Ivanchuk wins M-Tel Masters 2008
18 May 2008 17:51 PM | Last modified: 20:54
Vassily Ivanchuk had decided that a sharp opening was suitable for the last round today. This says enough: what a wonderful winner we have! The Ukrainian beat Cheparinov, and we already have the press conference afterwards. Photos closing ceremony added.
Thanks to a fantastic start of five wins in a row, Ivanchuk’s victory was never really in danger. In the end he scored six wins and three draws, setting a performance rating of 2977. Of course Topalov had an excellent tournament as well, and his score of 6,5 / 10 is normally enough to win this tournament (two years ago he won with that score, and last year 5,5 points was even enough to finish clear first).
Radjabov can be satisfied as well: he finished a very tough chess period - he played 31 games in 46 days - with a result a bit above his expected score. Cheparinov played slightly under his rating and so only Bu and Aronian leave Sofia disappointedly.
Well, the Chinese grandmaster has repeated again and again that he sees his first super tournament as one big learning experience, so he’ll be all right, but Aronian is really not happy. This man has finished first more often than last in his career!
Thanks to his tournament victory, Vassily has qualified for the Bilbao Grand Slam in September, after Levon Aronian (Corus) and Viswanathan Anand (Linares). During the press conference it became clear that he didn’t know anything about that tournament yet - he wondered if it was a rapid event! This shows how much Ivanchuk loves the game of course - he doesn’t have time for unimportant details.
Cheparinov-Ivanchuk + the press conference:
Round 10
Ivanchuk hadn’t played this line of the Taimanov Sicilian that often but he could use his experience with the white pieces. 17.Rg3 was an interesting novely by Cheparinov, but Ivanchuk reacted strongly with 17…b4 and 18…Bd8!, taking away the b6 square from the white knight. White was forced to allow a weakening of his king’s position and therefore objectively speaking he should have gone for a slightly worse ending with 24.Bxb6 Qxb6 (24…Bxb6 25.Qh4 is a better version than the game) 25.Qxb6 (25.Qh4 h6) 25…Bxb6 because the text move 24.Qh4 was not dangerous, as Chucky showed.
The other two games ended in a draw. The early phase of Topalov-Radjabov was very attractive but actually it’s theory until 17…Bf3: the game Klovans-Sveshnikov, Riga 2005 ended in a draw after 18.Qa4+ Bc6 19.Qd1. After this game Topalov will have the same insight as Klovans: White can’t escape from the bind and has to allow a perpetual check somewhere.
Aronian-Bu Xiangzhi was a duel for last place (in the end, the disappointing Armenian finished at the bottom on tiebreak!). From a Grünfeld the players quickly went to an ending with an extra pawn for White, but due to Black’s activity White couldn’t prevent a total exchange of pawns on the queenside. The resulting ending was not difficult to draw for Bu.
M-Tel Masters 2008 Final Standings
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
| 1 | Ivanchuk,Vassily | 2740 | +237 | ** | 1½ | 1½ | 11 | 1½ | 1½ | 8.0/10 | 2977 | |
| 2 | Topalov,Veselin | 2767 | +72 | 0½ | ** | ½½ | 11 | 10 | 11 | 6.5/10 | 2841 | |
| 3 | Radjabov,Teimour | 2751 | +18 | 0½ | ½½ | ** | ½½ | ½1 | ½1 | 5.5/10 | 2770 | |
| 4 | Cheparinov,Ivan | 2696 | -20 | 00 | 00 | ½½ | ** | 11 | ½½ | 4.0/10 | 2673 | |
| 5 | Bu Xiangzhi | 2708 | -111 | 0½ | 01 | ½0 | 00 | ** | ½½ | 3.0/10 | 16.25 | 2594 |
| 6 | Aronian,Levon | 2763 | -177 | 0½ | 00 | ½0 | ½½ | ½½ | ** | 3.0/10 | 13.75 | 2583 |
Videos by Europe-Echecs:
All players received their cartoon portrait that hang in the press room during the tournament…
…plus a bottle of Magura wine with their own name on the label
Josef Vinatzer, CEO of M-Tel, handed a special prize to the winner: a copy of a very old Bulgarian version of the Holy Trinity.
Ivanchuk shows his latest addition to an already huge prize collection
Juan Carlos Fernandez gives Ivanchuk the contract for the Bilbao Grand Slam tournament in September
Links:
Many thanks for your coverage Peter
Do you know what Chuck’s rating will be on the next list? How much did he actually gain here?
Vasily is a great player and a wonderful person… thanks for the video
Sorry, meant to say “Chucky’s”!
“Do you know what Chuck’s rating will be on the next list?”
2781, according to the Live Top List:
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php
B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E A U T I F U L B E
What is wrong in Topalov-Radjabov with 17.-Be3 -giving up an exchange but gaining space and activity-instead of Rg1?
And what is the matter with 21.-Kd2 instead of Kf1?
Chucky’s really genius at the press conference! Brilliant!
Ik tel vier ipv drie remises voor Ivanchuk.
@Juan:
Isn’t 17. Be3, Bxh1 18. Bxd4, exd4 19. f3, Bg2 a whole rook instead of an exchange?
20. Kd2 (instead of 20. Kf1), b3! 21. a3, Nb4!! seems very nasty for White; He has to take, otherwise the rook check on c2 is killing. But after 22 axb4, Bxb4+ 23. Qc3, Bxc3+ 24. bxc3 I would happy to be Black with moves like Be4, b2 and Rb8 coming, don’t know what is the most favourable (only NOT 22. …, Be4 23. Rxa6, b2? 24. Rb6, b1Q 25. Rgxb1, Bxb1 26. Rxb1 and White is much better).
At closer inspection, 21. Kd2 (in the last post I had the move count wrong), 21. …, b3 is not really killing because of 22. d6! Oops.
Even so, the ending after 22. …, Rd8 23. dxe7, Rxd3+ 24. Kxd3, Nxa1 25. Rxa1, Kxe7 26. axb3 looks drawish.
In the game, White was definitely looking for more than a draw just after the queen sacrifice.
There is a web site that is kept up-to-date regularly, and which keeps tracks of the (UNOFFICIAL) top level ratings… Enjoy!
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php
Luc Bourbonnais
Who is more talented, do you think? Ivanchuk or Carlsen?
Re Chucky: what u write makes an interesting comparison with self-srtyled dirt-doer “Chess Ninja” (sadistic touch there too) who describes Ivanchuk as “aerily affected as ever”. One reason for my unsubsubscribing to ICC was I found Ninja’s endless jokes on ICC Radio (masking cyncism) rather wearing .
Oscar Wilde wrote: “A cynic is sb who knows the price of everything & the value of nothing”.