[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: MTel Masters, Round 5: The Streak Continues

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
MTel Masters, Round 5: The Streak Continues
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1210652406.shtml


   That's five in a row for Ivanchuk, whose current TPR is a ridiculous
   3537. (This seems more a quirk of the system when a player's score is
   at 100% - even if he scores 9.5/10 that number will drop
   significantly.) His fifth win was a surprisingly easy one, with Black
   against Aronian, but it seemed less a matter of his brilliance and
   more that Aronian's novelty and the next few moves afterwards were
   suspicious at best.
   Despite Ivanchuk's tremendous success so far, Topalov is not out of
   range. He won easily against Bu Xiangzhi, who is finding himself
   outclassed so far. (This happens to almost everyone breaking into
   top-class events - not long ago Magnus Carlsen was getting whupped in
   these tournaments, and now he's winning them.) That leaves Topalov
   with a very respectable 3.5/5, a point and a half behind with five
   games to go.
   The third game, Cheparinov-Radjabov, was an exciting draw in a Bayonet
   King's Indian. The game was dynamically balanced most of the way, but
   Cheparinov's errors on moves 30-32 gave Radjabov a winning position.
   Radjabov, who has understandably complained of exhaustion (he played
   in the FIDE Grand Prix event just before this tournament), returned
   the favor on move 34, and his opponent escaped with half a point.
   Now the players get to enjoy their one rest day, after which they play
   the second round-robin. Can Ivanchuk make it 10 in a row? Probably
   not, but who knows? Meanwhile, it will be fun watching him try, and it
   would be nice if he could at least achieve a Fischerian 6-0 score.
   [1]Here are the games from round 5, with my comments.
   Standings after Round 5:
   1. Ivanchuk 5
   2. Topalov 3.5
   3-4. Radjabov, Cheparinov 2
   5. Aronian 1.5
   6. Bu Xiangzhi 1
   Pairings for Round 6: (On Wednesday)
   Topalov - Aronian
   Bu Xiangzhi - Cheparinov
   Ivanchuk - Radjabov
   Tournament site [2]here.

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/mtel2008_rd5.htm
   2. http://www.mtelmasters.com/en/