Morozevich on 6 out of 7

Due to his recent succes at the M-Tel Masters, Ivanchuk seemed to be taking over the number 3 spot in the world rankings but Morozevich is not letting him: the Russian is on a smashing 6 out of 7 in Sarajevo, a performance just below 3000!

This year’s Bosna tournament, a six-player double round-robin with an average Elo of 2694, is held from May 22 until June 2, 2008 in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina. We left the tournament after the third round, when Morozevich had taken the lead with a fine attacking game against Movsesian.

In the fourth round he was held to a draw by Dominguez after a sharp but short tactical Sicilian, and then Moro went on winning his next three White games. In the fifth round he defeated Timofeev in an instructive equal-coloured bishop’s ending with an extra pawn, which was blocked by the opponent’s king. Perhaps Black was able to hold it but Morozevich’s persistence lasted until move 80 at which point Timofeev had to resign.

The sixth round was played yesterday (Wednesday was a free day). Morozevich beat Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov, who’s huge experience couldn’t compensate for his lack of play recently. Or should we just say that Morozevich is simply too strong now for the Bosnia-born GM?

The tournament looks a lot like the M-Tel Masters, but the organizers didn’t copy one thing from the Bulgarians: instead of switching rounds, the second half mirroring the first with reversed colours, and as a result Morozevich has been playing the white pieces three times in a row now.

Today Morozevich won quite easily again, this time against Predojevic from an Exchange Slav. As always, it didn’t seem too dangerous for Black but in the hands of the Russian top grandmaster this line is often a lethal weapon. While Black was directing everything to White’s e-pawn, his own d-pawn became much weaker.

Perhaps he had missed that 30…Rd7 is answered by 31.Rxc6!. In the complications that followed White was always in control.

The other participants are killing each other’s chances to win the event, with many draws among them, and so Moro is already leading with one and a half points. It should be noted that Dominguez, who had won the Capablanca Memorial in his own country before going to Sarajevo, again plays an excellent tournament.

Bosna 2008 Round 7 Standings

The tournament is announced in the street

The stage where the games are played

Group A is situated behing group B


Predojevic-Movsesian

Predojevic-Dominguez

Timofeev-Sokolov

Dominguez-Morozevich

Sokolov-Movsesian

Morozevich-Predojevic

Links:

• Tournament website
• Games in PGN