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February 17, 2008
Morelia/Linares 08 R2-3
Round two of Linares wasn't exactly a wild one. Most of the games developed very slowly, as you would expect with three of the four starting out 1.e4 e5 and the King's Gambit not being on the menu these days. The good news was nobody played the Petroff. The bad news is that Topalov played the Berlin against Radjabov. Oy. His plan to lure the younger player into complacency paid off when Radjabov hung his e5 pawn in midair, although he regrouped quickly. The open e-file helped White gain enough activity to even keep some pressure after he got his pawn back. Still, a little embarrassing to hang your e-pawn like that and if he says he didn't hang it I shan't believe him!
That wasn't nearly as surprising as the Marshall Gambit between Anand and Aronian. It looked like Vishy was consolidating with good winning chances, an opinion shared by GM Fedorowicz on Chess.FM. Aronian, following the gambit logic that it's better to be down two pawns with an attack than one pawn without one, threw the kitchen sink at the white king. Those who say the Marshall is a drawing weapon, and many say this and for some it is true, don't watch the way the Armenian tends to play it. His draws usually come from wild counterplay. The last thing we expected was for Vishy to slip up and get mated, especially since he was taking his time, using over five minutes on each of what turned out to be the decisive moves of the game. But the world champ blundered twice in a row and was suddenly mated. Great attacking idea from Aronian, giving up the h-pawn. A computer might be able to survive with white, but even the comps' initial suggestions don't lead to more than a draw by repetition. The rook infiltration ..Re2 and sacs on g3 are almost impossible to avoid. For example, 29.Bb6 Bxf1 30.Rxf1 fxg3 31.hxg3 Bxg3! 32.fxg3 Re2 33.Rf2 Re1+ 34.Rf1 Re2. If White has chances they probably need to come before 28.Qd3 Qh5 after which it's very difficult even to survive. Asked after the game, Aronian said he was sure he had "wonderful compensation" and that he thought he was winning for sure after 29..Re2. His constant optimism definitely seems warranted here, as the computers agree if you give them long enough.
The other decisive game of the day was Ivanchuk outfoxing Leko in an obscure line that had been discarded as giving White few chances for more than a draw. White gets two rooks for the queen but in a position where he has no development at all against an active queen and two bishops. It doesn't sound attractive, but Ivanchuk slowly worked his way free and Leko failed to come up with a plan, only getting himself into time trouble trying. Leko decided he could read the writing on the wall from a distance and resigned when it was clear he had no way to break through. Carlsen held off Shirov very smoothly, employing a change of citizenship defense to turn a Sicilian into a French with ..d5. White never got anything going against the isolated d-pawn.
So after two rounds we've had five decisive games and Topalov and Ivanchuk are in the lead with 1.5 points. Hard to say why the quality of the games has been so uneven. Seven of the eight players are coming from Corus (all but Shirov) but that's hardly new. Still, the long trip to Morelia has probably contributed to the spotty play this year and recent years.
Round 3: Leko-Shirov, Carlsen-Anand, Topalov-Ivanchuk, Aronian-Radjabov.
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"...Carlsen held off Shirov very smoothly, employing a change of citizenship defense to turn a Sicilian into a French with ..d5" -Mig
Pure wit! I really enjoy reading your stories Mig.
Thanks
Anand's 29.Nd2? was definitely the loosing move, white could have forced a draw also after the immediate 29.Bb6 Re2:
30.Ra8+ 30...Kf7 31.Ra7+ Kf8 32.Ra8+ Kf7 (32...Ke7? 33.Rh8!!+-) 33.Ra7+=
Here are some alternative winning lines after 30.Re2!:
30.Bb6 Rxd2! 31.Ra8+ Bf8 32.Rxf8+ Kxf8 33.Qxd2 Qg6 34.Qe1 Qg4-+;
30.Qf3 Bg4! 31.Qd3 Qh3-+;
30.Rd1 Bf5! 31.Qf3 Bg4 32.Qg2 f3! 33.Qh1 Qf5-+ (idea 34... Qc2
Yay, Topalov! Great win again Ivanchuk. Once Topa stops sacrifying pieces right out of the gate, he is a Top 3 player.
Great comeback for Anand from yesterday's loss. Vishy schooled the Kid, showing that the old generation is not yet ready to step aside.
Great round overall!
Carlsen seems to have nothing against Vishy. He's doing well against everyone else, but I doubt he'll get anywhere on the world championship ladder until he can draw a white against Anand.
Posted by: kgd at February 17, 2008 21:02Carlsen seems to have nothing against Vishy. He's doing well against everyone else, but I doubt he'll get anywhere on the world championship ladder until he can draw a white against Anand.
-- Posted by: kgd at February 17, 2008 21:02
Yes, every time Carlsen plays Anand, it seems that school is in session.
Hopefully for Carlsen these lessons will soon start to pay off.
Posted by: notyetagm at February 17, 2008 21:25In the first 3 rounds there have been 7 decisive games and only 5 draws!
Posted by: ComputoJon at February 17, 2008 21:39Anand is now like 8-0 in decisive games against Carlsen, including blitz/rapid.
Anand must wonder what all the fuss is about. :-)
Don't Anand and Carlsen have the same second (Nielsen)? I don't know what the protocols are on sharing work/variations and how Nielsen keeps a Chinese wall in his work with them, but at the very least Anand must have some subtle additional clues about Magnus' strengths and then his greater experience sees him through - for now!
Posted by: kxm at February 17, 2008 21:52What is the winning line for Black after 29. Nd2? Everyone says it's losing but I haven't seen a proof. After 29. ... Re2 30. Bh4 what does Black do to win? I let Rybka chew on it for about 10 min. and it's eval was 0.00.
Posted by: noyb at February 17, 2008 22:53notyetagm,
When Tal was World Champion, he, by his own words, had a equal score with Korchnoi: 5 losses, 5 draws, no single win ;-)
actually noyb it took rybka more than 20 min to come up with the winning line.
29. nd2 re2 30. bh4 rxd2 31. ra8+ bf8 32. rxf8+ kxf8 33. qxd2 kg8!! and it's over
Posted by: artyom at February 18, 2008 01:35but then i saw the combination immediately with my 2000+ rating. it is winning in all lines regardless
Posted by: artyom at February 18, 2008 01:37was watching the game online when anand played rd2. the comp kept telling perpetual with ra8 and kf7 but it somehow was missing the crucial 31. ... bf8 and 33. ... kg8 after which white is in zugzwang and has to either shed the queen or be mated
Posted by: artyom at February 18, 2008 01:40coming back from yesterday's loss, Anand seems to be stressing what was claimed in his latest interview - that Aronian is slightly better than Carlsen... feels a bit like an end-of-term president giving support to one of the running candidates.
Posted by: evanhaut at February 18, 2008 06:28Mig,
I have not receieved my Chess Ninja news letters for months. Since you never respond to any emails or the formum posts showing that no one has gotten theirs for months either I asked you to cancel my membership and refund the money for the issues that have not been sent. Then today I see you charged me once again!
Mig this is totally unacceptable!!!
Posted by: Henrik at February 18, 2008 08:14I read this initially on chessdom.com. Is Carlsen autistic?
Before the start of Morelia leg, Magnus Carlsen answered some 30 questions posted from readers of the portal Nettavisen.no. When being asked to estimate his chances in Morelia/Linares, he said: "I don't hope for much. My opponents are very strong. But if I could do the same at last year I would be pleased.", and "My ambitions has not risen as much as the press'. Every plus result in such a tournament is a achievement for me" he added (translation Ole Valaker). He was also asked couple of less formal questions, such is: "Are you autistic?", to which Magnus replied "Yes, isn't that obvious?". Norwegian speakers can read more on Nettavisen.
http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk/article1599185.ece
Maybe he was joking or it's something I should have known. Let me know.
Thanks
Posted by: xtra at February 18, 2008 09:50oh come on, who cares if he's autistic or not? that sort of gossip is plainly useless really.
Posted by: Voltaic at February 18, 2008 12:06Everybody is autistic these days -- the very activity of playing Chess is a fundamental part of the diagnosis. More power to Magnus!!
Although the extent to which Anand owns him is extremely strange – how could that be?
Topalov is +2 after 3 rounds?!? What’s wrong with that picture? That mush be some kind of a mistake in the script.
D.
Posted by: Dimi at February 18, 2008 13:22He was joking.
Posted by: Norw. at February 18, 2008 14:19Talk about uncertain times in chess. First Anand wins an elite tournament, then Kramnik, then Carlsen and Aronian. Still early, but it wouldn't surprise me if Topolov runs away with this one. Remember the days when Fischer won everything; then Karpov won everthing; then some guy named Kasparov took everyone to the cleaners, so-to-speak? Perhaps in time Carlsen will dominate tournaments chess like that, but still too early to tell. Especially with a host of young players that are way ahead of the curve.
Posted by: chesstraveler at February 18, 2008 20:04I sincerely cannot understand why everyone is sure that Carlsen is going to dominate? He is very strong, but is it so clear that he will DOMINATE ones like Karjakin and Rajabov, say, 5 years from now? I mean, these two are around as brilliant as Carlsen, no? Wasn't Bacrot or Ponomariev much more "promising" than Aronian when they were 17?
Can't we just wait and see instead of making the same pointless predictions every now and then?
Posted by: playjunior at February 19, 2008 08:20Playjunior, I am not a Fortune Teller to know what will happen
for sure (even they don't :-), but if I had to bet money on a
young player that would be Carlsen. Why? Just a personal opinion
based on what I've seen in the past one year. That's all.
D.
Posted by: Dimi at February 19, 2008 13:20the very reason why carlsen keeps losing to anand is very simple. He is playing for win and when you are plying for win against anand then you can lose quite easily. He could play for draw but I guess that this is precisely the reason why people like Carlsen. He tries to win quite often.
playjunior,
Either you didn't read the latter part of my last post, or you're having a bad day and felt the necessity to vent. My apologies that the word **dominate** seems to affect you so adversely.
Posted by: chesstraveler at February 19, 2008 13:53About the autism thing: to my knowledge there has been no indication in the Norwegian press that Carlsen suffers from such. And, based on his repeated great performances on the talkshow 'Rikets Røst' (search on youtube), he doesn't seem much of a poster child for that condition. So yeah, was probably kidding.
Posted by: Olav V at March 17, 2008 18:18There are many degrees of autism. You wouldn't know somebody had aspergers unless you knew this person intimately for exemple.
Have you seen interviews with Ivanchuk? Maybe he's not autistic, but he's not not some random schmuck from the pub either. ;)
My impression is that Carlsen is somewhat timid in front of cameras. Being very smart does not help in this regard. (In general: the dumber the person, the less they seem to care ;))
"There are many degrees of autism." Absolutely. It is difficult to tell where autism starts and 'normal' ends. One can have symptoms of autism without being autistic, and where, exactly, symptoms of autism translate to actual autism may never be decided. The bell curve for 'normal' (damn, I hate that word) and for autism overlap on their right and left tails respectively, and a number of people score smack dab in the middle of that overlap.
Posted by: Daniel J. Andrews at March 18, 2008 13:35
