Wow, once they started drinking the water these guys really got fired up. It was another exciting, gory day in Mexico. 4/5 games were decisive, including wins by the leaders. Vallejo Pons and Ponomariov scored over Karjakin and Bruzon, respectively. They're tied for the lead with impressive 4.5/6 scores.
Hikaru Nakamura bounced back with yet another terribly complicated game. He beat Felgaer with some sweet reorganization to move back to +2 and holds clear third place. For a while their game looked like a contest to see who could get the worse bishop. Nakamura ruthlessly blitzed the Argentine as Black's position and clock deteriorated. It started out with a wacky anti-Sveshnikov, Hikaru pulling 4.a3 out of his bag of tricks. The ever-creative Ljubo Ljubojevic sprang that one on Tony Miles back in 1985. (A game that has one of the most bizarre positions you'll see this year on move 15. White knights on g5 and h7!)
As regularly occurs in Hikaru's games, this one is a good example of using an unorthodox opening without worrying about theoretical superiority, only getting an original position where you can outplay your opponent. White's consolidation and expansion was almost Hedgehog-like. On move 20 White only had one piece beyond the second rank. Contrast this with his ultra-theoretical win over Volokitin. Black Belt readers get to wonder which of his games Hikaru will annotate, although he might not have time before running off to San Diego to defend his title.
Yet again, the official site made the games disappear. They immediately put up the new pairings in the game viewer and the PGN of the day's round isn't up until the next day. Dale, mariachi! Off to copy-paste them from playchess.com again...
And another thing. dcp23 asks in the comments why Cheparinov is playing with a Russian flag on his table. Careful examination of the photos, even checking with Photoshop (yes, these people need more work), shows that the middle stripe is blue, not green. A yellow highlighter should solve the problem.
Peace...
I find it odd that there is such a rush to reset the positions as soon as the round is over. Literally as I was going through games shortly after the end of the round, the boards suddenly reverted to original positions. They should at least let people have enough time to click through all of the games properly!
Hotep,
Maliq
Just log into Playchess.com to review the games? I think you can watch them with Guest status thus = free?
the official site has repaired the viewer for rd6.
Peace...
Is it just a problem with my viewer, or are two of the games from this round not being relayed on the main site, including Hikaru's?
Hotep,
Maliq
same here Maliq
Okay, it's fixed now.
Hotep,
Maliq
Hi Mig,
My guess is that you put Ljubo's name in red so I would notice and post to say thank you. :)
I was a fan of Hikaru anyway, but knowing he has studied Ljubojevic' games confirms my conviction that he really is one of the good guys.
Thank you. Keep up the good work.
inky
Nice shot by Hikaru although not enough for the win. Get all the games while there hot(or before they are replaced).
Somehow, I've become accustomed to seeing Vallejo Pons at the bottom of the table - in supertournaments with the 2750+ set. Nice to see him win something.
Mig,
Has Kasparov made any comments about Hikaru's play lately? Hikaru played some awfully entertaining, even theoretical games, just crushing some pretty strong opposition in this tournament. The last time Kasparov commented, he was pretty unimpressed by Hikaru's preparation (so many games on the internet). Just thought maybe you might have some good dirt :-).
Thanks - John Anagnost
Didn't Felgaer win a Dos Hermanas tournament a few years back?