[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: The Weekend Wrap-Up: Ivanchuk wins Magistral, Carlsen wins match, Morozevich wins Sarajevo, Short wins Bazna and Everyone wins Pivdenny

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
The Weekend Wrap-Up: Ivanchuk wins Magistral, Carlsen wins match, Morozevich wins Sarajevo, Short wins Bazna and Everyone wins Pivdenny
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1212413840.shtml


   The blog provider had a major problem this weekend (the "upstream
   provider had an explosion in the power room of the data center that
   [they] rent space from"), but now they're back up and my odyssey has
   finished, so it's time for an update.
   Let's start with the most high-powered event, the [1]Magistral Ciudad
   de Leon. When we left off, Anand had won his semi-final match against
   Vallejo, albeit with some difficulty. On Saturday, Ivanchuk defeated
   Shirov without much difficulty at all, and then defeated Anand in the
   final, 2.5-1.5. So far, this year is shaping up a lot like 2007 for
   Ivanchuk; hopefully this time he can avoid the end of the year crash.
   (A side comment about Ivanchuk: there is no active player who more
   needs to have a book on his career than Vassily Ivanchuk - preferably
   by the man himself.)
   Next, there's the [2]Carlsen-Leko match. Leko lost game 3, but had
   some chances to equalize the match score. His best chance came in game
   6, when he had a winning rook ending, but several errors in a row
   (some comparatively simple) allowed Carlsen to escape. When Carlsen
   won game 7, match victory was secured, and the last game was played
   for the sake of the spectators. Final score: Carlsen won, 5-3.
   Next up, [3]Sarajevo. The last round is ongoing as of this writing,
   but Morozevich has clinched clear first no matter what happens in
   today's games. (A good thing, too, as Timofeev seems to have him under
   some pressure.) Dominguez has likewise clinched clear second place,
   while Movsesian will finish third - solo unless Timofeev wins.
   Likewise, the [4]King's Tournament is still going today, but Short has
   clinched first. He could theoretically be caught, if he loses his
   remaining game and at least one member of the
   Mecking/Portisch/Andersson troika wins both remaining games, but
   that's unlikely. (There were an odd number of players - I believe
   Ribli withdrew from the event at the last moment - so every round
   leaves one play or another with a bye. Short hasn't had his yet, while
   all his closest pursuers have.)
   Lastly, the [5]Pivdenny event concluded yesterday with a massive tie
   at the top and a gap between the top and bottom halves almost big
   enough for the children of Israel to escape the Egyptians. In this
   8-man double-round robin semi-blitz event (G/10 + 5"), Tregubov,
   Drozdovskij, Gelfand and Ponomariov scored 9/14, with Karpov half a
   point behind with 8.5. (A very good result after a terrible start!)
   Korchnoi and Beim were four and a half points behind (!) with 4, and
   then Golubev came riding the caboose with 3.5.

References

   1. http://www.advancedchessleon.com/
   2. http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng/
   3. http://www.skbosna.ba/
   4. http://www.clubulregilor.ro/
   5. http://worldcup.pivdenny.com/ru/index.php