The World Chess Candidates Tournament – London 2013 7th round

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(Photo taken from the official site of the event)

All games were drawn but but these were fighting draws! Kramnik got a very flexible position out of a Nimzo Indian against Gelfand and was on a good side of the equality in the middlegame. Only 18…Ne8 appears to be a mistake (with 18…Qd8 or 18…Be7 being better moves) due to the possible 19.Neg5 with very good chances for attack.
Ivanchuk played the long endgame line of the Mieses Variation in the Scotch against Svidler, preventing Black to get any play using his central pawns and was never on the verge of being even slightly worse :).
Carlsen played the Rossolimo with an early b3 against Radjabov and got some play on Black weak pawns but in return Black got possibilities for attack. With 11..f5 and later …f4 Black creates some dangerous threats on the kingside and gave white a reason to worry. Instead of 21.Qe4 (which is apparently a mistake) both Qg4 or Qh3 are OK for white although Black’s active position guarantees him fine play. On move 23 probably better was to win the exchange and then to improve the B via c7 to a5 when it would create an unpleasant pin. Black is at least much better, if not more.
In the Classical Variation of the Queen’s Indian Grischuk got a good position against Aronian and after multiple exchanges in the early middlegame kept the equality.

Carlsen and Aronian lead the event with 5 points, Svidler and Kramnik have 3.5.

Today’s pairings

GM Carlsen Magnus 2872 – GM Aronian Levon 2809
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 – GM Gelfand Boris 2740
GM Grischuk Alexander 2764 – GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757
GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810 – GM Svidler Peter 2747

Official Site.

The World Chess Candidates Tournament – London 2013 6th round

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IMG_2855
(Photo taken from the official site of the tournament)

Carlsen got very solid position out of a Ruy Lopez against Svidler. The novelty was 15.Bc2 with the usual being 15.Ba3 instead. Carlsen managed to open the position up with d5 on move 17 and his position looked very active. It wasn’t a good idea to capture the pawn on a5 on move 22 as it would have exchanged a good R for a passive one on a1. Perhaps 25.cxd4 was a better choice. Naturally, 25…Bxh3 looked very interesting and should give Black a win but it is not easy to spot when you are playing :). But even after taking on d3 Black pieces were very active. 33.Qh5 was a mistake but it was nearly impossible to find 33.Re8 which was the only move which wasn’t losing anything.
Kramnik’s Catalan was also very interesting! 9.Nc3 is a very rare move, 9.Bf4 or 9.Bg5 are frequently played. 10.Rfd1 appears to be a novelty. The exchange sacrifice on f6 was justified and quite typical. The king and pawns become weak and it looks like white got very good chances for attack. 21.Ne4 or 21.Ra5 looks like possible improvements over 21.Qd2 after which it is difficult to find anything except for a draw.
Gelfand chose the Sicilian and got a very active position against Grischuk which white pieces being passive and mostly all on the first rank. It is possible to suggest many improvements later in the game but it is easy to show it after analysis with an engine rather than during the game :).
Radjabov-Aronian was another Ruy Lopez with Black getting a very comfortable position out of the opening. 16…Bf8 was an interesting choice in my opinion with the idea being to protect the h6-pawn and to leave the B on e3 where it blocks the R. White attempted to attack the king and win space on the kingside with 19.g4 but Black quickly exchanged in the center with dxe4 and went Ne7 to eliminate white’s most active piece. The position around move 20-23 looks still fairly equal when white opened the g-file with g5 to try to attack. 27…Ra6 was an important positional idea which improved the R and helped in defense. The mistake that got Black a much better position was 49.Kg2 which possible improvements being 49.Nf3, attacking e5 again and 49.Kh1.

Carlsen and Aronian lead the event with 4.5 points, Svidler and Kramnik have 3.

Today is a rest day!

Tomorrow’s pairings

Round 7 on 2013/03/23 at 14.00

GM Carlsen Magnus 2872 – GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
GM Aronian Levon 2809 – GM Grischuk Alexander 2764
GM Gelfand Boris 2740 – GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757 – GM Svidler Peter 2747

Official Site.