Tal Memorial: Aronian and Karjakin win the title

by ChessBase
11/14/2010 – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored the same number of points as Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin, 5.5/9, but was relegated to third on tiebreak points. The other two appear to be absolutely equal. Three players had a 2800+ performance (one 2799), six gained between three and ten rating points (three lost 8, 12 and 18). We bring you all games, results, statistics and pictures.

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The 5th Tal Memorial took place from November 5th to November 14th, in Moscow, Russia. It was a nine-round round-robin event. Time control: 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by 20 moves in 50 minutes followed by the game in 15 minutes with a 30 second increment as of move one.

Round nine (final)

Round 9: Sunday, November 14th, 2010
B. Gelfand 
1-0
 S. Mamedyarov 
Wang Hao 
½-½
 S. Karjakin
V. Kramnik 
1-0
 A. Shirov
P. Eljanov 
½-½
 L. Aronian
A. Grischuk 
½-½
 H. Nakamura


The joint winner Levon Aronian, who scored 5.5/9 (2830 performance) and gained four rating points


Equal first on every tie-break score: Sergey Karjakin gained ten rating points with a 2835 performance


Beaten on SB tiebreaks: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2835 performance, nine rating points


Alexander Grischuk scored 5.0/9 and gained three rating points


US GM Hikaru Nakamura also scored 5.0/7 and won seven rating points


Chinese GM Wang Hao, 5.0/9 with a 2799 performance and a gain of nine rating points


Vladimir Kramnik with a 2754 performance lost five rating points


Israeli GM Boris Gelfand scored 3.5/9 and lost eight rating points in this event


Alexei Shirov had a bad tournament, with 3.0/9 which lost him twelve rating points


Pavel Eljanov finished at just 2.5/9 (five losses) and shed 18 rating points in Moscow

Pictures by Yana Melnikova

Final standings after nine rounds of play

Tiebreaks

There were some unusual problems with the tiebreaks in this event. Three players tied for first, and the first tiebreaker, the results of direct encounters, did not decide anything, since all games between the three were drawn. The second criterion is the so-called "Koya system", where the number of points scored against opponents who have 50% or more in the final table. Here, too, all three were equal. The next criterion is Sonneborn-Berger, which sees Aronian and Karjakin ahead of Mamedyarov, but equal to each other. Another possible tiebreaker, the number of games each player won, also solves nothing – both beat Gelfand and Kramnik. so it looks very much like Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin will end up sharing first and this year's Tal Memorial trophy.

Addendum: we are told that Aronian and Karjakin have been declared co-winners.

Live Chess Rankings

After this tournament when the ratings were calculated for all top players in the world, Magnus Carlsen leads, ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, with Levon Aronian, who gained four rating points in Moscow, in third place. Vladimir Kramnik lost five points but still keeps his fourth place in the world rankings. Sergey Karjakin and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are big winners with ten and nine points added to their ratings. Chinese GM Wang Hao has taken a big leap forward with nine extra points, while the eternally unpredictable Alexei Shirov lost a whopping twelve points to drop to 24th place in the live rankings. Please note that these "live ratings" are not official ratings. They are published by FIDE every two months and do not change in the periods in between.

Rank
Name
Rating
Change
games
turn
born
01
Carlsen 2812.0
+10
10
1
1990
02
Anand 2808.4
+4.4
10
1
1969
03
Aronian 2805.1
+4.1
9
1
1982
04
Kramnik 2786.2
-4.8
9
1
1975
05
Topalov 2774.8
-11.2
10
1
1975
06
Grischuk 2774.1
+3.1
9
1
1983
07
Mamedyarov 2772.2
+9.2
9
1
1985
08
Karjakin 2769.5
+9.5
9
1
1990
09
Ivanchuk 2764.0
0
0
0
1969
10
Nakamura 2748.2
+7.2
9
1
1987
11
Ponomariov 2744.0
0
0
0
1983
11
Radjabov 2744.0
0
0
0
1987
13
Wang Yue 2743.2
-12.8
13
2
1987
14
Wang Hao 2739.2
+12.2
13
3
1989
15
Gashimov 2736.0
+3
10
1
1986
16
Gelfand 2733.2
-7.8
9
1
1968
17
Wojtaszek 2728.3
+2.3
2
1
1987
18
Jakovenko 2726.0
0
0
0
1983
18
Kamsky 2726.0
0
0
0
1974
20
Svidler 2724.8
+2.8
2
1
1976

Statistics

Of the 45 games played at the Tal Memorial 2010

  • White won 14 games = 31.1%
  • Black won 3 games = 6.7%
  • 28 games were drawn = 62.2%

Results, games and reports

Round 1: Friday, November 5th, 2010
S. Mamedyarov 
½-½
 H. Nakamura
S. Karjakin 
1-0
 B. Gelfand
A. Shirov 
0-1
 Wang Hao 
L. Aronian 
1-0
 V. Kramnik 
A. Grischuk 
1-0
 P. Eljanov
Round 2: Saturday, November 6th, 2010
S. Mamedyarov 
½-½
 S. Karjakin
B. Gelfand 
1-0
 A. Shirov
Wang Hao 
½-½  L. Aronian
V. Kramnik 
½-½
 A. Grischuk
 H. Nakamura 
1-0
 P. Eljanov
Round 3: Sunday, November 7th, 2009
A. Shirov 
0-1
 S. Mamedyarov 
S. Karjakin 
½-½
 H. Nakamura
L. Aronian 
1-0
 B. Gelfand
A. Grischuk 
½-½
 Wang Hao
P. Eljanov 
0-1
 V. Kramnik
Round 4: Monday, November 8th, 2010
S. Mamedyarov 
½-½
 L. Aronian
S. Karjakin 
½-½
 A. Shirov
B. Gelfand 
½-½
 A. Grischuk
Wang Hao 
½-½
 P. Eljanov
H. Nakamura 
½-½
 V. Kramnik
Round 5: Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
A. Grischuk 
½-½
 S. Mamedyarov 
L. Aronian 
½-½
 S. Karjakin
A. Shirov 
½-½
 H. Nakamura
P.Eljanov 
1-0
 B. Gelfand
V. Kramnik 
½-½
 Wang Hao
Round 6: Thursday, November 11th, 2010
S. Mamedyarov 
1-0
 P. Eljanov
S. Karjakin 
½-½
 A. Grischuk
A. Shirov 
½-½
 L. Aronian
B. Gelfand 
½-½
 V. Kramnik
H. Nakamura 
½-½
 Wang Hao
Round 7: Friday, November 12th, 2010
V. Kramnik 
½-½
 S. Mamedyarov 
P. Eljanov 
½-½
 S. Karjakin
A. Grischuk 
½-½
 A. Shirov
L. Aronian 
½-½
 H. Nakamura
Wang Hao 
1-0
 B. Gelfand
Round 8: Saturday, November 13th, 2010
S. Mamedyarov 
1-0
 Wang Hao
S. Karjakin 
1-0
 V. Kramnik
A. Shirov 
1-0
 P. Eljanov
L. Aronian 
½-½
 A. Grischuk
H. Nakamura 
½-½
 B. Gelfand
Round 9: Sunday, November 14th, 2010
B. Gelfand 
1-0
 S. Mamedyarov 
Wang Hao 
½-½
 S. Karjakin
V. Kramnik 
1-0
 A. Shirov
P. Eljanov 
½-½
 L. Aronian
A. Grischuk 
½-½
 H. Nakamura

Links

The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!


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