Tal Memorial Rd2 – Carlsen beats Gelfand

Sixth Tal Memorial in Moscow This event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from November 16th to 25th in Moscow, Russia. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

Round two

After a first round that bore an almost eerie resemblance to the Grand Slam Masters almost a month ago, the second round wiped that impression off right away. Though not all the games were of equal measure, the audience certainly had nothing to complain about.

Svidler was content to contain Anand, and chose not to challenge his Caro-Kann

The shortest game of the round was between Anand and Svidler, and whether still licking his wounds after his first-round loss, or not wishing to challenge the World Champion in the Caro-Kann, Svidler was content to draw relatively quickly against Anand, and leave it at that.

Carlsen on the other hand unpacked the guns and started shooting in Gefland's direction very soon into the game. Though he is certainly capable of outplaying the very elite in simple technical positions, it is often a very difficult affair, and his chances of tripping an opponent are certainly better when the paths are not as clear-cut.

Carlsen studies his position...

...while his friend, world champion Anand, casts a professional look at it.

Magnus acknowledges his presence for a half-second before going back to the bloodiest
game of the round.

His game against Gelfand was a bit of a see-saw affair, and though he was never in danger of losing, the chances he took could have left him in trouble, but his ambitous play was rewarded as the Israeli missed his best chance to hold, and eventually went under.

Although he tried his best, Ivanchuk was unable to get Nepomniachtchi to crack

Ivanchuk played a very long game against Nepomniachtchi, as he emerged in a knight endgame with an extra pawn. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to trick the Russian, and they eventually drew when the last drop of blood had been squeezed out of the position.

Karjakin and Nakamura quickly found themselves in a dead equal queenless middlegame, with rooks and opposite-colored bishops, and neither found any way to break the balance.

Kramnik and Aronian also fought a good fight, as Kramnik sacrificed the exchange to try and leverage his bishop pair and distant passed a-pawn to his advantage. Aronian was having none of it, and carefully neutralized Vladimir's play, never giving the Russian a chance to move his passed pawn so much as a singkle square. He eventually gave back the exchange to end in a dead opposite-colored bishop ending.

Playchess commentator schedule

GM Daniel King provides commentary on Kramnik-Nepomniachtchi on Playchess

Schedule and Results

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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