Kramnik is back

By BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, November 23, 2009.)

Tal Memorial Moscow, Russia November 4-19, 2009

Final Standings
1. GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2772, 6.0/9
2-3. GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2801, GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2739, 5.5/9
4-5. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2788, GM Levon Aronian ARM 2786, 5.0/9
6. GM Boris Gelfand ISR 2758, 4.5/9
7. GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2739, 4.0/9
8. GM Peter Svidler RUS 2754, 3.5/9
9-10. GM Peter Leko HUN 2752, GM Alexander Morozevich RUS 2750, 3.0/9
Category 21

Time Control: Two hours for the first 60 moves followed by 15 minutes for all remaining moves + 30 second increment starting move 61.

The Tal Memorial is the strongest tournament in the year and among the strongest ever in history. Previously, there have been one category-22 tournament and 18 category 21, but removing all the rapid/blindfold events we are left with 10 category-21 events. Then again most of them were six-player double-round events. Linares 2008, the World Championship 2007 (both won by Anand) and Linares 2009 (Ivanchuk triumphant) were eight-player double-round events.

This Tal Memorial 2009 is the first 10-player tournament which reached category 21.
Forgetting about the numbers game, on the chess aspect it was a wonderful tournament as well. Too bad that Carlsen was ill in the first half of the tournament, but he did not come up with two good wins in the final rounds to tie for second place. This fine finish also earned Carlsen enough ELO points to overtake Bulgarian former world champion Veselin Topalov as the highest rated player in the world now by all of 0.6 point (2805.7 vs 2805.1).

In the meantime, three players went for enterprising chess. Kramnik was out to prove that he is not passé and still capable of great chess, Ivanchuk was in the mood to play, and Morozevich found his usual kill-or-be-killed form.

The new Kramnik played active lines and did not take draws if there is any play left in the position. He was tactically alert and quick to take advantage of his opponents’ mistakes. I like him this way.

Morozevich, Alexander (2750) Kramnik, Vladimir (2772) [E36]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (3), 07.11.2009 ANNOTATED GAME





GM Peter Svidler is amongst the world’s greatest authorities in the Gruenfeld Defense. He plays it all the time with Black against 1.d4.

Two years ago he decided to diversify a bit and started dabbling in the Slav Defence. In a recent article, commenting on a crucial game, he remarked that “I decided to stick to the tried and tested (the Gruenfeld) for this game �” my forays into Slav territory are yet to convince anyone that I know what I am doing there.”

Well, his tried and true got whopped by the new improved super-Kramnik, who rather uncharacteristically pushed forward his h-pawn in a caveman attack.

Kramnik, Vladimir (2772) vs Svidler, Peter (2754) [D85]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (4), 08.11.2009 ANNOTATED GAME