06.11.2010 – After losing owing to uncharacteristic blunders, Kramnik safely drew. However, Gelfand decided to get his tournament back on track and exploited an inaccuracy by Shirov to win with very fine technique. Nakamura, who had seemed a bit timid before the event, beat Eljanov with a fine win. For your Sunday, we bring you the round two report with analysis by GMs Nakamura and Elshan Moradiabadi.
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The 5th Tal Memorial takes place from November 5th to November 14th, in Moscow, Russia. It is a nine-round round-robin event. Time control: 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by 20 moves in 50 minutes followed by the game in 15 minutes with a 30 second increment as of move one. Game start: 3 PM local time (5 AM Pacific daylight / 8 AM New York / 1 PM Paris) - rest day on November 9th (Mikhail Tal's birthday) Video coverage: Russian TV is providing exceptional daily coverage, with full replays available at the right of the page. |
The entrance to the playing hall
Round two
Before the start of the tournament, American GM Nakamura acknowledged he had little experience with such strong events, therefore his plan was to play solidly and if possible eke out a win or two. Perhaps for this very reason, Mamedyarov declined a repetition in an equal position in the first round, though accepted a few moves later. Here in the second round, Hikaru dropped his famed speed to apply his fullest concentration his game against Eljanov, and it paid its dividends. Here are his own comments to the game.
Round 2: Saturday, November 6th, 2010 S. Mamedyarov ½-½S. Karjakin B. Gelfand 1-0A. Shirov Wang Hao½-½ L. Aronian V. Kramnik ½-½A. Grischuk H. Nakamura 1-0P. Eljanov
Nakamura,Hi (2741) - Eljanov,P (2742) [E00]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (2), 06.11.2010 [Nakamura]
Today, I had white against Eljanov. Coming off yesterday, I wanted to win, or to at least put pressure on him. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Nd2 c5. The opening was a bit unusual, and he surprised me. I wasn't expecting c5, but I played normal moves and the next five or six are pretty standard. 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Bg2 0-0 7.Ngf3 Nc6 8.0-0 d5. This was the first position of the game where either of us had to think, and I used quite a bit of time here. 9.e3. I spent maybe 25 to 30 minutes on this move, mostly looking at variations with ...b6 and ...Ba6.
Hikaru Nakamura, top-rated American GM with 2741 Elo.
9...Qe7. The after only a minute or two of thinking he played 9....Qe7 and I was very surprised by it. It is not a mistake and is completely playable, I just don't think it is best. 10.cxd5. Here I spent another 15 to 20 minutes before taking on d5, because I couldn't find a good plan, and then I saw the plan with a4 followed by Nd4 and Qb3. 10...exd5 11.Nb3 Bb6 12.a4 a6 13.Nbd4 Bg4. Again, these moves are quite normal, and there is little to calculate. You just play the moves that feel the most natural. 14.Qb3 Ba7 15.Bd2 Ne4 16.Bc3. This was the second position where he had a decision to make and I think he made a mistake. 16...Nxc3? After this he will be worse for the rest of the game. 17.bxc3. Although his move may look fairly normal, it leaves weaknesses on d5 and b7 that I can attack. 17...Rfd8 18.Nd2. This is an imprecision, possibly even a mistake. Instead I should have played 18.Ne2 immediately and then headed to f4 as I later did in the game. 18...Na5 19.Qa2. As a matter of fact, I had miscalculated and saw too late that after 18.Nd2 Na5 19.Qb4 Qxb4 20.cxb4 Bxd4 21.exd4 Nc6 wins a pawn. 19...Qd7 20.N2f3. Pretty much I realized my whole idea was incorrect so I went back to f3 planning to play Ne2-f4. 20...Qe7. I was surprised by this, and had been expecting 20...Nc4 21.Ne2 Qf5 If this were to happen, it is unclear. I am probably still a bit better since the d5 pawn is still weak. 21.Ne2 Bf5 22.Nf4 Be4 23.Rfd1. I actually thought his maneuver of Bf5-e4 was correct here. 23...Qc5? This is a big mistake. Variations I had considered were 23...Nc4 24.Nd2 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Bxe3 I wasn't sure about this variation. 26.Nxc4 (26.fxe3 Nxe3+ 27.Kh1 Nxd1 28.Rxd1 d4 Here too I wasn't sure what was going on in the position. Maybe I'm better, maybe I'm worse.) 26...Bxf4 27.Nb6 Rab8 28.gxf4 Rd6 with the idea of Rg6 and Qe4. It could be winning for me, but I wasn't sure. 24.Ng5 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 This looks nothing special at first. 25...h6
Nakamura analyzing the game for the Russian TV audience
26...Rxd5 27.Ne4. And this is the whole point. 27...Qc4. I think Pavel played the correct move. If he had played 27...Qe7 instead, then 28.Qxd5 Rd8 29.Qf5 Nc4 30.Nd5 with a bit of an attack. 28.Qxc4 Nxc4 29.Nxd5 Re8. The correct move. 29...Rd8 seems close to winning, but it doesn't quite work after 30.Ne7+ Kf8 31.Nf5 g6 32.Nd4 (32.Nxh6 f5 33.Ng5 Rd2) 32...Re8 (32...f5? 33.Ne6+) 33.Nf6 Rd8 and White is up a pawn. Should be winning. 30.Nef6+ Completely forced. 30...gxf6 31.Nxf6+ Kf8 32.Nxe8 Kxe8 33.Rb1
Both Gelfand and Shirov were anxious to put their first round slips behind them and get their tournament back on track. Shirov repeated the opening he lost to Kramnik in Bilbao earlier this year, but refined his play and emerged with a solid position. In the endgame he lost his way and found himself with a very difficult position to hold, and failed to do so.
Gelfand,Boris (2739) - Shirov,Alexei (2749) [D16]
5th Tal Memorial Moscow/Russia (2), 06.11.2010 [Elshan Moradiabadi]
A tough battle for both parties. They try to bounce back after a bad start. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 e6. It seems that this is now Shirov's main weapon these days against d4. He played it against Vachier-Lagrave and Kramnik not long ago! 6.e3 c5 7.Bxc4 Nc6 8.0-0 Be7 9.Qe2 cxd4 10.exd4 0-0 11.Rd1 Nd5 12.Bb3 Re8N Shirov does not want to repeat the opening disaster from his game against Kramnik. 13.h4! In Kramnik style! After which black is still safe! 13...Na5 14.Bc2 Nb4 15.Bg5 h6 16.Bxe7 Qxe7 17.Qe4 f5 18.Qe2 b6 19.Re1 Ba6 20.Qd1 Nxc2 21.Qxc2 Bc4 22.d5 Bb3 23.Qe2 Rad8 24.dxe6 Qxe6 25.Qb5 Bc4 26.Rxe6 Bxb5 27.Nd4 Bd7 28.Rxe8+ Rxe8 29.Rd1 Nc4 30.b3 Ne5 31.Ncb5 Bxb5 32.Nxb5 Re7 33.f3 Kf7 34.Rd5 Kg6?
Boris Gelfand showed very fine technique to overcome Shirov
41.Ne2! Fine technique by Gelfand! 41...Rb2 42.Rxd3 Rxe2 43.Rd6+ Kf5 44.Rxb6 Re6 45.a5 Re3 46.b4 Rb3 47.Rxa6 Rxb4 48.Rb6 Ra4 49.Rb5+ Kg6 50.Rg5+ Kh6 51.Kg1 Ra1+ 52.Kf2 g6 53.Ke2 Rh1 54.Kd2 Rxh4 55.Re5 Rh2 56.Re2 h4 57.a6 h3 58.a7 hxg2 59.a8Q g1Q
Karjakin had a chance to make Mamedyarov's life miserable, but failed to make the most of his chances, possibly due to a pessimistic outlook.
Sergey Karjakin in his game against Shakriyar Mamedyarov
Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2761) - Karjakin,Sergey (2760) [E20]
5th Tal Memorial Moscow/Russia (2), 06.11.2010 [Elshan Moradiabadi]
Karjakin came out of the opening, equalizing with no difficulty. The ex-chess prodigy managed to stabilize his advantages and could have made it a sad day for 'Shak', however the "Russian" failed to convince himself that he could do so without getting himself into difficulties and the game eventually ended in a draw. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Ne4 7.Qd3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Be7 9.Bg2 0-0 10.0-0 d6 11.Rd1 a6 12.Be4N
Kramnik,Vladimir (2790) - Grischuk,Alexander (2760) [D55]
5th Tal Memorial Moscow/Russia (2), 06.11.2010 [Elshan Moradiabadi]
After an unusual upset for Kramnik (The number of his blunders against Aronian are equal to the total he made over the last two years) one would expect a tough battle from Kramnik as white, however taking a rest day seems to be the norm among world champions these days! Remember Anand after his loss against Bacrot. Though Kramnik tried something, he didn't seem to be in the mood to take advantage of his opponent's errors. 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.e3 0-0 8.Qc2 Na6 9.a3 c5 10.Rd1 dxc4N
Aronian took up the black side of a fortress-type position from the Open Catalan which he beat Jakovenko with as white. He demonstrated how to keep it close, but was unable to do more.
Wang Hao (2724) - Aronian,Levon (2783) [E05]
5th Tal Memorial Moscow/Russia (2), 06.11.2010 [Elshan Moradiabadi]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Another Catalan. 4...Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6
Pictures by Yana Melnikova
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Schedule and results
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