Saturday, September 13, 2008

Bilbao Master Round 9 : All game drawn

The 9 round game saw all the players draw their game . So the final round will be a battle between 4 players that have a chance to win this tournament - Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk and Carlsen. Both Radjabov and Anand have no chance to win this tournament even if they win their last round game. For Anand, this would be a tournament to forget quickly. Coming here as the regaining World Champion and top seeded based on rating, he now is on the last place and can only get 4th place if his win the last round game. He is quite dissapoint with his performance that in several of his game, he simply refused to gave the interview after the game ended- usually the game that he lost or draw. Some said that he probably are thinking too much for his upcoming Wolrd Championship match against Kramnik this October and he's keeping some of his preparations.


Anand - Topalov

The first game to finish. Topalov surprise everybody by playing the Caro Kann defense as black. He is known as the Sicilian and Berlin player. Sometimes he play the Pirc. But today he choose to surprised Anand with the Caro Kann.

Ivanchuk - Aronian

Ivanchuk seems to win this game until he entered his favourites " time trouble" session and failed to convert his one pawn advantage for a win.

Vasilly Ivanchuk (2781) – Levon Aronian (2737) [C68]

Grand Slam Final Bilbao ESP (9), 12.09.2008



63... Bxf4! Aronian brilliantly sacrifiece his peices to force a drawn endgame 64.Rf7+ [64.Kxf4?! but white still have the draw after 64...Rf1+ 65.Kg5 Rxf8 66.g7 Rb8 67.Kf6 c5 68.Kf7 c4 69.Nb5 Kc6 70.Nc3 Kc5 71.g8Q Rxg8 72.Kxg8 Kd4 73.Na4=] 64...Ke8 65.Kxf4 Rf1+ 66.Ke5 Rxf7 67.gxf7+ Kxf7 68.Kd5 c6+ 69.Ke4 ½–½





Radjabov - Carlsen

Another shock. This time but Magnus Carlsen who decide to push his 1st move with the c pawn only one step foward 1...c6 - The Caro Kann rather then his usual 1...c5 - The Sicilian which he usually play recently with the Dragon Variation or in the past, the more estabalish - Najdorf variation . The game however enden in a draw after the players both reach the different colour bishop endings.

[Event "Grand Slam Final"]
[Site "Bilbao ESP"]
[Date "2008.09.12"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Radjabov, T."]
[Black "Carlsen, M."]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2744"]
[BlackElo "2775"]
[EventDate "2008.09.02"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 e6 6. Nd2 Nc6 7. N2f3 Nge7 8.
Bd3 Bd7 9. O-O Ng6 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. c4 Be7 12. Be3 Qb8 13. Bxg6 hxg6 14. Qc2
a5 15. Rfc1 O-O 16. Qe2 Rc8 17. Rc3 Qc7 18. Rac1 Qd8 19. a3 dxc4 20. Rd1 c5 21.
Qxc4 Rab8 22. Rcd3 Rc7 23. R3d2 Qe8 24. Ng5 Ba4 25. Rc1 Bxg5 26. Bxg5 Qb5 27.
Be3 Qxc4 28. Rxc4 Bb3 29. Rc3 a4 30. Bxc5 g5 31. f3 Kh7 32. Kf2 Rb5 33. Bd6 Rd7
34. Rcd3 Kg6 35. Rd4 f6 36. h3 Rd8 37. Kg3 Rd7 38. Kf2 Rd8 39. Re2 Rc8 40. Bb4
Rd5 41. Rxd5 Bxd5 42. Bc3 f5 43. Rd2 Rc4 44. Ke3 g4 45. hxg4 fxg4 46. Rd4 Rxd4
47. Bxd4 Kf5 48. Bc3 gxf3 49. gxf3 g5 50. Bd4 Bb3 51. Bc3 Bd5 52. Bd4 Bb3 53.
Bc3 Bd5 1/2-1/2



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