While agreeing with Arne I think that the difference between a "chess player" and a chess world champion (wannabe) should be exactly this, to find these kind of tactics. Btw I think Aronian saw it. It would be interesting to ask him in an interview. Peter, you heard that? :)

One can miss 34.Re4, but why 34.Qa7 was not played is a big question.

I think Jens made two excellent points: Topalov simply sees too much so sometimes he misses something, and he is training in tournaments like this - and I could add: in a way his predecessors never did. Kramnik and Anand produced mediocre results and games before their match; they seemed to be hiding, Topalov is just mediocre in the quality of his games, not in the daring of his concepts. Maybe not in top shape, maybe preparing for his match: his games are still vibrant. And succesful.
And he is clearly using time as part of his strategy. I just wonder, Anand hardly ever gets into time trouble, but what when it happens?

Hi from Hotel Anibal! From a colleague journo I heard that Topalov wasn't satisfied at all with some of his moves he had played before, and that he wasn't really looking for a win anymore in that position. Which I found quite interesting: a sort of psychological blindness. Can happen to anyone! Btw Aronian hadn't seen it either.

Well, Ipatov was live commenting it at Chessdom, and he was amazed it wasn't played; and Ronen Har-Zvi was commenting it live with voice on ICC, and he was hyperventilating when the move he had announced wasn't played.

Anish Giri has expressed similar surprise ...

As already pointed out by many commentators Topalov missed 34. Rxe4!, going 34.-,Qxe4 35. Qc3+, Kg8 36. Qc7! winning.
He also missed a winning combination with the point Qc7! against Kramnik in 2. matchgame, 2006. Something ideosyncratic with that move?
Despite his clear overall lead I do not feel that Topalov is playing at his very best in this tournament. That could of course mean that he is just GOOD!

The tactic is also quite similar to the one missed by Shirov against Dominguez- the queen appears on the 7th rank and very hard to stop mate.

@Jens Kristiansen: Independently(!?) I made the same point at Dailydirt. I was joking that maybe rooks aren't Topalov's favorite pieces, that's why he often sacrifices an exchange.

To make the geometry complete and get the white bishop involved:
34.Re4: Qe4: 35.Qc3+ Kg6: 36.Bc2
34.Re4: Qd5: 35. Qc3+ Kg8 36.Bb3 (or 35.-Kg6: 36.Bc2 which at the very least looks scary for black)

I wonder how many people would find Rxe4 and Qc7 without knowing there was a tactic in the position or without an engine running in the background. I think very few, especially since with a queen on a5 and a knight on b6, you just don't think about the idea Qc7! In that respect, Rxe4 is actually very study-like.

True in a way Arne ... on the other hand the position "begs" for a tactical solution - which doesn't necessarily mean there is one, but that white should spend some time searching (he had 40 mintues left at that point). A hint could be: black's centralized queen on e5 keeps the position together and covers the weak king, so it needs to be chasen away.

No idea whether I would have found it, I (or rather the Chessdom live site where I was watching) had an engine running in the background ... .

Anish Giri considers missing Rxe4 to be very strange, Arne. And there is nothing studylike about it.

Anish' comment: And he doesn't! 34.Rxe4! was a simple BAM, that a player with 2800 can normally find in couple of seconds. 34...Qxe4 35.Qc3+ Kg8 36.Qc7 and White threatens Qh7+ and Qxd8, so the game could have finished like this.

And Ronen over at ICC sounded as if he needed an oxygen mask when Topalov pulled Bb3.
His thought on the entire game are barely fit for print.

So no - Topa has been lucky to be getting his opponents into time trouble, or they've had that as a handy excuse for folding against him, when they were actually ahead.

Strange Linares this year.

Ronen starts up his GOTD with the Topalov game, before dealing with Grischuk-Gashmov as GOTD.

http://webcast.chessclub.com/Linares10/Round8/preview/GOTD_preview.html

Kasparov would find Re4! Against Topalov he sacrificed rook in a similar way, did not he?

@ Nemozyne - Of course Ronen ALWAYS sounds like he needs an oxygen mask! ;) He gets so excited he's on the verge of hyperventilating!

If you like his style, check out Ronen's Opening Series (R.O.S.) from Chess.FM

I can imagine a fresh super talent like Giri spots Rxe4 very quickly indeed, I can't judge its difficulty myself since players of my level routinely miss much much more elementary stuff ;-)
Still, the fact that a tactician like Topalov did miss it surely is some kind of indication of the opposite of Giri's opinion!

I think Topalov is just reserved his full strategy and secret tactics. Settling with a draw is just fine as long as he can leading the tournament. Perhaps Topalov want to hide his plan from Anand's team.

Well, one hypothesis: Topalov is at the chess board mentally hyperactive and sometimes he simply sees too much and cannot cut down the trees of variations to the relevant ones. That goes for some great masters now and then.
For the match against Anand he surely needs some calibrating of his calculation powers. Could be he is just training now.

@Thomas: mate without the engines these so called commentators would not be much good. I was watching the game at chessdom as well and the IM there called it even a blunder! C'mon since when people cannot make mistakes ... did we all forget the mate in one that Kramnik missed in Bonn? Or the blunder Karpov made against Christiansen ;)

@pete: I don't know about your rating, but calling an IM rated around 2500 "not much good" goes a bit too far - he must know a thing or two about chess, even without engine assistance.
"Blunder" means different things to different people - of course mistakes (is this related to "missing" something?) can happen even at the highest level. At all levels, it can also happen that a commentator or spectator sees more than the player himself - even if he is lower-rated, even without engine assistance. After all, he doesn't have any pressure, it doesn't matter if HE makes mistakes ... .

I agree with Arne, I still think the whole 34.R*e4 combo is computersque....

Having said that, it is the type of move even an 1800 would find if presented as a puzzle, ‘’White to move and win’’!

Which of course goes back to what 'Jens' mentions... when a GM misses a move they consider a lot of other possibilities... when an amateur misses a move, they consider much fewer alternatives...as for me it’s one candidate or nothing:-)

But no excuses for Topalov, he is more than capable of finding it.....overall I get the impression he is blitzing his moves and not really in the mood for long 'concrete thinks'

Studies show amateurs look at just as many moves as grandmasters--but the wrong moves!

34.Re4 is a 3-mover.

So much for the theory that 2800's can see 3 moves ahead with 100% accuracy...

"His thought on the entire game are barely fit for print."

So how good a player is this Ronen? Topalov played an excellent game apart from that one mistake, maybe a bad mistake to come from a 2800 player, but Aronian hadn't seen it either and it was an exciting game.

@ oldrich

Oh, I think you'd have to listen for yourself, during the transmission. Ronen was commenting upon the inferior quality of play from Topalov's opponents, and dismayed by Topalov's own most varied playing. And not just in this game - he found Aronian's play in this particular game incomprehensible.

Going into Linares, he was expecting something else.

How good is he? A pro kibbitzer, I guess. Why don't you check him out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronen_Har-Zvi

Topalov´s two hour simul: +18 -0 =3

@Frits Fritschy, I completely agree with Topalov's mediocrity of play and brilliancy of his concepts. That's IMHO his biggest problem. See his match against Kramnik, especially game 1, very creative attack where he outplayed Kramnik, but unable to hold it through the end.
The same applies to his match against Kamsky where his French defense disarmed him.

Kramnik perfectly understood it a presented him with a very tough and long fight for position : not a fierce battle of tactics but a test of endurance. And Topa collapsed twice ! In the beginning with his two losses, then when Kramnik equalized after "Toiletgate".

I bet Anand will try to exhaust him first before searching for initiative : making Topa playing against him so that he loses him in his own imaginary.

Wow, Aronian and Topalov *both* missed 34 Re1xe4!!.

Amazing. But they *are* only human, aren't they?

Does anyone know any top player who saw 34 Re1xe4!! while they were watching the game live?

Thanks

*without engines