[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Elista Candidates, Round 2, Game 5: Leko & Gelfand Advance

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Elista Candidates, Round 2, Game 5: Leko & Gelfand Advance
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1181597834.shtml


   I had to leave 90 minutes into today's round; to my amazement, three
   of the games were already finished! First to finish (though the
   longest game by move count) was Aronian-Shirov. Aronian used
   Bronstein's old exchange sac line against his opponent's Grünfeld and
   followed the game Topalov-Shirov, Wijk aan Zee 2007 (1-0, 41) as long
   as possible. Shirov's novelty appeared on move 25, and it looks like a
   good one. As far as I can tell, White had better improve before move
   25, or he can just agree to a draw on the spot. That makes the score
   3-2 Aronian, so Shirov has to win the last slow game, with White, to
   push the match to tiebreaks.
   Leko-Bareev was a pro forma affair. Bareev played the drawish Main
   Line Classical Caro-Kann, and Leko was happy to go along. They shook
   hands after Black's 19th move, ending the match in Leko's favor by a
   3.5-1.5 score.
   Grischuk-Rublevsky didn't even make it that far, given up as drawn
   after White's 18th move. I suppose Grischuk fancies his chances in
   rapid chess, but will Rublevsky go along with this tomorrow? At any
   rate, the match is tied at 2.5 points apiece.
   Finally, there was one decisive game, though objectively it too should
   have been drawn. Kamsky either made a poor opening choice against
   Gelfand or expected his opponent to choose a different sideline. As
   the game progressed, Kamsky allowed his opponent to use a well-known
   Ivanchuk idea, and a few moves later Kamsky had a choice: make the
   obviously best move and draw, or accept a position with spurious
   compensation for a pawn in the hope of getting lucky. Not wanting to
   have to win with Black in the final game, Kamsky chose the riskier
   approach and lost both the game and the match (3.5-1.5). Still,
   Kamsky's to be commended for both his fighting spirit and for his
   outstanding performance in this cycle, especially after such a long
   layoff. His openings still don't look up to super-GM snuff to me, but
   I expect he'll be at full strength the next time around.
   So: two down, two to go! Shirov must win to stay alive, and the winner
   of Rublevsky-Grischuk wins the match.
   Games [1]here (with comments).

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/elista_candidates_2007_rd2_g5.htm