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World Chess Championship Tournament 2007. Mexico City - Round 5 by Mark Crowther
Round 5 (September 18, 2007)
Anand, Viswanathan - Svidler, Peter 1-0 39 C89 Ruy Lopez Marshall
Grischuk, Alexander - Morozevich, Alexander 1-0 41 D38 QGD Ragozin
Gelfand, Boris - Aronian, Levon 1-0 48 E00 Catalan
Leko, Peter - Kramnik, Vladimir 1/2 24 C24 Bishop's Opening
WCh Mexico City MEX (MEX), 13-29 ix 2007 cat. XXI (2752)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2792 ** =. .. =. .. 1. =. 1. 3.5 2898
2 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2769 =. ** =. .. =. .. 1. =. 3.0 2824
3 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2726 .. =. ** =. =. =. 1. .. 3.0 2824
4 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2733 =. .. =. ** =. 1. .. =. 3.0 2822
5 Leko, Peter g HUN 2751 .. =. =. =. ** 0. .. =. 2.0 2670
6 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2750 0. .. =. 0. 1. ** =. .. 2.0 2680
7 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2758 =. 0. 0. .. .. =. ** 1. 2.0 2682
8 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2735 0. =. .. =. =. .. 0. ** 1.5 2611
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Mark Crowther on Round 5 Round 5 started 10 minutes late as there was a problem with one of the spot lights. Once underway it saw three decisive games and an outright leader. Peter Doggers of chessvibes arrived at the tournament in round 5 and he has all the press conferences (which I used for the notes), the Leko-Kramnik postmortem and a small report at: http://www.chessvibes.com/?lp_lang_pref=en&p=1238 Watch Peter Doggers ChessVibes Introduction to Round 5.  Click To Play
Peter Svidler talked about trying to find the "Holy Grail, the refutation of the Marshall" as white and it only made sense that he would play it as black. Viswanathan Anand found a strong novelty on move 19 and whilst it fell a long way short of refutation it did drive Svidler into some fatal time pressure whilst the position on the board was still very complicated. Svidler pointed out that his 32...Nf6 was the decisive error and indeed it took only another 7 moves for his position to collapse altogether. With this win Anand moved into the outright lead with 3.5/5. Anand,V (2792) - Svidler,P (2735) [C89] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Re1 Bd6 13.g3 Bf5 14.d4 Qd7 15.Be3 Rae8 16.Nd2 Bg4 17.Qc2 Bf5 18.Qc1 Re7 [18...h5 19.Nf3 Bg4 20.Nh4 Re6 21.Bd1 f5 22.Bxg4 hxg4 23.Bg5 f4 24.Qd2 Rfe8 25.Rxe6 Qxe6 26.gxf4 Qe2 27.f5 Qe4 28.Rf1 Bf4 29.Bxf4 Nxf4 30.f3 gxf3 31.Nxf3 Rf8 32.Qe1 Qxf5 33.Kh1 Qh3 34.Qf2 Nh5 35.Kg1 Rf4 36.Qe3 Qg4+ 37.Kh1 Ng3+ 38.hxg3 Qh3+ 39.Kg1 Qxg3+ 40.Kh1 Rh4+ 41.Nxh4 Qxe3 42.Ng2 Qe2 43.Rf5 Qxb2 44.Rc5 Qxa2 45.Rxc6 a5 0-1 Leko,P (2722)-Anand,V (2766)/Cap D'Agde FRA 2003/The Week in Chess 468] 19.Nf3N [19.Nf1 Rfe8 20.Qd2 Bh3 21.Bc2 Bxf1 22.Rxf1 Nxe3 23.fxe3 Rxe3 24.Bb3 R3e7 25.Rae1 1/2-1/2 Almasi,Z (2628)-Gyimesi,Z (2595)/Kazincbarcika HUN 2005/The Week in Chess 549] 19...Bg4 20.Nh4 Rfe8 21.Qd2 h6 22.Qd3 g6 23.Bd1 Bh3 24.Bf3 g5 25.Ng2 Bf5 26.Qd1 Nf6 27.a4 Ne4 Svidler said this is quite playable for black but already he was feeling time pressure with around 15-18 minutes left. 28.axb5 axb5 29.Ra6 Qb7 30.Qa1 Bc8 31.Ra8 Bb8 32.Bc1
This is a critical position according to Svidler. 32...Nf6? [32...Qc7; 32...f5] 33.Rxe7 Rxe7 34.Qa3 Wins on the spot according to Svidler and missed by him. 34...Rd7 35.Ra5 Ba7 36.Ne3 Qc7 [36...b4 37.cxb4 Bxd4 38.Nf5] 37.Nf5 c5 38.Nxh6+ Kh7 39.Bxg5 1-0
Alexander Grischuk has had a solid start to the event and in round 5 he moved to a plus score with his first win against Alexander Morozevich. This was another game where time pressure reared its ugly head. After the game Morozevich bemoaned his lack of discipline say that he basically spent one hour for nothing in the opening. The real problems for Morozevich seemed to start with the misjudged 19...h5. Grischuk immediately focused in on the weaknesses on Morozevich's kingside and made him pay. Only time trouble caused any doubts and Morozevich resigned following the first time control. Grischuk,A (2726) - Morozevich,A (2758) [D38] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e3 c5 8.Bd3 Qa5 9.Qc2 c4 10.Bf5 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 12.Nd2 g6 13.Bh3 Kg7 A rare variation in fashion in the 1980s. 14.Rae1 Main line but Morozevich started to think for a long time already. 14...Ne4 15.Ndxe4 dxe4 16.Bf4 f5N [16...Nb6 17.Bxc8 Raxc8 18.f3 Bxc3 19.bxc3 Nd5 20.fxe4 Qxc3 21.Qf2 Nxf4 22.Qxf4 Rf8 23.e5 Kg8 24.h4 h5 25.Qh6 Rce8 26.Rb1 Qd3 27.Rxb7 c3 28.e6 c2 29.exf7+ Rxf7 30.Rbxf7 1-0 Kozlov,V (2400)-Monin,N/Pinsk 1986/EXT 2000] 17.f3 Nf6 18.a3 Bxc3 19.bxc3 h5? [19...Nd5] 20.Qf2!
Getting to the heart of the matter, Grischuk was very pleased with his play around here, quite rightly. 20...Bd7 21.Qg3 Qxc3 22.Be5 Qxa3 Black at least wants to suffer for something. 23.fxe4 Rxe5 24.exf5 After this move Grischuk said he knew he was just winning. 24...Rxf5 25.Bxf5 Bxf5 26.Rxf5 Re8 The rest of the game was played in Grischuk's words "mucho time trouble." Morozevich knew he was lost but he hoped for something but it doesn't appear that he missed any serious chances. 27.Re5 [27.Ref1] 27...Qd6 28.Rxe8 Nxe8 29.Qf3 b5 30.Qb7+ Nc7 31.Qxa7 b4 32.e4 c3 33.e5 Qe7 34.Qb7 Kh6 35.Rf1 c2 36.Rc1 Qg5 37.Rxc2 Qe3+ 38.Rf2 Ne6 39.Qxb4 Qc1+ 40.Rf1 Qe3+ 41.Kh1 1-0
Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik drew in just 24 moves. If 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 is all that's left for white to try then it really is all over for the king pawn players. Leko confirmed the catastrophic news in his press conference "In the Russian [Petroff] all the lines are practically by force worked out till the draw." No-one is really talking about just how bad this news is for the game as a whole. Leko,P (2751) - Kramnik,V (2769) [C24] 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Basically to avoid the Petroff. Trying to just play. 2...Nf6 3.d3 Bc5 4.Nf3 d6 5.c3 Nc6 6.Bb3 a6 7.0-0 Ba7 8.Re1 0-0 9.h3 h6 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.Nf1 Be6 12.N3h2 Bxb3 13.axb3 Qd7 Prepared in Dortmund for his final game against Alexeev. [13...Re6 14.Ng3 Qd7 15.Qf3 Kh8 16.Nf5 Rg8 17.b4 Bb6 18.Ng4 Nh7 19.Nge3 Bxe3 20.Bxe3 Rf6 21.Qg4 Rg6 22.Qf3 Rf6 23.Qd1 Ne7 24.Ng3 Nc6 25.Qb3 Qe6 26.Qa4 Rg6 27.b5 axb5 28.Qxb5 Rb8 29.d4 exd4 30.cxd4 Ne7 31.Ra7 c6 32.Qa5 Qc8 33.Ra1 Nf6 34.Nf5 Nfg8 35.Bf4 Qd7 36.g4 Re6 37.f3 Nxf5 38.gxf5 Ree8 39.Kh1 Ne7 40.Qd2 Ng8 41.Qh2 Rbd8 42.Rg1 f6 43.Qg3 Qe7 44.Rg2 Rd7 45.Ra1 Qf8 46.Rag1 b6 47.Ra1 Red8 48.Rc2 Ne7 49.Rg2 Ng8 50.Ra6 Rb7 51.Kh2 Qe7 52.Ra1 c5 53.d5 Qc7 54.Ra6 Qd7 55.Ra3 Qc7 56.b3 Qd7 57.Rga2 Ne7 58.Ra8 Nc8 59.Rg2 Qe8 60.Qh4 Qf8 61.Rga2 Kh7 62.Qg3 Kh8 63.Ra1 Qe7 64.R8a2 Qf8 65.Rg2 Rf7 66.Rag1 Qe7 67.Qh4 Rdf8 68.Rg6 b5 69.Qg3 c4 70.bxc4 bxc4 71.Bxh6 1-0 Ye Jiangchuan (2510)-Pinter,J (2595)/Elista RUS 1998] 14.Qf3 Qe6 15.Ng3 Ne7 16.b4 c6 17.Ng4 Nxg4 18.hxg4 d5
"Maybe this is a kind of refutation of white's setup. Black isn't even slightly worse" according to Kramnik. It was just correct preparation. "Already for the second time with black I don't have a problem" - Kramnik. 19.Nf5 Rad8 20.g3 f6 21.Kg2 dxe4 22.dxe4 Nxf5 23.gxf5 Qc4 24.Be3 [24.Bxh6 is nothing.] 24...Bxe3 Already too many pieces have been exchanged. 1/2-1/2
Boris Gelfand is demonstrating precisely why the Petroff is such a good choice for black. Three absolutely comfortable draws with black is gold dust in an event like this. Today he had a chance with white and he of course plays 1.d4 which means at least he has a chance to play for a win. Today as a whole was an object lesson on the value of a good novelty, even if the effect is only on the time of the opponent. A move 6! novelty from Gelfand put Aronian under pressure from the start and although Aronian's position wasn't objective bad it was difficult. He played the dynamic 25...g4!? but never came close to making it work blundering his position away in the next few moves. Gelfand only had to survive to the time control to win.
Gelfand,B (2733) - Aronian,L (2750) [A60] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 b5 6.Nf3N With the idea of 7.e4. Gelfand hoped to get this in at some point during the tournament. "At least as a surprise weapon its very good". He prepared it in April but his seconds worked an awful lot on it only a few days ago. Aronian had to spend a lot of time to meet it. [6.f3 1-0 Alatortsev,V-Bondarevsky,I/Moscow 1946/MCD (41); 6.Bg2 1/2-1/2 Ragozin,V-Botvinnik,M/Sverdlovsk 1943 (51); 6.Nd2 1/2-1/2 Kramnik,V (2772)-Aronian,L (2759)/Yerevan ARM 2007/The Week in Chess 652 (47)] 6...d6 7.e4 a6 8.a4
27...Qd7 [27...Qc8 "with the idea of this c4 thing" Aronian.] 28.g5 Nfg4 29.Bf4 hxg5 30.Bxg5 f5 [30...c4 was Aronian's intention but he then realised it didn't work.] 31.Rf1 Rf8 32.exf5 Rxf5 33.Bf4 Nf6 34.g4 Rxf4 35.Rxf4 Nf7 Black is completely winning. He only needs to make time control. 36.Nc4 Re8 37.Qd3 Qe7 38.Bf3 Ne5 39.Nxe5 Qxe5 40.Rf5 Qxb2 41.Rf1 b3 42.Kh1 Nd7 43.Bd1 [43.Qxa6 wins trivially too] 43...c4 44.Qxc4 Nc5 45.Qf4 Ne4 46.Rf7 Bf6 47.Rb7 Qd2 48.Qxd2 1-0 |
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 Kasparov Books |
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 Giant Chess Sets |
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 Chess Computers |
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 Books 2000/1/2/3 |
