At the halfway point in the DDL Topco Juices Chess Tournament, Taffin Khan, Omar Shariff and Shiv Nandalall are leading with four points each with four games to go. The tournament is a round robin one. Each of the leaders has dropped a game: Shariff defeated Khan, Nandalall defeated Shariff and Learie Webster outplayed Nandalall. It is now anybody’s tournament, although Khan is still considered the favourite.
In international news, Magnus Carlsen won his game versus the world in New York recently. It was the chess spectacle of the year, with grandmasters Nakumura, Lagrave and Judit Polgar acting as advisers to the ‘world.’ They
suggested the moves and the world voted. The move with the most votes was played. It was a Queen pawn game. Carlsen had the White pieces. On move 44 the world resigned the game since it was clear that following a certain continuation Black would be an exchange and a pawn down without any hope of saving the game.
Garry Kasparov defeated Nigel Short in a consultation game in London in a fund-raiser for the Karpov bid for the FIDE-presidency. According to a Chess Base report “the guest list included over one hundred millionaires and three billionaires.” Karpov is challenging the incumbent President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for FIDE’s top post. The vote will be decided in Khanty Manisyk during the FIDE Congress at this year’s chess olympiad.
Aronian v Kramnik
The Shanghai Masters Chess Tournament was played recently to coincide with the World Expo in Shanghai, China. The four participants were Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov and Wang Hao. The two winners of the tournament join Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen for the final half of the tournament to be held one month from now in Bilbao, Spain. Here is the second playoff blitz game between Kramnik and Aronian. Kramnik had won the first playoff game.
Aronian, L (2783) – Kramnik, V (2780) [A07]
Shanghai Masters Playoff Shanghai CHN (2), 8.9.2010
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Bg4 4.0-0 Nd7 5.d3 e5 6.Qe1 Ngf6 7.e4 dxe4 8.dxe4 Bc5 9.Nbd2 0-0 10.h3 Bh5 11.Nc4 Re8 12.Nh4 b5 13.Na5 Qc7 14.a4 Bb6 15.Nb3 a6 16.Bg5 c5 17.a5 Ba7 18.c4 Rab8 19.Nd2 h6 20.Be3 Nf8 21.f4 exf4 22.Bxf4 Qd8 23.Nf5 Ne6 24.e5? 24.Bxb8! 24…Nd4? 24…Nxf4 25.gxf4 25.Nd6 Re6 26.Qf2 Ne8 27.g4 Nxd6 28.exd6 Re2 29.gxh5 Rxf2 30.Rxf2 Qh4 31.Re1 Ne6 32.Bh2 bxc4 33.Re4 Qxh5 34.Nxc4 Qd1+ 35.Rf1 Qc2 36.d7 Rd8 37.Ne5 Bb8?
38.Nxf7! Bxh2+ 39.Kxh2 Rxd7 40.Rxe6! Rd2 41.Re8+ Kh7 42.Rg1 Qf5 43.Rf8 Qf4+ 44.Kh1 Rxg2 45.Rxg2 Qf1+ 46.Kh2 Qf4+ 47.Kg1 Qc1+ 48.Kf2 Qd2+ 49.Kf3 Qd3+ 50.Kf2 Qd2+ 51.Kg3 Qe3+ 52.Kh2 Qf4+ 53.Kg1 Qc1+ 54.Kf2 Qd2+ 55.Kf3 Qd3+ 56.Kg4 Qe4+ 57.Kg3 Qe3+ 58.Kh4! Qf4+ 59.Rg4 Qf2+ Black lost on time. 1-0.
