M-Tel R9: Carlsen takes a half-point lead
At the M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Carlsen will go into the final round leading with half a point, after beating Wang Yue today while Shirov drew his game against Dominguez. Topalov defeated Ivanchuk and now shares second place with Shirov.
The 5th M-Tel Masters takes place May 12-23 in a glass pavilion on the square in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov in Sofia, Bulgaria. It's a six-player double round-robin with Carlsen, Dominguez, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Topalov and Wang Yue playing. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves and then another hour to finish the game. "Sofia rules" will again be used, so draw offers can be made only through the chief arbiter in the case of a threefold repetition, perpetual check or a theoretically draw position.
Round 9
Wang Yue didn't look too solid today against Carlsen. The Chinese grandmaster improved upon his black game against Anand in Nice, two months ago, and looked fine after the opening, but missed, or underestimated, White's 23.b4 which wins a pawn. Perhaps he expected Black to have a fortress on the dark squares, by keeping the rooks on a7 and a8, but in the game it didn't work out.
The Norwegian grabbed sole lead in the standings as Shirov didn't win against Dominguez. He didn't really get close, as the Cuban was well prepared for his Archangelsk Ruy Lopez and got a nice endgame advantage. However, Shirov again showed he's in excellent shape in Sofia and defended it accurately to a draw.
Ivanchuk went down even deeper by also losing his 'return game' Topalov. Virtually the Ukrainian's rating has dropped below 2700 - the story is getting more sad by the day.
Tomorrow Carlsen defends his half a point lead with Black against Shirov, while Topalov needs to win with Black against Wang Yue to keep a chance for shared first, either with Carlsen or Shirov - with both is not possible anymore.
This is what the tournament rules say about ties:
The final standing of the players will be determined according to points. In case of sharing of places - the following criteria will be decisive for the tie-break:
- A greater number of wins.
- The result of the direct mini-matches between contenders.
- Berger.
- A greater numbers of moves played.
- A tie-break match will be played in case of a tie for the first place in the tournament between the first two players in the final standing (according to points, or the additional criteria). The match will consist of two games with a time-control of 15 minutes per player + 3 seconds added for every move played. In case of a tie, another match of two blitz-games will be played with a time-control of 5 minutes per player + 3 seconds for every move played. In case of another tied result – there will be played a last "sudden-death" decisive game with a time-control 6 minutes for the whole game for the White-player and 4 minutes for the whole game for Black-player. The White-player will only need a victory in this game to win the tournament, whole the Black-player will win the tournament by just not losing that final decisive game.
Game viewer
Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. Click on the arrow under the board just once, then the arrow keys of your keyboard also work.
[TABLE=717]
[TABLE=729]
Links
Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.
Comments
Hortensius
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
Peter: "Topalov defeated Shirov and now shares second place with Shirov..."
He defeated Ivanchuk...
Cheers
CAL|Daniel
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
Ivanchuk on -5 and under 2700... it is a sad day indeed.
pete
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
sad indeed ... it will be really hard for him to recover from that I guess. The organizers of the big tournaments will not invite him cause of the rating
koen
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
@Pete
I thought about that aswell but I think he will stil get alot of invites, he does show great fighting spirit! (I think he lost atleast three of his games because he didn't want to go for an easy draw.)
Thomas
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
@pete: Well I guess the organizers of Chucky's next tournaments (Romania and Biel) will not un-invite him. So he still has the opportunity to get back above 2700 - or to plunge further down the ELO-list ... .
pete
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
lets hope it is not the second option ... though Ivanchuk is really unpredictable
Thomas
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
If there is some logic in Ivanchuk's erratic performances ... : 2009 he had one bad tournament (Corus), then a good one (shared first in Linares, seems ages ago ...), then two bad ones (GP Nalchik and MTel), so maybe the pendulum can swing back again.
On the other hand, even if he should "confirm" his sub-2700 rating, he probably has enough status and reputation to get invitations to slightly weaker tournaments - such as Bosna, which received relatively little attention because it had to compete with stronger events ... . This could be a route to comeback, so it is too early to write him off.
That being said, what he probably needs most now is REST - but it seems that he does not want to realize or admit it ... .
pete
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
I remember that Andrew Martin said in one of his videos that there are chess players that get addicted to playing and simply cannot stop until they are totally exhausted. It may be like playing blitz you just play and play and play until you can barely even think. I guess Chuky just needs a big rest so he can get back together and strike back next year :).
me
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
Ivanchuk just loves to play and he has been playing tournament after tournament for years. He doesn't give a rats ass about rating and he certainly won't change his policy. He will continue playing and his performance will continue to vary like it ever has.
Forchivinni
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
well said, I was thinking the same, Ivanchuk seems to don't give a ---- about rating or excess of tournaments, he just play for the sake of it, he loves the game. Naturally, obsessed people is always worry by others happenings and will be nuts seeing Ivanchuk going down the miserable rating list or by the inavoidable 'breakdown' with the supposed following of Ivanchuk's Death. Neurotic spinter's talk if you ask me.
Oak
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
I am happy I was wrong about another bloodless Chebanenko in Carlsen-Wang. The Chinese Wall begins to crack.
forest
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
Oak, je bent eraf
xtra
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
If Ivanchuk can just keep playing in the best tournaments, he will probably get his rating back soon enough since it will be easier for him to gain points in a tournament where he has lower than average rating. And as long as he stays in top 100 he will probably get some invitations...But obviously he cant "just" play for the fun of it, he makes a living out of playing chess so he has to have some success...so I dont really understand that side of the argument.
I really like that the first tiebreak criteria is the number of wins, and the second one the result of the minimatch. I feel like those are much more important than how the opponents you beat did, since in a tournament like this they are all incredibly tough to beat. Sonneborn-Berger seems better in a large open tournament.
Thomas
2 years 8 months ago
Permalink
"he [Ivanchuk] makes a living out of playing chess so he has to have some success…"
I think in that respect we don't have to worry too much for him - due to his past successes, he presumably earns his bread and butter (and enough for a glass of wine with his meals) from appearance fees and does not depend on prize money.
In the near future, he can most likely claim and will get higher appearance fees than players with comparable ~2700 rating but lacking major career achievements - Tiviakov and Naiditsch are two random names (nothing against them, but to put things into perspective).
And if Ivanchuk's decline continues .... : How much does Karpov get whenever he is still playing chess? Probably also 'enough' !?
Your comment
Speak your mind
By posting a comment you are agreeing to abide our Terms & Conditions