Report of round 8 - Report of round 8

Peter Leko also had a worry-free day, when in a typical Nimzo against Loek van Wely, he managed to solve his opening problems and liquidate the pawns in the center. His active knights looked menacing, but white’s bishop pair kept the balance. After the move 23...Ncd3 (see diagram 3) white had to exchange rooks and challenge the black knight, forcing it to capture on f2. With 26...Bc8, black completed the “harmony amongst his pieces” - Leko, and so a draw was agreed a move later.

The Magnus Carlsen - Boris Gelfand game saw white pressing a slight edge in a queenless endgame, that arose after only 16 moves. The Israeli’s active defense included a wise pawn sacrifice, that involved exchanging several pieces, and left the young Norwegian with a passive b2 pawn. The best white could get was exchanging it for the black h-pawn, thus entering a position with all the pawns on the same side - one that black held without much effort. Carlsen tried for a long time, but on move 67 agreed to split the point.

The clash of the titans between Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov saw the world champ emerge victorious. In the expected Najdorf, black played his signature 8...h5 and tried an original idea with 11...g6, with the plan of trading the dark square bishops. After the game Vishy said that he was comfortable seeing the idea, but that future analysis would be required to fully assess the new plan. On move 16 white found a clever way to consolidate his position, with 16.Qb4!, since now if 16...Nfxd5 17.Rxd5 Nxd5 then 17.Qd2, (hitting Rh6 and Nd5) Nf4 g3 with an edge for white. The key moment was the strong 18.g3!, (see diagram 1) controlling the h3-c8 diagonal. With a series of simple, and effective moves, white increased his advantage, and after 29.f5 “black was close to lost” - Anand. White won a pawn, and with the black knight on h5 completely offside, it only took a few accurate moves from the Indian (37.Ka2!, for example) to secure a prestigious win.

Judit Polgar played enterprisingly against Vladimir Kramnik, sacrificing a pawn quickly out of the opening, to reach a major piece endgame, where she had some compensation for the pawn. After 21...g5! (see diagram 4) black was already aiming to wreck the fragile white kingside, and so Vlady tried his luck in transposing into a single rook ending. White could not make much progress, and was forced to exchange some pawns until a simply-drawn rook- and-two-pawns versus rook-and-one on the same side arose. Judit was awarded for her tough defense with a draw offer on move 49.

In Teimur Radjabov - Vassily Ivanchuk, the players sidestepped the main continuation in a line of the classical Caro Kann, for a crazy sub-variation. After 19.Qg3, Vassily went into the think tank and at first glance the black position may look a bit suspicious, but the post game analysis found no advantage for white. With 22...Qb6 black forced a trade of queens, where white soon chose a move repetition to draw the game.

Levon Aronian was never in trouble against Shakhryar Mamedyarov. On the black side of a Meran Slav, he introduced a new move 11...Qc8!?, and managed to completely equalize when white tried 12.e4, a move the Armenian criticized as unchallenging. Black quickly diffused the white center with 13...c5 (see diagram 2), and when white played 15.Bd3 (15.Bb5!? forcing 15...N5b6 would have been better), black was on his way to having the better of it. Just in time Shak played the material-eliminating plan of 20.Bg5 and 22.Be4 and with the exchanges, a draw was agreed.

The game between Pavel Eljanov and Michael Adams sported a Catalan, where white went for a “not very promising line” (Adams) with 14.Nc6, when14.Nxd7!? would have been a better test of black’s position. Black played very well, and Michael was pleased with his 15...Qe7 and 16...h6, after which he had no problems at all. A few moves later, after some exchanges, Pavel realized he has nothing, and proposed a draw, which was accepted.