Tal-Mem R6: Leko, Grischuk, Aronian 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 six

Leko,P (2741) - Morozevich,A (2747) [B90] saw Najdorf theory theory played until move 14, when Alexander Morozevich pulled out a novelty (14...Bf6) and, true to his style, continued with some weird and unusual moves. Peter Leko kept his cool, picking up a pawn on move 27.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Ng4 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg7 10.h3 Ne5 11.f3 Nbc6 12.Bf2 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Be6 14.Qd2 Bf6 15.0-0-0 Rc8 16.Kb1 Rg8 17.Be2 Nd7 18.Bxf6 Nxf6 19.h4 Qb6 20.hxg5 hxg5 21.a3 Kf8 22.Bd3 Qc5 23.g3 b5 24.f4 Ng4 25.Rde1 b4 26.Na4 Qc6 27.Qxb4 Nf2 28.Rh2 Nxd3 29.cxd3 gxf4 30.gxf4 f6 31.Nc3 Rg3 32.e5 dxe5 33.fxe5 f5 34.Rh8+ Bg8 35.Rf1

35...Qe6? Black could have defended the pawn with 35...Qd7 because 36.Rh5 leads to 36...Qxd3+ and mate to follow. 36.Rh5 Kg7 37.Rhxf5. White is now two pawns ahead and winning. 37...Rg2 38.Qb7 Rg3 39.R5f3 Rg5 40.d4 Rd8 41.Qe4 Qg4 42.Rf4 Qg2 43.Ka1 Bc4 44.Rc1 Qxe4 45.Rxe4 Kg6 46.Rf4 Bb3 47.Ne2 Ba4 48.Rf2 Rg4 49.d5 Rh8 50.Nf4+ Kf5 51.Nd3+ Kg6 52.Nc5 Bb5 53.Nxa6. Now it is three pawns. 53...Rh5 54.Nc7 Ba4 55.e6 Bb3 56.Rf3 Bxd5 57.Nxd5 Rxd5 58.Rc7 Rb5 59.Rf2 1-0.

Mamedyarov,S (2728) - Gelfand,B (2733) [D47] was 19 moves of Semi-Slav Meran theory, a bit of shuffling and then draw nine moves later. Nothing to write home about, unlikely to make the Informator.

Svidler,P (2750) - Grischuk,A (2710) [B90] saw the tail-ender (with 1.5/5) face the world's number four and second on the Tal Memorial cross table, with the black pieces. So how would you expect it to go? Certainly not a clean, 38-move wipe-out by Grischuk. Definitely worth replaying and analysing.

Shirov,A (2720) - Ponomariov,R (2703) [B90] was Najdorf threory up to move 22, following an email game from 2001, and ended in a draw eleven moves later.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Nbd7 9.Qd2 b5 10.a4 b4 11.Nd5 Bxd5 12.exd5 Nb6 13.Bxb6 Qxb6 14.a5 Qb7 15.Bc4 Be7 16.Ra4 Rb8 17.Qd3 Ra8 18.Qd2 Rb8 19.Nc1 Bd8 20.b3 0-0 21.Na2 e4 22.Kd1 exf3. In Schreiber,E (2439)-Joao,N (2463), LADAC Email 2001 the continuation was 22...Re8 23.Re1 Bxa5 24.Rxa5 exf3 ½-½. 23.gxf3 Nd7 24.Rxb4 Qc7 25.Ra4 Qc8 26.Be2 Nc5 27.Rg4 Bf6 28.Nb4 Na4.

29.Nc6. Shirov was not willing to try the complicated 29.bxa4 Bc3 30.Bxa6 Qxg4 31.fxg4 Bxd2 32.Kxd2 Rxb4 33.Bb5 Rd4+ 34.Kc3 Rxd5 35.a6 with a probable draw. Instead he went for the equally complicated 29...Nc3+ 30.Qxc3 Bxc3 31.Ne7+ Kh8 32.Nxc8 Rfxc8 33.Rc4 ½-½.

Aronian,L (2741) - Carlsen,M (2698) [E15] was a Queen's Indian with an apparent novelty on move six (Nbd2 by Levon Aronian). On move 23 Magnus Carlsen temporarily sacrificed an exchange, and then went a pawn down on move 33, pinning his hopes on an advance h-pawn against his opponen's less advanced b-pawn. By move 42 the game was about rook and two pawns vs rook and pawn. Magnus defended well and on move 64 he had traded down to a drawn rook and pawn vs rook endgame.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Nc6 6.Nbd2 d5 7.cxd5 Qxd5 8.e4 Nb4 9.Qa4+ Qd7 10.Qxd7+ Nxd7 11.Bxa6 Nxa6 12.0-0 Nf6 13.a3 c5 14.Re1 Be7 15.Ne5 Rc8 16.b4 cxd4 17.Ndf3 Nb8 18.Nxd4 Nfd7 19.Nef3 0-0 20.Bf4 Nc6 21.Rac1 Nxd4 22.Nxd4 g5 23.Nc6 Rxc6 24.Rxc6 gxf4 25.Rc7 Ne5 26.Rxe7 Nf3+ 27.Kf1 Nxe1 28.Kxe1 a5 29.Rb7 axb4 30.axb4 Rd8 31.f3 Rd3 32.Ke2 Rb3 33.Rxb6 Rb2+ 34.Kd3 Rxh2 35.gxf4 h5 36.Rb5 h4 37.Rh5 h3 38.Kd4 Kf8 39.Ke5 Ke7 40.f5 exf5 41.Kxf5 Rb2 42.Rxh3 Rxb4 43.f4 Rb5+ 44.e5 Kf8 45.Rd3 Rb4 46.Kg5 Kg7 47.Rd7 Rb5 48.Kg4 Kf8 49.Kf5 Kg7 50.Ke4 Rb4+ 51.Rd4 Rb1 52.Rd7 Re1+ 53.Kd5 Rd1+ 54.Kc6 Rf1 55.Rd4 Kf8 56.Kd7 Rf2 57.Kd6 Rf1 58.Kd5 Ke7 59.Ra4 f6 60.Ra7+ Kf8 61.Kd6 fxe5 62.Ra8+ Kf7 63.Ra7+ Kf8 64.fxe5 Rd1+ 65.Ke6

65...Re1 66.Rf7+ Ke8 67.Rh7 Kf8 68.Rh8+ Kg7 69.Rd8 Ra1 70.Ke7 Ra5 71.e6 Ra7+ 72.Rd7 Ra8 73.Rd6

Everything as gone according to plan, the position is still drawn, but Black must play an accurate move. 73...Ra7+?? That's not it, only 73...Kg6! keeps the draw. 74.Ke8! Now White could force a win – as demonstrated by Alessandro Salvio in the 17th century, but (perhaps falsely) attributed to Luis Ramirez Lucena at the end of the 15th century. Carlsen's memory reached back far enough to understand that he had blundered, and so the Norwegian teenager resigned. 1-0.

Standings

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