Tal Memorial Rd2 – Kramnik wins model game; Carlsen escapes Moro

Seventh Tal Memorial in Moscow The event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from June 8th to 18th in the Pashkov House (Vozdvizhenka Street 3/5, p.1), Moscow, Russia. Rest days are June 11 and 15. 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. Games start at 15:00h local time (last round 13:00h). Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time control. The participants are required to comment on their games in the press center after each round. The prize fund is 100,000 Euros.

Round two

After an opening blunder by Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Morozevich soon reached a nearly decisive advantage in which he doubled his rooks on Black’s seventh rank. It was literally a textbook position on the deadliness of rooks on the seventh, and it was all Black could do to avoid drifting into outright zugzwang.

Magnus in deep thought after being on the ropes for nearly the entire game

Yet, in his DVD My Path to the Top, Kramnik explained that the foremost lesson he learned on what separated the top players from the rest were their defensive skills and ability to continuously find ways to keep a game alive. Magnus had to show that in spades to survive today, and eventually Morozevich slipped after which the danger passed.

Morozevich realizing the magnitude of his blunder

Carlsen was out of danger, and even had threats of his own – what a crazy game!

While the Russian will understandably be disappointed, Magnus also has to be a bit concerned that he got into serious trouble in the opening in both his first two games.

Luke McShane was not so fortunate as he managed to keep Teimor Radjabov at bay for most of the game, only to blunder it right before the time control. The Azeri found the winning shot on move 40 after which the shellshocked Brit stared at the board for the next 38 minutes before making a move.

Poor McShane just could not get over the last move and just stared and stared for
over a half an hour. It took him 38 minutes to shake out of it and play a move.

For Radjabov, it marks a perfect 2.0/2 start

The other win of the day was Vladimir Kramnik’s white win over Alexander Grischuk. Not many players have the courage to play a King’s Indian against Kramnik after the latter scared off even Garry Kasparov from the opening.

Vladimir Kramnik was in scintillating form as he made his win seem effortless

Kramnik had said that after his game yesterday, he felt he was now in sync and ready to play, and he showed it as he played a model game combining all the themes with poetic harmony.

Annotated game by GM Alejandro Ramirez

Levon Aronian, and Evgeny Tomashevsky drew quietly, while Hikaru Nakmaura kept his younger rival, Fabiano Caruana, under pressure trying to wring water from stone until giving up after 107 moves and shaking hands.

Complete round two games

Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili and official video feed

Tal Memorial 2012 Round 2 Play of the day by Daniel King: Kramnik - Grischuk

Every day, GM Daniel King will be selecting a "play of the day" that he will analyze

Schedule and Results

Playchess live commentary plan for the Tal Memorial 2012

Links Official tournament site + video clips 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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