Translated material
In memory of the master
A very strong line-up of participants gathered at the Tal Memorial
The third, and therefore traditional, Mikhail Tal Memorial is taking place in Moscow, the program of which includes a round-robin tournament of the 20th category with ten candidates for the main award and the Tal Blitz Cup with 18 participants.Naturally, the greatest interest is attracted by the performance of Vladimir Kramnik, for whom this is the last “training” before the match with world champion Viswanathan Anand (October 11-30 in Bonn, Germany). Let us remind you that the current year is not going very well for Vladimir: 7th-8th place at the super tournament in Wijk aan Zee (Holland) and penultimate place at the representative competitions in Dortmund (Germany) cannot but cause alarming thoughts. At the same time, the excuse of the 14th world champion: “In my mind I’m already at the match with Anand,” and the reference to the fact that the process of building preparations to reach peak form by October smacks of some kind of slyness.
The chess world is not used to unsuccessful performances by contenders for the world title, and for Kramnik, of course, it is important to get a positive charge of energy for the upcoming match. Considering that chess players are superstitious people, Vladimir could not refuse to participate in the Mikhail Tal Memorial, which he won so brilliantly last year. The result of “plus four” in nine rounds is unlikely to be achieved by anyone else! However, Vladimir is forced to keep his opening potential for the match with Anand a secret.
Therefore, in the first round, in his duel with Shirov, Kramnik simply followed the Aronian-Grischuk game from the just ended tournament in Sochi, leaving his opponent to solve the difficult problems of Black himself. Alexey did not succeed, and although he bravely took the “poisoned” h2 pawn with the bishop, agreeing to part with this piece, the compensation turned out to be insufficient. The next day, Kramnik had a duel with Leko, in which he also invited Peter to defend a problematic position with Black in the sharpest version of the New Indian Defense, following the path of the Rodstein-Najer game (Dagomys, 2008). But Leko confidently passed the exam, simplified his position and, not being afraid of losing his castling, successfully defended himself.
If we talk about the main “engine” of the current Memorial, then Alexander Morozevich, famous for his uncompromising play, is most suitable for this role, because his unexpected improvisations are a match for Mikhail Tal himself. Moreover, the Russian champion is at the peak of his form and is second only to Anand in the world rankings. True, in the game of the former with Alekseev, he acted like a real strategist: he moved the game to the best endgame and, with a breakthrough in the center, formed a passed pawn pair, which decided the outcome of the game.
Therefore, on the third day of play, the Morozevich-Kramnik game aroused increased interest. This time, Kramnik himself turned out to be the test subject, and the difference in the energy potential of the opponents had an impact. After Morozevich got “his” position in a sharp variation of the “anti-meran” with a pawn sacrifice, he left no chance for the black king either in the center or on the queenside and decided the outcome of the game with a swift attack.
The restless Vasily Ivanchuk began the tournament by winning a theoretical duel with Kamsky, and then chose to save his strength, not straining himself too much in games with Gelfand and Alekseev.
Results. Memorial to Mikhail Tal. 1st round. Kramnik - Shirov - 1:0, Morozevich - Alekseev - 1:0, Ivanchuk - Kamsky - 1:0. Draws: Ponomarev - Gelfand, Leko - Mamedyarov. 2nd round. Shirov - Kamsky - 0:1. Draws: Kramnik - Leko, Mamedyarov - Morozevich, Gelfand - Ivanchuk, Alekseev - Ponomarev. 3rd round. Morozevich - Kramnik - 1:0, Leko - Shirov - 1:0. Draws: Ponomarev - Mamedyarov, Ivanchuk - Alekseev, Kamsky - Gelfand. Position of participants: Morozevich - 2.5 points; Ivanchuk, Leko - 2 each; Kramnik, Gelfand, Kamsky, Mamedyarov, Ponomarev - 1.5 each; Alekseev - 1; Shirov - 0.