Tal Memorial Rd7 – Ivanchuk breaks the gridlock

by ChessBase
11/23/2011 – After three rounds of draws all-round, even the most patient spectator was beginning to wonder when the dry spell would end. It is true the players were all clearly playing for the win, but an actual one and zero somewhere would be nice for a change. Ivanchuk broke the gridlock after Nakamura appeared in subpar form, and subsequently lost as a result. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

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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.

Results

Round 7: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Vishy Anand
½ ½
Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura
0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk
Boris Gelfand
½ ½
Vladimir Kramnik
Sergey Karjakin
½ ½
Levon Aronian
Peter Svidler
½ ½
Ian Nepomniachtchi

Round seven


The start of the round shows the audience, stage, and the two displays, one of which
shows even the same video broadcast online viewers are able to enjoy.


The players are well-practiced in dealing with the initial rush of photographers, and
take their time, drinking juice, or pondering their opening moves a bit more than needed.

Fortunately for the audience, one of today's games did not end in a draw. Unfortunately it was less the result of brilliant play from one player than an extremely offday for the other. The ever combative Nakamura just couldn't seem to get his game under control and mostly alternated between close to equal to worse for the better part of the game.


Hikaru Nakamura was unable to get into the groove of things in round seven

Ivanchuk was not in his "one mistake is all it takes" form either, but a final series ended the American's chances of an eleventh hour reprieve.


Ivanchuk joined the leaders at 4.0/7

GM Alejandro Ramirez annotates:

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 As mentioned in a previous game, the Gruenfeld is the new cool way of meeting 1. d4 4.Bf4 Nakamura decides to switch variations after not getting much more then a very complex position against Svidler with 4. cxd5 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.Rc1 dxc4 6...c5 6...c6 are more common moves 7.Bxc4 Nbd7 8.Nb5?! It's hard to criticize a 2750's 8th move, but I have a hard time understanding this move. The queen's knight in the Gruenfeld sometimes has some interesting stories. It is not unusual that the N jumps to b5, then to c7, boldly takes the rook on a8 while Black opens up the center and counterattacks against the king to compensate for the material deficit. However this is just not one of those cases, the N clearly can't go to c7 after 8... c6. Hikaru's idea lays elsewhere, but it seems dubious. c6 9.Bc7 Qe8 10.Nc3 Hikaru might have reached this position in his mind and thought that Black would have a hard time developing. If, for example, he decideds to play 10... Nb6, he would lose control over both c5 and e5 making his breaks that much harder to achieve. He may have thought that 10.. . e5 lost to 11. Bd6, but Vassily disagreed. e5! 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Be2 Bf5 13.Nf3 Nxf3+ 14.Bxf3 Rc8 Black got a dream position out of the opening. His pieces are active and his slightly better developed. Hikaru is only slightly worse, but having this situation after only 14 moves with White is very unpleasant. 15.Bg3 Ne4 16.Bxe4 Bxe4 17.0-0 Rd8 18.Qa4 Bd3 19.Rfd1 b5 20.Qa5 Rd7 21.Rd2 Qe7 22.Rcd1 Rfd8 Pair of bishops, queenside majority, queenside pressure. Black is still only slightly better but there is no doubt that the pull is quite lasting. 23.a3 h5 24.h3 h4 25.Bh2 Kh7?! 26.Bc7! A nice stroke, forcing the exchange of a pair of bishops. This gives White some breathing room. Rxc7 27.Rxd3 Rxd3 28.Rxd3 Bf6 29.Rd2?! Rd7 30.Rc2 Qe6 31.Qb4 a5 32.Qf4 Kg7 33.Rc1?!-+ another strange move in a series of strange decisions. This allows the black rook access to the 2nd rank. a4 34.Qb4 Rd3? 35.Rc2? The last bad move seals the deal. Ivanchuk doesn't let this opportunity escape. Qb3 36.Qxb3 axb3 37.Rc1 Bxc3 38.bxc3 c5 39.Kf1 c4 40.Ke2 Rxc3 An unusually weak effort by the American who we all know can play much better than this. Everyone is in their right to play bad game here and there, though. I do hope he picks himself up in these upcoming last rounds and shows that his fighting spirit can also result in some sweet victories. 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nakamura,H2758Ivanchuk,V27750–12011D836th Tal Memorial7.5


Karjakin has long been an ultra-positional player, but in this year's Tal Memorial has
shown great creativity and boldness.


As things stand, Aronian is positioned to take over the no.2 spot in the world, though
the London Chess Classic may yet change that.

Karjakin was behind several of the most spectacular and creative games in the tournament, however Aronian's novelty 12...Bc5!? dampened his enthusiasm as he dealt with the new situation.


The clash of the titans was not quite what it was hyped to be


It was a solid game, just not the most ambitiously played

The biggest name encounter was of course the game between Anand and Carlsen, however the game proceeded much as Anand's previous ones in this event, and was the quickest to finish after 29 moves.


Both Candidates played a good game, though neither was able to gain an edge

Gelfand and Kramnik had a more intriguing fight, and though it ended in a draw, they both played energetically in a balanced position, maximizing each other's chances to go astray.

Round seven games

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Be2 dxc4 8.0-0 c5 9.dxc5 Nxc5 10.Bxc4 Qxd1 11.Rfxd1 b6 12.Nd4 Bb7 13.Rac1 a6 14.b4 Nce4 15.Nxe4 Bxe4 16.a3 Rfc8 17.f3 Bb7 18.e4 a5 19.Nxe6 axb4 20.axb4 b5 21.Nc7 bxc4 22.Nxa8 Bxa8 23.Bd6 Kf8! 24.Bxe7+ Kxe7 25.Rd4 c3 26.Rd3 c2 27.Rd2 Nxe4 28.Rdxc2 Rxc2 29.Rxc2 Nd6 30.Kf2 Kd7 31.Ke3 Nb5 32.Rc5 Bc6 33.Kd3 f6 34.Rh5 h6 35.Kc4 Nc7 36.Ra5 Kd6 37.Kd4 g5 38.Ra1 f5 39.h4 f4 40.hxg5 hxg5 41.Rh1 g4 42.fxg4 Bxg2 43.Rh6+ Ne6+ 44.Kd3 Bf3 45.Rf6 Bxg4 46.Ke4 f3 47.Ke3 Ke5 48.Rxf3 Bxf3 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Gelfand,B2744Kramnik,V2800½–½2011D376th Tal Memorial7.2
Anand,V2811Carlsen,M2826½–½2011D856th Tal Memorial7.1
Karjakin,S2763Aronian,L2802½–½2011C846th Tal Memorial7.3
Svidler,P2755Nepomniachtchi,I2730½–½2011A346th Tal Memorial7.4

You can relive the entire round, or follow the next, in high definition in this extraordinary broadcast page provided by the Russian Chess Federation. All the pictures above are screen grabs from this video.

Standings after seven rounds

Remaining Playchess commentator schedule

Date
Commentator
24.11.2011
Dejan Bojkov
25.11.2011
Daniel King

Schedule and Results

Round 1: Wednesday November 16, 2011
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
0-1
Ian Nepomniachtchi  
Vassily Ivanchuk
1-0
Peter Svidler
Vishy Anand
½ ½
Sergey Karjakin
Hikaru Nakamura
½ ½
Boris Gelfand
Round 2: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Boris Gelfand
Sergey Karjakin
½ ½
Hikaru Nakamura
Peter Svidler
½ ½
Vishy Anand
Ian Nepomniachtchi
½ ½
Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Vladimir Kramnik
Round 3: Friday, November 18, 2011
Vladimir Kramnik
½ ½
Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk
0-1
Levon Aronian
Vishy Anand
½ ½
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Hikaru Nakamura
0-1
Peter Svidler
Boris Gelfand
0-1
Sergey Karjakin
Round 4: Saturday, November 19, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
½ ½
Sergey Karjakin
Peter Svidler
½ ½
Boris Gelfand
Ian Nepomniachtchi
½ ½
Hikaru Nakamura
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Vishy Anand
Vladimir Kramnik
½ ½
Vassily Ivanchuk
Round 5: Sunday, November 20, 2011
Vassily Ivanchuk
½ ½
Magnus Carlsen
Vishy Anand
½ ½
Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura
½ ½
Levon Aronian
Boris Gelfand
½ ½
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Sergey Karjakin
½ ½
Peter Svidler
Round 6: Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
½ ½
Peter Svidler
Ian Nepomniachtchi
½ ½
Sergey Karjakin
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik
½ ½
Hikaru Nakamura
Vassily Ivanchuk
½ ½
Vishy Anand
Round 7: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Vishy Anand
½ ½
Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura
0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk
Boris Gelfand
½ ½
Vladimir Kramnik
Sergey Karjakin
½ ½
Levon Aronian
Peter Svidler
½ ½
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Round 8: Thursday, November 24, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
  Ian Nepomniachtchi
Levon Aronian
  Peter Svidler
Vladimir Kramnik
  Sergey Karjakin
Vassily Ivanchuk
  Boris Gelfand
Vishy Anand
  Hikaru Nakamura
Round 9: Friday, November 25, 2011
Hikaru Nakamura
  Magnus Carlsen
Boris Gelfand
  Vishy Anand
Sergey Karjakin
  Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Svidler
  Vladimir Kramnik
Ian Nepomniachtchi
  Levon Aronian

Links

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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