Sergey Ionov GM Sergey Ionov annotates the games of the 12th round:




Akopian - Zhong 1/2
Adams - Timman 1-0
van Wely - Shirov 1/2
Topalov - Anand 1-0
Sokolov - Kramnik 1-0
Bologan - Svidler 1-0
Leko - Bareev 1/2

Hello, dear chess friends. Today the most interesting game is the meeting Topalov-Anand . Does the Bulgarian chess-player who unsuccessfully plays last rounds manage to stop the irrepressible Hindu? On 10th move Topalov instead of an usual long castling has chosen 10.a4. This move has been met only in the game where Anand by himself was the leader of white pieces against Kasparov on the tournament in Iceland in 2000.
On 15th move Anand sacrificed a pawn in order to finish the development and hoping to get a counter-play against the white King who has not a sufficiently reliable refuge.
Topalov managed to cover his king and although the position keeps the sharpness, only the material could become a decisive argument.
Topalov managed to coordinate his forces by way of strong and unexpected Queen's maneuvers Qb1-g1-g6 and when the white rook has entered in the battle the presence of a passed pawn was a decisive fact. Anand has suffered the additional material losses and was forced to resign for the first time in this tournament. However he keeps excellent chances for a victory in the event.

Svidler plays against Bologan who changed the opening repertoire to 1.d4. Instead of the popular in this variant of Grunfeld defense 12...c6 with undermining the center White moved his pawn one square further 12...c5. On 17th move White offered a sacrifice of Exchange (till now met was 17.Bb2 Bb2 18. Qb2 Nс4 19. Qс1 Bb5 20.Qh6 with initiative for the pawn), but the opponent preffered to leave on the board the defender of the black squares around his monarch.
Bologan playing 24.e5 following by 26. Сс5 sharply changed the material correlation. 32. Qf6 , on 32. Bа5 would be 32. ...Rb8 33. Bf3 Rb3 and Rаа3 Bologan in his own time trouble managed completely to entangle his opponent and to gain a win.

Sokolov with Kramnik in the popular Petrosian variant in Queen-Indian defense on 10th move used the more rare continuation 19.Be3 instead of an approved 10.Bb2. Kramnik was also able to reply 10...cd4 11.cd4 Rc8 letting no an undermine in the center instead of happened in the game 10...Be7
Sokolov preffered to take not an offered piece. In this case his opponent had three pawns and the initiative meanwhile the reunion of white forces would be postponed. Now due to a strong center White's position looks obviously more preferable.
Sokolov gaining a beautiful win sweeten by himself the bitterness of an unhappy performance in this tournament. After the sacrifice by an exchange an opened diagonal a1-h8 forced Kramnik to exchange the Queens. After that d-pawn went ahead witha decisive march.

Leko in a variant of French defense, which is considered as a reliable for Black, on 9th move preffered not to move the bishop from exchange (9. Bd2 followed by c4), chosing a line on a quickest development but had not a big success. Bareev traded the active opponent's pieces and to 15th move equalized the game.
Leko failed to reach the leader in spite of his loss. Too insipidly he put today the game. In final position Black plays 19. ...Kf8 or Kе7 with absolutely equal position (but not 19. ...Bg6? 20. Bе6 Kf8 21.Rg6 fg6 22.Rd7)

Strongly sharped the game in the meeting van Wely - Shirov . This is not a surprise since they both are chess bully. On the 16th move Shirov didn't followed by himself (16. ...Qс7 was in the game Piket-Shirov, Monako 2000). For the sacrificed pawn White managed to exclude from the battle Black lightcolored bishop. His initiative looks rather threatening.
Shirov was forced to give away the exchange and to pass in the endgame in order to extinguish opponent's attack. In the endgame he keeps chances on a draw.
Shirov's chances on a draw turned out to be more ponderable.

Akopian against Zhong didn't become more profound in labyrinths of deeply analyzed line in Zaitsev variant in Ruy Lopez after 12.a4, preffering to take away a tension in the center by way of 12.d5. After a natural 21...d5 Black suffered difficulties (for example, Adams-Ponomariov, Linares 2002). Zhong preffered bishop's transfer on e6 and completely equalized the game. Akopian decided to sacrifice b-pawn in order to move the knight on d5, but this doesn't promise him a great deal.
The game inexorably rolls to a peaceful result. White return back the pawn but release the opponent's pieces.

Timman playing Black against Adams played a not very popular now variaty of Rauzer's variant in Sicilian defense. I don't think that it was a success choise. Besides the fact that this variant has a reputation of a non easy for Black it also in Adams's taste who masterly plays suchpositions.
Adams skillfully used the advantages of his position. The main Black's problem was in a fact that his king couldn't fell by himself in a safety when there were a lot of pieces on the board. After the exchange of the main defender of the black King (lightcolored bishop) the castling position reminds ruins. White's winning is not far off.