Top

Live reporting: round 8

21 January 2007 13:53 PM | Last modified: 10:36

Last update: 19.18 CET

Also the eighth round has one top match on the program: Topalov-Anand. The Indian can’t really afford a defeat anymore and Topalov naturally likes to join Radjabov in the lead. The two gentlemen are fighting it over the board in a Queen’s Indian. Ponomariov surprised Van Wely with a Knight’s Tango, Tiviakov again played a Accelarated Dragon (this time against Shirov), Radjabov-Aronian have the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, Kramnik-Carlsen a Catalaan, Motylev-Svidler a very sharp 3.f3 Grünfeld and the Marshall Declined again joined the party, in Karjakin-Navara.

Update: 14.59 CET: It’s clear which game the two gents Topalov and Anand are following today: Sasikiran-Motylev, Aeroflot open (Moscow) 2006. There 19.Nc4 Rad8 20.Ra2 Rd5 was played and it was a draw at the end. Topalov went 19.b4, which doesn’t look very dangerous. So Ponomariov put his knight on c6 in a position where you wouldn’t recommend that for novices, and Loek seems to have a small plus. The line in Shirov-Tiviakov left the theory quickly, and after 14…Bxc3+!? it’s interesting to see whether White’s bishop pair is indeed not so strong. (At the moment it isn’t.) What’s happening in Radjabov-Aronian doesn’t look bad for Black and Carlsen is already in trouble against Kramnik.

Again we can already offer you footage of the start of the round:

Update 15.49 CET: today GM Erik van den Doel is here and I asked him about his opinion of some positions. He thinks Topalov has a slight advantage because Anand can’t really break free. The move c6-c5 will for the moment not be possible, and so Black can do almost nothing. Loek’s extra pawn is quite difficult to convert and Doel wasn’t sure if Radjabov’s extra pawn passed pawn meant enough compensation. Shirov just sac’ed a pawn to improve his white-squared bishop. For the rest we can say that a lot of interesting fights are going on!

Update 16.54 CET: TOPALOV BEATS ANAND. Suddenly there was ‘1-0′ in the television screen in the press room, when the journalists ran to the door that’s between the hallway and the playing stage. An emotional Anand kwam just came outside with his coat already on. Somebody asked: “Vishy, what happened?” and the Indian just replied: “I resigned, that’s what happened.” The position wasn’t lost yet, so it came in handy that Topalov wanted to do some explanation with the demo board. We’ll try to put this early press conferene online as soon as possible. The conclusion for now: it wasn’t lost yet but it was like hell playing it with Black.

And about the other games: Navara is doing great again and especially his 24…Nc4 was a ‘royal move’, as Arne expressed it. Shirov is back, with a beautiful combination that gave him a good or even won ending oops, that look was too superficial, it’s a draw now. Aronian is consolidating more and more and Carlsen is more okay that I thought, although Kramnik still has the advantage. Svidler seems to be winning because the pawn on d5 is dead lost.

Update 18.44: Aronian won his ending against Radjabov fantastically, so Topalov is now leading the field. Unfortunately Aronian isn’t giving a press conference. The reason? He had an appointment with friends and he was already late…! Svidler wins again and is now doing excellent (also rating wise). It went wrong with Van Wely but the opposite coloured bishop ending with a pawn up was not won for Ponomariov. Karjakin-Navara will probably be a draw.

Together with Danailov and Cheparinov, Topalov stayed in the press room for a while. At first, they were following Radjabov-Aronian closely, helped by some laptop screens of journalists who are all using either Fritz or Chessbase. You could say the company Chessbase is the Microsoft of the chess world. Its general manager, Frederic Friedel, is here too and with him, Topalov had an amusing conversation. The Bulgarian suddenly shouted at Friedel that Fritz9 isn’t stronger than Fritz10Fritz10 isn’t stronger than Fritz9, and for that he gave the proof that he had analysed a Kramnik game with both engines. Then it was Friedel’s turn, who tried to convince Topalov that Rybka isn’t better than Fritz.

Meanwhile, forest shoot and uploaded some extra footage of today’s round:

Update 19.18 CET: Karjakin did win at the end, after Navara went astray around the first time control. His 40…Bc6 wasn’t the best move and simply 41…Ra8 would have kept some advantage, and then 45…Ba4? was a big mistake.

Comments

30 Responses to “Live reporting: round 8”

  1. Richard de Haas on 21 January 2007 14:17 PM

    How well known is the exchange sacrafice in Topalov-Anand?
    Richard

  2. Bulgaria on 21 January 2007 14:19 PM

    Topalov is the best player in the world !

  3. someone on 21 January 2007 14:52 PM

    There is no sac in Topalov’s game. Please count the number of pieces… It is just B+N versus R+2P…

  4. Thijmen Stal on 21 January 2007 15:08 PM

    How can these chessplayers concentrate with all the flashing photographers a few feet from their boards?

  5. peter on 21 January 2007 15:25 PM

    The photographers are only allowed to do their work during the first 5 minutes.

  6. Nas on 21 January 2007 15:27 PM

    Kramnik looks HUGE in front of Carlsen!!! just in the end of the video!!! Scary!!! :p

  7. snzz on 21 January 2007 15:32 PM

    (4788591) Matthiesen,M - Schandorff,L [E15]
    1 division 2001/2002 (6.2), 16.03.2002
    1.d4 Jf6 2.c4 e6 3.Jf3 b6 4.g3 Sa6 5.b3 Sb4+ 6.Sd2 Se7 7.Sg2 c6 8.Sc3 d5 9.Je5 Jfd7 10.Jxd7 Jxd7 11.Jd2 0–0 12.0–0 Jf6 13.e4 dxe4 14.a4 Jd5 15.cxd5 Sxf1 16.d6 Sxg2 17.dxe7 Dxe7 18.Kxg2 Vad8 19.De2 f5 20.Jc4 c5 21.De3 cxd4 22.Sxd4 Vd5 23.Je5 Dd6 24.Jc4 Dd8 25.Sb2 Vd3 26.Df4 Vxb3 27.Sa3 Vf7 28.De5 h6 29.Jd6 Vf6 30.Vc1 Kh7 31.Vc3 Vxc3 32.Dxc3 Dd7 33.Dd4 Dc6 34.Kf1 e3 35.fxe3 Dh1+ 36.Kf2 Dxh2+ 37.Kf3 Vg6 38.De5 f4 39.Ke4 Dg2+ 40.Kd3 fxg3 0–1

    (8772701) Sasikiran,K - Motylev,A [E15]
    Aeroflot Open 2006 Moscow (8), 2006
    1.d4 Jf6 2.c4 e6 3.Jf3 b6 4.g3 Sa6 5.b3 Sb4+ 6.Sd2 Se7 7.Sg2 c6 8.Sc3 d5 9.Je5 Jfd7 10.Jxd7 Jxd7 11.Jd2 0–0 12.0–0 Jf6 13.e4 dxe4 14.a4 Jd5 15.cxd5 Sxf1 16.d6 Sxg2 17.dxe7 Dxe7 18.Kxg2 f5 19.Jc4 Vad8 20.Va2 Vd5 21.Je3 Vd7 22.Vd2 f4 23.gxf4 Vxf4 24.Dh5 Vd8 25.Vc2 Vdf8 26.Se1 Df6 27.De5 Df7 28.b4 Vf3 29.Ve2 Vf4 30.Kf1 Dg6 31.Vc2 Dh6 32.Ke2 Dxh2 33.Kd1 Dh1 34.Dxe6+ Kh8 35.Dxc6 h6 36.d5 Vxf2 37.Vxf2 Vxf2 38.Dc8+ Kh7 39.Dg4 h5 40.Dg3 Va2 41.d6 Va1+ 42.Kd2 Vxe1 43.Dxe1 Ë?–Ë?

  8. philippe on 21 January 2007 15:47 PM

    superbe combinaison de maxime

  9. Pablo on 21 January 2007 15:56 PM

    Radjabovs extra pawn??
    u mean passed pawn or am i wrong??
    by the way brilliant coverage+page
    and the videos are really great!!!!!
    PAblo

  10. slibbe on 21 January 2007 16:04 PM

    Topalov - Anand 1-0

  11. Pablo on 21 January 2007 16:06 PM

    why did anand resign???
    there were still chances^^

  12. Doc99 on 21 January 2007 16:19 PM

    I think a possible Nf4 was dangerous for anand.

  13. Pablo on 21 January 2007 16:21 PM

    yes ok but would u resign???

  14. Nedelcho on 21 January 2007 16:22 PM

    Kramnik will be his next victim!

  15. Doc99 on 21 January 2007 16:28 PM

    Do you think Rxf5 could be a move in Topalov-Anand?

  16. count-blahblah on 21 January 2007 16:37 PM

    congrats on this wonderful site! topalov’s conference on his game against shirov and kramnik’s on his win over anand were something really extraordinary.tks a lot for posting those. are you here to stay?
    i didnt understand why anand resigned so soon, and hope topalov explains it later

  17. forest on 21 January 2007 16:49 PM

    he just has :)

  18. Nedelcho on 21 January 2007 16:54 PM

    Would you tell me where the conferences are posted?

  19. peter on 21 January 2007 17:08 PM

    here of course!!

  20. thenewone on 21 January 2007 17:31 PM

    good work for chessvibes.com especially about videos from the tourney!
    thanks!

  21. Pablo on 21 January 2007 19:08 PM

    was there a press conference of topalov??

  22. Ararat on 21 January 2007 23:24 PM

    Aronian is No 1

  23. Chris Breeden on 22 January 2007 1:40 AM

    Thijmen Stal
    2007-01-21 3.08 pm 4How can these chessplayers concentrate with all the flashing photographers a few feet from their boards?

    Press are allowed to take pictures, just not allowed to use flash during the games. Besides that its kept well quiet and the players dont seem to show any inconvience from the spectators or press.

  24. chessfan on 22 January 2007 2:06 AM

    >”De Bulgaar riep opeens tegen Friedel dat Fritz9 niet sterker dan Fritz10,”
    Bedoel je niet net omgekeerd? Waarom zou Fritz9 sterker zijn dan Fritz10?

    >”en daarvoor had hij het sluitende bewijs dat hij één partij van Kramnik had geanalyseerd met beide engines.”
    Nog steeds geobsedeerd door Kramnik? Ik vraag me toch sterk af of die ze nog alle 5 op een rij heeft. Een nieuwe Fischer?

  25. Alberto on 22 January 2007 4:03 AM

    Finally there is a peace offer…
    Congratulations to all with your results, whether win or loose.

    Y Shirov…spabila te

  26. Niko Kitov on 22 January 2007 10:24 AM

    “Pablo
    2007-01-21 4.06 pm 11

    why did anand resign???
    there were still chances ”

    Chances of what ? Defeat after another few moves.

  27. Jeroen on 22 January 2007 18:04 PM

    Frederic Friedel trying to convince Topalov that Rybka isn’t better than Fritz 10!? This guy is living in his own world! Rybka 32 bit is 100 elopoints stronger than Fritz 10, Rybka 64 bit around 150 elopoints.

    Poor Frederic, he is trying to convince the world that not Italy is the worldchamp in soccer, but Germany :-))

  28. Robin on 23 January 2007 10:41 AM

    Here is a shootout of the game Topalov-Anand
    by rybka(18 ply). It is a little prove that Anand made the right decision.

    35. Nd3 Qe7 36. a5 Rcd8 37. Re3 Kg8 38. h5 Kh7 39. Ke2 Rd6 40. Nf4 Kg8 41.
    Kf3 Qd7 42. Bb2 Rc8 43. Qe5 Re8 44. Re2 Qe7 45. Qc5 Qd7 46. Rc2 a6 47. Ng6 Rd8
    48. Kg2 Qf7 49. Rf2 Qd7 50. Bc3 Kh7 51. Re2 Kg8 52. Re1 Qf7 53. d5 Rxd5 54.
    Ne7+ Kh7 55. Nxd5 Rxd5 56. Qxc6 Qxh5 57. Qxe6 Rd3 58. Re3 Rd1 59. Be1 Rb1 60.
    Qe5 Rd1 61. Qc7 Ra1 62. Re7 Ra2+ 63. Bf2 Qg4 64. Qc8 Ra3 1-0

  29. Whitey on 23 January 2007 11:12 AM

    Once again, great videos! For those of us who can’t be there it’s almost like the real thing.
    Keep it up on this excellent site.

  30. L B V PRASAD on 15 February 2007 8:33 AM

    Dear Chess enthusiasts,

    I have never played with RYBCA 2.2 or earlier versions -but own fritz 10 & having a gala time every evening when i’m back home from work.

    The audio visual training mode is simply superb
    with Chess Legends like gary kasparov & a host of others training/lecturing you on various aspects of chess game.

    Besides the coach function is excellent.A lot can be learnt from F10.

    Its wonderful watching Gary kasparov reel out queen’s gambit theory right till the middle game -superb…that’s what legends are made of???

    suggest go for fritz 10-that should be great for you till another version with addl features hits the mall.

    best regards/prasad lbv

Got something to say?





Bottom