Report of round 3 - Report of round 3

Last to finish was the exciting Teimur Radjabov - Loek van Wely encounter. In a semi Slav right out of ‘Kramnik’s Kitchen’ (Loek was his second in the Mexico world championships), white found himself in a highly suspicious position. Black spent 5 minutes for the first 20 moves, at which point he already had a large advantage. Everything was going well for the Dutchman, till he made a poor practical decision with 36...Rd5? (see diagram 4) allowing the rook versus bishop ending. With 36...Bf5! black would have been well on his way to victory. In the game black did not manage to cut off the white king on the g file - which would have allowed him to later sacrifice his rook and win the pawn ending. After trying for a while, and nearing 50 moves without a pawn move or capture, the disappointed Van Wely had to concede a draw. After the game a disgusted Van Wely lamented that “if you don’t win these kind of positions, you’re asking for trouble”.

Another short game that swiftly entered the same type of endgame, was the game between Shakryar Mamedyarov and Vladimir Kramnik. In a theoretical Petroff, white was unable to successfully generate anything, and with a wholesale trading of pieces, the point was appropriately shared.

Pavel Eljanov’s Nimzo versus Vishy Anand, started excitedly, with white reintroducing an aggressive move (11.g4) that was tried before in a game by Irina Krush (from group C). “It’s a nice idea, but sometimes these things fizzle out fast” was Vishy’s comment after the game. “I was never in trouble”, said the Indian, “his king can easily get weak” referring to the alternative to the game: 17.0-0 Bc6 18.f4 Qf6 19.f5 0-0-0 20.e4 Nc7 with an eye for Bb5. In the game itself a draw was quickly agreed upon with white’s 17.Bxd5 which, after 17...exd5 18.Qf4 f6 19.Qxe5 fxe5, would have transposed into an endgame of opposite color bishops.

Magnus Carlsen maintained his lead with a comfortable draw against Michael Adams. Black handled the Open Ruy correctly, trading his dark squared bishop on d4 before white got to play Be3. In analysis after the game, Adams looked into lines where he does not exchange his light squared bishop: 18.Bd3 and if 18...Nc5 19.Be2, but couldn’t prove a significant advantage there either. As the game progressed, white enjoyed a slightly more comfortable position, due to his soon-to-be-better-placed bishop, but Magnus believed he could hold his position. Finally, black’s control of the c file led to the exchange of the 4 rooks, and with the exit of the queens a few moves later, the competitors smoked the peace pipe.

Levon Aronian Challenged Peter Leko to the well known pawn sac in the Nimzo Queen’s Indian - “one of the most critical lines in this opening” - Leko. White tried the ambitious plan of 13.Qa4, but black defended very accurately, finding the strong resources 16...Re8 and 20...Nd8! (see diagram 1), giving back the pawn. At first glance it might look as if black is a bit cramped, but the d8 knight proves quite agile, quickly hopping to f7 and e5. With black achieving total equality, only a few more moves were made before the players agreed to a draw.

The game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand saw white spending 45 minutes as early as move 4(!) of an unusual English. White had to make a decision right away, since black was intending to go 4...d5, shutting out Bg2. Ultimately Vassily decided on 4.d5 himself (see diagram 2). On move 10, the Ukrainian provoked a crisis with his 10.Nxe4!?, but after a few seemingly forced moves a dynamically balanced endgame occurred. Black’s control of the dark squares and well placed knight held back white’s strong center. When black struck with 20 ...f5, white bailed out into a drawish rook endgame with 21.f4 - draw on move 22.

Judit Polgar - Veselin Topalov saw a sideline of the anticipated Najdorf, where black is a bit cramped, but has no weaknesses. It is possible that white had to have tried 13.gxf3!?, opening more lines for her bishop pair and her kingside rook, but of course at a cost of a compromised pawn structure. She said she ‘underestimated’ black’s strong recapture on c5 (16...dxc5! (see diagram 3)) and once the queens were off the board, a draw was the expected result. After 20 more moves of manoeuvring, truce was indeed declared.