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Morelia-Linares Super-GM starts today
15.02.2008 – For the third time this double-round robin tournament, split between Mexico
and Spain, is being held, and for the third time we are attending. After a
28-hour trip we have arrived in Morelia, where all eight players are already gathered.
The first round is
on Friday, with live coverage on the official site and on Playchess.com.
We bring you a first pictorial report. |
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Morelia R1: GM Dorian Rogozenko annotates
16.02.2008 – The starting round in Morelia provided three decided games out of four. Topalov and Leko won with the white pieces against Aronian and Radjabov respectively, while Anand scored a win with black against Shirov. "Let's hope that 'the return of the Sicilian' will remain the trend of this extremely strong tournament," says our GM commentator Dorian Rogozenko, in his analysis of round one. |
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Morelia R1: Three wins in round one
16.02.2008 – The Mexican half of the Morelia-Linares tournament has started with a bang. Three of the four games ended in decisions. Vishy Anand beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov won their games against Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian respectively with white. Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk drew in 39. Pictorial report. |
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Morelia R2: When everything goes wrong for a world champion
17.02.2008 – How often does Anand lose with the white pieces? In 2007 there wasn't a single
game. On the other hand when the Indian champion does lose, he can do it in
such a painful way. In his round two game against Levon everything
went wrong. Here we see the full contingent of bad factors concentrated in a
single game. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses this and other games. Learn and enjoy. |
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Morelia R2: Aronian beats Anand, Ivanchuk beats Leko
17.02.2008 – After yesterday's victory Vishy Anand fell to a terrible blunder on move 30 in his game against Levon Aronian. Similarly Peter Leko lost the thread around move 38 against Vassily Ivanchuk and gave up the full point. Radjabov spoilt a promising game against Veselin Topalov to a draw, while Shirov and Carlsen never really left the draw window. Express report with pictures. |
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Morelia R3: Anand and Topalov win
18.02.2008 – Vishy Anand bounced back from his round two loss with a fine black-pieces win against tournament youngster Magnus Carlsen. Veselin Topalov scored his second victory, a wonderful game against veteran Vassily Ivanchuk, to take the lead in this event. The other two games were drawn. Brief comments are provided by our Mexican friends in this illustrated report. |
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Morelia R4: Shirov beats Topalov, Ivanchuk blunders
19.02.2008 – Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the world's most experienced players. And one of the strongest. In round four he ran into his old nemesis: the clock. Just before the first time control he blundered away a highly promising position against Levon Aronian and lost the full point. Meanwhile Alexei Shirov outplayed Veselin Topalov for his first Morelia 2008 victory. Express report with pictures. |
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Super-GM in Mexico – impressions of Morelia
19.02.2008 – For the third time we are spending a fortnight at this category 21 tournament – mainly in front of a computer. Which is fine, once communication problems are solved and you have been given a superior suite. We celebrated by taking a stroll though the beautiful Mexican town, where we witness a Quince Años ceremony and got to see a pink stretch Porsche. Big illustrated report. |
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Morelia Round three GM analysis
19.02.2008 – Topalov and Anand are marching through in Morelia. The Bulgarian is leading with 2.5 points out of three (3000+ Elo performance!), the world champion has half a point less. Together they scored four wins so far. No one else has a plus score after the first three rounds. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses all four games from this exciting round. Learn and enjoy. |
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High drama in Morelia
20.02.2008 – The tournament in Morelia provided another round of exciting chess. The leader Veselin Topalov lost to Alexey Shirov, but the drama of the day was Ivanchuk's blunder in a winning position against Aronian. The ratio of decisive games is unusually high for such a top tournament: nine out of 16 games ended with a win for one side. Remarkable indeed! GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses. |
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Magnus Carlsen wins with the Alekhine
21.02.2008 – In the fifth round of the Morelia tournament the participants continued to please the spectators with entertaining chess, which resulted in two wins for Black and two draws. No boring openings, no "lazy" draws, but rare openings like the Janisch gambit and, in round five, the Alekhine Defense. We are witnessing a highly exciting and interesting tournament. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses. |
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Morelia R5: Carlsen beats Topalov, Anand wins
21.02.2008 – The first win on this dramatic day was by Vishy Anand, over Peter Leko, who was overrun by Anand's black kingside pawns. Then followed Magnus Carlsen's victory over Veselin Topalov, which he achieved, believe it or not, on the black side of Alekhine's Defence (1.e4 Nf6). The results put Anand in the sole lead. We bring you lots of pictures in our express report. |
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Morelia 06: No quarter given, no holds barred
23.02.2008 – The last free day in the Morelia part of the tournament allowed the grandmasters to rest and come fresh to their games in the fighting mood again. In this unpredictable tournament it is highly difficult to guess the results, but one thing the spectators can be sure of: the players are always trying hard to show their best. The sixth round was no exception. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses. |
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Morelia R6: Radjabov beats Carlsen, Topalov-Anand draw
23.02.2008 – It was a long day. Topalov vs Anand was the first game to end, in a tough draw. Ivanchuk-Shirov followed suit. Then Teimour Radjabov succeeded in overcoming the defences of Magnus Carlsen and scoring a full point. Shortly after nine p.m. Lev Aronian gave up trying to beat Peter Leko. We bring you a summary and lots of pictures in our express report. |
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Morelia 07: Fighting chess pleased the organisers
24.02.2008 – The Morelia part of the tournament has finished, the players need a good rest. Fighting hard in every game is not an easy job. In the last games due to tiredness many players performed below their usual level. On the other hand chess professionals must get used to play every game until the end and I hope we'll see this tendency in the Linares part as well. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses. |
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Morelia R7: Carlsen, Topalov and Shirov win
24.02.2008 – What an exciting tournament! On the final day there were three decided games. Magnus Carlsen played a classic against Levon Aronian; Veselin Topalov, playing black, took a full point from a luckless Peter Leko; and Alexei Shirov won a fine game against Teimour Radjabov. Anand is the sole winner of the first half of Morelia-Linares 2008. Full report with pictures. |
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Linares R8: Anand, Carlsen, Aronian win
28.02.2008 – The slugfest continues. After three days of travel, rest and jet lag adjustment the players came out swinging, with three decided games in the first round of the Spanish leg of the Super-GM tournament. Anand beat Shirov, Aronian beat Topalov and Carlsen did the same to Ivanchuk with the black pieces. We bring you a full report with games, commentary and pictures from Linares. |
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Linares Torneo Internacional Super-GM begins today
28.02.2008 – The first half of this Super-GM was a very exciting affair in Morelia, Mexico. The draw average was a sensationally low 46%. Topalov drew just two games, Anand won the first half, scoring three wins, all with black, and one loss. Today the second half begins in Linares, with games starting at 16:00h CET (= EST, 18:00 Moscow, 15:00 GMT/London, 10 a.m. NY). We bring you live commentary. |
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Linares R9: Carlsen and Ivanchuk win, Leko down in the dumps
29.02.2008 – Aronian vs Anand, not without tension, ended abruptly after 27 moves in a draw. Veselin Topalov did not succeed in outmaneuvering Teimour Radjabov and drew in 54. The luckless Peter Leko lost yet another, with White against Ivanchuk. The cliff-hanger was an 80-move effort by Magnus Carlsen, who overcame Shirov's defences to take second place in the tables. Full illustrated report. |
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Linares R10: All games drawn, Ivanchuk near collapse vs Topalov
01.03.2008 – Anand vs Carlsen and Radjabov vs Aronian were relatively peaceful draws; Shirov pressured Leko with an extra pawn. But the greatest tension was to be seen in the game Vassily Ivanchuk vs Veselin Topalov. The latter got into trouble after sacrificing a pawn, Ivanchuk had a virtually winning position, blew it in tactical complications and almost lost. Express report. |
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Linares honors its greatest son
02.03.2008 – Forget chess for a moment, on this free day of the Super-GM in the Andalusian capital. Forget the games and cross tables. We took a stroll to the Andrés Segovia museum, built for one of the greatest classical guitarists who ever lived. He was born in Linares and almost single-handedly turned the gut guitar into the concert instrument it is today.
Pictures and videos. |
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Linares R11: Topalov and Leko win, Anand leads
03.03.2008 – Veselin Topalov beat Alexei Shirov in an Exchange Grunfeld that lasted just 34 moves. Peter Leko got an extra pawn and ground down Magnus Carlsen in a 62-move effort. The other two games were drawn, which left Anand with a one-point lead over Aronian, Carlsen and Topalov, with three rounds to go. We bring you a full report with pictures and video interviews by Europe Echecs. |
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Linares R12: Carlsen mates Topalov, closes gap to Anand
04.03.2008 – The 17-year-old wonderboy from Norway has done it again. Magnus Carlsen got himself into a somewhat precarious situation, two pawns down, against the former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov, but fought back to equalise. Just when everyone was expecting a draw disaster struck and Topalov blundered. Full report with games, commentary and video. |
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Linares R14: All games drawn, Anand wins Super-GM
07.03.2008 – Four players had a chance to at least tie for first – the preconditions were in place for a thrilling last round. This might have seemed especially likely, given the very low percentage of draws (by super-tournament standards) so far, but as it turned out “safety first” was the rule of the day. Anand retained his half point lead, Magnus Carlsen came second. Full illustrated report. |
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Linares R13: Radjabov and Topalov win, Anand leads
07.03.2008 – Nothing changed at the top and at the bottom of the table – the gap was simply enlarged. After equaling with black Alexei Shirov suffered a painful blunder loss against Teimour Radjabov, while Peter Leko was outplayed by Veselin Topalov in a 48-move struggle. Anand remains in the lead, followed by Magnus Carlsen. Full report with pictures of the players in action. |
