Linares, Aeroflot, Capelle LaGrande!!
The title is not some catchy phrase, but it does describe the names of three top tournaments in progress in Mexico, Moscow and France. Lots of heated chess action!
Viswanathan Anand enroute to defeating Magnus Carlsen
Moreilia, Mexico (Linares SuperGM XXV)
Linares SuperGM XXV (Morelia, Mexico & Linares, Spain)
The top venue would be Morelia, Mexico where chess’ top brass are facing off in the Linares SuperGM XXV. World Champion Viswanathan Anand is battling with the likes of Veselin Topalov in what is essentially a Corus “A” field. Corus winners Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen will also do battle. So far the tournament is exciting as decisive games are on the regular. The second half of the tournament will be held in Linares, Spain.
https://www.ajedrezmorelialinares.com.mx/ (Spanish)
https://www.ajedrezmorelialinares.com.mx/english/index.htm (English)
Aeroflot Open (Moscow, Russia)
Aeroflot is one the strongest open tournaments in the world and features some of games rising talents such as Artyom Timofeev, Maxim Rodshtein, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Andrei Volokitin and Alexander Motylev. Veterans in the field include Vladimir Akopian, Viktor Bologan, Alexander Khalifman and Artur Jussupow. A couple of teen wonders are China’s WGM Hou Yifan and GM Nguyen Ngoc Troungson of Vietnam. Hou has had a steady diet of strong showing and will most doubtedly drop the “W” from her title in short time.
https://www.aeroflotchess.com/
Cappelle La Grande (Cappelle LaGrande, France)
Capelle La Grande is a huge open tournament featuring more than 600 players from 62 federations and 106 Grandmasters (11 WGMs). This tournament is not particularly strong but it showcases some of the talent that we don’t often hear of.
You do have some seasoned players such as Alexander Moissenko and young Azeri star Vugar Gashimov. Zambian IM Amon Simutowe is playing as well as American star IM Robert Hess. Simutowe is attempting to gain ELO points in order to close out the last requirement for his GM title.
https://www.cappelle-chess.com/ (French)
Daaim – Do you know how many ELO points Amon picked up? The Cappelle site listed his performance rating as 2565. Nice!
I am surprised by Carlsen’s progress as a Grandmaster ,I did not really think he would be a serious contender for tournaments like Linares at this age .This most likely shows how influential computers are becoming ,beating Ivanchuk in that style yesterday was unbelievable .Seems this boy only fears Anand since he has beaten everybody who matters now (Kramnik had a bad cold on d day Magnus won :D).The boy calculates variations fast and accurately .
Daaim please I have struggling to get hold of pgn files of a blitz tournament in Reykjavik called Reykjavik Rapid in April 2004 where Magnus had Kasparov on the brink .Karpov also played .The tournament was won by Aronian .pliz can you help??
Something has gone wrong in World Chess,our masters are losing to kids.Shirov fell victim yesterday yet again.
Its time for Leko to play straight for a draw ,I have neva seen him lose so effortlessly ,shocking!!Sometimes everything just goes wrong .
Anang equalized effortlessly against Aronian ,I like the way Anand keeps it
gangstasimple .I regard him as one of the most logical players I have ever seen,there is clarity when he plays black ,never anything fancy like King’s Indian or Benoni ,simple Nimzo all d time in serious matches.So we wait and see
An OK tournament though the games are not as half inspiring as when Garri Kimovich was still playing. Hope we do not wait long though I wonder whats next. Dortmund? Sofia? Connoisseurs of the Marshall gambit, delayed and proper must have been pleased though just like in Wijk. We have seen all sorts of Marshalls including a somewhat shocking one by Leko against Topalov i think. When we were young I remember my Chess teachers did not advise the Marshall after an h3 or d3 by white but seems these dayz d5 gets in anyway.
The game I meant above is this encounter,I was suprized d5 got in anyway after h3 and d3 ,strange to me indeed from a super GM like Leko
(4) Topalov,V (2780) – Leko,P (2753) [C88]
XXV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (13), 06.03.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.c3 Qd7 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Rxe5 Rad8 14.Qg4 f5 15.Qg3 Bf6 16.Re1 Kh8 17.Nd2 b4 18.Nf3 bxc3 19.d4 f4 20.Qg4 Qxg4 21.hxg4 g5 22.Ne5 Kg7 23.bxc3 Nxc3 24.Bb2 Nd5 25.Rac1 Rfe8 26.Ba3 Re6 27.Rc2 Be7 28.Bxd5 Bxd5 29.Rxc7 Re8 30.Rd7 Bxa2 31.Rc1 Kg8 32.Rcc7 Bf6 33.Nc6 Re1+ 34.Kh2 Be6 35.Rd6 Bg7 36.Ne7+ Kh8 37.Nf5 Bf8 38.Rxa6 Bxf5 39.Bxf8 Rxf8 40.gxf5 Kg8 41.f6 Re4 42.Rg7+ Kh8 43.Re7 Rxe7 44.fxe7 Re8 45.Ra7 Kg7 46.d5 Kf7 47.d6 Rb8 48.Rc7 1-0
What suprizes me is that Topalov does not grab the pawn immeadiately playing c3 but i see no reason the pawn cannot be taken. My small database shows insufficient compensation if white just grabs the pawn by Ne5 wins by Zagrebelny, Suetin, Gross, Golubev have sort of cemented my belief that the pawn can be taken ,im yet to check Fritz suggestion but i suspect this is possible.
My question is why does Toplalov not play Nxe5 on move 11 ??? why 11. c3??? 9…d5 by Leko looks dubious
I would encourage you to search the database and see who has been succesful getting compensation after Bf6 .Any Clue what the top computers recommend ??I mean Junior and Fritz.