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GM Sergey Ivanov
annotates the games
of the 9th round:
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Kramnik - Ponomariov 1/2
Anand - Vallejo 1/2
Hello dear chessfriends! I hope you are with us despite of everything. I am very glad to see our constant visitors and for newcomers I would like to say that we provide daily transmissions from Linares supertournament. Tournament is very interesting and up today the position of the leaders is very unclear. The leaders are Kramnik and Leko - both have +2, then Kasparov and Anand who have 0.5 score less. On my view someone of these 4 players will be the winner of the event.
Leko is resting today, so Kramnik playing by White with Ponomariov will try to improve his leading position. Radjabov, who won Kasparov in the 1st round, has today serious test despite of white pieces. Of course Gary wants to revenge so much. Moreover Anand having white pieces will try to "come off" from Kasparov. And so today everyone has his own tasks and this round promises to be very interesting. Stay with us!
Kramnik - Ponomariov 1/2
It looks like Kramnik has decided to change his opening repertoire seriously and again as it was in the game against Radjabov he opened the game by 1.e4! Ponomariov did not dare to play Berlin variation which he used to play several times before(for example in the 1st round against Anand, though it was unsuccessfuly for him). And one should to understand Ponomariov because it's Kramnik who has brought this variation back(as it well-known in the match with Kasparov). As result the contenders have played the Keres variation (11...Nd7) in the Chigorin system of Ruy Lopez. And at once Kramnik has used the novelty 12.Kh1!? - rather misterious move. The idea seems is that - White wants to play 13.d5 but after Bb7. The immediate 12.d5 does not give anything to White due to 12...Nb6! 13.b3 f5 14.ef5 Bf5 and light-squared Bishop of Black has the neccessary diagonal. But and in the game Black plays 13...f5!? It's connected with pawn sacrifice but Black will get it back after 14.ef5 by Nf6 or Nc4-b6. Although in case of immediate 14...Nf6 Black has to consider with lunge 15.Ng5 with following Ne6. Therefore Ponomariov should play 14...Nc4, preparing Nb6. The play of White has to be connected with the activity on K-side, where he has the power pawn f5. So, I think we won't be bored in this game!
As it was said the events in this game had very interesting course. By move 15.Nbd2!? White offered to contender to take the d5-pawn, and if he would take then - 15...Bd5 16.Nc4 Bc4 17.b3 Bf7 18.Be4 Rb8 19.Bd5 etc. with initiative play on the light squares. Although to tell thetruth the position in this variant is very unclear. It was possible to take the pawn by other way: 15...Ncb6 16.Ne4 Bd5 17.Neg5, but here White has serious initiative. Ponomariov has prefered to tradeon d2, forcing White to take on d2 by the Queen and due to that White had some problems with development.
In several moves Black took back the pawn, but White dealt a blow 18.f4! - the second "f" pawn hurrys to help to the 1st one. It should be noted that it was bad to play immediately 18.Ne6?! Be6 19.fe6 Qc8!, and he loses the pawn e6. But on the next move such a lunge is possible. 20...Nh5 - right reaction, Black has to look for the counter-play, if 20...Rae8 then 21.Qe2 and he has no any perspectives. 21.Qd5!? - tricky move, White blocks the pawn d6 and at the sae time he ties the Bishop e7 by defence and besides the Queen d5 aimed at Rook a8. In case of primitive 21.Qd3 g6 22.fe5 de5 Black has counter chances. Now it's bad to play 21...g6 due to 22.f5! gf5 23.Bh6! - Black suffers because of the position of the Rook a8. Therefore one should understand the decision of Ponomariov - 21...Rad8. Although it was possible to play 21...Nf4 22.Bf4 ef4 23.Rad1 g6, but here White has chances in attack on K-side. The pawn sacrifice 22.f5 was forced because White could not play 22.fe5? de5 23.Qe5 Rf1 24.Kh2 Bd6-+. But for the pawn White gets certain compensation. Funny variant could be in case 22...Nf6 (instead of 22...Ng3) 23.Qf3 d5 24.Re5! Qe5 25.Bf4! - White has caught the black Queen in the centre of the board. 24...Nh4 - alas, Black has to play so because if 24...g6 then 25.Be4! (but not 25.g4 Nd4! with idea 26.Rf8 Rf8 27.cd4 Rf2) c4 26.g4! Ng7 27.Bh6 Qc5 28.Rf7 and Black despite of the extra-pawn is hopeless. Deserved attention 25.Be3!? instead of 25.Bg5, for example 25...Ng6 26.g3! - limiting the Knight and preventing the simplifications happened in the game. After possible 26...Kh8 27.h4 Bf6 28.h6 Ne7 29.Qe4 g6 30.hg6 Ng6 (30...hg6? 31.Rf6! Rf6 32.Qh4+-) 31.Qg4 White has strong initiative on the K-side. 28.g3!? - the last chnce for White to open the lines, in case of 28.h5 Rf6 29.Qe4 Rh6 Black could defence. But the reaction of Black was right - 28...f3! Of course he has to avoid the opening of the lines. It was bad 28...fg3 29.Kg3 c4 30.Qh5 g6 31.Bg6 hg6 32.Qg6 Kh8 33.Rf7 with win. After rooks trading it was clear that the initiative of White is not sufficient and the gane was drawn. Very interetsing and tense game, the atack and defence were worth each other!
Radjabov - Kasparov 1/2
It's interetsing, Kasparov has chosen the accepted Queen's gambit, which usually is suitable for equalization of chances only. Is Gary really not going to revenge?! Or he has chosen it because this opening met in the practice of Radajbov not often?! Well let's see. Radjabov chose the variant Qe2 with following dc5 and e3-e4. This system was brought into the practice by soviet GM Furman and now it meets rarely. On the 10th move Kasparov has played the simplification 10...Nd4, the theory considers 10...e5 11.Be3 Qb6 12.Nc3 Be3 13.fe3 Be6 with equal play. 12.Be3! - good move, in case of 12.Nc3 Qe5 13.Be3 Be3 14.Qe3 Ng4 15.Qg3 Qg3 16.hg3 Ke7 position is equal (I. Sokolov - lautier, Wijk aan Zee, 1997). The matter is that - if 12...Qe4?! then 13.Nd2 Qf5 14.g4! Qe5 15.Nf3 Qe4 16.Ng5 Qc6 17.Rac1 Bb7 18.f3 Be3 19.Qe3 Qd6 20.Ne6! fe6 21.Be6 with strong initiative at White (Timman - Lautier, Ubeda 1997). It's strange but the position after 12...Qe5 was not played in the practice yet. Seems this variation is not very popular. On 14th move deserved attention 14.e5 Nd7 15.Re1 Bb7 16.Nc3 0-0 17.Rad1 with minimal advantage at White (Timman's recomendation), the same plan was possible and on the next move. But Radjabov plays solidly. After strong 15...Rc8! pinning the Knight c3 Black has no problems and he develops successfully. In general the position is rather boring and it's difficult to understand how to play it for a win for both sides.
Further there were not any interesting events in this game. And although the contenders played till the 1st time control the draw was obvious. The structure was simmetrical and due to that it was impossible to organize the passed pawn for both sides. The contenders were accurate and the game was drawn soon. Well I think it's possible to say that Garry Kimovich "respects" his young opponent and because of that he has chosen such quiet opening. And Teimour was not in fighting mood today maybe due to yesterday's defeat. So the draw was suitable result for both contenders.
Anand - Vallejo 1/2
Yeah, it looks like the number of admirers of "Berlin wall" becomes more and more. Now Vallejo decided to test it despite of that Anand could break it in the 1st round in the game with Ponomariov. On 9th move Black has chosen 9...Ne7!? with following Ng6, Ponomariov played 9...Be7. This variation already was in the practice of Vallejo in the game against Shirov (Linares 2002), there he played 12...Be7 13.Be7 Ke7 14.Nd4 Nf4 etc. and he could make the draw. But now he has played 12...Bd7 and further if to beleive to the official site 13.Rd2 Be6?! What a sense in this manoeuvres - difficult to understand, maybe really they played 13.Rd2 Be7 14.Rfd1 Be6. Then the last move of Black is a novelty, before that met 14...Rd8 15.Ne4 h6 16.Be7 Ke7 17.Nc5 Bc8 (Congwell - Markovsky, Biel 2001). Further Black defended very "literately", he has traded the dark-squared Bishops, improved the position of the Bishop d5 and brought King into the battle. The only improvement for White was the advanced position of his pawn e6, but seems it was rather weakness than power point. Black could to try to keep the Knights from the trading, for example 26...Nf4, but after right reaction 27.Nd7! Rg6! (of course not 27...Re6? 28.Re6 Ne6 29.Nc5 Rd6 30.Nb7) 28.Rg3 b6 29.Rg6 Ng6 30.g3 the estimation of the position is the same. And after the Knights trading the dead draw appeared on the board, even if Black could win the pawn e6 then he cannot win the game because there's impossible to penetrate in the camp of White. Well, this time Berlin wall could resist successfuly!
And so, today's round was very peaceful (if to consider the results only, but not the tense of the struggle). The positions of the leaders are the same and the winner will be determined in the final rounds. We will look after them of course, so stay with us, take care!