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Blindfold
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Rapid
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Shirov 1-0 Gelfand
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Gelfand 1/2 Shirov
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Kramnik 1-0 van Wely
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van Wely 1/2 Kramnik
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Leko 0-1 Ljubojevic
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Ljubojevic 0-1 Leko
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Bareev 1/2 Anand
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Anand 1/2 Bareev
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Almasi 1/2 Ivanchuk
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Ivanchuk 1/2 Almasi
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Topalov 0-1 Morozevich
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Morozevich 0-1 Topalov
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Anand and Bareev played two relatively uneventful draws, so Peter "no-draws" Leko, who faced the tail ender Ljubomir Ljubojevich, was ideally poised to catch the Indian champion. Ljubo had only managed a total of three draws in eighteen games and seemed ripe for the picking. But in a very erratic blindfold game Leko was a full piece up with mating threats when he started to falter, first dropping the piece and then allowing mate. In the rapid chess revenge Ljubojevich won a pawn and refused a draw offer, only to blunder himself and return the full point.
Ljubojevich – Leko, rapid game
Ljubojevich played 34.Rc6?? which allowed the thank-you combination 34...Rc8 35.Rxc8+ Bxc8 36.Be4 Bb7 0-1. The white bishop is pinned and cannot be used to stop the pawn. White has to play the hopeless 37.Kf2 Bxe4 38.Ke1 c2 39.Kd2 Kf8 after which he has a piece less and is completely paralised. Peter Leko remained half a point behind Anand.
The same applied to Veselin Topalov, whose mini-match against Alexander Morozevich ended in a win each for both players – with the black pieces. They were the most interesting games of the round. Morozevich won a beautiful blindfold game of mind-boggling complexity. Such games leaves one asking: how do they do it, without looking at the board. In the rapid game Morozevich sacrificed material for a devastating attack, but Topalov simply took the material, defended well and bagged the whole point.
Vladimir Kramnik beat Loek van Wely in their blindfold game and drew the rapid chess encounter. The classical chess world champion has still not won a single rapid game in this tournament but is leading in the blindfold standings. Shirov gave Gelfand a very tough time in their blindfold game, sacrificing an exchange and generating many complications. Just when it looked as though Gelfand had everything under control he was hit by a nasty combination that lost him the point.
Shirov – Gelfand, blindfold game
Gelfand has just played 29...Re8-f8?? and is hit by 30.Qh5 (threatening 31.Bxh7+ and mate) 30...g6 31.Bxg6 hxg6 32.Qxg6+ Kh8 33.Re4 (threatening 34.Qh5+ and mate to follow) 33...Rxf3 34.Qh6+ Kg8 35.Rg4+ 1-0 since Black must give up all his material to ward off mate.
Vishy Anand keeping his cool against Evgeny Bareev
Firebrands Morozevich and Topalov, who each won their black games
Today they are a team, tomorrow they go to battle against each other: Boris
Gelfand and Peter Leko, last-round opponents, watched by organiser Jeroen van
den Berg.
