6th round of the 40th Chess Olympiad

 6th round of the 40th Chess Olympiad was a showcase of classic monster matches. When Godzilla and King Kong fight you don’t get in the way. You step back and watch the destruction hoping you don’t become collateral damage. You’re torn between wanting to see one of the monsters completely destroyed or having them step back to lick their wounds living to fight again.

In the Open section, top seeds Russia and Armenia met with monster mayhem on boards 1 and 2. Kramnik with the white pieces searched for some small opportunity to squeeze his Armenian opponent and his opportunity came about when Aronian pressed too hard, handing Kramnik the victory.

Replay games with analysis

On the board next to them the classic Sasha Grischuk appeared, throwing himself into an insanely complicated position but it was not meant to be for Sasha and he lost. The bottom two boards drew their games and the match was tied 2-2.

China delivered blow after massive blow taking their opponents of Bosnia down with a score of 3,5-0,5. Hungary and Azerbajian dispatched of their opponents, Poland and Croatia respectively, with score of 3-1. After Leko’s game, he was in the press room analyzing his game. Watch the short video on the official YouTube site of the Olympiad.

Finally, the USA and German teams held each other to a draw with even scores on all boards. No boards seemed to ever be in any danger of losing their games.

A three-way tie exists for first place with Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan respectively. These results leaves the medal hunt still wide open with 5 rounds left to go.

Chess Olympiad women section

In the Women’s section, favorites Russia and China squared off. They exchanged losses on boards 1 and 2 respectively and drew on boards 3 and 4. A near identical repeat of what happened in the Open section. Board 4 was first to complete with a bloodless bishop of opposite color draw, but it soon was to get bloody when WWCC Yifan Hou delivered the death blow to T. Kosintseva. The elder Kosintseva avenged her younger sisters loss by dispatching of her opponent to even up the match score. Board 3 soon drew afterward securing a drawn match.

Videos from Chess Olympiad

Round 2 report

Round 2, part 2

Videos produced by Vijay Kumar Chessdom.com and Robert Fontaine

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

Caruana eying the trophy at Tal Memorial

Italian champion Fabiano Caruana defeated Vladimir Kramnik in the penultimate round of the Tal Memorial to move into the sole lead with one game to go.

Kramnik, who was the joint leader after the 6th round, suffered two consecutive losses with black pieces and slipped down in the standings.

The game was fairly balanced, with white having an extra pawn and black compensating with the active pieces. Caruana tactfully probed the opponent’s weak points and achieved some edge before the first time control.

Suddenly, Kramnik leaped ahead with the knight, missing that white can simply take it and emerge with two minor pieces for the rook.

Fabiano Caruana

The advantage was still not decisive, with white likely to face technical difficulties, but Kramnik was probably disgusted with the blunder and promptly resigned.