Chess for Friday November 10th 2006

The former Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov took the lead by defeating Alexander Morozevich in the third round of the Mikhail Tal Memorial at Moscow but his performance was overshadowed by an astonishing blunder from Levon Aronia who gifted the full point to Peter Svidler.

Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen and Shakriyaz Mamedyarov contested a wild Sicilian Defence with sacrifice and counter-sacrifice that ended in a draw. Carlsen emerged with a slight material advantage but could find no way to play for a win.

Ponomariov 1-0 Morozevich, Sicilian Najdorf
Carlsen draw Mamedyarov, Sicilian Paulsen,
Grischuk draw Gelfand, Petroff Defence
Aronian 0-1 Svidler, Gruenfeld Defence,
Shirov draw Leko, Ruy Lopez, Marshall Attack,

Scores: 1 Ponomariov (Ukraine) 2.5/3; 2-3 Svidler (Russia), Gelfand (Israel) 2; 4-7 , Aronian (Armenia), Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Shirov (Spain), Leko (Hungary) 1.5; 8-9 Grischuk (Russia), Carlsen (Norway) 1; 10 Morozevich (Russia), 0.5;

An amazing blunder from a player ranked seventh in the world.

Annotated Game in PGN

Aronian,L (2741) - Svidler,P (2750) [D80]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (3), 08.11.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Qb1 This line is something of an Armenian speciality. However Svidler lost a couple of games against 4.Bg5 recently and has obviously since studied it in depth. 8...Qd5 9.Nf3 Nd7 10.Be2 Bf5 11.Qb2 Bg7 12.0-0 [12.Qb4 c5 13.Qxc4 Qxc4 14.Bxc4 Nb6 15.Bb5+ Bd7 16.Be2 Rc8 17.0-0 Na4 18.Rfc1 Bf6 19.Bxf6 exf6 20.Nd2 cxd4 21.cxd4 Ke7 22.a3 1/2-1/2 Arutinian,D (2552)-Maslak,K (2537)/Olomouc CZE 2006/The Week in Chess 615] 12...Nb6 Black's only problem is how to cover e7, Svidler ultimately sacrifices the pawn. 13.a4 a5 14.Nd2 Bd3! This opens up the white squares in particular c4. 15.Bxd3 cxd3 16.Rfb1 Qc6 Attacking a4. 17.Qa3 Threatening mate in one, Svidler decides its time for the king to depart. 17...0-0! 18.c4 [18.Bxe7 Rfe8 19.Bh4 (19.Bc5 Nd7 20.Rb5 b6 is unclear.) 19...Nd5 20.c4 Nb4 keeps the annoying pawn.] 18...Nxc4 19.Nxc4 Qxc4 20.Bxe7 Rfe8 21.Rd1 Rac8! Preparing the typical Gruenfeld counter c7-c5. 22.Bg5 [22.Rac1 Qe6 23.Bg5 would keep the game roughly level.] 22...c5

23.Qxd3? Aronian collapses and he was not in time trouble. 23...cxd4 24.exd4?? Re1+ 0-1