Tal Memorial R4: All five games drawn – again

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 four summary

Round four of the Tal Memorial saw another five straight draws. Mamedyarov switched to the Pirc against Carlsen, and the latter's Austrian Attack led only to heavy simplifications and a dead drawn ending after 22 moves. After his disaster yesterday, Kamsky decided to put up the shutters against Kramnik, pushing an early d4-d5 in a typical IQP position. This advance usually either wins by force, or draws by force, and today it was the latter, although Fritz certainly thought Kramnik could have made a better job of trying to hang on to his extra pawn.

Leko produced the novelty 19.Rg4 against Alekseev. He always seemed to have enough light-square control to compensate for his sacrificed pawn, but probably no more than that.

Leko,P (2755) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2716) [B90]
Tal Mem Moscow RUS (4), 13.11.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.f3 Be6 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.g4 Qc7 12.Kb1 b5 13.g5 Nh5 14.Nd5 Bxd5 15.exd5 Nb6 16.Rg1 g6 17.Na5 Nxd5 18.Qxd5 Qxa5

19.Rg4 (19.Bd3 Rfe8 20.c4 Rab8 21.cxb5 axb5 22.Rg4 Ng7 23.f4 Bf8 24.Rf1 e4 25.Bxe4 Nf5 26.Bd2 Qc7 Grischuk-Sadvakasov, Mainz Rapid 2004, 1/2, 78) 19...Qc7 20.a3 Rab8 21.Rb4 Ng7 22.h4 Nf5 23.Bf2 Rfc8 24.c4 Bf8 25.Rb3 Bg7 26.Ka2 bxc4 27.Bxc4 a5 28.Rd2 a4 29.Rxb8 Rxb8 30.Rc2 Qd7 31.Kb1 Kf8 ½-½. [Click to replay]

Gelfand-Jakovenko followed a long theoretical line of the QGD Vienna. Gelfand fell massively behind on the clock, and by move 25, had just 19 minutes left to reach the time control, against almost an hour and a half for his opponent. Even so, he maintained the initiative against the exposed lack king, but Jakovenko defended accurately enough and the draw was agreed at move 44.

Gelfand,B (2736) - Jakovenko,D (2710) [D39]
Tal Mem Moscow RUS (4), 13.11.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 c5 7.Bxc4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Qa5 10.Bb5+ Bd7 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.Bxd7+ Nxd7 13.0-0 a6 14.Rb1 Qc7 15.Qh5 Nc5 16.Rb4 Qe5 17.Qh4 Qg5 18.Qh3 Qe5 19.Qh4 Qg5 20.Qh3 Qe5

21.Re1 Rd8 22.Qe3 Rg8 23.Nf3 Qc7 24.Rd4 Nd7 25.Red1 Ke7 26.g3 Ne5 27.Nxe5 Qxe5 28.Qc1 Qc5 29.Qd2 Qc7 30.Qb2 Rxd4 31.cxd4 Rd8 32.d5 Rd7 33.Qa3+ Qd6 34.Qe3 Qe5 35.Qc5+ Qd6 36.Qc8 b5 37.Rc1 Rd8 38.Qb7+ Rd7 39.Qa8 exd5 40.exd5 Rd8 41.Qb7+ Kf8 42.Rc8 Rxc8 43.Qxc8+ Ke7 44.Qb7+ Qd7 ½-½. [Click to replay]

Finally, Shirov and Ivanchuk debated a line of the Spanish Zaitsev System. A flurry of tactics in the early middlegame led to a level ending, and although Ivanchuk worked up a small initiative, a draw was always inevitable.

Shirov,A (2739) - Ivanchuk,V (2787) [C92]
Tal Mem Moscow RUS (4), 13.11.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Ng5 Rf8 12.Nf3 Re8 13.a4 h6 14.Nbd2 exd4 15.cxd4 Nb4 16.d5 Bf8 17.Nf1 c6 18.Bd2 Nd3

19.dxc6 Bxc6 20.Bxf7+ Kxf7 21.Qb3+ d5 22.Qxd3 dxe4 23.Qc3 exf3 24.Qxc6 fxg2 25.Qxg2 Qd5 26.Rxe8 Rxe8 27.Qxd5+ Nxd5 28.axb5 axb5 29.Ra5 Rb8 30.Ne3 Nxe3 31.Bxe3 Rb7 32.Kf1 Be7 33.Ke2 Bf6 34.b3 Ke6 35.Kd3 Kf5 36.Ke2 Ke4 37.Ra8 Rd7 38.Re8+ Re7 39.Rxe7+ Bxe7 40.f3+ Kf5 41.Bd4 Bf6 42.Be3 h5 43.Bd2 g6 44.Be3 Be5 45.Bd2 Bd6 46.Be3 Bc7 ½-½. [Click to replay]

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Drawing statistics:

Links

• Official web site
• All games so far in PGN