What a round that was and I'm sure you will agree! Four wins and the pace is picking up and their heads are down and they mean business. Here are a few images of the winning boards:
Great Architecture in and around Sophia.
More great chess coming our way and that is the M-tel Masters 2008. May 7 through May 18, at the Central Military Club in Sofia, Bulgaria. And the locals will have more than usual to cheer about, with two Bulgarians playing in a super-tournament for the first time. The six-player field includes the Bulgarian duo of Veselin Topalov Bulgaria. ELO 2780 (more details) and Ivan Cheparinov, ELO 2713 (more details) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), ELO 2735 (more details) Levon Aronian (Armenia), ELO 2739 (more details) Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 2751 (more details) and Xiangzhi Bu (China) 2691 (more details).
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Queens Indian E17
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 Na6 8. Ne5
Bxg2 9. Kxg2 c6 10. e4 Qc7 11. Nc3 Qb7 12. Nd3 d5 13. e5 Nd7 14. cxd5 cxd5 15.
h4 Nb4 16. Bg5 Nxd3 17. Qxd3 Bb4 18. Rec1 a6 19. Ne2 Rfc8 20. h5 h6 21. a3 Bf8
22. Bd2 Rxc1 23. Rxc1 Rc8 24. Rf1 b5 25. f4 Qc6 26. Rc1 Qb7 27. Rf1 Qc6 28. Rc1
Qb7 29. Rf1 Qc6 30. Qf3 Qb6 31. f5 exf5 32. Bc3 a5 33. Bxa5 Qxa5!? {A nice
Bishop sac for good positional play by Mamedyarov} 34. Qxf5 Qd2 35. Qxf7+ Kh8
36. Rf2 Rd8 37. Qxd5 Qa5 {Carlsen is on the ropes and must be feeling the end
is near, a mating net is in the making and I was in awe at this style of play.}
38. Nf4 Qa8 39. Ng6+ 1-0
On Sunday, April 20, the first Grand Prix tournament, will be officially opened. Fourteen of the strongest chess grandmaster will compete in the capital of Azerbaijan. Baku is an amazing place on the Caspian sea with wonderful architecture, old city markets and brilliant subways (not a sandwich) Baku has many great chess players coming from this small corner of the world, I wonder why this is?
The tournament is dedicated to the 85th birthday of former Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev, and will be held April 20 - May 6, with thirteen rounds and two rest days.
Participants for this first Grand Prix tournament are Magnus Carlsen (2765), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752), Teimour Radjabov (2751), Peter Svidler (2746), Sergey Karjakin (2732), Michael Adams (2729), Gata Kamsky (2726), Alexander Grischuk (2716), Etienne Bacrot (2705), Ivan Cheparinov (2695), Wang Yue (2689), Ernesto Inarkiev (2684), Vugar Gashimov (2679) and David Navara (2672).
I was wondering why several top chess players were not participating in this very long journey to the top and then I did some research! what do you think about this boycott? Does it make sense to you as a chess enthusiast/observer? Here is what Alexander Morozevich had to say!
1st Round Pairings:
Inarkiev Ernesto Vs Kamsky Gata
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar Vs Svidler Peter
Carlsen Magnus Vs Wang Yue
Gashimov Vugar Vs Bacrot Etienne
Radjabov Teimur Vs Adams Michael
Cheparinov Ivan Vs Grischuk Alexander
Karjakin Sergey Vs Navara David
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Well into the tournament there have only been a handful of winning games, in the third round that has just finished Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan was playing Peter Svidler from Russia in a most exciting match that was reminiscent of a game played long ago. Here it is an 1872 match between Carl Hamppe and Phillip Meitner, your feedback is worth its weight in gold!
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