World Blitz Championship day one: Anand leads

by ChessBase
11/16/2009 – World Champion Vishy Anand, who turns forty in just under a month, is leading this event with 12.0/14 points, two more than his nearest rival Magnus Carlsen. Behind the Norwegian we find a big surprise figure (hint: he is almost twenty years older than Anand), followed by Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk. A photo report will follow, here for now are the results and games.
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World Blitz Championship

This event is being held on November 16, 17 and 18 in the showroom of the Red Square mall GUM. Time controls are three minutes for the whole game + two seconds increment per move.

The event is a 22-player double round-robin, i.e. it has a total of 42 rounds, which are played on three days. The participants include the players from the Tal Memorial, plus twelve invitees:

Participants of the Tal Memorial

No.
  Player
Nat.
1
  Magnus Carlsen
NOR
2
  Viswanathan Anand
IND
3
  Levon Aronian
ARM
4
  Vladimir Kramnik
RUS
5
  Boris Gelfand
ISR
6
  Peter Svidler
RUS
7
  Peter Leko
HUN
8
  Alexander Morozevich
RUS
9
  Vassily Ivanchuk
UKR
10
  Ruslan Ponomariov
UKR

Additional players

11 Sergey Karjakin
12 Vugar Gashimov
13 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
14 Evgeny Bareev
15 Vladislav Tkachiev
16 Zhou Jianchao
 
17 Anatoly Karpov 12th World Champion
18 Alexandra Kosteniuk   Women's World Champion
19 Leinier Dominguez Current World Blitz Champion
20 Alexander Grischuk 2006 World Blitz Champion
21 Dmitri Jakovenko  
22 Judit Polgar  

The event started with a tremendous showing by World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who scored 12 points in 14 games (ten wins, four draws). His performance: 3022! In second place we have Magnus Carlsen, who won nine games, lost three (one against Alexandra Kosteniuk) and drew two. Magnus' performance: 2860.

In third place we find not Kramnik, Grischuk, Aronian or Ivanchuk but (would you believe it) Anatoly Karpov, twelfth World Champion and now 58 years old. "Tolya" scored 9.0/14, with five wins, eight draws and only one loss. Amongst his victims was Magnus Carlsen, who lost to Karpov in round 14 in 74 moves.

Cross tables after 14 (of 42) rounds

No. Player
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
 Pts
1 Anand
X
=
1
1
1
=
1
1
=
=
1
1
1
1
1
12.0
2 Carlsen
X
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
=
1
0
=
1
1
0
10.0
3 Karpov
1
X
=
=
0
=
=
=
1
=
=
1
1
1
=
9.0
4 Kramnik
=
0
X
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
=
=
1
8.5
5 Grischuk
0
0
=
X
1
=
1
1
0
=
=
1
1
=
1
8.5
6 Karjakin
0
0
=
0
X
1
1
=
1
1
=
=
0
1
1
8.0
7 Bareev
0
0
1
1
0
X
1
=
1
0
0
1
=
1
1
8.0
8 Ponomariov
=
0
=
=
0
X
1
=
=
1
1
1
1
=
0
8.0
9 Ivanchuk
0
0
1
0
0
X
1
1
0
0
1
1
=
1
1
7.5
10 Svidler
0
=
=
0
=
0
X
1
0
1
0
1
1
1
1
7.5
11 Aronian
0
0
=
=
0
0
X
1
0
=
1
1
1
1
1
7.5
12 Leko
=
0
0
0
=
1
1
0
X
1
=
=
=
1
=
7.0
13 Morozevich
=
0
=
0
0
1
1
0
X
=
1
0
1
0
1
6.5
14 Gashimov
0
1
0
0
1
0
=
=
=
X
1
1
=
=
0
6.5
15 Polgar
1
1
1
0
0
0
=
0
0
X
0
1
=
0
1
6.0
16 Naiditsch
=
0
=
0
0
0
1
1
0
X
1
0
1
1
0
6.0
17 Dominguez
0
=
=
=
=
=
0
0
0
1
0
X
0
1
1
5.5
18 Jakovenko
=
0
0
0
=
0
0
=
1
=
0
X
1
0
1
5.0
19 Tkachiev
0
0
0
0
=
=
0
0
0
=
1
1
X
1
0
4.5
20 Gelfand
0
=
=
1
0
0
0
=
0
0
0
0
X
1
1
4.5
21 Mamedyarov  
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
X
4.0
22 Kosteniuk
0
1
=
0
0
0
0
0
=
1
0
1
0
0
X
4.0

Standings after 14 rounds

No. Sd. Player  Nat. Rtng.
Pts
wins
  SB
1 20 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2788
12.0
10
 79.00
2 19 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2801
10.0
9
 70.00
3 17 Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2619
9.0
5
 56.50
4 5 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772
8.5
7
 55.75
5 12 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2736
8.5
6
 52.50
6 16 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2723
8.0
6
 49.75
7 8 Bareev, Evgeny RUS 2634
8.0
7
 53.50
8 11 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2739
8.0
5
 54.25
9 4 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2739
7.5
7
 47.00
10 10 Svidler, Peter RUS 2754
7.5
6
 46.00
11 1 Aronian, Levon ARM 2786
7.5
6
 40.25
12 3 Leko, Peter HUN 2752
7.0
4
 46.75
13 9 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2750
6.5
5
 44.75
14 6 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2758
6.5
4
 45.25
15 21 Polgar, Judit HUN 2680
6.0
5
 39.75
16 18 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2689
6.0
5
 36.75
17 15 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2719
5.5
3
 36.25
18 2 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2736
5.0
3
 29.75
19 14 Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 2642
4.5
3
 27.00
20 22 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2758
4.5
3
 27.75
21 13 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2719
4.0
4
 23.50
22 7 Kosteniuk, Alexandra RUS 2517
4.0
3
 30.50


The World Blitz Championship round two covered on the official site's web cam. You will spot Carlsen vs Kramnik (1-0), Anand vs Ivanchuk (1-0) and Bareev vs Karjakin (Karjakin won) in the pictures. You can watch the archived live stream here (click on the image on the top left and then on the enlarge button for full screen).

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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
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