San Luis R14: Topalov wins, Anand second

The FIDE World Chess Championship is taking place in the Hotel Potrero de los Funes
Complex, in the Province of San Luis, Argentina, from September 27 to October 16, 2005.

Round Fourteen Summary

Final results of the World Championship in San Luis

The final standings shown above are with the traditional tie-break system, which did not apply in this world championship. The first tiebreak criterium was the direct results between the two players, which in the case of Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler was two draws. The second was the number of wins, and with Anand having five and Svidler four the Indian ex world champion was second.

• All games so far in PGN

Toplaov's performance was 2890 and he will appear with a rating of 2806 on the next FIDE list (assuming he doesn't lose points before it appears). Anand, with a performance of 2807 stands to gain three or four points on the next list, while Peter Svidler 2814 will gain more due to his lower base rating.

Videos to watch

• Round 13 press conference with Topalov and Kasimdzhanov
• Round 12 press conference with Topalov and Svidler
• Round 12 press conference with Morozevich and Polgar

World Championship Diary: Round 14

By Nigel Short – on site in San Luis

Pictures to follow...

Lunchtime: Veselin let slip that he would “try” to make a draw today with White against the tail-ender, Judit Polgar. This did not surprise me greatly. I expected that by securing victory with a round to spare either he would feel liberated to harry his prey, or he would be incapacitated by the emotional tsunami. It was the latter apparently. I am dead-beat already and I am only writing about the tournament; I can hardly imagine how he feels. Judit has had a wretched event and I would be surprised if she were to decline. Her husband Gustav has a flight this evening and she will be able to spend the last couple of hours with him.

3.50pm: Sure enough the scoresheets are signed. After some perfunctory exchanges in a Queen’s Indian, a tedious endgame was reached. Mind you, when both sides are intent on drawing it scarcely matters what moves are made. Topalov, curiously, has not won a game in the second half although he came very close on a couple of occasions.

The focus now switches to the keen battle for second place. This is important because it secures further advancement in the next World Championship cycle. Svidler needs to win this game due to his inferior tie-break. Breaking Anand’s Petroff Defence will be an extremely difficult task. He has essayed castling queenside in an attempt to inject a bit of life into proceedings. This is all known though and Black should not face too many problems.

Peter Svidler vs Vishy Anand, playing for second place

Alexander Morozevich, who is more or less guaranteed fourth place, has obtained a slight pull in the Spanish against Michael Adams. There are some subtle differences between this position and regular main line – Black having saved a couple of tempi here; White having saved one there but possessing an actively placed bishop etc. Anyway, this is the Englishman’s final chance to register a win. He is very experienced in this type of structure, but I do not see him pulling it off today.

The battle for place five: Peter Leko vs Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Peter Leko has an edge in the White side of a Sicilian Kan against Rustam Kasimjanov. The Hungarian has prospects of developing an initiative against the Black king although a strategic struggle may also rage on the other flank. The winner will probably determine who finishes fifth and sixth.

5.00pm: Peter Svidler concluded that $160,000 was not so bad after all and made a draw in just 19 moves. There was a danger that he would drift into a worse position if he were not too careful. It is a very good, but not exceptional, result for the Saint Petersburger. Anand has not played anywhere near as badly as his critics have made out. He is gaining Elo points on his massive 2788 rating, and on another day his score of +3 might have sufficed for first place. However in San Luis the pre-tournament favourite was outclassed by Topalov, who looked in another league altogether after his blazing start.

6.00pm: My words about the Leko-Kasim game were almost prophetic. Leko appears to be in control on both sides of the board. The White f-pawn has advanced to the sixth where it offers mating possibilities. Meanwhile Black is tied down on the queenside too, with his a-pawn being a great burden to defend.

6.15pm: Leko has coaxed a further serious weakness out of Black, as his g-and h-pawns have been enticed perilously forward. It looks highly implausible that he can avoid calamity on the kingside. Forget about the lousy a-pawn on the other wing – mate ends the game. I suspect it is coming relatively quickly now.

Adams is outplaying Morozevich. First he gradually established a preponderance of pawns in the centre and then broke through with a tactical blow, d4, exploiting the loose White cavalry on the queenside. The Muscovite is going to need all his ingenuity to extricate himself from this situation. Just this moment he has abandoned one of his steeds in an effort to liquidate as much material as possible and perhaps bring about a drawn endgame. Adams is rather short of pawns, which will severely complicate his winning task.

Kasimjanov has erected some sort of defence with his minor pieces. Still one assumes that he will be hard pressed to stave off mate in the medium term. Tricky fellow though, this Uzbek. One should never write him off. Oh dear, after his last move – a bishop retreat, instead of capturing a pawn – the evaluation has plunged sharply. The computer is showing a near four-point advantage to Leko which usually means bye-bye time.

Tricky Mickey is certainly better but has the wrong rook’s pawn, which means that he will have to extremely careful which pieces he exchanges if he is to preserve any chances. I would guess that a draw is more likely than a win now but there is still a lot of play left – plenty of time for blunders.

Kasim has dropped an exchange and is also a pawn in arrears at the time-control. That is a pretty hefty deficit to overcome. On the plus side he is unlikely to get mated anymore, particularly after offering a queen trade.

Kasim resigns against Leko, Moroz struggles on against Adams

7.40pm: The Uzbek boat capsizes. Fritz 9 initially suggests that the final position is only clearly better for White, but it looks dead lost to me (and obviously to Kasim). On the other hand the idiotic machine believes that Adams is winning against Morozevich, although I will wager a hefty sum on a drawn outcome. Normally these programmes are exceptionally useful tools, but one always has to engage one’s brain and be sceptical of certain evaluations.

Alexander Morozevich ends on place four

8.10pm: Morozevich-Adams, tablas! Phew! It is all over. This will go down in history as one of the finest tournaments of all time. No, not the greatest, nor even the second greatest, but nevertheless somewhere up there among the very best. It will be spoken of in centuries to come – as long as people are still playing chess. Thank you, San Luis. Thank you, the eight participants.

Full schedule

Links

• Official World Chess Championship web site
• All ChessBase World Championship reports so far