Morelia/Linares, 17 February - 10 March 2007
Last Edited:
Monday March 12, 2007 9:16 AM
The annual Morelia/Linares super-torneo has begun in Morelia, Mexico.
The first cycle takes place from 17-25 February (rest days 20th and 23rd)
and then the tournament crosses the Atlantic to Linares, where play takes
place from 2-10 March. Line-up: Topalov (2783), Anand (2779),
Ivanchuk (2750), Leko (2749), Aronian (2744), Morozevich
(2741), Svidler (2728), Carlsen (2690). Teimour Radjabov
was in the original line-up but withdrew after his father's hotel room
was robbed (in Patzcuaro, Mexico, on 10 February) and 'many important
and valuable' items were taken. Radjabov says that the local police did
not even carry out an investigation and that he and his father received
little support from the organisers following the robbery [click
here for the report on ChessBase's website]. The organisers were somewhat
fortunate in having Vasyl Ivanchuk on hand to replace Radjabov - Ivanchuk's
rating is actually higher than Radjabov's.
View
games • Download
Games • Official
Website
Round 14 - Anand secured first place with a
comfortable draw against Ivanchuk. Carlsen lost his last round game to
Leko but still managed to share second second place with the amazing Morozevich,
who inflicted Svidler's only defeat of the tournament. Morozevich was
the other player in second place; a remarkable recovery considering that
he was down and out with only 2/7 in Morelia. His score of 5½/7
in Linares was phenomenal. Leko's last round win meant that he shared
last place with world number one Topalov. Final Scores: Anand 8½/14,
Carlsen, Morozevich 7½, Aronian, Svidler 7, Ivanchuk 6½,
Leko, Topalov 6.
Round 13 - Vishy Anand retains his half-point
lead after halving out with Peter Leko and is surely on his way to replacing
Topalov as world-rated number one, not to mention winning the tournament.
Carlsen-Svidler was a bit more interesting, with Svidler getting a queen
and pawn for two rooks before deciding that discretion was the better
part of valour. Aronian-Ivanchuk featured a long and complicated tactical
sequence which strained the brains of watching spectators, but it finally
resolved in a faint edge for Black that proved insufficient to win. Alexander
Morozevich clearly prefers playing chess on the European side of the Atlantic.
In Morelia he only managed 2/7, adrift of the field by a clear point,
but in Linares he has scored 4½/6, a point more than Anand and
Svidler, and completely banished the prospect of going home with the wooden
spoon. His win against Topalov was the only decisive result of the day.
It came down to a level knight and pawns endgame which became a level
queen and pawn endgame where the decisive factor was that Morozevich's
pawn was more advanced than Topalov's. We will have to await a super-GM
verdict on what happened but it seems likely that Topalov failed to find
a correct defence. But you have to take your hat off to the determination
of the young Russian player. The result leaves the world number one only
half a point ahead of bottom-placed Peter Leko and seemingly back to his
inconsistency of pre-San Luis days. Scores: Anand 8/13, Carlsen
7½, Svidler 7, Aronian, Morozevich 6½, Ivanchuk 6, Topalov
5½, Leko 5.
Round 12 - The two leading players scored comfortable
draws. Carlsen in particular found little difficulty in drawing with the
off-form world number one Topalov. Ivanchuk-Morozevich reflected well
on the enterprising efforts of both players. Morozevich eventually generated
massive queenside threats for a sacrificed pawn and converted to a winning
Q+PP v R+R endgame, thereby lifting himself out of the bottom spot for
the first time in the tournament. Peter Svidler obtained similarly impressive
Black counterplay from an entirely different opening against Peter Leko.
Svidler was already getting excellent compensation for his sacrificed
pawn when Leko blundered into an untenable position on move 32. This,
Svidler's first decisive result, was enough to move him into third place,
while Leko now languishes a point off the field in last place. Scores:
Anand 7½/12, Carlsen 7, Svidler 6½, Aronian 6, Ivanchuk,
Morozevich, Topalov 5½, Leko 4½.
Round 11 - Magnus Carlsen completed the double
over Ivanchuk to move within half a point of leader Anand and one point
clear of three players on 50%. Ivanchuk played a move (15...Qe7) which
had already been played and found wanting some years ago, and Carlsen
whipped up a powerful attack. He netted a piece for two pawns but the
piece was too good for the Ukrainian. The other games were drawn. Scores:
Anand 7/11, Carlsen 6½, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Svidler 5½, Topalov
5, Leko, Morozevich 4½.
Round 10 - Anand is now a point clear of the
field after defeating co-leader Carlsen. The young Norwegian left his
kingside open to a dangerous attack which soon broke through. Once again
Leko was in poor form but this time he managed to struggle through to
draw a pawn down against Topalov. Aronian-Morozevich and Ivanchuk-Svidler
both petered out to a draw. Scores: Anand 6½/10, Carlsen,
Ivanchuk 5½, Aronian, Svidler 5, Topalov 4½, Leko, Morozevich
4.
Round 9 - The world numbers 1 and 2 had to fight
to avoid losses today. Svidler had the better of things against Anand
but could not impose himself. Topalov should probably have lost against
Ivanchuk but the Ukrainian ran out of time to exploit his advantage. Carlsen-Aronian
was dreary theory. In the one decisive result of the day, Leko allowed
a fairly stereotypical exchange sacrifice by Morozevich and was duly despatched.
Scores: Anand, Carlsen 5½/9, Ivanchuk 5, Aronian, Svidler
4½, Topalov 4, Leko, Morozevich 3½.
Round 8 - the first round in Spain saw four
draws. Anand-Topalov and Aronian-Svidler were not very interesting, Leko-Ivanchuk
reached a king and pawn endgame in only 31 moves (but was still not too
exciting) but Morozevich-Carlsen had its fair share of interest for the
spectators. Carlsen appears to have brought his good form with him to
Linares; he made the running against the Russian but didn't get enough
to win. Scores: Anand, Carlsen 5/8, Ivanchuk 4½, Aronian,
Svidler 4, Leko, Topalov 3½, Morozevich 2½.
Round 7 - a flurry of decisive results brought
Anand up to share the lead with Carlsen after ending Leko's streak of
draws, Ivanchuk beat Aronian and Topalov beat Morozevich. Svidler made
it seven draws out of seven for the tournament, drawing against Carlsen
in the one relatively uneventful game of the day. Leko seemed to have
a strong edge against Anand but when the queens came off the position
shifted in favour of the world number two, who gave up the exchange for
a pawn and then obtained two mighty connected passed pawns. Ivanchuk made
an early decision to concentrate his forces against Aronian's isolated
d-pawn, at the expense of yielding the c-file to Aronian's doubled rooks.
It proved to be an inspired choice of plan as the d-pawn duly fell and
the Ukrainian made the job of winning look easy. Morozevich's 9...g5 and
subsequent piece sacrifice ensured that his game with Topalov would be
highly entertaining. Topalov gave back the material and thereafter the
game became hugely complicated as both players sought to attack the opponent's
exposed king. Understandably, chances were missed by both players but
eventually Topalov established control of the position and won. Scores
at the halfway mark: Anand, Carlsen 4½, Ivanchuk 4, Aronian,
Svidler 3½, Leko, Topalov 3, Morozevich 2. The tournament now pauses
for four days, crosses the Atlantic and resumes in Linares on 2 March.
Round 6 - the players awarded themselves an
extra rest day, with all four games being agreed drawn in fairly short
order. Anand-Ivanchuk had a little more interest than the others, but
not much. Scores: Carlsen 4/6, Anand, Aronian 3½,
Leko, Svidler, Ivanchuk 3, Morozevich, Topalov 2.
Round 5 - a bizarre round, with all the interesting
action reserved for a time way past European bedtimes. ICC commentators
Larry Christiansen and Jennifer Shahade concentrated on the game Svidler-Leko
- a double-edged Marshall Attack - in lieu of anything more substantial
to talk about for the first few hours of play. But then Svidler and Leko
repeated the position and agreed a draw. Morozevich failed to make a breach
in Ivanchuk's stodgy Berlin wall and they too agreed a draw. At that stage
it wasn't expected that a decisive result would emerge from the other
two games but the unexpected happened. Aronian secured the two bishops
and a passed pawn but it did not look too dangerous for Anand. However,
Aronian produced a speculative sacrifice of a piece which gave White two
passed (a and d) pawns. Aronian gave up another piece to drive the pawns
forward and Anand was forced to give back all the sacrificed material
plus the exchange just to stay alive. In an already poor position, Anand
then blundered and had to resign. It remains to be seen whether Aronian's
concept was sound but, on the face of it, his imaginative play in this
game (very little of which is found by computer software) looks brilliant.
The end of Carlsen-Topalov was equally unexpected but, truly, we proceed
from the sublime to the ridiculous. Nothing too dramatic happened for
the first 40 or so moves, though Carlsen played a couple of risky moves
while Topalov was uncharacteristically cagey. The world number one persisted
in not taking proffered pawn sacrifices until Carlsen virtually forced
him to on move 49. Carlsen's attack gathered momentum but he missed a
likely winner on move 55 (Nd2!). The line chosen was insufficient and
the game seemed to be petering out to a draw when... Topalov resigned.
It transpired that he had not seen a relatively simple defence which holds
in the final position. Topalov's form in this tournament had been strange
enough until this round, but now it must invite speculation that he has
been affected by the allegations made during the Wijk tournament that
his manager has been signalling moves to him. We also have to bear in
mind that he made a similarly awful start to Morelia/Linares last year,
but bounced back in Spain and very nearly won the tournament.
As a result of this remarkable turnaround, Magnus Carlsen
has regained the lead. Scores: Carlsen 3½/5, Anand,
Aronian 3, Leko, Svidler, Ivanchuk 2½, Morozevich, Topalov 1½.
Round 4 - Vishy Anand is in the sole lead after
beating Alexander Morozevich, who is now last. Morozevich seemed to be
getting the edge in the late middlegame but once again messed things up
in time trouble. Carlsen beat Ivanchuk and leapfrogged over him into second
place. The Ukrainian seemed well placed around move 30 but then he too
spoiled his game in time trouble. The mature way Carlsen cashed in the
resultant positional advantage was very impressive. Leko sacrificed the
exchange for two pawns against Aronian but then had to suffer for a while
before securing the draw. Topalov looked to be a little better against
Svidler but agreed a draw on move 29. The world number one seems curiously
muted at Morelia. Scores: Anand 3/4, Carlsen 2½, Svidler,
Aronian, Ivanchuk, Leko 2, Topalov 1½, Morozevich 1.
Round 3 - Magnus Carlsen went into his shell
against Vishy Anand and was crushed. Morozevich missed a number of wins
just before the time control against Aronian and had to be content with
a draw. Topalov-Leko was rather theoretical and not very interesting.
Svidler-Ivanchuk was the last to finish and ended in a draw after all
the endgame tricks had been exhausted. Scores: Anand, Ivanchuk
2/3, Svidler, Aronian, Leko Carlsen 1½, Morozevich, Topalov 1.
Round 2 - Just the one decisive result again in
this round as Topalov blundered a piece in a poor position against Ivanchuk.
However, the other three games were equally well contested and two of
them (Leko-Morozevich and Aronian-Carlsen) very exciting. Aronian sacrificed
a piece against Carlsen though it might have cost him dear had Carlsen
found the right line. Scores: Carlsen, Ivanchuk 1½,
Aronian, Svidler, Leko, Anand 1, Morozevich, Topalov ½.
Round 1 - Magnus Carlsen, the youngest and only
sub-2700 competitor, who went through 13 rounds at Corus Wijk without
winning a single game, won his very first game in Morelia to lead the
tournament. Carlsen sacrificed a piece just out of the opening but Morozevich
decided to give it back at the cost of a pawn. It came down to an endgame
where Morozevich seemed to have a safe draw in hand. He blundered a second
pawn but managed to exchange down to what still appeared to be a drawn
opposite bishop endgame. But the Russian completely mishandled it and
allowed the 16-year-old to win. The other games were drawn. Ivanchuk sacrificed
a piece for a very promising attack against Leko but was left with so
little time on his clock that he had to bale out with a perpetual check.
View
games • Download
Games • Official
Website
|
