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Round 2 games + Post-mortem Carlsen-Leko

24 June 2007 9:22 PM | Last modified: 21:23

The second round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2007 was slightly more exciting with two decisive games and two drawn. Kramnik-Gelfand has just finished; a great game in typical Kramnik-style, grinding down Gelfand from a slightly better position right out of the opening into an ending with a queenside majority that finally led to the win of a pawn. Gelfand tried hard but couldn’t hold it in the end.

Before that, here in the press room Alekseev had been interviewed again for the Russian television (this might be a daily thing I presume) and naturally he was smiling a lot, since he had just beaten the only winner of the first round, Mamedyarov. In a Sicilian Scheveningen (regular ChessVibes visitors now know how to pronounce!) Alekseev got a an edge out of the opening and at some point Mamedyarov sacrificed the exchange for the strong Bc4 and it looked like decent compensation with his knight landing on d4, but after 42…Kh7? it was suddenly all over. Naiditsch chose for the “solid at all cost” Ruy Lopez Exchange and he seemed to have a bit actually but Carlsen’s active plan on the kingside kept the position balanced. Long before that, Anand-Leko had already ended in a draw after another unsuccessful attempt to get anything more than equality against the Marshall. It’s as solid as the Petroff Defense these days (but a bit more fun).

Meanwhile I’ve been editing the footage of the Carlsen-Leko post-mortem (round 1). The result can be viewed here:


Click To Play

Standings after round 2:

1-2. Alekseev, Kramnik     1.5
3-6. Anand, Leko,
     Carlsen, Mamedyarov   1.0
7-8. Gelfand, Naiditsch    0.5

Tomorrow is the first ‘rest day’. Actually the participants will play a sort of a blitz exhibition against amateurs (each top GM will play ten games). Of course ChessVibes will try to put it on video…

Written by peter | Filed under Videos, Tournaments 

Comments

10 Responses to “Round 2 games + Post-mortem Carlsen-Leko”

  1. Ron on 24 June 2007 10:55 PM

    Kramnik-Gelfand, what an incredible game. The World Champion is playing chess from outer space.

  2. Frans on 25 June 2007 9:07 AM

    prachtig om te zien dat Carlsen zich bepaald niet onder laat sneeuwen. Sterker nog, tactisch gezien is ie hier de bovenliggende partij in deze analyse.

  3. reyK on 25 June 2007 3:45 PM

    They can analyze and talk a lot at the same time. Not everybody can do that. It shows both of them master chess very, very well.

  4. Rudolf Gobauer on 25 June 2007 3:56 PM

    I enjoyed your presentation of the Carlson-Leko post mortem - especially the diagrams are really helpful.

    Rudolf Gobauer, Heidelberg (Germany)

  5. Kiel Russell on 25 June 2007 10:22 PM

    If you have interview with Peter Leko, can you ask him why he gave up playing the Grunfeld defence. It would be a very interesting insight to how a grandmaster views a opening and the resulting positions.

  6. Michael on 26 June 2007 12:25 AM

    Definetely you re doing a great job by posting
    these games and post morten. Thank you in name
    of the world chess players.

  7. Christos (Greece) on 26 June 2007 8:36 PM

    Thank you very much for the post-mortem. It helps us know a bit how these top players are thinking.

  8. Pal G. on 27 June 2007 4:50 AM

    Thank you for the videos. Wish I was there..

    Regards,
    Pal

  9. robb on 28 June 2007 4:48 AM

    Thanks!!

  10. John on 7 July 2007 7:49 PM

    Thanks a lot for the video and that you edited it for us. It is not possible to follow otherwise because the board is too unclear.

    Good work!

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