The Mikhail Tal Memorial Updated

The second Mikhail Tal Memorial Tournament has entered the 4th round so far. There's few interesting games played. The 3rd round clash between "former" World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik (photo left) with his former challenger Peter Leko ended in favour of the big Vlad. He proved loyal with his beloved Catalan. He has used it succesfully for quite sometimes especially since the Mexico World Championship 2007. Below are the3rd round game with Peter Leko .


Kramnik,V (2785) - Leko,P (2755) [E05]
Tal Mem Moscow RUS (3), 12.11.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Ra7 (in Mexico World Championship leko choose 10...Be4 unsuccesfully although the move were not to blamed because Leko made a mistake in the end of the game.) 11.Rc1 ( Kramnik choose the move 11. a3!? in Mexico 2007 against Grischuk but he only managed to draw the game) 11...Be4 12.Qb3 Nc6 13.e3 Qa8 14.Qd1 b4 15.Qf1 (when you are World Champion (or former! ) you could afford this kind af manuever and won the game against the top ten! The queen has travel to c2-c4-c2-b3-d1-and f1 just to protected the g2 bishop!) 15...Bd5 16.Be1 Rc8 17.Nbd2 Na5 18.Ne5 c5 19.dxc5 Bxc5 20.Nd3 Bf8 21.Bxd5 Nxd5 22.e4 Nb6 23.Rxc8 Qxc8 24.Nf3 Qb7 25.Nxb4 Qxe4 26.Qd3 Qxd3 27.Nxd3 ( the position looks equal but strategically speaking, Kramnik has an easier plan of manuvering his queenside pawn majority 2 against 1 compare to Leko majority in Kingside 4 against 3 that looks too slow if Leko decided to use it) 27...Nac4 28.b3 Nd6 29.Rc1 Nd5 30.Rc6 Nf5 31.Ba5 Ra8 32.Nfe5 Nfe7 33.Rd6 Nf6 34.b4 Ned5 35.Rc6 Be7 36.a4 g6 37.Nc4 Kf8 38.Nc5 Bxc5 39.bxc5 Now Kramnik has a dangerous passed pawn ! 39...Ke8 40.f3 Ng8 41.Nb6 Nge7 42.Rd6 Rb8 43.Nxd5 Nxd5 44.Rxa6 Rc8 45.Bb6 Nb4 46.Ra7 Nc6 47.Rb7 Ra8 48.Rc7 Nd4 49.a5 Nxf3+ 50.Kf2 Nxh2 51.c6 Ng4+ 52.Kf3 Nf6 53.Rb7 Nd5 54.Ke4 Nb4 55.c7 Rc8 56.Kd4 Kd7 57.Kc5 Nc6 58.a6 h5 59.a7 f5 60.a8Q! Rxa8 61.c8Q+ Kxc8 62.Kxc6 1-0.



Mamedyarov (photo right) the 2 times World Junior Champion ( 2003 and 2005) produced a stunning sacrifiece in his 3rd round victory against Vasilly Ivanchuk.

Mamedyarov,S (2752) - Ivanchuk,V (2787)

[D43]Tal Mem Moscow RUS (3), 12.11.2007

This is the position after 32 move.

Mamedyarov played the powerful 33.Bf7! and winning the game 6 moves later.