Corus 2008, Round 7.
Black against a V.Topalov on the run (having won his two last games) is about as tough as it gets.
Magnus did not really feel as fit for fight today as in earlier rounds, but he managed to pull himself together and felt he played a good game.
In the Ruy Lopez Topalov went for 8.h3 to avoid the Marshall attack and later chose the unusual 13.Bd2. Magnus started spending time and found 13....Nd4.
After 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Ne2 d5 Topalov played the novelty 16.Ng3! and Magnus had to struggle to find adequate defensive resources while seeking some activity.
Spending unusual long (about 70 minutes) on the first 20 moves Magnus had to find several only-moves and was facing potential time trouble as well as being slightly worse.
Topalov traded queens and a rook to enter a slightly better rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with 2+3 pawns each.
Magnus was a bit surprised by his 41.b3 and 44.f3 but managed to keep the balance.
After Kh8 Magnus thought the draw was imminent and was surprised to see Topalov play on with 48.f4 maybe thinking he was playing for a loss :-)
But, soon Magnus discovered the possibility of being mated by the active white pieces and again he had to play accurately to defend.
After trading two pawns, Topalov offered a draw after 56.Kg5 and Magnus accepted.
Magnus felt he had balanced on a tightrope to keep a Topalov-in-form at bay and is very satisfied with the result as well as the continued position as sole leader, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Aronian (who beat Radjabov today).
Anand won with black against Polgar to join Topalov and others at 50%. They may still catch up with the top 3 but it''ll be tough with 6 rounds to go.
To put 5/7 in some perspective, Kramnik, who despite Anands World Championship win was the top performer in 2007 ratingwise, has got much deserved praise for his Dortmund and Tal Memorial victories. He met a rating average of 2720 in Dortmund and 2726 in the first 7 rounds of Tal Memorial (and had an extra white in both tournaments), while Magnus has met 2736 in Corus A so far (with only 3 white).
Achieving the lead during a tournament is obviously not the same or as difficult as winning tournaments, but Magnus' performance so far is anyhow stunning, (and above even the most optimistic trajectory I had the imagination to think of prior to the tournament :-).)
In round 8 tomorrow Magnus is playing white against seemingly slightly out-of-form B.Gelfand whom he has never beaten before.
Let's hope for another interesting game.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
Magnus did not really feel as fit for fight today as in earlier rounds, but he managed to pull himself together and felt he played a good game.
In the Ruy Lopez Topalov went for 8.h3 to avoid the Marshall attack and later chose the unusual 13.Bd2. Magnus started spending time and found 13....Nd4.
After 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Ne2 d5 Topalov played the novelty 16.Ng3! and Magnus had to struggle to find adequate defensive resources while seeking some activity.
Spending unusual long (about 70 minutes) on the first 20 moves Magnus had to find several only-moves and was facing potential time trouble as well as being slightly worse.
Topalov traded queens and a rook to enter a slightly better rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with 2+3 pawns each.
Magnus was a bit surprised by his 41.b3 and 44.f3 but managed to keep the balance.
After Kh8 Magnus thought the draw was imminent and was surprised to see Topalov play on with 48.f4 maybe thinking he was playing for a loss :-)
But, soon Magnus discovered the possibility of being mated by the active white pieces and again he had to play accurately to defend.
After trading two pawns, Topalov offered a draw after 56.Kg5 and Magnus accepted.
Magnus felt he had balanced on a tightrope to keep a Topalov-in-form at bay and is very satisfied with the result as well as the continued position as sole leader, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Aronian (who beat Radjabov today).
Anand won with black against Polgar to join Topalov and others at 50%. They may still catch up with the top 3 but it''ll be tough with 6 rounds to go.
To put 5/7 in some perspective, Kramnik, who despite Anands World Championship win was the top performer in 2007 ratingwise, has got much deserved praise for his Dortmund and Tal Memorial victories. He met a rating average of 2720 in Dortmund and 2726 in the first 7 rounds of Tal Memorial (and had an extra white in both tournaments), while Magnus has met 2736 in Corus A so far (with only 3 white).
Achieving the lead during a tournament is obviously not the same or as difficult as winning tournaments, but Magnus' performance so far is anyhow stunning, (and above even the most optimistic trajectory I had the imagination to think of prior to the tournament :-).)
In round 8 tomorrow Magnus is playing white against seemingly slightly out-of-form B.Gelfand whom he has never beaten before.
Let's hope for another interesting game.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
Comments:
Posted by: Feuervogel
Magnus hat sich phantastisch verteidigt. Die meisten Großmeister wären hier gegen V. Topalov hoffnungslos untergegangen!
Posted by:
when we wote for best games on the site, does magnus win some money?
he shoud have won 2 til now i think
he shoud have won 2 til now i think
Posted by: Caissa
Nice draw by Magnus today! A draw with black against Topalov is no easy task, but Magnus managed to keep Topalov at bay.
Posted by: harliner
It seems Magnus get a bit tired in the last half of tournaments.
Why not get some proffesional guidance? A lot of the norwegian top athlets have that. Can't see any reason for Magnus not to get this kind of help.
Why not get some proffesional guidance? A lot of the norwegian top athlets have that. Can't see any reason for Magnus not to get this kind of help.
Posted by: Martin
Even with my lack of chess understanding I felt that this draw against Topalov must really have been immensely
distressing and exhausting - and the draw all the more relieving! Yes, with Black against Topalov in raising form this was an extremely important draw to be glad about. Not only did he keep the sole lead and contributed to hold Topalov on distance - Magnus also showed himself once again in convincing manner that he needn't even fear the crème de la crème of chess players when you have reason to expect them to be on the peek of their playing level (and starting feeling tired yourself). And so with Black. With (more than) half of games played by now, and with a look on the schedule, Magnus really fought a representative cross section of the participants. And even with Anand, Kramnik, and Radjabov yet to come - Anand apparently not in the toughest of fighting moods, Kramnik being impressed on their last encounter by Magnus' performance with Black, and Radjabov already having been beaten by him in Biel - he already played Aronian and Topalov, and has opponents that of course are not weak either, but that clearly shouldn't give more reason to be frightened of than the named ones. Something that to me is at least as spectacular as are his results: Magnus shows no signs of vanity or of getting the urge of decorating anything spectacular to his spectacular results - something many others in his age and situation couldn't resist of I believe. Well, maybe here lies an additional factor for his overwhelming performances... :)
Kind regards and good luck for the game against Gelfand
from Freiburg/Germany!
distressing and exhausting - and the draw all the more relieving! Yes, with Black against Topalov in raising form this was an extremely important draw to be glad about. Not only did he keep the sole lead and contributed to hold Topalov on distance - Magnus also showed himself once again in convincing manner that he needn't even fear the crème de la crème of chess players when you have reason to expect them to be on the peek of their playing level (and starting feeling tired yourself). And so with Black. With (more than) half of games played by now, and with a look on the schedule, Magnus really fought a representative cross section of the participants. And even with Anand, Kramnik, and Radjabov yet to come - Anand apparently not in the toughest of fighting moods, Kramnik being impressed on their last encounter by Magnus' performance with Black, and Radjabov already having been beaten by him in Biel - he already played Aronian and Topalov, and has opponents that of course are not weak either, but that clearly shouldn't give more reason to be frightened of than the named ones. Something that to me is at least as spectacular as are his results: Magnus shows no signs of vanity or of getting the urge of decorating anything spectacular to his spectacular results - something many others in his age and situation couldn't resist of I believe. Well, maybe here lies an additional factor for his overwhelming performances... :)
Kind regards and good luck for the game against Gelfand
from Freiburg/Germany!
Posted by: Paul Franklin
Yes, superb performance by Magnus so far.
Of course after more than half of a tournament it might be good to draw a careful conclusion. As good as his performance was so far, if he gets tired and -3 in the next rounds (black against Kramnik, still facing Anand, Radjabov) and finishes = and in 7th place, then at least we enjoyed a good first half.
Beware of Gelfand. Wounded dogs bite, as we say here.
Of course after more than half of a tournament it might be good to draw a careful conclusion. As good as his performance was so far, if he gets tired and -3 in the next rounds (black against Kramnik, still facing Anand, Radjabov) and finishes = and in 7th place, then at least we enjoyed a good first half.
Beware of Gelfand. Wounded dogs bite, as we say here.
Posted by: Jo
It is cheering me up no end to see Magnus play so well.
This makes up for the disappointment at last year's Candidates.
BTW, what is Magnus' take on the handshake rule?
This makes up for the disappointment at last year's Candidates.
BTW, what is Magnus' take on the handshake rule?
Posted by: Theo
I really hope Magnus will win this strong tourney!!!
That would be so GREAT!!!!!!!!!
That would be so GREAT!!!!!!!!!
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