Tal Memorial Rd8 – Aronian takes lead with brilliant win

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 eight

The first game to finish was between Anand and Nakamura, but it was not the least eventful by any means. Anand chose the Saemisch to fight Nakamura's King's Indian, and things seemed balanced for the first 20-odd move except a quirk in Black's position.

Both played a nervy game but interesting

Hikaru had advanced a c-pawn to presumably free the c5-square for his knight, or support it with a b5-thrust, but somehow neither happened and it got cut off from its siblings. After 21...Qd8? and the next couple of moves, the pawn was up for grabs, but the World Champion missed the window and balance was soon restored before they shook hands on move 33.

During the post-mortem, Nepomniachtchi alternated between English and Russian
with ease.Carlsen was also relaxed as he dropped comments such as, "I planned
on playing this and just hope for the best."

Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi played a Sicilian Moscow in which neither player was truly able to achieve anything special. When the pieces finally managed to open lines to break through, it led to simplifications and a draw.

Lost in thought, Ivanchuk could be seen mumbling lines in the void

Ivanchuk and Gelfand had a nice tussle in which Ivanchuk's more active position was constantly held in check by Gelfand's pressure on the queenside. This ultimately decided the result and the called it a day.

Karjakin and Kramnik discuss the game shortly after agreeing to a draw

The two top Russian players (though Morozevich may have something to say about this next year), Kramnik and Karjakin played an interesting game in which the ex-world champion seemed on the verge of winning due to his pressure against a fractured pawn structure, and better piece activity, but Sergey managed to douse the fires in time and avoid disaster.

The game started quietly, not betraying the conclusion that was to come

The game of the round was unquestionably between Aronian and Svidler. Though Aronian managed some nice space advantage, it came at the cost of the coordination of his pieces and it seemed as if this would also end in a draw. The Russian champion played passively precisely when he could least afford to, and this allowed a brilliant knight sacrifice by Aronian, deciding the game.

Faced with the critical position, Aronian went into deep thought.

To their credit, the Russian commentators were analyzing the knight sac when
Aronian played it.

Despair!

GM Alejandro Ramirez annotates:

With his victory, Aronian takes the sole lead with 5.0/8, a half point ahead of the pack, and is virtually assured of tied first at worst. More than this, on the temporary ratings list, his rating is at 2816, placing him in clear second and only nine Elo behind Carlsen. Impressive.

Round eight games:

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 eight rounds

Remaining Playchess commentator schedule

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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