Tweet
New York Times
Nov 11 2010
Aronian Holds Lead at Tal Memorial, Chased by Many
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN
Levon Aronian of Armenia continues to hold the lead of the elite Tal
Memorial in Moscow through five rounds, but his lead is not secure - a
number of players are close behind.
Aronian has 3.5 points (wins are worth a point, draws are half a
point), followed by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Sergey
Karjakin of Ukraine, Wang Hao of China, Hikaru Nakamura of the United
States and Alexander Grischuk of Russia, who each have 3 points.
Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the defending champion in the event, has
2.5 points, Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and Boris Gelfand of Israel each
have 1.5, and Alexei Shirov of Spain is in last place with 1 point.
In each of the first three rounds of the tournament, there were at
least two decisive games. But in the fourth and fifth rounds, the only
decisive game was Eljanov's win over Gelfand on Wednesday. That does
not mean that the games have lacked drama. On the contrary, they have
been hard fought. A typical example was Aronian's draw against
Karjakin in Round 5.
Aronian gained an edge from the opening and eventually won a pawn. But
Karjakin would only bend, he did not break as he kept putting
obstacles in Aronian's way, preventing the extra pawn from being put
to use. Though Aronian hung on to his pawn for a long time and managed
to double his rooks on the seventh rank, Karjakin kept finding ways to
stymie Aronian. Aronian finally tried giving back the pawn to create a
breakthrough, but Karjakin had no trouble creating a defensive
fortress and the players agreed to a draw.
One of the interesting stories at the tournament is the performance of
Nakamura. Though he became a grandmaster at 15 and won the United
States championship just before his 17th birthday, he struggled for
years to become an elite player, as well as to gain acceptance by
other top players. One reason was that he was immature and prone to
wildness, sometimes playing openings that were inferior, even against
top competition.
He seems to have harnessed his abilities and grown up. He remains an
uncompromising player, no matter the opposition, but he plays more
circumspectly. In the tournament he has twice used the stolid Berlin
Defense, though in his hands the opening is not necessarily dull, as
he demonstrated in Round 5 against Shirov. In unofficial rankings,
Nakamura has risen to No. 10 in the world, a career best, and he may
go higher as he is only 22 (23 next month).
Nakamura's rivals have noticed the change. In the video below by
Macauley Peterson for Chess Life Online, the Web site of the United
States Chess Federation, Karjakin and Kramnik discussed their games
with Nakamura in Rounds 3 and 4. The comments by Kramnik, a former
world champion, are particularly noteworthy as he says Nakamura is a
dangerous and interesting opponent. That's high praise.
http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/aronian-holds-lead-at-tal-memorial-chased-by-many/
From: A. Papazian
Nov 11 2010
Aronian Holds Lead at Tal Memorial, Chased by Many
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN
Levon Aronian of Armenia continues to hold the lead of the elite Tal
Memorial in Moscow through five rounds, but his lead is not secure - a
number of players are close behind.
Aronian has 3.5 points (wins are worth a point, draws are half a
point), followed by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Sergey
Karjakin of Ukraine, Wang Hao of China, Hikaru Nakamura of the United
States and Alexander Grischuk of Russia, who each have 3 points.
Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the defending champion in the event, has
2.5 points, Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and Boris Gelfand of Israel each
have 1.5, and Alexei Shirov of Spain is in last place with 1 point.
In each of the first three rounds of the tournament, there were at
least two decisive games. But in the fourth and fifth rounds, the only
decisive game was Eljanov's win over Gelfand on Wednesday. That does
not mean that the games have lacked drama. On the contrary, they have
been hard fought. A typical example was Aronian's draw against
Karjakin in Round 5.
Aronian gained an edge from the opening and eventually won a pawn. But
Karjakin would only bend, he did not break as he kept putting
obstacles in Aronian's way, preventing the extra pawn from being put
to use. Though Aronian hung on to his pawn for a long time and managed
to double his rooks on the seventh rank, Karjakin kept finding ways to
stymie Aronian. Aronian finally tried giving back the pawn to create a
breakthrough, but Karjakin had no trouble creating a defensive
fortress and the players agreed to a draw.
One of the interesting stories at the tournament is the performance of
Nakamura. Though he became a grandmaster at 15 and won the United
States championship just before his 17th birthday, he struggled for
years to become an elite player, as well as to gain acceptance by
other top players. One reason was that he was immature and prone to
wildness, sometimes playing openings that were inferior, even against
top competition.
He seems to have harnessed his abilities and grown up. He remains an
uncompromising player, no matter the opposition, but he plays more
circumspectly. In the tournament he has twice used the stolid Berlin
Defense, though in his hands the opening is not necessarily dull, as
he demonstrated in Round 5 against Shirov. In unofficial rankings,
Nakamura has risen to No. 10 in the world, a career best, and he may
go higher as he is only 22 (23 next month).
Nakamura's rivals have noticed the change. In the video below by
Macauley Peterson for Chess Life Online, the Web site of the United
States Chess Federation, Karjakin and Kramnik discussed their games
with Nakamura in Rounds 3 and 4. The comments by Kramnik, a former
world champion, are particularly noteworthy as he says Nakamura is a
dangerous and interesting opponent. That's high praise.
http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/aronian-holds-lead-at-tal-memorial-chased-by-many/
From: A. Papazian