Topalov is having an incredible tournament. In most tournament, his performance (over 2900) would be more than enough to be in the lead. Unfortunately for him, Ivanchuk is performing over 3150! One point separates Ivanchuk and Topalov and they are facing each other in this round. What is your prediction?
Round 7 pairings:
Vassily Ivanchuk – Veselin Topalov
Teimour Radjabov – Bu Xiangzhi
Ivan Cheparinov – Levon Aronian
Standings after 6 rounds:
1. Ivanchuk – 5½
2. Topalov – 4½
3. Cheparinov – 3
4. Radjabov – 2½
5. Aronian – 1½
6. Bu Xiangzhi – 1
Official website: http://www.mtelmasters.com/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
The suppository will win over the glass of vodka.
I predict a draw.
By the way they are having the same tournament performance as each other against the rest- 4.5/5 with about 3100 performance- the difference is ofcourse the first game between them. Without Ivanchuk we would be saying ‘wow 3100 for Topalov after 5 rounds- unbelievable!’
Ivanchuk would be happy with a draw with white this time- Topalov has given himself a tough task to revenge his loss, playing black this time.
I predict a draw.
Topalov will overextend himself trying to win and end up losing again to Ivanchuk!
Newsflash:
CRAB’s swallowed by Giant IT
C heparinov – 3
R adjabov – 2½
A ronian – 1½
B u Xiangzhi -1
I vanchuk – 5½
T opalov – 4½
My prediction is that it will only depend on Ivanchuk;
If he feels about to win, he will win.
If he is afraid to lose, he will lose.
If he has some control of his nerves, a draw is the most probable result.
But only Ivanchuk’s genius is capable of changing the fate of a draw for this game.
draw is defenately the most likely outcome. All topalov can really do is to invite Chucky to a complex game. if he doesnt want that, its just hard to play for a win with black I guess. and ivanchuk didnt look that inspired to fight for a win yesterday, so…
but you never know with these guys, they are both very fun to watch playing. I hope that topalov plays an interesting but dubious novelty that forces a complex fight with few simplifications in a long middle game, that results in an edge for ivanchuk, but oh he gets into severe time trouble, he makes one or two imprecise moves but look at that topalov misses an incredible save and ends up in a lost endgame! but ivanchuk blunders the victory on move 87 and the draw is a fact! and then ivanchuk just completely loses his form and the 3 final games, and cheparinov surprisingly wins the tournament, but at the cost of being fired from the topalov-danailov camp because he was supposed to lose his game against his boss. instead he teams up with the nice guy aronian and the two leave chess to promote bughouse instead, and become a feared duo in the funny game. they eventually marry, but not with each other. (ok, getting a little carried away here. well, anyway the game today will be a draw.)
this is a great tournament – one of the best in recent memory.
Ivanchuk’s and Topalov’s TPRs are not the same – but what are they actually now.
Ivanchuk’s is now exactly calculable with 5.5/6.
After 19. Nf-d2 I think Topalov is strategically lost. So either 1:0 or a lacky draw.
Yes – Ivanchuk seems to have this in hand.
How about some insightful comments from SP along the way?
After 31 moves, Ivanchuk seems to have lost the plot.