[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: MTel Masters, Round 2

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
MTel Masters, Round 2
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1210352487.shtml


   Today's round at the MTel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria, was rather less
   thrilling than yesterday's, but thanks to the no-draw offer policy the
   spectators still got a full show.
   Taking the drawn games first, Aronian-Cheparinov looked like an
   argument to repeal the anti-draw offer policy. I don't think the
   players were going out of their way to make a draw from the opening,
   but by move 22 the game was clearly headed in that direction. For
   almost 20 moves, almost nothing happened, so the players probably
   realized that if they wanted to avoid spending the night in a glass
   cubicle, they'd need to swap off some material. Being super-GMs, they
   were up to the task, and the resulting opposite-colored bishop ending
   was so drawn the arbiter was forced to broker a peace deal. The Bu
   Xiangzhi-Radjabov game was livelier, with a Carlsbad-ish structure
   resulting in the usual race between White's queenside hopes and
   Black's kingside counterplay. White had the better chances, but
   Radjabov's aggressive counterattack forced White to be very precise.
   Bu missed his one big chance on move 29, and after that the game
   rapidly petered out into a king vs. king finale. (That's a draw, the
   tablebases inform me.)
   One game was not drawn, and that was the battle between Topalov and
   Ivanchuk. Despite what you may have [1]read recently, White does not
   win by force in the Classical French, especially if he fails to
   achieve a good knight (on d4) vs. bad bishop ending. In fact the roles
   were reversed: White wound up with the bishop and Black with the
   knight, but the decisive factor was Black's control of the half-open
   queenside files.
   Standings after Round 2:
   1. Ivanchuk 2
   2. Cheparinov 1.5
   3. Topalov 1
   4-6. Aronian, Bu Xiangzhi, Radjabov .5
   Pairings for Round 3:
   Cheparinov - Topalov
   Radjabov - Aronian
   Ivanchuk - Bu Xiangzhi
   At least two of the games are potentially interesting in light of back
   stories. Cheparinov has been Topalov's main second for several years,
   so it will be interesting to see what openings they choose and how
   they react psychologically. As for Ivanchuk vs. Bu Xiangzhi, [2]their
   only previous game featured one of the Ukranian great's many legendary
   crack-ups.
   Tournament site [3]here; games (with my comments) [4]here.

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1209784615.shtml
   2. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1128305903.shtml
   3. http://www.mtelmasters.com/
   4. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/mtel2008_rd2.htm