Viswanathan Anand
Norway Chess 2013 / Round 7
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Teimour Radjabov |
Viswanathan Anand |
Anand has a very long and strong history of playing the Black side of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. He played it in his youth in its original form and later gravitated towards the Meran Defense and the Open Catalan; all are similar in that Black plays an relatively early dxc4. Yes a little time is lost and short term central control, but Black has an internal harmony of all of his pieces, especially the Bishops which in other (most) variations of the Queen’s Gambit are confined and a constant nuisance.
In the 7th round of Normay Chess, Vishy again shows us the pluses associated with opening the game up.
Radjabov,Teimour (2745) – Anand,Viswanathan (2783) Norway Chess 2013 Stavanger (7), 15.05.2013
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4
The Open Catalan. When you think about it, it’s a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
5.Bg2 c5 6.Qa4+ Bd7
[Black can also play 6...Nbd7 and liberate the Queenside by a6/b5 (with tempo)/Bb7 - and if necessary (often is with a Bishop on g2) Rb8 (but watch out for Bf4).
Then Black's Bishops have nice long open diagonals while he fights for central control. It can also happen that Black ends up with a Queenside majority of Pawns for the ending.]
7.Qxc4 Bc6 8.0–0
The Pawn on c5 usually ends up being a temporary Pawn sacrifice and White may well be better off ignoring it.
8…Nbd7 9.Nc3 Rc8 10.Be3 b5
11.Qd3
[11.Nxb5 cxd4 12.Nxa7 Bxf3 13.Qxc8 Qxc8 14.Nxc8 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 dxe3 and White is a mess.]
11…b4 12.Nb1 c4
There’s that Queenside majority.
13.Qc2 Be7 14.a3 b3
Black refuses (with tempo) to let the White Rook out, but the Queenside Majority is now not so mobiile.
15.Qc1 Nb6 16.Nc3 Nfd5 17.Bd2 0–0 18.Ne5 Nxc3 19.Bxc3 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Na4 21.Re1 f5
At first this looked strange to me, but Anand wants to play Bf6 and not be bothered by Ng4.
22.f3 Bg5 23.e3 Bf6
Black is better. Look at that Rook on a1.
24.e4 Bxe5
Going for the ending. The d3 square is soft.
25.dxe5 fxe4 26.Rxe4 Qd3 27.Re3 Qd5 28.Qe1 Rfd8
29.Rc1 Qb5 30.Rd1 Rd3
Beautiful play by Anand; comletely developed, central control/pressure and White’s Bishop is playing the role of a Big Pawn.
31.Rexd3 cxd3 32.Bd4 Qc4 33.Be3 Nxb2 34.Rc1 d2
[34.Rc1 d2 35.Bxd2 (35.Qxd2 Qxc1 36.Qxc1 Rxc1 37.Bxc1 Nd3 and the Pawn from the Queenside Majority waltzes in.) 35...Nd3 36.Rxc4 Nxe1+ 37.Bxe1 Rxc4]
0–1
Norway Chess 2013 / Rnd 4
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Hikaru Nakamura won a game in the fourth round of Norway Chess against the World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Anand was unrecognizable. Bad form? I’m at a loss to explain so many slips in a row. Explanation or not, Nakamura was right there to pick up the pieces and he put the game away very strongly.
In the first Diagram (Top/Left) the position appears flat equal. Here – Black to play – Hikaru tried 24. b4.
If the Pawn was simply ignored and met by centralization – say 25. Rd2 (Diagram Top/Right) then Black has many problems to solve; back rank, Pawn on e5, and the newly offered Pawn on b4.
Even after the Pawn was taken 24. …. b4 25. cxb4 Nc6 26. Rd2 could still have been played.
Instead Anand opted for 26. Ba4 which resulted in 26. …. Nxb4 27. Qxe5 Qe7 28. Qh5 (Diagram Bottom/Left).
Here I think 28. Qc3 may have been better. There’s a lot to be said for going after that isolated c Pawn.
After 28… Nxa2 there was a chance to play 29. Ne5 which still appears flat equal.
Instead Anand played 29. g3 and after 29. …. Nc1 30. Rc2 Nd3 Diagram (Bottom/Right) Nakamura had a bone in White’s throat that could not be removed.
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Black went on to win the game.
A World Champion taken down hard. Congratulations to Nakamura.
Norway Chess 2013
Viswanathan Anand |
Veselin Topalov |
In the third round of Norway Chess, Anand played a brilliant game. In the Diagram position White could have played Bb3 with the same idea; as a matter of fact Anand thought that may well have been a better move than what he played. Better or not, the move he played was one for the books.
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 7
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Viswanathan Anand |
The Scotch Game |
Kasparov tried this opening a few times against Anand during their World Championship match in 1995.
Anand gave it a whirl against Fressinet and it turned into a whirlwind with good pressure, good centralization, and a beautiful harmony of attack and defense with heavy pieces on the board. The result never looked in any doubt.
Congratulations Anand.
For All Games (PGN) – See Comments.
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 5
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Viswanathan Anand
Smash / Smash – Down goes a Classical Caro Kann.
The Caro Kann has been one of my favorite defenses for years.
It is receiving a trouncing (so far) in this tournament.
The World Champion (playing White) put so much logical/simple pressure on this game that it looked as though Black never really got his pieces out of the box.
This was an absolutely crushing display by Anand. Congratulations.
Laurent Fressinet
Fressinet lit the fuse and down went Kramnik in flames. It’s hard to remember Kramnik ever being so totally burnt throughout a chess game but this was quite a spectacle.
Fressinet initiated a fine Pawn sacrifice on move 6 (Upper Left Diagram).
By move 10 (Upper Right Diagram) White was in big trouble as Black followed this up by a Knight sacrifice on move 11.
On move 25 (Lower Left Diagram) Fressinet made another sacrifice; this time a Bishop. Kramnik’s King position was getting ripped apart.
Finally on move 31 (Lower Right Diagram) Black made a Rook sacrifice which was accepted followed by immediate resignation.
Where did White go wrong? In retrospect it all looks so simple.
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For All Games (PGN) – See Comments.
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 1
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Liren Ding
Congratulations to Liren Ding; he crushed Aronian in the first round of the Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament of 2013.
Ding is rated #34 on the FIDE rating list and he just took out Aronian who is #2 on that list. Add to that that (personal opinion) Aronian never really looked to be in the game at all.
Congratulations again to Ding for a powerful performance.
Adams, with the Black pieces, beat World Champion Anand.
Kramnik won his game versus Vitiugov.
For All Games (PGN) – See Comments.
Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 / Rnd 6 / Final
By National Life Master Loal Davis
Viswanathan Anand
Anand’s second decisive game – unfortunately he lost the first – but here he takes out Kramnik. I didn’t think it was possible for Kramnik to lose in this tournament as his form has been extremely high throughout. As in the Caruana game, Anand sacrifices the exchange (Diagram), but here he brings in the point – very convincingly.
Congratulations to World Champion Anand.
Click on the Diagram to step through the annotated game.
Caruana won his last game after Gelfand (Black) blundered on the 30th move. I suspect this blunder was prompted because Gelfand wanted to get Queen’s off the board too early. (See Comments for the PGN).
This means that Caruana wins the tournament by a full point ahead of Anand who finished second.
Congratulations to all the players for good fighting games each and every round.
Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 / Rnd 5
Savoy Hotel / Tournament Site
Two more FIGHTING draws that could “easily” have gone in either/any direction.
Gelfand vs Anand (Left Diagram)
Kramnik vs Caruana (Right Diagram)
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Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 / Rnd 4
Fabiano Caruana
Caruana “took revenge” for his loss to Anand earlier this year in the third round of Tata Steel . Anand made a questionable exchange sacrifice on the 29th move (Diagram). Caruana hung tough and Anand faltered under the pressure. This marks the first win by anyone in this tournament.
Gelfand vs Kramnik (See Comments) was replete with mistakes by both sides – but they were very understandable as the fighting positions were extremely complex – and these so-called blunders are only labeled so by the current opinions of chess engines.
The jury is still out as to whether chess engine evaluations are to be taken seriously at this level of chess. There are those, Kasparov among them, who are ready to believe them without blinking, but Anand and Gelfand have stated they spot “flaws” in computer evaluations and recommendations.
All of that aside, at the human level, Caruana played a fine game and fully deserved the win – and as for the Gelfand/Kramnik game – I think it will be some time before the truth/depth of what was going on there is understood.
Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 / Rnd 3
Again all games drawn – Fight / Fight / Fight / Fight.
Anand came very close to toppling Gelfand who was not to be taken down.
(On The Left)
Caruana and Kramnik were in a “rough and tumble” affair but also drawn.
(On The Right)
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