Grischuk takes full point lead in Linares
26 February 2009, 10.33 CET | Last modified: 10:59 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
In retrospect the 6th round of Linares 2009 might become a historical day: 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen beat World Champion Anand for the first time in his life. Grischuk, who entered the tournament after Topalov had to cancel, defeated Aronian and suddenly leads by a full point. There’s also the news that next year the first half of the tournament might be held in the United Arab Emirates.
From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time; the prize fund is € 314,000. The winner takes € 100,000, the second place is € 75,000 and the third player earns € 50,000.
Next year: first half in UAE
Before we head on to the games, we’ll mention some other news concerning Linares first. According to several sources (TopNews has it, but the same story is also at Monster and Critics), a business man from the United Arab Emirates wants to organize the first half of next year’s tournament in his country.
Sulaiman Al Fahim is a powerful real estate business man and the architect of the purchase of Premier League club Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He’s planning to bring the world’s best chess players to the Emirates. “We pay the expenses of players and the prizes, I think around 2 million euros (some 2.5 million dollars),” he is quoted in the reports.
Round 6
Carlsen had a similar start like at Corus, with five draws (at Corus nine!) and then a first win. And what a win! In a “Shirov/Shabalov Semi-Slav” (7.g4), Anand quickly offered a queen exchange that compromised his pawn structure (a doubled pawn, but also two isolated ones!), but apparently he was confident that Black could hold it. Perhaps that was true, but in Fischer’s favourite ending, Carlsen showed fine technique and persistance to grind down the Indian in 77 moves.
Just before the time control it looked like the players were repeating moves but the young Norwegian suddenly used a Zugzwang motive to make progress (if Black’s rook moves at move 36, White will either seize the c-file or put his rook on g8). By getting in e4-e5 the first stage was accomplished, and then he just used… another Zugzwang at move 44! There 44…Ng5 is answered by 45.Ra1 and so Black can’t do without …f6, after which it looks technically winning. Anand fought hard till the very end (and missed a few chances – 47..Re1+ and 57…Rh1+ were both more resilient), but didn’t survive.
An amazing game was Grischuk-Aronian which started as a sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit. Black was in desperate need of a new idea in that line and Aronian had one: 15…0-0 (Black always takes first on b3, including Karjakin against Grischuk, Sochi GP 2008). Two moves later Black suddenly attacked both d4 and h4. Apparently Aronian forgot about his preparation (or he simply wanted to play for a win) because he missed 21…g3! which seems to equalize instantly. Perhaps this is worth a look for our ChessVibes Openings editors! In the game White held the advantage with the nice move 25.e5! and could soon profit from Black’s weakened kingside. In timetrouble Black missed 38…Nf6 and had to give an exchange, after which Grischuk had no mercy.
The Russian grandmaster was added to the list of participants when Topalov had to cancel because of this match against Kamsky, and now we find Grischuk leading the field a point clear! We hadn‚Äôt seen him in super tournaments for a while, but he did play in all three Grand Prix tournaments last year and was quite succesful in two of them (4-5th place in Baku, 10th in Sochi and shared 1st in Elista). Grischuk had often said that he doesn’t really like classical chess, but it’s a fact that he happens to be very good at it!
The other two games were hard-fought draws. Wang Yue and Radjabov continued their discussion in the King’s Indian with 7.Be3 which was first popularized by Gligoric. Radjabov’s 13…Nc5 was a deviation from their game at Corus this year (where 13…Nxf5 was played) and then Wang Yue played the new move 14.b4 (Kasimdzhanov beat Cheparinov with 14.Qd2 at the Elista Grand Prix in December) but some tactics starting with 14…e4! quickly led to an equal position.
Ivanchuk-Dominguez, a Symmetrical English, started with some slow manoeuvering – very slow, until the players suddenly both had about one and a half minute left for the last fifteen moves! White is probably still winning in the final position but offered a draw anyway, and Mig seems to have the answer to this little puzzle. He translated a paragraph from a piece in the Spanish newspaper Marca:
The sporting gesture of the round was the draw Ivanchuk gave to Dominguez. Both players were very short on time and Ivanchuk on several occasions knocked the pieces over accidentally. Dominguez, displaying a sportsmanlike attitude, put the pieces back on his own time despite risking a loss. The Ukrainian, in the end, rewarded his opponent with a draw despite having a decisive advantage.
Radjabov-Smeets revisited, and another act of “fair play”, without needing an arbiter this time. Today is the last round of the first half of the tournament.
Linares 2009 | Round 6 Standings
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| 1 | Grischuk,A | 2733 | +211 | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.5/6 | ||
| 2 | Carlsen,M | 2776 | +33 | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3.5/6 | 10.75 | |
| 3 | Aronian,L | 2750 | +61 | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3.5/6 | 9.25 | |
| 4 | Ivanchuk,V | 2779 | -26 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/6 | 8.75 | |
| 5 | Anand,V | 2791 | -37 | 0 | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/6 | 6.75 | |
| 6 | Dominguez Perez,L | 2717 | -10 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | 2.5/6 | ||
| 7 | Wang Yue | 2739 | -94 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | * | ½ | 2.0/6 | 6.00 | |
| 8 | Radjabov,T | 2761 | -129 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 2.0/6 | 5.50 |
Linares 2009 | Schedule & results
| Thursday, February 19th | Friday, February 20th | |
| Round 1 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 2 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Anand-Radjabov 1-0 | Radjabov-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Aronian-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Wang Yue 1-0 | |
| Dominguez-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Wang Yue-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Anand-Aronian 0-1 | |
| Saturday, February 21st | Sunday, February 22nd | |
| Round 3 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 4 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Aronian-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Grischuk 0-1 | |
| Dominguez-Anand ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Wang Yue-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Anand-Wang Yue 1-0 | |
| Ivanchuk-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Aronian-Dominguez 1-0 | |
| Monday, February 23rd | Tuesday, February 24th | |
| Round 5 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Dominguez-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | ||
| Rest day | Wang Yue-Aronian ¬?-¬? | |
| Ivanchuk-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Grischuk-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | ||
| Wednesday, February 25th | Thursday, February 26th | |
| Round 6 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 7 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Wang Yue-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | |
| Ivanchuk-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | Anand-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Grischuk-Aronian 1-0 | Aronian-Ivanchuk 0-1 | |
| Carlsen-Anand 1-0 | Dominguez-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | |
| Friday, February 27th | Saturday, February 28th | |
| Round 8 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Radjabov-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Rest day | Carlsen-Aronian 0-1 | |
| Grischuk-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | ||
| Ivanchuk-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | ||
| Sunday, March 1st | Monday, March 2nd | |
| Round 9 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 10 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Ivanchuk-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | Radjabov-Aronian 1-0 | |
| Wang Yue-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | Anand-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Dominguez-Carlsen 0-1 | Carlsen-Wang Yue 0-1 | |
| Aronian-Anand ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | |
| Tuesday, March 3rd | Wednesday, March 4th | |
| Round 11 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Grischuk-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | ||
| Ivanchuk-Carlsen ¬?-¬? | Rest day | |
| Wang Yue-Anand ¬?-¬? | ||
| Dominguez-Aronian ¬?-¬? | ||
| Thursday, March 5th | Friday, March 6th | |
| Round 12 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
Round 13 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
|
| Radjabov-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | Carlsen-Radjabov ¬?-¬? | |
| Aronian-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | Grischuk-Anand ¬?-¬? | |
| Anand-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Ivanchuk-Aronian 1-0 | |
| Carlsen-Grischuk 1-0 | Wang Yue-Dominguez ¬?-¬? | |
| Saturday, March 7th | Sunday, March 8th | |
| Round 14 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST |
||
| Radjabov-Wang Yue ¬?-¬? | ||
| Dominguez-Ivanchuk ¬?-¬? | Closing | |
| Aronian-Grischuk ¬?-¬? | ||
| Anand-Carlsen ¬?-¬? |
Links:
- Round 1 report
- Round 2 report
- Round 3 report
- Round 4 report
- Official website
- Games in PGN
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Historic indeed. With all his recent draws, it looks like 18-years-old-Magnus has been living up to this game. Way to go Magnus!
Thanks for a well written report.
The clocks on the PlayChess.com transmission yesterday evening didn’t include the additional time after 6o moves, so it looked like Magnus lost on time. All in all the most thrilling game of Magnus to watch, ever!
BTW: He is 18, not 19. (Born November 30th. 1990).
Oops, that was kind of “hypercorrection”. In January Karjakin was often wrongly described as 18-year-old, and I was keen on doing that right. That stuck in my brain somehow.
Great achievement by Carlsen! Should some chess experts drop by this site, I’d love someone to explain 18. Nc7. During the game I could not believe my eyes, for my superficial positional sense said that exchanging off this knight for black bishop was the silliest thing to do and that black’s problems were pretty much over after that. Grandmaster wizardry
Not that I’m considering myself an expert, but I can always give a try. I think this one is an example of “bad bishops protect good pawns”. The bishop looks silly, but it does defend both weak pawns d5 and f5. Thanks to the pin of the f-pawn, this was the moment for White to exchange it without repairing Black’s structure. To add another cliche: “It’s not about what you take away from the board, it’s about what’s left!”
Anand is relaxing, he is the actual Champion and now he can do experiments to test what his possible contenders can do at best..He is smart. He is taking risks and testing everyone…Make no mistake…He is preparing for the real battle ahead..I remember Capablanca in 1924, New York, in a similar situation, loosing to Reti…Unfortunately, Capa extremely relaxed after his stunning victory in NY 1927, but Anand will not repeat that..Make no mistake…
Fantastic game by Carlsen, a classic already!
LOL Mike,
Are you sure???
How do you know this all??
Is it based on reality??
Thanks for all the reports. It’s great reading them and playing through the games. But please refrain from the Chessvibes Openings ’sluikreclame’…
Now we won’t, Dennis. We’re simply too proud of it.
@Theo: Well, this Forum allow people to deliver their thoughts, and that’s my intuition…
I’m quite sure Anand wouldn’t play 11….Qf5 instead of 11… h6 if this game was part of some WCC Final…Even considering that Anand more or less has proven that his novelty is playable because his loss was probably due to several inaccuracies on his part. Anyway, we have to admit that the game presented by Carlsen was simply spectacular, with all those series of zugzwang’s and subtle moves like that one which exchanged the “bad black protector bishop” and that another one that caused the ominous pin of the d5 pawn…
For the interested parties among you: I have tried to give an objective video report of the game on my site.
Kudos to Carlsen. It won’t be long until he’s vying for top honours!