Morelia/Linares 2006. Round 9 Brief comments by Mark Crowther.
Round 9 (March 4, 2006)
Aronian, Levon - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1/2 35 E15 Queens Indian
Radjabov, Teimour - Leko, Peter 1/2 80 E15 Queens Indian
Svidler, Peter - Vallejo Pons, Francisco 1/2 31 C83 Ruy Lopez Open
Bacrot, Etienne - Topalov, Veselin 0-1 38 D11 Slav Defence
XXIII SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (MEX/ESP), 18 ii-11 iii 2006cat. XX (2732)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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1 Leko, Peter g HUN 2740 ** =. 1= =. =. 1. 1= =. 6.0 2843
2 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2752 =. ** 1= 1. =. 0= =. 1. 5.5 2805
3 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2700 0= 0= ** =. 1. =. =. 1. 4.5 2738
4 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2765 =. 0. =. ** 10 0. 1= 1. 4.5 2726
5 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2801 =. =. 0. 01 ** 1. 0. =1 4.5 2726
6 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 0. 1= =. 1. 0. ** =. =0 4.0 2689
7 Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2650 0= =. =. 0= 1. =. ** =. 4.0 2702
8 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2717 =. 0. 0. 0. =0 =1 =. ** 3.0 2615
------------------------------------------------------------------------Round 9. Saw three draws and just one win, for Veselin Topalov against Etienne Bacrot.
Levon Aronian was held by Vassily Ivanchuk in a complex Queen's Indian which lasted 35 moves. There was some dynamic tactical trading of pieces until a drawn rook and pawn ending was reached.
Peter Svidler couldn't make any headway against Vallejo's well prepared Open Ruy Lopez. Indeed it was black who ended up with a nice advantage. However a small inaccuracy allowed Svidler to trade off into a very drawn heavy piece ending.
Teimour Radjabov against Peter Leko saw a queen's indian where white eventually emerged with an extra pawn. It proved entirely worthless throughout the 80 moves Radjabov used to try and win.
Veselin Topalov's second win in a row was against Etienne Bacrot with black. It was a classy affair from the Bulgarian. He played the Slav and equalised pretty early. By move 22 he was already a little better and once he had neutralised white's rooks that had control of the c-file he brought home the point efficiently.
Bacrot,E (2717) - Topalov,V (2801) [D11]
XXIII SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (9), 04.03.2006
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Bd3 Bg4 6.Nbd2 e6 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.b3 c5 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Bb2 Be7 11.Qb1 cxd4 12.Bxd4 Bf6 13.Rc1 Bh5 [13...Bxd4 14.Nxd4 N7f6 15.Ne4 0-0 16.Ng3 g6 17.Be2 e5 18.Nf3 Qe7 19.h3 Bxf3 20.Bxf3 Rad8 21.Ne4 Nxe4 22.Qxe4 Rd7 23.Qc2 1/2-1/2 Tregubov,P-Morozevich,A/Sochi RUS 2005/The Week in Chess 547] 14.Rc4 Qe7 15.h3 Rd8 16.Be4 Bxd4 17.Nxd4 N7f6 18.Bxd5 Nxd5 19.Qb2 0-0 20.Rac1 Bg6 21.N4f3 f6 22.g3 e5 Black is already better, he has more space and his pieces are well co-ordinated. Whtie is relying on controlling the c-file to give him play. 23.a3 [23.e4 b5 24.Rc6 Nb4 25.Rc7 Qd6 favours black.] 23...Qe6 24.e4 Ne7 25.Rc7 Rd7 26.h4 Rfd8 27.b4 h6 28.Rxd7 Rxd7 29.b5 White intends to trade off and achieve a draw but he has a week e-pawn and knights that are not working well together. 29...axb5 30.Qxb5 Nc6 31.Kg2 Kh7 32.Qc4?! White understandably wants queen's off but the price is simply too high. White's remaining pieces are still all badly placed. [32.Qe2 Qa2 33.Rc3 Nd4 34.Qc4 Qxc4 35.Rxc4] 32...Qxc4 33.Rxc4 Rd3 34.a4 Ra3 35.Nb1 Ra2 36.Nc3 Rc2!
Decisive. 37.Rc5 [37.h5 Bxe4 38.Rxe4 Rxc3] 37...Nb4! 38.Ne1 Rc1 [38...Rc1 39.Kf1 (39.Rb5 Nc6 40.Rxb7 Rxc3; 39.Nf3 Na2) 39...Rxe1+ 40.Kxe1 Nd3+] 0-1