[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: The Daily Update: Leko-Carlsen and the Tournament of Draws

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
The Daily Update: Leko-Carlsen and the Tournament of Draws
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1211990136.shtml


   The first day of the [1]Leko-Carlsen rapid match has concluded, and if
   you blinked twice you'll have missed both games. The first one wasn't
   so bad, a Dragon Sicilian where Carlsen sacrificed a pawn with Black
   but achieved sufficient play to draw. The second game was far less
   interesting: Leko played the Caro-Kann, and although Carlsen added a
   little flair by using Bronstein's 5.Nc5, the game ended with a brief
   thud, drawn by three-time repetition on move 18.
   That brings us to the Tournament of Draws (the [2]King's Tournament),
   which again saw several players dropping the ball. Mecking-Portisch,
   Murariu-Sokolov and Suba-Khalifman were models of priority, drawn in
   21, 24 and 21 moves respectively, but Short beat Vaganian and
   Andersson defeated Timman - with Black! Very disappointing.
   The Leko-Carlsen games can be replayed [3]here, with my brief
   comments.

References

   1. http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng/
   2. http://www.clubulregilor.ro/
   3. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/leko_carlsen_08_day1.htm