Carlsen, Nakamura move closer to Ivanchuk in Bilbao
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN
Oct 9, 2011, 02.20AM IST
CHENNAI: World champion Viswanathan Anand could not break the sequence of draws at the Bilbao Grand Slam chess tournament. In the eighth round, the Indian settled for an uninspiring draw with tournament leader Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine to bring the field a little closer to one another.
Anand has so far conceded six draws from eight games apart from winning and losing a game each.
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Hikaru Nakamura of US posted wins that helped them move closer to Ivanchuk with two rounds to go.
Ivanchuk stayed on top with 14 points, three points clear of Carlsen and Nakamura. Anand has Levon Aronian of Armenia and Vallejo Pons of Spain below him on the points table.
With black, Anand played solidly as ever adopting Queens Indian Defence. Ivanchuk seemed to have got a tiny edge as Anand’s central backward pawn came under pressure. But the World champion managed to find the right moves to take the game to a knights ending that was drawn after 58 moves.
As the tournament reached the home stretch, Magnus Carlsen got back to his winning habit. He avenged his defeat at the hands of Vallejo Pons in the first half at Sao Paulo in a telling manner. In Slav defence, by move 13, the endgame was in sight with white (Carlsen) holding a good advantage. He kept the bishop pair and later won a piece to clean up the game in 46 moves.
Nakamura played a solid positional game in Queens Gambit Declined against Aronian, who got into a squeeze in a rook and knight ending. The Armenian lost his knight and the game soon.
Points position (after round 8): Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 14, Carlsen, Nakamura 11 each, Anand 9, Aronian (Armenia) 8, Vallejo Pons (Spain) 7.
Players condemn robbery: The chess fraternity has condemned the robbery of Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife at gunpoint while leaving Sao Paulo after the first half of the Grand Slam tournament earlier this week.
Ivanchuk and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in the hotel driveway, before getting into the taxi that was to take them to the airport.
It is possible this was not a random act, as the event and the prize money had been publicized in local media, and the assailants may have thought he was in possession of the money.
Hikaru Nakamura wrote on twitter: “Quite disappointed to hear the news from Sao Paulo about Ivanchuk being robbed.”
Among the stolen goods was the passport of Ivanchuk’s wife, who had to go back to Ukraine. Interestingly, Brazil will be hosting the World Cup soccer in three years from now and this could well be a problem for the organisers.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
I absolutely disagree that Carlsen had a better position when Vallejo blundered. Black was fine.