Report of round 11 - CCT 2006

Topalov Maintains Lead

Sergey Tiviakov took a bit of a risk when he employed a side line of the Scandinavian defense against Anand. Normally, the Indian is well prepared against such tries, but today this wasn’t the case. According to Tivi 7. Bf4 is fine for Black, specifically since in the line that was played he has the fantastic (see diagram 3) 12…Bg4!, which Anand missed. Since White cannot take on g4 because of 13…Qe4+, Black gets to trade the light squared Bishops, and is more than fine. Around move 18, Black could have tried …f5 with the plan of …Kf7 and later …e6, forcing White to work hard to prove he has enough for the lost Pawn. Anand’s last practical chance in the game was to go for the Queen ending with 33.Bd6+, but analysis showed that Black should hold. Having passed on this try, a draw was registered after the Queens exited the board. A very well earned draw for the Dutchman.

Young Karjakin continues impressive showing in the tournament. Today he came well prepared against Sokolov’s open Ruy, winning convincingly – although he was critical of his play. This win propelled him to a fantastic + 2 in the event. The players were following a long and well known line of theory, till Ivan sprung with 18…c4?!. White quickly took control of the position when Black compounded matters with his erroneous (see diagram 1) 24…Rb2?. Correct would have been 24…R5b8 with the plan that if now 25. Qd4?! (25. Qd2 is better) there would have followed: Rbc8 26. Rfd1 Rfd8 and Black is doing well. Move 27. Rab1 forced Black to trade as 27….Ra2 28. Rb8+ Kg7 29. Bd7! and wins. Black’s last slip came with 30…Kg7?. A better try lay in 30…Qa7 31. Qxa7 Rxa7 32. Bf3 where although White maintains a big advantage, Black is still fighting. In the game White won the weak Black Pawns on the light squares, and after consolidating ( 41. h4 48. Kh3, 49 Bg2) the TV screen showed a well deserved 1-0.

Leko – Mamedyarov was a very interesting game, where the Hungarian scored a nice win. In the early middle game White was aiming to plant a Bishop on c6, which Black couldn’t really stop as 16…Nxa4 17. Rxa4 leaves his b Pawn too weak. Instead of 20…h6 Black considered 20…Nb7 but then 21.c3! is strong. After 21…Bc5 22. cxb4 Bxb4 23. Bxb7 Rxb7 24. Qxa6 White is up a Pawn in the major piece ending. Leko thought it was unpleasant for Black, but of course hard work to win. The blunder of the game was (see diagram 2) 21…Rfe8?. Much better would have been 21…Bc3! where White has nothing better than 22.Qe2 and then Black can play 22…Bd4 again. The point is, that the Bishop is of course immune, and after 22. Qf4 Black has the devilish 22…b3! with the idea 23. cxb3 Qg6. Peter said he would have tried 22. Qe2 and after 22…Bd4 23. h3, and the game goes on. In the game, Black went down quickly, as he had no compensation for the lost exchange.

The heartbreaker of the day clearly belonged to Van Wely. Black against the struggling Kamsky, he was doing well, enjoying a Bishop pair and a break in the center. After some fireworks that involved an enterprising Queen sac by Black, material equality was established. Loek was in no danger, so he decided to push forward, trying to win – not an unreasonable decision but then he over reached. Allowing (see diagram 4) 45.a6 was clearly a mistake, and Gata was alert to pounce on his new born opportunity. All of a sudden the Black pieces congregated clumsily on the queenside, while his King was in deep trouble. With a few accurate moves along the dark squares, the American sealed his opponent’s fate. Quite a sad ending for the Dutchman who could have drawn literally at will on many occasions in the game.

In Ivanchuk – Topalov, the Ukrainian GM came out swinging, getting a promising position after the opening. It is quite probable that had he played 29.a3! instead of hurrying with 29. c6, the world champ would have been faced with some serious problems. After an interesting late middle game, where no one knew quite what was going on – except maybe the players- the game was eventually steered into a Rook endgame that was drawn.

Adams tried the popular Nimzo attack against Bacrot’s pet Petroff, but without much success. It looked like White was aiming to gain the Bishop pair, but then he traded his own Bishop for Nc5 instead. Now Black was a bit worse, but defended solidly, aiming for many piece trades. Eventually, a simple minor piece ending ensued, and the point was divided.

Aronian and Gelfand have extended the free day a bit when they played 17 moves of known theory, and decided to break the hostilities only 5 moves later. Evidently, the Armenian was a bit under the weather and needed some rest.

A changing of the guard in group B where Motylev beat Carlsen to overtake him as the new leader. Atalik is well on top of group C, ahead of his nearest rival by 1.5 points.