Kramnik has spoken!

It´s a pleasure to see KRAMNIK playing as a (world-) champion! I´ve seen his only WCC-victory against Anand last year in Bonn - in unforgettable style! Interesting to follow his next steps to the "crown"! Congratulations to Vladimir Kramnik!

"Magnus is having some fly like symptoms". This is my new favorite typo.

I told you guys, this tournament is of a different calibre for Magnus! Kramnik and Anand are still the best.

It's still early, celebrating right now is pretentious

Kramnik wygra turniej

I'm happy for Vladimir , i hope he goes on playing that well and shows that he's still a great champion to be reckoned with

--> dlugosz

It's hard to say. 5 round to go. We'll see.

How come there are no pictures of this event at all?

@Hanseman - We can only guess; my guess is: partly because of mutual antipathy with the organisers, partly because Anand plays there, partly to keep his rating (in decreasing order of importance).

Does anyone know why Topalov is not playing in Moscow?

I don't think rating is an issue, but otherwise I agree with jussu. Regarding his first point, Chessdom [a pro-Topalov site, with some inside information?] had the rather cryptic "Topalov and Radjabov either weren't invited, or didn't accept the invitation".
For his second point, there was a precedent at the Nanjing tournament. First, Topalov and Anand were both given as part of the field. Then both pictures disappeared from the tournament homepage. Then Topalov was "back", and Anand was replaced by Leko. Looks like some sort of deal going on behind the scenes?

Hi, so interesting the daily stories about Tal's Life! I hope to see this kind of initiative more often, during open, matches of anything else. It is so much instructive and enjoyable to discover highly creative pieces of chess -- then, what about one day a column dedicated to creative chess and imagination ?

So to speak, does anyone have an idea how to find this peculiar game of Tal ? I have searched through the web (including chessgames, chesslive etc.) but haven't succeeded in yet. Thanks all.

Ron it might be harder for Carlsen now, but it is hard to judge at the moment if it is because stronger opponents or his flu symptoms.

Vladimir, you can find it here: http://www.chesslive.de/
Type in "pravda" as white player and "tal" as black and this is the only game found.

It ends after whites 26th move (the diagram position), so it may be incomplete since the report given here clearly states that more moves were played (starting with 26... Ng3).

"In any case, some predictions here and elsewhere were at least premature, such as
- there will only be a fight for second place behind Carlsen
- it is only a matter of time before Carlsen’s official rating (not TPR in a single event) crosses 2900 or 3000."

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that such predictions can't be taken seriously if someone makes them, just like it wasn't hard to guess that Carlsen would do worse here than in Nanjing. You don't repeat a +6 score a couple of weeks after the previous one, and here several opponents are well rested and prepared, while Carlsen has played much more in 2009 than for example Anand and Kramnik taken together. Few players are capable of performing 3000+ results in category 21 events, if someone else than Carlsen ever will be able to do it remains to be seen. My guess is that Anand, Aronian or Kramnik will win with a +2 or +3 score. Maybe +1 for Carlsen, but it's a very unpredictable tournament.

Just showing my ignorance here I suppose. But after black's Nf4+, why can't white answer with Kh4 instead of Kh6?

Why is Topalov not playing? I think the presence of Kramnik is a factor. They are not very big friends since Toiletgate.
And Kramnik (of course) is invited in his homecountry.

Of course Kramnik is a factor, or THE factor why Topalov doesn't like to play in Russia, and Russian organizers don't like to invite him. But they have faced each other after Elista several times (Corus, Amber, Zurich jubilee) - don't expect a friendly postmortem or even a handshake between them .... .

Still it is not as bad as in the old days when organizers had to choose between Korchnoi or any Soviet player - and unlike the current (hopefully transitory) situation that Anand and Topalov avoid each other at least at classical time controls (both played in Zurich).

Anyway, in a tournament with eight out of the current top10, I think we shouldn't bother too much about two absentees - Topalov and Gashimov (current live list) or Radjabov (top10 when invitations were sent out?).

In strictu sensu (and so in the most basic chess sense) "Kg8! and Black mates next move" is wrong (because White plays Rg2).
It should be "Kg8! and mate in two".

Go Moro!!! :-)

"Ron it might be harder for Carlsen now, but it is hard to judge at the moment if it is because stronger opponents or his flu symptoms"

Nanjing had 2763 as compared to Tal Memorial's 2764 in average rating. No big difference and Leko plays both events (he was last in Nanjing). In general people expect a bit too much from Carlsen, he can't score +6 in every tournament and a plus score would be a good result here, he is still only 18 years old.

@Tomm, after 27.Kh4 follows 27...h5! with inevitable mate on g4.

I think there can be little doubt that the Tal Memorial is overall (even) stronger than Nanjing, even if the difference in average rating is minimal. Nanjing had Topalov pushing the rating average - from Carlsen's perspective, he had a decent score against Topa even before he was coached by Kasparov. Tal Memorial has the three other established top 5 players (the fifth one is of course Carlsen himself).

In any case, some predictions here and elsewhere were at least premature, such as
- there will only be a fight for second place behind Carlsen
- it is only a matter of time before Carlsen's official rating (not TPR in a single event) crosses 2900 or 3000.

BTW, a plus score at this tournament will be a good, or at least acceptable result for all of the players, including "oldies" as Ivanchuk, Anand and Kramnik ... .

@Arne

Yes, that "with inevitable mate on g4" formula is another good posibility (with g6 instead of g4) to correct the mistaken “Kg8! and Black mates next move” of the article ;-)

@gg: Ivanchuk's 8/10 at MTel2008 (TPR2977) was at least close ... . But, unlike Carlsen, Chucky is also (cap)able to finish last in such strong tournaments - maybe his current performance at the Tal Memorial (hiding in the middle of the field) is the most surprising and unusual thing on planet Chucky??