position is mate in eight) 0-1.

Kramnik,V (2788) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2708) [A37]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (8), 26.08.2008
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 d6 7.a3 Nge7 8.b4 h6 9.Rb1 Rb8 10.d3 0-0 11.Bd2 Be6 12.Ne1 f5 13.Qa4 f4 14.e3 g5 15.b5 Na5 16.Ne2 b6 17.exf4 gxf4 18.gxf4 Ng6 19.fxe5 dxe5 20.Qd1 Qd7 21.Be4 Bf5 22.Bxa5 bxa5 23.Ng3 Bxe4 24.dxe4 Qh3 25.Nf5 Rbd8 26.Qf3 Qxf3 27.Nxf3 Rd3 28.Ne1 Rc3 29.Kh1 Bf6 30.Rg1 Kh7 31.b6 axb6 32.Rxb6 Rf7 33.Ng2 Rxa3 34.Nge3 a4 35.Ng4 Bg5

Kramnik has outplayed his young opponent in this Symmetrical English. Now he finishes him off with a flourish: 36.Ngxh6 Bxh6 37.Rgxg6 Bf4 38.Kg2 Rb7 39.Rh6+ Bxh6 40.Rxb7+ Kg6 41.Rb6+ 1-0.

Shirov,A (2741) - Mamedyarov,S (2742) [B46]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (8), 26.08.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f4 d6 8.Qf3 e5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.fxe5 dxe5 11.Bc4 Qa5 12.0-0 Bc5 13.Qf2 Bxe3 14.Qxe3 0-0 15.h3 Re8 16.Bb3 Be6 17.Na4 Rad8 18.Nc5 Qb6 19.Rf3 Bxb3 20.axb3 a5 21.Nd3 Qc7 22.Raf1 Rd4

23.Rxf6! Thematic and strong. 23...gxf6 24.Nf2 h5 25.Qh6 Re6? 26.Qxh5 Kf8 27.c3 Rd7 28.Ng4 Ke7 29.Kh2 Qb6 30.Qh8

Things were already looking very bleak for Black, but instead of defending with 30...Qd8 Mamedyarov goes pawn hunting. 30...Qxb3? 31.Nxf6 Rd8 32.Qg7 Qxb2 33.Ng8+ Kd6 and Black resigned before White could reply. 1-0. A first much-needed victory for the Spanish firebrand in this tournament.

Current standings

With his second loss in a row Alexander Morozevich has descended to third place on the live world rankings. Anand is now comfortably on top at 2798, with Ivanchuk in second place, trailing by ten points, and Morozevich half a point behind him. 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen is fourth, eight-tenths of a point behind Morozevich. Behind him is a ten-point gap to Topalov, followed by Kramnik, Radjabov, Aronian and Leko.

Europe Echecs videos reports

These reports are provided by Europe Echecs.com, which is doing extensive coverage of the Tal Memorial Tournament

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site (in Russian) All games so far 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.