Zurich R4: Caruana defeats Anand in a wild round

by Alejandro Ramirez
3/1/2013 –  What a round! Two great games were played today and the spectators cannot be unhappy. The more rational one was a victory and the crazy game turned out to be a draw! And once again Garry Kasparov was present, commenting and even participating in the postgame analysis. In addition to the video coverage of all this we have some lovely impressions from an Alpine excursion on the free day.

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In one of the strongest tournaments of the year the World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India) is facing the former title-holder Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), last year’s World Championship challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel) and the rising star Fabiano Caruana (Italy). At the Savoy Hotel, Paradeplatz, Zurich, the four masters are playing a double round-robin tournament from 23 February to 1 March 2013.

Round four report

By GM Alejandro Ramirez

4th round: 27 February 2013 at 15:00
Viswanathan Anand 2780
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2757
Boris Gelfand 2740
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2810

Anand, Vishy – Caruana, Fabiano 0-1
Fabiano continues to impress with his very deep opening preparation. The 14... Nh7 and 15... Qf6 idea was strong and allowed him to equalize without problems against the World Champion, who pressed for an advantage anyways. This might have backfired slightly, as once the center was open his rook was in an awkward position. Anand sacrificed it with Rxe5!? for interesting compensation – mainly a strong passed pawn. However he got outplayed move by move, until the compensation ran out and he was forced to resign.

[Event "Zurich Chess Challenge"] [Site "Zuerich SUI"] [Date "2013.02.27"] [Round "4"] [White "Anand, V."] [Black "Caruana, F."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C78"] [WhiteElo "2780"] [BlackElo "2757"] [PlyCount "90"] [EventDate "2013.02.23"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. c3 d6 8. d4 Bb6 9. Be3 O-O 10. Nbd2 h6 11. h3 Re8 12. Re1 Bd7 13. Bc2 Rb8 14. Rc1 Nh7 15. Bd3 Qf6 16. Nb3 Nf8 17. Kh2 g5 18. d5 Ne7 19. c4 Bxe3 20. Rxe3 c5 21. dxc6 Bxc6 22. Kg1 Nfg6 23. Nfd2 Nf4 24. Bf1 Bd7 25. c5 Red8 26. Qe1 Nc6 27. Nf3 d5 28. exd5 Nxd5 29. Rxe5 Nxe5 30. Qxe5 Be8 31. Na5 Qxe5 32. Nxe5 Ne7 33. a3 Rbc8 34. Nd3 Nc6 35. Nb7 Rd4 36. Nd6 Rd8 37. Re1 Bd7 38. g4 Be6 39. Re3 Kf8 40. b4 Ne7 41. Bg2 Nc8 42. Nxc8 Bxc8 43. Ne5 Re8 44. Rd3 Rxd3 45. Nxd3 Re2 0-1

Gelfand, Boris – Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½
Gelfand will be counting his lucky stars tonight! This Closed Catalan was far from dull. Kramnik's setup with Bc6-Qb7 proved to be very strong and Gelfand had problems proving any time of opening advantage. The unbalanced position resulting after the trade of the d and f pawns was murky and hard to evaluate, but it was Big Vlad that had the better understanding of the situation! The fantastic sacrifice 22... Nxf2! emphasized the poor position of White's pieces and the power of the bishops. Yet immediately after that both players started making serious mistakes! A tactical melee ensued and Black came out ahead the pair of bishops and a strong initiative, but through a series of passive moves Kramnik let go of his advantage and the game fizzled into a draw.

[Event "Zurich Chess Challenge"] [Site "Zuerich SUI"] [Date "2013.02.27"] [Round "4"] [White "Gelfand, B."] [Black "Kramnik, V."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E06"] [WhiteElo "2740"] [BlackElo "2810"] [PlyCount "91"] [EventDate "2013.02.23"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 Be4 11. Qc1 Qc8 12. b4 Nbd7 13. Nc3 Bc6 14. a3 Qb7 15. Qc2 h6 16. Rac1 Rac8 17. Rfe1 Nb6 18. e4 Nc4 19. d5 Bd7 20. dxe6 fxe6 21. e5 Ng4 22. Re4 Nxf2 23. Kxf2 Nxd2 24. Qxd2 c5 25. Kg1 cxb4 26. axb4 Bc6 27. Rce1 a5 28. Nd4 Qa7 29. Ncxb5 Bxb5 30. Kh1 Bc4 31. bxa5 Rfd8 32. Qb2 Qxa5 33. Nf3 Bd5 34. R4e2 Bb4 35. Rg1 Bc3 36. Qb1 Bc4 37. Re3 Bb4 38. Re4 Bf8 39. Rf4 Bd3 40. Qb3 Qd5 41. Qxd5 Rxd5 42. Nd4 Rxe5 43. Nxe6 Be7 44. Rd4 Bf5 45. Nf4 Bc5 46. Rd5 1/2-1/2

Current standings

Live streams of the game

Once again Garry Kasparov was a special guest at the Zurich Chess Challenge, commenting on the games and participating in the postmortem analysis. If you missed it live you can watch it all on the streaming video provided by the organisers.

More video commentary from the round is available here on the official site.

Impressions on round four by Vijay Kumar

Schedule and results

1st round: 23 February 2013 at 15:00
Fabiano Caruana 2757
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2780
Vladimir Kramnik 2810
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2740
2nd round: 24 February 2013 at 15:00
Vladimir Kramnik 2810
½-½
Viswanathan Anand 2780
Boris Gelfand 2740
½-½
Fabiano Caruana 2757
3rd round: 25 February 2013 at 15:00
Viswanathan Anand 2780
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2740
Fabiano Caruana 2757
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2810
4th round: 27 February 2013 at 15:00
Viswanathan Anand 2780
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2757
Boris Gelfand 2740
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2810
5th round: 28 February 2013 at 15:00
Boris Gelfand 2740   Viswanathan Anand 2780
Vladimir Kramnik 2810   Fabiano Caruana 2757
6th round: 1 March 2013 at 13:00
Viswanathan Anand 2780   Vladimir Kramnik 2810
Fabiano Caruana 2757   Boris Gelfand 2740

Zurich on the free day

By Vijay Kumar

It was a free day at the Zurich Chess Challenge, but Dr Christian Issler planned a memorable visit to Mount Pilatus, some 100 km from Zurich. Situated in the heart of Switzerland, Lucerne's "Dragon Mountain" – steeped in dragon legend and with spectacular views of the Alps and central plains – attracts thousands of international visitors every year. The unique Alpine panorama with 73 peaks and six lakes, circular hiking trails and easy-to-reach vantage points, make a Mount Pilatus excursion the ultimate Alpine experience.

The summit is reached from Alpnachstad, the bottom station of the Pilatus Railway – with a 48% gradient, the world's steepest cogwheel railway – from Kriens to Fräkmüntegg by aerial gondola and then up to the Pilatus summit by aerial cableway.

The City of Kriens recently opened a chess museum, where hundreds of chess pieces from various part of the world are on show, collected by the Werner and Roland Rupp brothers, in over 20 years. Here are some chess sets:

They had put up an excellent collection of anything connected with chess – the museum has more than 52,000 stamps and some 100,000 books and publications.

In the following video you see Pilatus, the museum and Dr Christian Issler playing against GM Genna Sosonko

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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Copyright ChessBase


Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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