Kramnik wins Tal Memorial
14 November 2009, 16.55 CET | Last modified: 19:34 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Vladimir Kramnik won the Tal Memorial after successfully defending against a kingside attack by Vassily Ivanchuk in today’s last round. The game ended in a draw and because Anand was crushed by Aronian, Kramnik secured clear first place. Carlsen defeated Leko to finish shared 2nd, and to become the world’s number one in the live ratings. Ponomariov beat Morozevich and Svidler and Gelfand drew in a very exciting last round in Moscow.
The Tal Memorial took place November 4-18 in Moscow, Russia. The category 21 round-robin had Viswanathan Anand (India, 2788), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2786), Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2801), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2772), Peter Leko (Hungary, 2752), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2758), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2739) Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2754) and Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2739).
The first four rounds of the round-robin were held in hotel “National” on November 5, 6, 7 and 8. Rounds 5-9 took place in the Main Department Store GUM on Red Square. The time control was the classic 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour and then 15 minutes plus 30 seconds increment to finish the game.
Round 9
Where many feel uncomfortable, Vladimir Kramnik is at his best. Vassily Ivanchuk, who needed a win today to win the Tal Memorial outright, got his chances, with many pieces pointing at Black’s king and weak points on e6 and g6, but with calm defence Kramnik held his position together. In the last phase of the game Ivanchuk had gotten into slight time trouble, and the online viewers had the (wishful?) feeling that the Ukrainian missed a win somewhere, but Kramnik hadn’t seen it, as he explained at the press conference.
Kramnik showing the game to the journalists in the press room
Earlier in the day Vishy Anand had suffered a tough afternoon. The Indian was playing the White pieces for a slim chance of tournament victory, but he got totally crushed by Aronian. A game not worthy of a World Champion, one would say, but well, everyone has a bad, and sometimes really bad day, once in a while.
Anand resigns
Ponomariov could leave the tournament with a smile thanks to a last-round win against Morozevich. What started as a slightly worse ending got worse for Moro when he decided to go for some tactics, which just didn’t work. Svidler and Gelfand had little to add in a Petroff line that’s known to be OK for Black (like all other Petroff lines).
Thanks to a collapse of Leko, Carlsen eventually managed to finish shared 2nd with Ivanchuk, and surpass Topalov on the live rating list, in the very last round. Since the Chess Classic in London will probably count for the January list as well, we can’t make conclusions yet, but at the moment Carlsen is virtually the world’s number one.
Leko disappointed both himself and the fans by first refraining from any winning attempts in a slightly better ending, and then defending badly in an equal position. But credits should go to Carlsen who managed to find active, annoying moves in an objectively equal position – the Norwegian was the fighter again that we saw in Nanjing.
Leko resigns
Below you’ll find the instructive comments of GM Ian Rogers’ live commentary, and down the article his contribution to our daily Tal columns. With this article our coverage of the Tal Memorial comes to an end – well, as far as the round-robin is concerend, as we’ll have the World Blitz Ch coming up.
It has been a great tournament, and a very interesting one for the ChessVibes team as well. We have lots of material to evaluate concerning our new service, with respect to the technical side and the content, but for this first time we think we didn’t do that badly. And what’s most important – we hope you’ve enjoyed it.
Games round 9 [GM Ian Rogers]
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Tal Memorial 2009 | Round 9 (Final) Standings
Tal Memorial 2009 | All results
Following an excellent idea of Georg in the comments, we write something about Mikhail Tal every day.
My first encounter with Tal came at the Keres Memorial tournament in Tallinn, Estonia (then part of the Soviet Union) in February 1985. Like most Soviet tournaments of the time, this tournament was the real deal; 15 rounds, 8 rest days, three adjournment days and three days of mourning when USSR President Chernenko died. Yes, a full month in -30 degree temperatures with near-worthless roubles as prize money – but also a chance to play against, and perhaps earn some respect from, a living legend in Tal.
I had just won my fourth round game and was analysing with my opponent, Czech IM Josef Pribyl, in an overheated back room behind the playing hall; a room filled with coffee, cigarette smoke and enthusiastic but interfering spectators.
As Pribyl and I replayed the game and reached the diagrammed position, a bony hand from an old codger reached out and tried to play 11.e6, simply losing the pawn for not much. I waved the hand away more than once but it persisted.
Exasperated I turned around, ready with a sharp word, when I noticed that the hand belonged to Tal!
Feeling extremely sheepish, I immediately began to analyse Tal’s idea; if the great former World Champion wanted to give away one of my pawns, that was fine by me. Of course the move turned out to be a powerful pawn sacrifice which I had barely considered. Tal watched our analysis for a short time, smiled and returned to his drink and cigarette.
GM Ian Rogers
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Well done Kramnik, you played some good chess…. But Chucky played the best and is definitely unlucky to come 2nd. It looks like the journeyman pro is embarrassing hmself against the runt and will hand him an undeserved win. Lego MUST never play in top class events again. Heis a waste of a place. Fishy had better improve or the cheat will become the new WC, even though we all know Chucky is the greatest player in the world on his day….
Carlsen seems moments away from a second win ….
Great finish by Carlsen and that’s +8 -0 =11 in two category 21 tournaments in just over a month. Fitting that he took over #1 on the live rating today, he’s probably already the best player in the world while 18 years old and Anand/Topalov/Kramnik would do worse if they played half as much as Carlsen. Good to see him more energetical in the final rounds, understandable that he couldn’t do himself justice while playing with fever, but still a good result and a 2839 performance while not at his best.
Amazing if you think this way: Carlsen was ill half of the tournament.
is Carlsen or Topalov playing any other tournaments till the next fide list? If not we can consider him the official number one already … congratulations!
Memorable tournament with 5 players exhibiting a 2800+ performance!
Sad that Anand had such an embarrassing last round with White when he was actually expected to contest for first. Great finish for Ivanchuk and Carlsen. And
well deserved win for Kramnik and his new brand of enterprising chess.
Thanks, Chessvibes. Hope you will still give us the best in chess journalism during the upcoming London Chess Classic.
See you then!
Great commentary from Ian Rogers! Entertaining, enjoyable, fun etc.,
@ Ceann ,
Please never write on this blog again . You are plain bullshit!
@SanChess I can already reveal that we’ll be in London during the whole event, to add some videos to the coverage (an old tradition or ours).
@Ceann
You`re an embarrasement for this site. Your comments just keeps getting more and more ludacriss!!! Now you`ve started to talk about undeserved victories and using words such as “cheat”. Maybe you should stick a certain bodypart in the ground and smell what`s coming…. Carlsen will become the undisputed #1.
Stop your supporter hooliganisme and, if necessary, start a “I hate Carlsen” application on Facebook to solve your obvious need for attention.
Anywho…..great tourney by Kramnik. Well deserved!! Too bad Carlsen was ill for the most part though:(
Why anand always loses to aronian?…….any psychological factors?
@LABELLED you numpty The Bulgarian IS a cheat of have you no memory….and the runt WAS gifted a point today by the journeyman, AND Chucky IS the best player on his day…..
Don’t forget guys that Kramnik was ALSO ill not just Carlsen.
Kramnik was also ill for the most part , the only difference is that he won the tournament . Unless a doctor confirms it , there is no indication whatsoever that Magnus was more ill
To be fair , i think that Ivanchuk should have won today , the game and the Tal Memorial , it is a pity he allowed Kramnik to equalize a desperate position because of time trouble , but fair play to Kramnik who cae well prepared and played some of the most interesting games in this tournament
I agree, CALDaniel, other players apart from Carlsen have been ill during this tournament, and I have read nothing but whining about his illness.
Thank you ChessVibe team and GMs for these wonderful commentaries! I am very happy to hear that you will be in London! Thank you for the hard work and your love of this game!
It was a wonderful tournament indeed. It was too bad that Carlsen wasn’t his true self for the most part, but we saw the glimpse of what he is made for just in time. In the mean time, we had three players went for really enterprising chess, and they made this tournament such a great feat. Kramnik got the top spot, well deserved, Ivanchuk was almost there, really too bad he didn’t, and Morozevich didn’t got his results together, but nevertheless he tried as bravely as the other two. He always lower the drawing rate in any tournament he plays, and I can really appreciate his temperament.
It seems like we are going to have some great chess ahead of us to see. Carlsen is now serious about chess, and got the top spot; Kramnik totally changed the way he plays Black (he used to play Dutch), but he can still play solid as well; Anand is still very strong, looking forward to see his match with Topalov, who is still very strong, Aronian and Gashimov keep pushing top guys… and the return of Chukey to the top 10!
Goto: that was a great comment!
Great coverage again and splendid comment by Ian Rogers. Had no doubt about Kramnik’s performance. One of the best!
@ ceann
And of course calling a human being a “runt” or “fishy” is very respectful…although probably you think you are being really funny and intelligent by inventing those names and I guess everybody being disgusted on this site makes you proud in the sense that you think you are the only honest person in a world of hypocrites.
Wow, aren’t we great.
But maybe I don’t have your supreme humour…you probably were the kind of person at high school thinking it’s hilarious if you call a kid wearing glasses “glasses” or a over-weight kind “fatty”.
I love Chuky too and respect it if you don’t like other players, but I don’t see what gain you have from insulting players with name-calling. Especially calling somebody a “runt” is disgusting- and if you do it based on Carlsen’s looks it’s even more pathetic. Does it make you feel good? I’m afraid it even does…
Book Rogers to comment for Corus already plz!
Congrats to a great great Kramnik who (mostly) played aggressive and interesting chess. He already set new claims – after all the analysis battle on the Moscow during the last years(s) and the greenfeld shift, he introduced the vienna as a weapon against 1.d4. Not a winning attempt, but one should keep in mind that it is difficult to play for a win with the greenfeld (for example the 8.Rb1-variation is full of drawing ideas if white wants to). My god Anand – is it really fact that Aronian (top10) can beat the world champion that way with Black if the preparation runs out of fuel?
Very happy that Kramnik showed that he’s still the best. I hope he will continue to play like this and beat the sh*t out of everyone at Corus!
in the end position in Anand-Aronian how black would continue after 26. f3 isn’t exactly clear to me. i guess i should get a puter program huh? Can someone enlighten me? 26… Re3ch 27. Kf2 and then ??
Kramnik could have had a bad day if Ivanchuk would have found 23.Ndxe6! as Rybka suggests
So maybe Ian shouldn’t reward 23.h4 with an exclamation mark…
However, nearly every move is annotated, that was quite a cool commentary
The short anecdote about Tal is entertaining, too, it was quite a good idea to write something about him every day.
Aronian may not be a world champion yet , but in term of natural talent , he’s at least as gifted as his top colleagues (Anand , Kramnik , Topalov , Carlsen among others ) , it’s not a surprise and not the first time he beat Anand . We are talking about the best performer in 2009 and one of the most creative and dangerous positonal player in the circuit with an endgame technique that has lttle to envy to Kramnik’s , Aronian would really excell in fischer random chess .
His only problem is that he lags slightly behind them in term of opening preparation in my opinion , but it’s not a surprise that even in mediocre form (and having played quite a lot this year , he obviously did not have as much energy as usual in this Tal memorial ) , he managed to score twice just like Ivanchuk and Carlsen , he was only unlucky to be over ambitious against Gelfand .
Also he didn’t face desperate opponents when he won his games , as opposed to Carlsen who faced a Ponomariov ready to go “kamikaze” in order to grab at least a victory in the penultimate round , and a Leko risking a lot in order to avoid another draw in the last round .
Instead Aronian defeated a world champion playing White for the tournament victory and a confident and motivated Leko in the 4th round when he was still in the race , he also could get Kramnik ’s scalp had he decided to play on with Nd6 yesterday (having analyzed this with Rybka3 , it is Extremely difficult to defend this endgame , it was almost lost on the long term ) , but Levon was not in good form in this tournament unfortunately so he agreed to fix the draw (probably because he was tired ) , although he still managed to perform reasonably well in this Tal Memorial
I think its safe to say you are wrong about Aronian’s preparation… Bxb5 in the chebanko slav against Grischuk in the Grandslam anyone? Besides that i’m led to believe practically all these top flight GMs do besides play is to prepare to play again.
Of course CAL Daniel , Aronian won many games thanks to good opening preparation , but compared to the more experienced old guard , the likes of Anand , Kramnik and Topalov , especially , i feel Levon has less weapons and relies more on his own moves over the board .
But of course , he has many ideas in the openings in general , i just think that he’s less flexible and has less weapons than the big three (well , four now with Carlsen ) , for instance Anand and Topalov plays both 1 e4 and d4 and play various systems with black , they are pretty much unpredictable and almost always get very good positions out of the opening , whereas Aronian tend to rely more or less on the same systems with black and 1-d4 is really his main tool with White , i watched many of his games where he gets slightly inferior position out of the opening , complicate the game through his creative approach and makes the difference in the endgame .
chessvibes is the best chess news website.
ChessVibes, inside joke/meme of the week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMA5_op9aOA
Except it’s now: CEANN!!!!!! CEANN!!!!!
Thumbs up for public ridicule to encourage civility!
Imagine a WC between the current #5 ranked in the world (double round), who in my eyes is a latter above the rest (sorry Ivanchuck).
Magnus got a weak spot for Kramnik.
Topalov got a weak one for Carlsen.
Kramnik got a bad history against Anand
Anand got a weak one for Aronian.
Aronian is unstable against Topalov…
For me it would be THE happening in the chess world since Kramnik Kasparov.
(you might argue about the strength/weaknesses amongst individual player)
Here is the Rating performances: Kramnik 2883, Ivanchuk 2845, Carlsen 2838, Aronian 2800, Anand 2799 and Gelfand 2764 (on the negative side Leko was 2645 and Morozevich 2646)
Oh,Sorry,It is already published here.
anand-aronian
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6(a6 first time played 1931 – 1:0) 5.e3(cd) b5 6.c5 Nbd7 7.Bd3 (Be2)e5 8.Nxe5(de] Nxe5 9.dxe5 Nd7 10.e6(f4?) Nxc5 11.exf7+ Kxf7 12.b3?(Qh5+,Bc2?) Nxd3+ -+
anand-aronian
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.e3(cd) b5 6.c5(b3)
from CA.
exclusive mini interviews….
Carlsen:Ok,the only human left to beat is Rybka 4…
Kramnik:At last,I can see winning positions not only draws in my head!!!
Anand:I am the WORLD CHAMPION.Why the media dont say that?
Ivanchuk:Is the tournament finish ? i want some more…
Morozevich:My oppents are cheating.
Why they use oppening theory all the time?
@Ianis: In case you don’t know, Aronian IS very strong at Fischer random chess (Chess960) – see his results at the Mainz event over the years. This year he lost against Nakamura … I think those two players have many things in common: great talent and intuition, particularly strong play in chaotic positions, neglecting opening preparation(?). Concerning the last, I wonder if it is actually true or if they like to create an image of laziness about themselves – inherent in their character, and possibly deliberate to confuse their opponents!?
Overall, the final standings of the Tal Memorial seem to confirm that the top5 are a class apart [obviously no info on absentee Topalov], and that Ivanchuk belongs in this group whenever he is in form – but Chucky is lacking one thing to make him a serious WCh candidate: consistency.
Chessvibes thank you for the great coverage of this tournament. The tournament was great as well. Lots of interesing games. Even alot of the draws where interesting.
I like the story about Tal this article. Must be a very special feeling if a world champion helps you in the analyses of a game.
I didn’t know this Thomas , thanks for info mate . Nakamura indeed have a good potential , i saw only 2-3 classical games of him to be honest , but i saw him play dozens of blitz on playchess and he’s really very strong at this , one of the strongest i’ve seen , his intuition is brilliant
Does anybody know if Leko has offered a draw against Carlsen?
@Rob Schoorl
It is very unethical to offer a draw in a lost position and since Leko had lost position from move 35 one can assume that Leko hasn’t offered a draw against Carlsen.
Were there special rules on offering draws? If not then Leko could have offered a draw around move 30 when it was still equal.. I’m just curious to know how badly Carlsen wanted to win.
@Rob Schoorl: According to Russian reports (translated by mishanp on Dailydirt), players were only allowed to draw with permission of the arbiter!? Not quite Sofia rules, but something similar.
This was an issue in Leko-Ivanchuk (an even but ‘playable’ position); then a draw was accepted by the arbiter after ten minutes (!) because both players [or at least Leko] were running low on time.