Tal-Mem R3: Ponomariov, Svidler win

The Tal Memorial chess festival is being held in Moscow from November 5th to 19th, 2006. It is a round-robin super-tournament of Category 20, with participants from seven countries. The rating favorite is Peter Svidler, 2750, Russia, the dark horse is 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, at 2698 the only participant rated below 2700. All games start at 15:00h Moscow time (= 13:00h CET, 12:00 noon London, 7 a.m. New York). There is live broadcast on the official site and on Playchess.com.

Round three

Shirov-Leko was a Marshall followed Kramnik-Leko, game eight of their 2004 world championship match in Brisago, up to move 17, when Shirov sacrificed an exchange.

Shirov,A (2720) - Leko,P (2741) [C89]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (3), 08.11.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Re4 g5 16.Qf1 Qh5 17.Nd2 Bf5 18.f3 Nf6

Leko won this game in Brissago, after 19.Re1 Rae8 20.Rxe8 Rxe8 21.a4 Qg6 22.axb5 Bd3 23.Qf2 Re2 24.Qxe2 Bxe2 25.bxa6 Qd3 26.Kf2 Bxf3 27.Nxf3 Ne4+ 28.Ke1 Nxc3 29.bxc3 Qxc3+ 30.Kf2 Qxa1 31.a7 h6 32.h4 g4 0-1, Kramnik,V (2770)-Leko,P (2741), Brissago 2004, CBM 103. Shirov, however, defended with an exchange sacrifice and the game fizzled to a draw after eight more moves: 19.a4 Nxe4 20.Nxe4 Qg6 21.Nxd6 Qxd6 22.Bxg5 Rfe8 23.Re1 Qg6 24.Be7 Ra7 25.Bc5 Raa8 26.Be7 Ra7 27.Bc5 ½-½.

Aronian,L (2741) - Svidler,P (2750) [D80]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (3), 08.11.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Qb1 Qd5 9.Nf3 Nd7 10.Be2 Bf5 11.Qb2 Bg7 12.0-0 Nb6 13.a4 a5 14.Nd2 Bd3 15.Bxd3 cxd3 16.Rfb1 Qc6 17.Qa3 0-0 18.c4 Nxc4 19.Nxc4 Qxc4 20.Bxe7 Rfe8 21.Rd1 Rac8 22.Bg5? (22.Rac1 was required) 22...c5 23.Qxd3 cxd4.

White has been letting the position slip in the last two moves, but now he commits a capital backrank blunder: 24.exd4?? Re1+ 0-1. Oh dear.

Carlsen-Mamedyarov was an extremely well fought out Sicilian Taimanov which ended in a 31-move draw. It's a pleasure to watch young players go after each others' throats in this way. If you think their games are suspiciously computer-like remember that it is not because of prompting during the games. They grew up with Fritz and Co., and have to a certain degree emulated their fearless tactical style.

Grischuk-Gelfand was a Petroff and ended in an uneventful 26-move draw, with neither of the players apparently striving for much more.

Ponomariov-Morezevich was a remarkable, highly enjoyable game. It started off as a Keres Attack in the Sicilian Scheveningen, with queens swarming all over the board in wild abandon. They came off on move 26 and both players settled down to a manoeuvring game, with White on the attack.

Ponomariov,R (2703) - Morozevich,A (2747) [B90]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (3), 08.11.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.g4 d5 8.g5 Nxe4 9.Nxe4 dxe4 10.Qg4 Nd7 11.0-0-0 Qa5 12.Nb3 Qf5 13.Qg3 Be7 14.h4 Qf3 15.Qh2 Qf5 16.Bg2 0-0 17.Qc7 Bd8 18.Qc4 Bb6 19.Bxe4 Bxe3+ 20.fxe3 Qe5 21.Qd4 Rb8 22.h5 b6 23.h6 g6 24.Nd2 b5 25.Nf3 Qxd4 26.exd4 Rb6 27.Rhf1 b4 28.Rde1 a5 29.Ne5 Nxe5 30.dxe5 Rb5 31.Bd3 Rc5 32.Rf4 Bb7 33.Rc4 Rfc8 34.Rxc5 Rxc5 35.Kd2 Rd5 36.Re4 Kf8 37.c4 Rc5 38.Re3 Ke7 39.b3 Kd8 40.Be4 Bc8 41.Bf3 Kc7 42.Kd3 Kb6 43.Ke4 Rc7 44.Rd3 Rd7 45.Rd6+ Kc5

White is better, but it seemed unclear if he could win. After 46.Rxd7 Bxd7 or 46.Rd1 Rxd1 47.Bxd1 it is hard to find a breakthrough. So what does Ruslan Ponomariov, 23-year-old former FIDE world champion do? To the abject horror of the chess engines kibitzing on the Playchess server he plays 46.Kf4! threatening 47.Rc6+ and 48.Rxc8. 46...Rxd6 47.exd6 Kxd6 All of this is forced. It looks like White simply dropped a pawn, but here comes the punchline: 48.c5+! Kxc5 (48...Ke7 perhaps offered chances of survival) 49.Ke5 Ba6 50.Kf6 Kd6 51.Be4 Be2 52.Kxf7 Bg4 53.Bxg6 1-0. Beautifully thought up and executed by Ruslan, who deservedly took the lead in this tournament.

Standings

Links

• Official web site – very slow and very sparse
• All games so far in PGN

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