Gelfand strikes at Tal Memorial

Boris Gelfand was declared sole winner of the Tal Memorial today in Moscow. The Israeli grandmaster had an undefeated performance of +3; two of his wins were achieved with the black pieces. This great run put Gelfand back in the top-10 at the live ratings list; he is 9th after gaining 18 points in this event. Defending champion Magnus Carlsen recovered from his loss against Caruana in the third round to finish sole second with 5.5/9 points.

The best Russian in the competition ended up being the lowest-rated, Dmitry Andreikin. The national champion drew eight of his games and defeated Vladimir Kramnik. Andreikin shared 3rd-5th places with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana. The young Italian jumped to third place in the live ratings list, and is four points away from the 2800-mark.

Magnus finished in style at Tal memorial

In the fantastic turn of the events in the final round of the 2012 Tal Memorial, Magnus Carlsen defeated Luke McShane and took the winner’s trophy, repeating the success from the last year’s edition.

He did get a little help from Levon Aronian who won against Fabiano Caruana, preventing the Italian star from achieving probably the biggest success of his career.

Magnus Carlsen

Caruana needed only a draw in the last round to secure at least the shared first place and be declared the tournament winner on the account of first tie-break rule – the greater number of games played with black pieces. Both Carlsen and Radjabov, the only players in position to catch Caruana, had more games with white.

But Aronian played an inspired attacking game against the Gruenfeld and achieved a huge advantage early in the middlegame. He converted the material into the victory in the queens ending.

Meanwhile, Carlsen grabbed the initiative with black and started pushing McShane’s pieces into awkward places. White later lost a piece and resigned when the first time control was reached.

Levon Aronian

The other three games were drawn.

Live games with commentary and computer analysis

Round 9 results:
Aronian – Caruana 1-0
Nakamura – Radjabov draw
Tomashevsky – Grischuk draw
McShane – Carlsen 0-1
Kramnik – Morozevich draw

Final standings:
1. Carlsen – 5,5; 2-3. Caruana, Radjabov – 5; 4-7. Aronian, Grischuk, Kramnik, Morozevich – 4,5; 8-9. McShane, Nakamura – 4; 10. Tomashevsky – 3,5

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Magnus Carlsen receiving the trophy

Top three finishers in Tal Memorial: Radjabov, Carlsen and Caruana

Fans of Alexander Morozevich

Tal Memorial 2012

The two earlier leaders, Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik, were defeated in the 7th round of the Tal Memorial by the tail-enders Evgeny Tomashevsky and Luke McShane, respectively.

Such development complicates the things with only two rounds remaining as now five players are equal first with 4 points each.

Alexander Morozevich took up the King’s Indian defence seeking a sharp game against the last-placed Evgeny Tomashevsky. But the press conference later revealed that Tomashevsky was ready to take up the solid line.

Evgeny Tomashevsky

White maintained the tension and tiny advantage. In the time trouble black refused the repetition of the moves and immediately erred. White saw through the cheap trick, went back to win a pawn and took the game into the winning rook ending.

Radjabov with second victory in Tal Memorial

Teimour Radjabov emerged the sole leader of the 2012 Tal Memorial with 2/2 after beating Luke McShane with black pieces. The Englishman used the interesting move 5.b3 in the Rossolimo Sicilian, following in the footsteps of the World Champion Anand from the recent WCC match.

Fabiano Caruana won the Sigeman Chess Tournament

The 20th edition of the Sigeman Chess Tournament was organized by Limhamn Chess Club on 9-16th May in Malmö, Sweden.

This year the event had a round robin format with eight players. The additional sponsorship boosted the level of the tournament which featured the strongest lineup ever.

The Italian champion Fabiano Caruana won the competition with an excellent score of 5.5/7 points, leaving the main contender Peter Leko of Hungary half a point behind.

Fabiano Caruana

Leko followed the strong pace imposed by the leader and his last-round victory against the over-ambitious Li Chao put some pressure on Caruana. The Italian, however, confidently outplayed Jonny Hector and preserved the top position.

The local hope Nils Grandelius was in the mix for the top two places until he lost to the future tournament winner.

Replay all games with computer analysis

Final standings:
1. GM Caruana Fabiano ITA 2770 – 5.5
2. GM Leko Peter HUN 2723 – 5
3-4. GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2556 and GM Giri Anish NED 2693 – 4
5. GM Li Chao CHN 2703 – 3
6. GM Tikkanen Hans SWE 2566 – 2.5
7-8. GM Berg Emanuel SWE 2587 and GM Hector Jonny SWE 2560 – 2

Official website