Candidates Tournament, Round 11: Kramnik Wins, Aronian Loses, Carlsen Continues to Lead
Magnus Carlsen is still in front in the Candidates' tournament, but with three rounds to go a resurgent Vladimir Kramnik is hot on his heels. Carlsen got an easy draw with Black against Alexander Grischuk (not that it was necessarily his aim before the game), and then waited to see if Levon Aronian would catch him or if Kramnik would draw nearer.
In the case of Aronian, he self-destructed in a slightly worse position with the wild 22...g5 and the follow-up error 23...b5. The idea behind 22...g5 was interesting but way too optimistic. Peter Svidler was able to capitalize pretty easily, and as a result Aronian's chances for first took a big hit. For Vladimir Kramnik, however, the round was a boon to his prospects. He defeated the crumbling Teimour Radjabov, getting Radjabov to fall into a nasty trap in the latter's time pressure. Kramnik has scored 3.5/4 in the second cycle, and the difference is in part a more pragmatic approach. In the first cycle he played completely "correctly" but failed to maximize his chances; this time around he's being a bit more tricky, and the points are dropping in his lap. Now Kramnik is just half a point behind Carlsen, and his game with Aronian tomorrow will be of huge importance.
The other game was a lame 17-move draw by repetition between Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand. Lame, but understandable: for Ivanchuk, who had White, the tournament has been a disaster, so getting it over with makes sense. Gelfand is out of the running for first, so a quick draw with Black makes sense for him too. (Things could have been very different for Gelfand, though. He was outplayed by Carlsen yesterday, but before that he had won his last two games and had winning positions in the two games before that!)
The games, with my comments, are here. And now for the standings and pairings:
1. Carlsen 7.5
2. Kramnik 7
3. Aronian 6.5
4. Svidler 5.5
5-6. Gelfand, Grischuk 5
7. Ivanchuk 4
8. Radjabov 3.5
Round 12 Pairings:
- Carlsen - Ivanchuk (clearly a big opportunity for Carlsen; better still, he gets Radjabov next round)
- Gelfand - Svidler
- Aronian - Kramnik (whichever player finishes the round without at least 7.5 points can kiss his chances goodbye)
- Radjabov - Grischuk
Reader Comments (3)
Chessvibes is full of conspiracy theory about some players helping kramnik to win. Do you think the pattern of play and wins by any player especially Kramnik suggest anything like it? I personally do not think there is any foul play. But the persontage of wins by Kramnik compared to a lot of draws in earlier tournaments seems out of proportion here.
[DM: I don't believe in any conspiracy here, especially as Kramnik's opponents weren't "generous" at all in the first cycle. The win over Svidler looked clean, and Aronian certainly wasn't going to throw a game to Kramnik. Grischuk blundered in time trouble, but so have other players to other players. As for Radjabov, he was under pressure consistently in that game, and as he is in clear last place I don't see any grounds for crying "fix" here.
Finally, I don't know what percentage people are referring to. Kramnik regularly wins a good number of games - in London, for instance, he was +4 in just eight rounds. Too many chess fans are stuck in a sort of time warp, thinking it's still 2004 or thereabouts. Then Kramnik had terrible results and lots of draws, but he was also suffering terribly from a form of arthritis. Once that cleared up, his energy and results improved again. Further, after losing the match to Anand, he deliberately sharpened his play as well. His current run of 4.5/5 is exceptional, of course, but taking each game one at a time there's nothing terrible mysterious afoot.
One last thing to remember is the match with Leko. Though extremely unwell, he fought like mad at the end of the match, pressuring Leko in game after game until finally breaking through in the very last game. Kramnik's fighting spirit is not to be underestimated - he proved it again in the match with Topalov. In conclusion then, I see no reason to give this conspiracy theory the time of day, and unless evidence shows up, this will probably be the last word on the theory here.]
I don't see Carlsen losing one of his last three games, and he will probably score between two and three points
[DM: Nice prediction! :)]
; he also has a better SB than Kramnik at the moment. In this light I would argue that Kramnik really needs to beat Aronian to stay in contention for first. In addition to the full point, such a victory would give him a chance (but no guarantee) to catch or overtake Carlsen on the SB. Beating Gelfand would also be good because it woud harm Carslen's SB.
For example, if Kramnik wins all his remaining games (let's be optimistic!) and Carlsen wins two, failing only to beat Radjabov with black, and all the other results are draws, we could see a rapid tie-breaker, but a single decisive result by Aronian, Gelfand or Radjabov could tip he balance one way or another.
All in all, I think Magnus stands very well with his half point lead.
[DM: The lead now belongs to Kramnik, but the general point about the idiotic use of tiebreakers remains relevant. It seems incredible to me that an event like Gibraltar, a nice and strong open but nowhere nearly as prestigious or important as this tournament, uses a playoff system to break ties for first place, but the second most important chess event there is leaves things in the hands of tiebreaks. STUPID!]
In the "coffee house" h4-Grunfeld game with Grischuk, Carlsen said in the post-game press conference that his solid 5 ... c6 "shouldn't lose," and that he looked at but couldn't remember the sharper stuff at the board. A quick consultation with Houdini 3 (to see "what the guy says" - Kramnik) reveals that Houdart's creation likes the straightforward and crisp 5 h4 dc4! 5 e4 c5! (instead of 5 ... Bg4 in the Giri game cited by Dennis). In the same presser, Carlsen criticized his 12 ... e5 while stating that 12 ... Qc7 or 12 ... a6 should be fine for Black.
Re Svidler's Nimzo "refutation" game against Aronian, I wander what Svidler had cooked up against the main line with Capa's famous ... Ne8 retreat. Guess we'll never know.
Dennis, thanks for the great coverage!