Baku Round 4 & 5
On a positive note Magnus has felt in better form the last two days. Unfortunately it has not resulted in more than 0,5/2.
Yesterday as black against Mamedyarov Magnus chose a quiet set-up in the Queen Indian, but after 13.Nd3 Magnus correctly concluded that he had to play d5 and accept a slightly worse position with a potential white king-side attack. After some accurate moves Magnus was starting to feel more confident, and had probably equalised with 23.... Rc8.
They repeated moves a couple of times but in the spirit of no-draw Mamedyarov deviated with 28.Qf3.
At this point Magnus based his calculations on invading the 2nd rank with his rook and optimistically played Qb6. Too late he discovered that the rook would get trapped on c2 and consequently had to start fighting for survival. When his 30....a5 surprisingly was meet by the nice sacrifice Bxa5!, the position was probably lost.
Mamedyarov finished in style and Magnus resigned after 6 more moves.
Adams was allowed to demonstrate the strength of a white pawn on h6 in his game against Navara and won after a nice combination. Wang Yue played convincingly to beat hapless Cheparinov while the other games ended draw.
Anti-cheating is taken seriously during the Grand-Prix and all players has to enter the playing hall from the hotel patio and is checked thoroughly. Magnus' juice and water mix was accepted though :-)
Today Magnus faced World-Cup winner Gata Kamsky and the latter played the Caro-Kann and seemed very well prepared. He started the press conference by saying that the game was a long theoretical duel.
Magnus felt he played a good game and after long calculations he chose the thematically interesting sacrifice of his g-pawn to gain the initiative.
However, Kamsky defended very well and steered the game into a slightly worse ending that he held rather easily in the end. Draw.
As black Wang Yue continued to impress by outplaying an overpressing Karjakin in a rook and bishop ending to join Grishuk in the lead with 3,5/5.
The rest of the games ended draw and Adams, Gashimov, Kamsky and Radjabov has 3/5 sharing 3rd to 6th place while Magnus is shared 7th to 10th with 2,5.
Tomorrow is a free day with sightseeing and football.
On Sunday Magnus has white against Gashimov in round 6 out of 13.
Yesterday as black against Mamedyarov Magnus chose a quiet set-up in the Queen Indian, but after 13.Nd3 Magnus correctly concluded that he had to play d5 and accept a slightly worse position with a potential white king-side attack. After some accurate moves Magnus was starting to feel more confident, and had probably equalised with 23.... Rc8.
They repeated moves a couple of times but in the spirit of no-draw Mamedyarov deviated with 28.Qf3.
At this point Magnus based his calculations on invading the 2nd rank with his rook and optimistically played Qb6. Too late he discovered that the rook would get trapped on c2 and consequently had to start fighting for survival. When his 30....a5 surprisingly was meet by the nice sacrifice Bxa5!, the position was probably lost.
Mamedyarov finished in style and Magnus resigned after 6 more moves.
Adams was allowed to demonstrate the strength of a white pawn on h6 in his game against Navara and won after a nice combination. Wang Yue played convincingly to beat hapless Cheparinov while the other games ended draw.
Anti-cheating is taken seriously during the Grand-Prix and all players has to enter the playing hall from the hotel patio and is checked thoroughly. Magnus' juice and water mix was accepted though :-)
Today Magnus faced World-Cup winner Gata Kamsky and the latter played the Caro-Kann and seemed very well prepared. He started the press conference by saying that the game was a long theoretical duel.
Magnus felt he played a good game and after long calculations he chose the thematically interesting sacrifice of his g-pawn to gain the initiative.
However, Kamsky defended very well and steered the game into a slightly worse ending that he held rather easily in the end. Draw.
As black Wang Yue continued to impress by outplaying an overpressing Karjakin in a rook and bishop ending to join Grishuk in the lead with 3,5/5.
The rest of the games ended draw and Adams, Gashimov, Kamsky and Radjabov has 3/5 sharing 3rd to 6th place while Magnus is shared 7th to 10th with 2,5.
Tomorrow is a free day with sightseeing and football.
On Sunday Magnus has white against Gashimov in round 6 out of 13.
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 25th 2008
Comments:
Posted by: Klemens
I hope that you have fun on the free day and start again with new strength on sunday. The best wishes for the next days and games. It's really interesting to follow the games live on FIDE.com
Posted by: Swedation
Good luck in the upcoming rounds magnus!! !
We're rooting for you! :)
Greetings from Sweden (Y)
We're rooting for you! :)
Greetings from Sweden (Y)
Posted by: Lars Olausen
Hei! I am sure that Magnus always doing his best. With so many good players it will go up an down. Seven more rounds to go; Magnus will take this home. Good luck and thanks for many exiting games.
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