2013 Tal Memorial (Moscow, Russia)
The 2013 Tal Memorial will begin exactly one week from today with a cadre of elite players. This tournament will continue the string of strong tournaments on display in recent months going all the way back to the London Classic, Tata Steel, Candidates Qualifier and the FIDE Grand Prix.
The field is a strong one with seven of the top ten players including Magnus Carlen, Vladimir Kramnik and World Champion Viswanathan Anand. The key matchup will be Carlsen-Anand since they are in preparations for the championships match in November. There is a nice mixture of ten players with many exciting battles on tap, but the field will be missing Levon Aronian of Armenia.
The Russian Chess Federation are the chief organizers while the direction consists of an organizing committee and panel of arbiters. The Chief Arbiter is IA Andrzej Filipowicz (Poland), the tournament director is Ilya Levitov.
The tournament has ten invited players and is a round robin with time controls of one hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move starting from move one.
Special rules
- Participants are required to follow the tournament schedule strictly – in case a player is one hour or more late for the game he is forfeited (i.e. no “zero tolerance” rule!).
- It is forbidden to offer a draw before and including move 40. Participants are required to comment on their games in the press center after each round unless, they have lost.
- It is forbidden for participants to have their mobile devices working in the playing zone. All electronic devices should be handled to the chief arbiter during the game.
June 12th-24th, 2013 (Moscow, Russia) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#
|
Name
|
Title
|
Federation
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | Norway |
 |
2868 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | GM | Russia |
 |
2811 |
| 3 | Anand, Viswanathan | GM | India |
 |
2783 |
| 4 | Nakamura, Hikaru | GM | USA |
 |
2775 |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Italy |
 |
2774 |
| 6 | Karjakin, Sergey | GM | Russia |
|
2767 |
| 7 | Morozevich, Alexander | GM | Russia |
|
2760 |
| 8 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | GM | Azerbaijan |
 |
2753 |
| 9 | Gelfand, Boris | GM | Israel |
 |
2744 |
| 10 | Andrekin, Dmitry | GM | Russia |
|
2724 |
When was the last (first ?) time we saw former (three-time) World Champion Kramnik at the foot of the table after 4 rounds of an event ?
If Nakamura can stay in form for the remainder of this super strong tournament, he might win this one. I take pleasure in seeing him on the leader board and hopes it ends well for him.
Good for gelfand to win such a strong tournament whilst he still has the strength and chance. The younger generation is definitely taking over.