Anand - Leko 1-0 Kramnik - Radjabov 1-0 Kramnik - Radjabov French defence was played, again Kramnik has playd 1.e4, which he likes at last time. White is trying to weaken the position of black king by move 14.Qh4, and after that the pawn sturm is possible. The task of Black is to play b4 and a5 with following Ba6 trading the light-squared Bishop. Black could not solve the problem of develoment of his Bishop c8, which as it well-known is the biggest problem for him in this variation and therefore he could not solve opening's problems. After 18.Qg6 White forces Black to trade on d3 because it's not good to play 18...f5 due to 19.g4 and White gets strong attacl on K-side. And after the trading on d3 the advantage of white Knight over black Bishop is obviously. After 19...Qc4 White has fallen into deep thinking looking for forced win. If now 20.Rc3 then 20...Qa2 (20...Qd4 21.Rc7+-) 21.Nb3(21.Rc7 Qa1 22.Kd2 Qa5 и Qc7) 22... Rf7 and there's no anything concrete For White it's possible to play now Kb1, and after to attack on K-side. White has a lack of time and this is maybe the last chance for Balck because he has very bad position without any counter-play. By move 22.f5 White has started direct attack against black King and it was very difficult maybe impossible for Balck to resist it due to his very passive pieces. The marsh of the black King was equal capitulation because 3 pieces against sole King is too much. The Bishop c8 has played his fatal role in this game. Anand - Leko Sicilian was played. In variation Bb5 White prevents Cheliabinsk variation, which gives good results for Black last time. Anand already played this variation in this tournament against Kramnik, but then he did not get anything. This time he used the novelty - 7.Nd5. White sacrificed the pawn temporarily, but hehas big advantage in development. I think White has big advantage in this position and by following move 14.g3 with idea Bf4 and then it will be very difficult for Black to develop successfully. After 19.Bc3 White has just slightly better position. I have such a feeling that Anand could play better at certain moments. The position of black Queen was artificial besides the other black pieces were not developed, while White forces were ready to attack. I think 14.g3 was better. And 15.Re1 deserved attention instead of 15.d6. Despite of that Black could develop his forces White always kept the advantage, and to defence such a position very difficult especially against Anand. Now after 36.Rb5 White is trying to tie blacl forces byt the defence of the b7-pawn and after that to move ahead the pawns of Q-side. The chances of White for a win are sufficient. By 44th move Anand hassacrificed the exchange and now he has two connected passed pawns which are very strong. Besides White has very active pieces, his Rook supports the passed pawns and attacks the K-side of Black, Bishop here is very strong too andit'spossible to say it's equal Rook. So the position looks won for White. One could think that Anand had some problems with winning but seemshe controled the situtation and now if 67...Ke6 then he wins by move 68.Bb6 with idea Ba5. Vallejo - Kasparov The Slav defence was played. It's possible that Kasparov has prepared this opening specially for this tournament, and it should be noted that his main line for black - Gruenfeld defence was called in question in his match versus Kramnik in 2000. In the position after 13...f6 if Black will be able to finish his development successfully then he has an advantage due to weak position of the Q-side of White. White yet has an advantage in development so he has to attack. White could make the counter-play on Q-side and he forced black Bishop to move to not good position on a6. After pawn's trading Black got the weakness on e5, which impossible to defence and due to that White has some advantage. So Black has to look for the way to make a draw using his 2 Bishops. As it was said White could take the e5-pawn, but Black could trade rooks and the ending with opposite colored Bishops is drawn obvioulsy despite of the white extra-pawn. Vallejo decided to torture Kasparov a bit, well he did not risk and besides not everyday one can get such position against Kasparov. As result the game was drawn and there could not be any other result. |
