Today's pairing: Bareev - Topalov 1/2 Van Wely - Radjabov 1/2 Timman - Anand 1/2 Karpov - Polgar 0-1 Ivanchuk - Grischuk 1/2 Ponomariov - Shirov 0-1 Kramnik - Krasenkow 1-0 After the prevous round the tournament intrigue twirled much more faster. The winning movement of the sole leader was stopped and the potential favorites joined to the struggle for the leadership. In the most of the games the solid and reliable variations were plaeyd, the exception is the game Ponomariov - Shirov , where was played the sharp Botvinnik variation. Till the certain moment this game repeated the game between Ivanchuk and Shirov. Then Ivanchuk could win a very beautiful victory with the help of the Queen sacrifice 21. Qg7!. Now Shirov prefered 23... Rg7 instead of 23. ...d4. It is very interesting to know whose analysis and resourcefulness will be better. As it turned out Shirov was better prepared for this theoretical duel. He could make more active his Rook which destroyed the last bar on Q-side and after that the chain of the black pawns became unstoppable. And shortly soon it was clear that White has to resign. One of the games has finished without any struggle. In the game Timman-Anand met the well-known variation of the Queen gambit, this variation came in to the practice of the high level events after the World Championship match Kasparov-Karpov in 1985. But as it was proved many times Black has here very reliable methods of the neutralization of the contender's initiative and the variation lost its popularity. This game was not exception, rivals didn't make any their own moves and the game came to the draw. In the game Karpov-Polgar the Petrosian variation of the Queen indian was played. On the 8th move Karpov chose rather innoffensive 8.Qc3 instead of more claimed 8.bc3. The move 8...h6 looks like the most precise reply because in case of natural 8...Nd7 White can play 9.Bg5 Be7 10.Be7 and Black has to take by King on e7. On the 12th move Polgar used the novelty 12...a5 and using the advanced position of the white Queen she started the counter-play on the Q-side. After careless 16.Bb5 Polgar with the help of ease tactical operation forced the white King to stay at the center. The following move of the game will show if it is very dangerous for White. As it was predicted the position of white king became the main factor in this game. Despite of all desperate attempts to consolidate the position Karpov could not avoid the unhappy development of the game. His contender is well-known attacker made more and more active her pieces, transfered the Knight on c4, closed the diagonal a1-h8 by move f6 and when the black Queen penetrated in to the K-side of White it became clear that White can not avoid the defeat. And Karpov had to resign. Ivanchuk with Grischuk played Queen indian. On 13th move White has played 13.Rc1 instead of more popular 13.e4. After short skirmish at the center Black has got the strong passed pawn which guaranteed him from any problems. Ivanchuk did not want to test the fate and offered the draw and Grischuk agreed. Kramnik again chose 1.e4 - his usual way in this event . He did not want to discuss with contender on theory of open variation of Ruy Lopez which is the main line of Krasenkow in reply on 1.e4. Kramnik prefered modest 3.Bc4. But his contender sowed himself the storm by 7... d5 instead of usual Ba7 and d6. Shortly soon Krasenkow began to feel the dificulties with the defence of the e5-pawn. The attempt to decide this problem by tactical way (10. Ne5? Ne5 11. Re5 Bf2!) met the strong reply 11.Nbd2! and Black did not find anything better than to go to the ending where he has no any good perspectives. Now he has isolated pawn and he has no any compensation for this. Moreover the pieces of Kramnik are more active than Black opponents, so taking into account the technique of Kramnik we can be sure in the result of the game. Bareev has used his favorite system 4.Qc2 in Nimzo Indian. It was not surprise for Topalov when Bareev played 8.bc instead of more popular 8.Bc3 because this move already met in practice of his rival - Bareev - Huzman, Panormo 2001. White had some certain initiative in this game but Black had no any weaknesses in his position that is why this initiative of White could not be developed successfully. Topalov found good moment (in response to 21.e4) to exchange his 2nd Bishop for the Knight and he got the strong squares d4 and c5 for his Knights. In response to the attack of White on pawn a7 Topalov started the counter-play on K-side. At the final part of the game Bareev sharpened the position by the Bishop sacrifice for 4 pawns but Topalov could find the way to escape the difficulties and the game was drawn by perpetual check. In the game Van Wely - Radjabov was the complicated struggle in Stonewall. In response to White expansion at the center Radjabov developed the initiative on K-side. White won the pawn but black could capture the initiative by Queen penetration into the camp of White, besides black Knight was transfered on f4-square where it threatened white King and the Rooks doubled on "f"-line making pressure on rival's position. After break c5 Black could open the diagonal for his Bishop. It seemed that Black had to win but White could escape miraculously from the main threats and passed the game into the ending with an extra-pawn at Black. The further analisys will show if Black had the win. |
