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.

The World Chess Candidates Tournament – London 2013 5th round

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Svidler and Trent during a conference
(Photo taken from the official site of the tournament)

Although all 4 games finished in a draw, players showed an incredible fighting spirit! In the game Ivanchuk-Carlsen – 11.Qa3 turned out to be a novelty, later on Black sacrificed a pawn to simplify and was never in any danger. Svidler got what seemed to be a huge positional advantage against Gelfand out of a 5.Bd2 Gruenfeld (some online sources may call it prosaic, but it never showed :)), with very good attacking possibilities. The 7.f4 & 8. Nf3 plan was new and looks very strong. Perhaps, one improvement is 14.g4 with the idea of Qh3 directly, keeping the d4-pawn protected well for the time being. In Kramnik-Aronian game 11…Qb8 was a new plan, which gave Black a very solid position. White sacrificed a pawn on a2 trying to activate the pieces on the kingside and get attacking chances, but Black managed to give the pawn back and neutralise the threats. One possible suggestion is 27…f6 exchanging part of white’s center, another is 32…Rc2 with the idea of b2. Radjabov played a new move 13…g6 against Grischuk, instead of 13…Ba6 played in the game Nakamura-Gelfand, 2011 or 13…Bf6 played in Wang Hao-Matlakov, 2012. Looks like Black got a very solid play on the queenside and then made an interesting piece sacrifice on c5 to get 3 passed pawns against the N. It was perhaps better to play 36…b4 directly although the N never looked too great against the pawns.

Aronian and Carlsen share 1st – 2nd places with 3.5 points, Svidler is 3rd with 3.

Pairings of today’s round

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

Official Site.