Morelia pairing

In exactly one hour, the games will start in Morelia, the first part of the super tournament in both Mexico and Spain. The pairings brought up this first round:

Ivanchuk  (2750   – Leko       (2749)
Topalov   (2783)  - Anand      (2779)
Svidler   (2728)  - Aronian    (2744)
Carlsen   (2690)  - Morozevich (2741)

After Corus, we can enjoy chess again at the highest level. It’s a pity that Radjabov, who did so well in Wijk aan Zee, had to withdraw. Some say he should have played anyway, despite all the trouble he went through. Many examples were given of ‘courageous’ chess players who were once robbed on their way to a tournament, and decided to play anyway. But if you lose all your material needed for preparation, including laptop and backups, and you just won a buch of highly expensive rating points, for most chess players, ‘playing anyway’ is simply an unprofessional decision.

According to the Chessvibes visitors, Topalov is the big favourite. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Anand will be seriously playing for gold this tournament, just like Aronian. So it might be a very exciting tournament, just like a month ago. Carlsen didn’t have a very succesful Wijk aan Zee but to us, this doesn’t mean a lot. (By the way don’t forget to check the brand new chess blog by his father!) Svidler normally ends somewhere in the middle although we hope for a bit more, after meeting him in Wijk and watching his great press conference there. Morozevich will very much like to prove he’s able to show high tpr’s in elite tournaments as well, but whether he will succeed… As said before, with no preperation, and nobody who prepared for him, Ivanchuk will win the tournament of course.

The Chessvibes team is not present in Mexico, but with some contacts on the spot, there might be some possibilities to provide some moving images. In Linares, slightly more close to home, we will have someone to film for us! For following the games live, there is the following excellent possibility. (The following paragraph was provided by ICC.)

ICC Chess.FM will have daily live commentary of Morelia-Linares, the second major of 2007, hosted by Mig Greengard, who will be joined by former World Chess Champion, GM Susan Polgar, with IM Jennifer Shahade, GM Jon Speelman, GM Larry Christiansen, GM Joel Benjamin, and GM Gregory Kaidanov. You can get a free trial membership to check it out here.