8th Tal Memorial, Round 7

Round 7 of Tal Memorial has started with two draws; they occurred in the games Mamedyarov vs Anand and Carlsen vs Morozevich. The later is rather big surprise for me because of the way how Carlsen with White played against Caro-Kann. It seems to me as if Carlsen was not excited by Caro (or knowing well that it is a part of Anand's opening repertoire he did not want to show too much "on the eve" of their upcoming match. Morozevich, much to my surprise,  went for Smyslov-Petrosian (or Modern) line 4...Nbd7 which used to be Anatoly Karpov's pet line and had served him very well throughout all his successful career.
Carlsen avoided all lines which should give White some advantage and played an offbeat and unambitious line. Morozevich just quickly simplified the problem by exchanging his pieces. In the presence of heavy pieces in nearly symmetrical  pawn structure the result was obvious.

Elated Andreikin at the Press Conference...

And from now on very exciting things have happened. Dmitry Andreikin with Black pieces completely outplayed Vladimir Kramnik and gained his first full point in the tournament. For Kramnik it is another massive disappointment and from broader perspective it means that he is really not in very good shape at this moment.







A real crowd-puller of this round was obviously the match Nakamura vs Gelfand in which current leader and runner-up battled with each other. Nakamura, playing White, pick the gauntlet in the Sicilian Sveshnikov. Not only was this deed quite refreshing but also rather dangerous. Refreshing because

Gelfand comments his duel with Nakamura

nowadays most of players would try to avoid this line going for Rossolimo variation 3.Bb5; and dangerous because Gelfand has substantial expertise in Sveshnikov. Playing 13.g3 Nakamura came up with a novelty. Gelfand giving up the pawn gained initiative and with pair of Bishop and more harmoniously placed pieces it was the factor which made the difference.




The longest game so far in this tournament has been Morozevich vs Karjakin from round 6 when both players agreed a draw in hundred moves. This round brought a "new record", and it was again Karjakin playing this time against Fabiano Caruana. The game was of course influence by shortage of time on the both sides and perhaps there were some moments where both players could have played better and so all of three results could have been possible. Draw agreed in 138 moves in the endgame Rook and Knight vs Rook should be draw in most of cases. Both player deserve recognition for the will to play and draw is perhaps very fair result. Decisive moments of this game are perhaps somewhere in the positions between moves 35 - 55 and you have to make judgment for yourself. Karjakin had definitely an edge.


 

Standing after Round 7
1	Gelfand	5
2	Nakamura	4½
3-5	Mamedyarov	4
3-5	Carlsen	4
3-5	Andreikin	4
6	Caruana	3½
7	Karjakin	3
8-9	Anand	2½
8-9	Morozevich	2½
10	Kramnik	2