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Tal Memorial category 20 starts in Moscow
06.11.2006 – Ten superstars are present at The Tal Memorial, which is being held from November 5th to 19th in Moscow. The rating average of is 2727 – only 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen misses the 2700 mark by two points. Round one saw wins by Aronian, Gelfand and Ponomariov. Bozhe moi – this is exciting chess! |
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Tal-Mem R3: Ponomariov, Svidler win
08.11.2006 – The former FIDE world champion, 23-year-old Ukrainian grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov defeated the world's number five ranked player with a very deep closing manoeuvre to take the lead in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow. World number four Peter Svidler defeated Levon Aronian with black. Just one slightly boring game in round three. Report. |
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Tal-Mem R2: All games drawn, but not uninteresting
08.11.2006 – The one to replay in round two is Leko-Grischuk, where Black played an enterprising exchange sacrifice and had winning chances in the exciting finishing phase. In Morozevich-Carlsen the young Norwegian claimed a threefold repetition, as it turned out incorrectly, but the game was drawn anyway. Illustrated report. |
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Tal-Mem R4: Leko, Morozevich, Aronian win
10.11.2006 – Peter Leko ground down Boris Gelfand in 79 moves, Alexander Morozevich profited from a mysterious exchange sacrifice by Alexander Grischuk, and Levon Aronian calmly refuted an ambitious winning attempt by Alexei Shirov to take the full point. Now all three are just half a point behind the leading Ponomariov, who has a 2900+ performance. Big illustrated report. |
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Tal-Mem R5: All games drawn
11.11.2006 – Sound boring, but there were a number of interesting moments in round five of the Tal Memorial in Moscow. We did some statistics: of the 25 games played so far 68% were drawn, the shortest in 23 moves. Only about four were unfought. Mamedyarov-Ponomariov was the longest game and had the longest header so far. Illustrated report including golden sponsors of the event. |
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Tal-Mem R6: Leko, Grischuk, Aronian win
13.11.2006 – Back on track, three decided games, one in which tail-ender Grischuk defeated the world's number four Peter Svidler with black, and one in which young Magnus Carlsen made a single false move in a rook and pawn ending against Aronian. Now Peter Leko, Ruslan Ponomariov and Lev Aronian share the lead, and the draw statistics down to 64%. Report. |
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Tal-Mem R7: Grischuk and Gelfand win
14.11.2006 – Round seven of the Tal Memorial was exciting and memorable. The games were pretty good, but more relevantly Garry Kasparov had remembered that the event was taking place just around the corner from where he lives. So he dropped by, much to the delight of the players, chess fans and commentators. Big pictorial report. |
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Tal-Mem R9: All games drawn, three grandmasters win
16.11.2006 – We apologise to our readers for having spoken, in yesterday's report, of "final exciting clashes", and for doing the simulation of different combinations of results in the last round, while neglecting to include the one that actually occurred: all games were quick draws. Unenthusiastic final report. |
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Tal-Mem R8: Peter Svidler beats Alexander Morozevich
16.11.2006 – Peter Svidler is number four in the world, Alexander Morozevich number five. They are the two top seeds in the Tal Memorial tournament. With his victory Svidler in round eight climbed to seventh place, and Morozevich is now alone in last place. Tomorrow will bring the final exciting clashes. We have simulations on who needs to do what to win. |
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Tal-Mem Blitz: Jobava and Karjakin win qualifier
18.11.2006 – The Tal Memorial 2006 in Moscow ends with a spectacular blitz tournament. On Thursday and Friday 40 strong GMs played in a qualification tournament, with six players making it to the final. There they will be joined by the players of the main event and three invitees: Karpov, Anand and Judit Polgar. Big photo report. |
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Tal-Mem Blitz: Anand wins with two point lead
19.11.2006 – Everyone knows that Indian superstar Vishy Anand is one of the world's strongest rapid chess players. This was driven home forcefully by a magnificent start-to-finish victory at the Tal Memorial blitz final, where 18 players, all rated 2650 or higher, played a double round robin on two days. Anand did not lose a single mini-match and won the event two points ahead of his nearest rival. |
