Aronian joins the leaders after three rounds of the Tal Memorial

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6th Tal Memorial 2011 (3)

Aronian joins the leaders after three rounds of the Tal Memorial

IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 21st November 2011

Malcolm Pein reports on the 3rd round of the Tal Memorial and takes a look at Vladimir Kramnik against Magnus Carlsen which ended in a draw after difficult play.

Carlsen got into some trouble against Kramnik but the game finished in a draw. Photo ©

Carlsen got into some trouble against Kramnik but the game finished in a draw. Photo © | http://www.russiachess.org

Levon Aronian joined the leading group in the third round of the Tal Memorial at Moscow. Aronian defeated Vasily Ivanchuk with the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez to reach 2/3, level with Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Kramnik vs Carlsen was the game of the day as Carlsen took some serious liberties but somehow avoided defeat. The fourteenth world champion decided not to play like Tal but rather, to employ the solid Botvinnik Variation of the English Opening against the world number one. Mikhail Tal and Mikhail Botvinnik had diametrically opposed styles of play and it seemed that Carlsen was much more comfortable when the game became sharp as he got himself into a real mess in the opening. Kramnik secured a big space advantage but Carlsen wriggled very effectively in a position where most of his pieces were on the back row and when Kramnik sacrificed material, Carlsen missed a possible winning move before perpetual check.

V Kramnik - M Carlsen

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 h6!? 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.e4 Nc6

(5...Bxc3 6.bxc3 0-0)

6.Nge2 Bc5

The bishop is well placed controlling d4 but Black is a tempo down on normal lines

7.d3 d6 8.h3 Nh7

To control d4 and facilitate f5 but the latter never materialises

9.a3

[9.0-0 Ng5 10.Kh2]

9...a6 10.0-0 Ng5 11.Kh2 Ne6

(11...Qd7!? 12.h4 Ne6)

12.f4! Bd7 13.b4 Ba7 14.Nd5 Ned4 15.Nec3 Be6

(Black has problems with his king. He wants to play f6-f6 but Qh5+ would follow. If 15...0-0 16.f5 f6 17.Qg4 Kh8 18.Bxh6 gxh6 19.Qg6 Be8 20.Qxh6+ Kg8 21.g4 with a slow motion attack 21...Rf7 22.g5 fxg5 23.Rg1 Rh7)

16.f5 Bd7 17.Rb1

(17.Qg4 Kf8 18.Qh5 f6)

17...Nb8! 18.c5 dxc5 19.bxc5 Bc8!

(19...Bxc5 20.Rxb7)

Magnus Carlsen