Tal Memorial: Kramnik leads by a full point

11/18/2007 – Vladimir Kramnik increased his lead when he beat Evgeny Alexseev in round six. Top US grandmaster Gata Kamsky lost with white to Jakovenko in round six, only to come back with a black-piece win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round seven. Alexei Shirov beat Magnus Carlsen and Evgeny Alekseev to advance to second place. Exciting games.

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The second Mikhail Tal Memorial Tournament is being held in Moscow from November 9 to 23, 2007 at the historic Moscow Central Chess Club, with ten players in the main event (average Elo 2740, Category 20). Play starts each day at 15.00h Moscow time (13.00 European time). Games are being broadcast live on Playchess.com.

Round six and seven summaries

Round 6: Friday, November 16th, 2007
Vladimir Kramnik 
1-0
  Evgeny Alekseev
Alexei Shirov 
1-0
  Magnus Carlsen
Boris Gelfand 
½-½
  Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Leko 
½-½
  Shak. Mamedyarov
Gata Kamsky 
0-1
  Dmitry Jakovenko
 
Round 7: Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Dmitry Jakovenko 
½-½
  Vladimir Kramnik
Shak. Mamedyarov 
0-1
  Gata Kamsky
Vassily Ivanchuk 
½-½
  Peter Leko
Evgeny Alekseev 
0-1
  Alexei Shirov
Magnus Carlsen 
½-½
  Boris Gelfand

Round six: Vladimir Kramnik increased his lead to a full point when he beat Evgeny Alexseev, while at the same time one of his main rivals, Magnus Carlsen, lost to Alexei Shirov. Gata Kamsky sacrificed the exchange against Dmitry Jakovenko but let his initial advantage go and in the end lost the 90-move game.

Round seven: A fine black-piece victory by Alexei Shirov put im him in clear second, while Gata Kamsky came back strongly with a black-piece win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Vladimir Kramnik drew his game against Dmitry Jakovenko to retain his one-point lead over the field. Kramnik's performance so far has been a stunning 2885.


Impressions from round seven [©Europe Echecs]


Interview with Kamsky after his win over Mamedyarov [©Europe Echecs]

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