6/8/2012 – After an exciting blitz tournament to open the Tal Memorial, the question was whether the players could keep the energy level that high. The answer? White registered four wins. Nakamura lost to Aronian after a fatal oversight, while Radjabov outwitted Tomashevsky. Still, Morozevich's inspired win over Caruana was the game of the day. Illustrated report with videos and GM analysis.
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Seventh Tal Memorial in Moscow
The event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from June
8th to 18th in the Pashkov House (Vozdvizhenka Street 3/5, p.1), Moscow,
Russia. Rest days are June 11 and 15. Time control: 100
minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and
15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per
move starting from move one. Games start at 15:00h
local time (last round 13:00h).
Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time control. The participants
are required to comment on their games in the press center after each
round. The prize fund is 100,000 Euros.
View from the venue
Round
1: Friday, June 8, 2012
Alex. Morozevich
1-0
Fabiano Caruana
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Grischuk
1-0
Luke McShane
Teimour Radjabov
1-0
Ev. Tomashevsky
Levon Aronian
1-0
Hikaru Nakamura
Round one
After a thrilling opening blitz tournament, the only question was whether the momentum built could be maintained. A quick glance at the scores of the day certainly favors it. The roster of players known for their uncompromising play doesn’t hurt either.
Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen shake hands before their game
The first game of the day to end was also the highest profile game of the day: Carlsen-Kramnik. It was hardly boring, and the number one found himself in dire straits in which the game might end before move 25 as Kramnik put it in the press conference. The game took an incredibly volatile turn, and the Russian chose to take the repetition when his time began to dwindle and he could see no concrete path to an edge.
Teimor Radjabov has been fairly inactive of late, but showed that rust is not a factor
The next game to finish was a class of elite chess at its finest as Radjabov managed to show just how wrong a superficial analysis of a position can be, when he took apart Tomashevsky with clinical precision.
Two games annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez
Hikaru Nakamura did not hide his bellicose intentions but was possibly overeager
Hikaru Nakamura came out swinging against Levon Aronian, but underestimated his opponent’s resources, and was punished by an oversight as he rushed to attack.
Tal Memorial 2012 Round 1 Play of the day by Daniel King: Aronian - Nakamura
Every day, GM Daniel King will be selecting a "play of the day" that he will analyze
Last year saw the rocket comeback of Morozevich and this year the rise of Caruana
The most exciting game of the day was Alexander Morozevich’s win over Fabiano Caruana. In spite of the incredible complications Morozevich stamped the game with, the truth is they never really seemed out of control and instead it was a masterpiece of dynamic play as he weaved his way ahead, snuffing out Caruana’s attempts to create threats of his own.
Luke McShane, voted into the tournament via popular vote, and recently breaking 2700 for the first time, had a tough lesson at the hands of Alexander Grischuk. The opening just got out of hand and little by little Grischuk accumulated a huge advantage that he had no trouble converting.
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there
and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase
11 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
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