[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: The Daily Update: Round 6 at Aerosvit; The Karen Asrian Memorial heats up

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
The Daily Update: Round 6 at Aerosvit; The Karen Asrian Memorial heats up
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1213381753.shtml


   Today's round in the [1]Aerosvit tournament was a dud: six draws, half
   of them 22 moves or fewer. There was one worthwhile game, however, and
   that was the battle between Alexei Shirov and Sergey Karjakin. Shirov
   employed Topalov's* 12.Nxf7!? sac in the Anti-Meran Gambit and
   craziness ensued. Have a look at this position, for instance:
   [shirov_karjakin_foros2008.jpg]
   It's Black to move and it looks like he's dead: the bishop on g5 can't
   be protected, but it has no safe moves, either - moving it off the
   h4-d8 diagonal allows the devastating 22.Bh4+. So what's Black to do?
   See if you can figure it out - and then see if you can figure out how
   White can survive! This game almost made the otherwise lousy round
   worth it, and you can replay it, with my comments, [2]here.
   The relative standings are thus the same as they were yesterday:
   Magnus Carlsen, with 5/6 and a 2989 TPR, leads by a point and a half
   over closest pursuers Andrei Volokitin and Sergey Karjakin.
   Meanwhile, after several understandably dull and dispirited rounds,
   there was finally some action at the [3]Karen Asrian Memorial in
   Yerevan, Armenia; some, but not much, and as if to make up for the
   liveliness in mini-rounds 8 and 9, three of the four round 10 games
   were drawn in 19, 20 and 21 moves. Granted that this tournament is a
   bit unusual on account of [4]Asrian's tragic death, a comparison of
   this event with Aerosvit is wholly in the latter's favor, and suggests
   that fans who believe shorter time controls are a panacea are quite
   mistaken.
   Standings after Round 10 (or after the fifth double-round):
   1. Leko 6.5
   2. Aronian 6
   3. Sargissian 5.5
   4-5. Bu Xiangzhi, Gelfand 5
   6. Morozevich 4.5
   7. Adams 4
   8. Akopian 3.5
   * The move was first played by Topalov, but it was discovered and
   developed by his second, countryman and emerging super-GM Ivan
   Cheparinov.

References

   1. http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/aerosvit2008/index_e.htm
   2. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/shirov_karjakin_foros2008.htm
   3. http://www.chessgiants.am/
   4. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1213038612.shtml