Round 12: Carlsen beats Kramnik
26 January 2008 13:46 PM | Last modified: 12:03
Two more rounds to go, and in all rounds it’s very exciting. Can Aronian hold on to his lead? Will Movsesian promote to next year’s A group? Are Caruana’s young shoulders able to handle the pressure? Two video’s added
Update 15:02
Against Adams, Polgar is playing the Petroff just like Gelfand did earlier in the tournament, and she deviated with 13…Re8. Her pawn sac 15…Nc4 is probably still preparation. Radjabov and Leko are playing an old line of the Queen’s Indian, played for example in a game Karpov-Korchnoi (Tilburg 1991). In this case it’s White who has sacrificed a pawn.
About Kramnik-Carlsen, co-editor forest said: “If Magnus manages to draw today, he’ll win the tournament next year.” And indeed, a draw with Black against Kramnik right here right now, would mean the young Norwegian is yet another step further in his development. Ivanchuk played a Queen’s Gambit Accepted against Aronian; an opening not very fashionable at the moment. But lovers of IQP positions will have a good day today.
Against Van Wely, Anand has played a novelty (13…Rb8) in a well-known position of the Queen’s Indian. It now has a very specific character because White Black gained the bishop pair and a protected passed pawn on d4; White can play for Nf3-e1-d3 and e4-e5. What will be more important?
The board Eljanov-Topalov is already on fire; it seems Black has sacrificed a piece for two pawns. The compensation looks unclear but hey, it’s not the first time Topalov has sac’ed a piece (not even in this tournament). Mamedyarov played another Closed Sicilian and Gelfand’s position looks pretty OK right now.
The top game in B is Short-Bacrot, and Nigel again went for his old love: Qe2 instead of Re1 in the Ruy Lopez.
Update 16:28h
Radjabov-Leko was quickly drawn. Leko’s Black repertoire, especially against 1.d4, is just super, super solid. Mamedyarov ambition seems close to zero and he and Gelfand already shook hands as well. Polgar has solved all her problems against Adams and Carlsen decided that he’s not going to sit and wait today - which is kind of common behaviour in such hedgehogs. No, he decided to play actively with …f5 and …g5-g4, and it doesn’t look bad at all.
Aronian quickly played the thematical push d4-d5 (and gone was the IQP) and has put strong pressure onto Black’s b-pawn. Actually, he seems to be winning that pawn - did Ivanchuk miss 21.Be4! perhaps? Loek chose a different route for his knight and again, Anand seems to be going for a win quietly but surely. Topalov is now in defending modus; there was never a real attack. Mamedyarov-Gelfand will probably be a draw soon.
In B, Movsesian has won a healthy pawn against l’Ami and Short-Bacrot, with the same material as in Mamedyarov-Gelfand, looks pretty drawish as well. In C, Nijboer is playing like Mikhail Tal today, sacrificing lots of material against Caruana. White’s attack is very strong.
Update 19:24h
Adams-Polgar reached a very interesting pawn ending in which Black turned out to be winning. Here a short comment by Judit Polgar:
Carlsen broke all expectations by beating Kramnik with Black. The last time that happened to the former world champion in a classical game, was the eighth match game in Elista, in 2006 against Topalov. During the press conference we just filmed, a realistic Carlsen emphasized that Kramnik is suffering from a cold, and therefore played below his normal level.
Update 19:43h
Anand seemed to have slight advantage in the ending with queen and bishop against Van Wely’s queen and knight, but then the Dutchman reached the safe haven quite easily. Aronian did win that pawn against Ivanchuk but the Ukrainian could liquidate to a drawn rook ending. White tried for quite a long time, but to no avail. Eljanov kept cool today and just beat Topalov. Here are his comments after the game:
Update 21:17h
Spoelman is performing surprisingly well in the last few days. Today he beat Koneru and so his tournament is just fine. Short joked in the press room: “Everone was surprised that I drew against this guy, but you shouldn’t underestimate these players.” Movsesian converted his plus plus pawn easily and thus increased his lead, since Bacrot and Short drew each other today. Caruana survived Nijboer’s attack and after the game, the Dutchman still wasn’t sure if all his sacrifices were correct or not. In any case, Fabiano will play his last round with a point clear to Negi… his opponent of tomorrow.
Ljubojevic has won the Honorary Four. He beat Portisch very easily today - the way the Hungarian was playing, it seemed like he was even more ill than Kramnik. Timman won a fine game against Korchnoi and so he can be reasonanly satisfied as well
All games from today:
| Round 12 - Saturday the 26th
L. van Wely - V. Anand ½-½ |
Round 12 - Saturday the 26th
N. Short - E. Bacrot ½-½ |
Round 12 - Saturday the 26th
I. Krush - J. van der Wiel 1-0 |
| Round 13 - Sunday the 27th
L. Aronian - L. van Wely |
Round 13 - Sunday the 27th
J. Smeets - N. Short |
Round 13 - Sunday the 27th
M. van der Werf - I. Krush |
Schedule/results Honorary Four:
| Round 1 - Saturday the 19th L. Ljubojevic - J. Timman 0-1 V. Kortchnoi - L. Portisch 1-0 |
Round 2 - Sunday the 20th V. Kortchnoi - J. Timman ½-½ L. Portisch - L. Ljubojevic ½-½ |
Round 3 - Tuesday the 22nd J. Timman - L. Portisch ½-½ L. Ljubojevic - V. Kortchnoi ½-½ |
Round 4 - Wednesday the 23rd J. Timman - L. Ljubojevic 0-1 L. Portisch - V. Kortchnoi 0-1 |
Round 5 - Friday the 25th L. Portisch - J. Timman 1-0 V. Kortchnoi - L. Ljubojevic 0-1 |
Round 6 - Saturday the 26th J. Timman - V. Kortchnoi 1-0 L. Ljubojevic - L. Portisch 1-0 |
New photos by forest:
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External links:
of course Caruana will win!
Does Topalov lose a piece after 13.h3 or am I missing something?
Hi Peter,
In van Wely-Anand, black has both the passed d-pawn and the bishop piar.
Kramnik is two pawns down. Time to resign.
Kramnik is going down, indeed. I really hope it is merely a series of bad days but not his arthritis being back.
Finally Judit is scoring again!
It’s a pity, the game lost against Carlsen got her totally out of balance.
@ jussu
I understand your concern, but saying that it’s either a series of bad days or the arthritis is kinda lowering down Carlsen (even though I’m aware that he’s not yet where Kramnik is).
According to the Dvoretsky engame book the Aronian game is a draw ( of course white has practical chances). So if Chucky manages to hold his position, Magnus might even win the tournament this year.
Michael,
Sure, I’m the last one to lower Carlsen’s achievement. However, the second half of the tournament has been pretty bleak to Kramnik - the worst play he has shown since his comeback in 2006. Oh well, time will tell.
@ jussu
True true. I also misinterpreted a bit your sentence I guess. And I of course also hope it’s not health problems.
As you say, time will tell.
V. Kramnik - M. Carlsen 0-1
Let’s see what Chucky does…
Oh, and Topalov just lost.
What a tournament for Magnus. He beats Kramnik with black (!!!) and should have won the game with Anand too. And this guy is just 17…
Yes but don’t forget he should have lost against Van Wely
And he should have drawn against Leko. In short, there’s still room for
improvement…
(Which should scare everybody.)
Maravilloso Carlsen, que pundonor, que forma de batir a Kramnik, de ir a por la victoria en el torneo y no conformarse con una buena actuación.
Mis respetos al noruego, pondre en mi web la partida para ver mas en profundidad lo bien que se maneja Carlsen
Carlsen succeeds Fischer as the new hope for the West!
I hope Magnus wins this super strong tournament! That would give him an amazing boost and in a few years he will be World Champ, for sure!
The playing field here in Wijk is amazingly strong! There’s 3 recent world champions: Kramnik, Anand, topalov
Let’s hope Magnus will beat Radjabov tomorrow!!
what happened to Kramnik? Is it due to his recurring illness or his psychological situation after the bad loss to Topalov? In the official website of the tournament, it says : “Kramnik played 30.Qb5 and offered a draw”. It is quite interesting.
What happened to kramnik??
Maybe kremnik oponents learned how to avoid early pieces tradings?..
And kramnik always states that his playing style is not fit for tournaments, that his opening repertoire is for match, when you can win one game and win the match.. And if someone playing rematch with you, acording rules you even can make all draws and still win a rematch!
And people tend to call preaparation simply memorization of games from begining till the end.. i call this just lack of creation it’s just playing computer moves.
Someone said that he did’t remember kramnik playing so badly..
But i didn’t remember kramnik playing better than now
Jonas
thats just crap. You are either ignorant or just started follwing chess a week ago.
SO Kramnik didnt play better in M-Tal og Dortmund.
He played a hell lot better in those two Tournaments.
thats true, kramnik not in peak of the form !
So do not start counting the eggs before they hatch, carlsen aint next future world champion yet.Long way to go for him !. Innumerable mistakes by kramnik. Better put of todays game is Bad day at office for kramnik, good game for carlsen,
Jonas: I think you don’t really understand the situation in the chess world. Kramnik has beaten Topalov in a match in 2006, he made 7-7 with Lékó in 2004 and in 2000 he had beaten Kasparov.
Tournaments: He won Dortmund many times before, he won at Wijk aan Zee and in Linares too. He won the Tal memorial recently, in Mexico he had +2, now he had at least equal position in every game before his loss against Topalov. What are you talking about?