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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 1 Report
Kamsky - Bacrot Svidler - Ponomariov _____________________________ System: Round-robin in two rounds (all play
all with White and Black alternatively). Time Control: 2 hours for 40 moves +
1 hour for the 20 moves + 0.5 hour to the end of the game. The players should not talk during the games; additionally they should not offer draws directly to their opponents. Draw-offers will be allowed only through the Chief-Arbiter in three cases: a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check and in theoretically drawn positions. The Chief-Arbiter is the only authority who can acknowledge the final result of the game in these cases. He will be advised in his decisions throughout the tournament by GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice-President. |
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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 2 Report
 Kamsky-Bacrot
was a marathon 103-mover. Their closed Spanish followed theory until
Kamsky's 13.Rb1, but Black had already gained rather easy equality.
After exchanges on f3, Black should probably have shown more patience,
and continued to develop with 16...Qd7 or 16...Rc7, as the 16...c4!?
that was played seems somewhat too bold, and the subsequent 17.dxc4
bxc4 18.Qe2 gave White some edge, aided by another misjudgement by the
Frenchman with 19...Ne8 (...h6 was better). This allowed Kamsky to
exchange off dark squared bishops, and win the pawn on c4. Respect for
Bacrot tells me that he knew this, however, I can not see a GM of his
calibre missing it -- I just fail to see what he thought would
compensate for it. Exchanges took place on d5, leaving a pair of rooks
and a queen each, with Kamsky's 6 pawns to Bacrot's 5. When the endgame
came, Kamsky held the advantage, but such rook endgames are very hard
to convert, and by rights should have led to a draw, especially when
Kamsky's passed b-pawn fell 1 square from queening. In the end it game
down to a rook and king v knight (ironically it was Bacrot who promoted
but it had to be to a knight to avoid mate) and king situation, which
again are usually drawn. Bacrot made a couple of elementary mistakes,
and allowed his knight to be trapped. With Black to move in the final
position (see diagram), the knight's only safe square is f7, after
which White plays Rf8. Point to Kamsky.Anand leads Svidler and Kamsky by half a point, then -- see you after round 3! _____________________________ |
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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 3 Report
The game itself, was an anti-marshall, and perhaps this is not surprising as it is being used quite a lot lately. However, to me it signals Gata Kamsky's seriousness about his return to chess. I can remember at Wijk aan Zee, that Gata's openings seemed somewhat shaky, he was being caught and out prepared quite often, and spending considerable amounts of time on the clock as a result. The fact that he took on such a theoretically sharp opening as this against Anand, shows some confidence, and signals that Kamsky has been doing some work. At least, it signals that to me. Any doubts, then, about the seriousness of his return, should now be a thing of the past.  In
the game, Anand tried a new move with 12.c3 (Xie Jun-Li Ruofan, 2005
had gone 12.Nf1 Ne6, 1-0 in 50), out of which Black got a fine
equality. Some exchanges took place, and at move 22 (see diagram)
things are very much equal, and one starts thinking towards a draw,
especially when a pair of rooks left the board a few moves later.
Concern probably starts to mount for White upon Black's 28...Re8, when
Kamsky is threatening to become active quite speedily with moves
such as ...Bg7, ...f5, ...e4, etc. Anand's 30.g4 showed that he too
thought this a consideration, but this move was far from forced I
think. Kamsky's reply of 30...Bg5, was at first a puzzle to me, but
upon looking again, I think that it now reveals just what a chess
foresight Gata has. White had responded to the threat of ...f5, etc.
and now Kamsky threatens ...Bf4, which is stoppable only by exchanging
on g5. But that doubles pawns, right...endgame weakness? Well, let's
look at the position, (see next diagram). To
every chess rule there is an exception, and Kamsky's positional
judgement tells him that after exchanging on g5, White has problems.
Looking at this position with a chess engine probably gives equality,
but consider the potential of the position. Black is now threatening f5
again, un-doubling his pawns with a nice active stance, and his king is
quickly brought in to the game. On the other hand, it is hard to see an
active plan for White. Possibly White's best plan was to either play
Rd5 or batten down the hatches and prepare to defend with Rd2 or
suchlike, but the drawback of such action is that it would give black
extra time to prepare and consolidate. Anand decided to go for the
queen exchange, and this leaves the players in a rook endgame.
Again, one looks at activity potential, and Kamsky had obviously judged
this to be in his favour -- his doubled pawns are quite freezing to
White's Kingside, his King is activated quickly.This is the potential that Kamsky must have seen upon playing ...Bg5 or the move just would not make sense, and this potential was demonstrated in the game. The black rook aided its king in centralising, while their white counterparts became quite passive defenders. Equality was quickly turned into White being in trouble, with Anand playing good moves, (a rare case of chess engines being embarrassed by humans) and Kamsky wrapped up the point without too much trouble. It was a clear example of technique from Kamsky, and whether there are any pshycological issues between the players or not, Anand was just simply out thought and out played in this game ... plain and simple.  Briefly
with the other games then, and Ponomariov-Topalov was an anti-meran.
There was an early exchange of queens, and White took the bishop pair.
Play mainly consisted of a queenside battle, white having a
passed c-pawn (somewhat neutralised by the centralised Black king)
and some pressure, while Black controlled the b-file. Some time later,
White added a passed a-pawn to his count, but Topalov's king again
neutralised things while his knight held the c-pawn. (See diagram, at
which stage things are pretty much equal.) Topalov entered a variation
which acquired him 3 pawns for a piece, and a very balanced equality.
The players played on (probably arbiter induced) until the draw by
repetition came in 66.Bacrot-Svidler was a Grunfeld Defence, and followed a previous game of Bacrot's against David Navara, Sweden 2005. Svidler deviated from it with 13...Rad8 (from 13...Ne5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.c4 e6, draw in 27). Bacrot's 14.Bg5 interestingly made Svidler play the horrible looking 14...Bf6, (see diagram), which is probably the best move. There followed:15.Bh6 15...Bg7 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.a4 e6 upon which White has a slight edge. In a sharp position, Bacrot erred with 20.Nxf7? (20.e5 was probably more to the point) allowing Svidler the chance of vastly improving his situation, and taking the initiative. Unfortunately this chance was not taken, and instead of the 23...Ne4! that would have given him some momentum, he played 23...Qxf7? and went in to a tricky ending. Soon afterwards, however they were repeating moves and the game was drawn in 31. This, then, sees Kamsky leap-frogging Anand to take the lead by a half point on 2.5/3... Round 3 Standings: Kamsky, Gata -- 2.5 Svidler, Peter; Anand, Viswanathan -- 2.0 Ponomariov, Ruslan; Topalov, Veselin -- 1.0 Bacrot, Etienne -- 0.5; See you after round 4! _____________________________ |
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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 4 Report
 American
Grandmaster Gata Kamsky is playing the comeback tournament of comeback
tournaments! Having not dropped a single game, and having defeated
Anand to take the lead in the tournament in round 3, he went on to
demolish Peter Svidler in round 4. There is not actually a great deal
that I can say about this game actually, it did not really last long
enough. Svidler produced a new move with 14...Rfd8
(Semenova-Kovalevskaya, Russian Team Championships 2006 went:
14...Rad8, 15.Qe2 Qa5, 16. Nd1 Nd7 draw in 60). Then, on his very next
move, he erred terribly with 15...Nd7?! (see diagram) Kamsky pounced
with the absolute best move for White to punish, 16.Nd5! This,
obviously hits both the Queen on c6 and bishop on e7, and the capture
of the Nd5 is forced. It is just a question of 'how?'. Svidler decided
to capture with 16...cxd5, (capturing with 16...Bxd5 would still have
left him in big trouble after 17.exd5 and then 18.dxc6) and the game
continued 17.exd5 Bg4 (perhaps ...Bf5 was better here, but really Black
is in a terrible situation, and aiming to get beyond a miniature).  Kamsky
won the bishop on e7, and bishops were exchanged on f3, upon which
Black played 19...Nf6. This is probably in order to attack the White
Queen, as notice that ...Re8 could not be played due to the knight
hanging on d7. However, if this was the idea, then Black had missed
White's lethal response, see diagram. The diagram shows the
position after 19...Nf6, and Kamsky played powerfully, taking advantage
of the exposed position of Black's Queen, with 20.Be3! Even the best
options for black in this position lose for him. Svidler chose
20...Qa5, and Kamsky continued with 21.Rxf6! the point is that Black
does not have the time to defend against the threats posed by White's
activity. There came the pretty much mandatory 21...gxf6, and Kamsky
wrapped things up nicely with 22.Qxf6 Re8, 23.Qg5+ Kf8, 24.Bd2! and
Black resigned. His best move in the end position is most likely
24.Qd8, after which Kamsky had for example: 25.Qh6+ Kg8 (...Ke7?
26.Bg5+) 26.Bc3 where Black has the horrible options of ...f6 or ...Re5
in order to stop mate. A nice powerful game from Gata Kamsky!Viswanathan Anand bounced back after his defeat at the hands of Gata Kamsky, with a win over Ruslan Ponomariov. Their Caro-Kann followed theory until Black's 19...Bd6. In the oppposite castled position, Ponomariov worked his knight from e4-g3-f5, practically provoking White in to expanding his kingside pawns, with gain of time. White had an un-questionable spacial edge, and black had to be content to maneouvre behind his own lines and prepare for any coming aggression. Perhaps Anand could have tried 27.Bh4 instead of his 27.Nc5. I am a little puzzled by this move, (though in saying this most GM moves puzzle me, haha), but I don't really see what the aims of this piece are from here. I am not saying that it is a bad move, but he could possibly have made more with 27.Bh4. For example, looking for Bxe7 then c5, with play against Black's dark squared bishop. Upon ...Bc7, Ne5 seems strong. His move of 28.Kc2 invited Ponomariov to exchange pawns on c4 and bishop for knight on c5, upsetting White's queenside pawns. This invitation was accepted, resulting in the diagram position, below.  Just
as Kamsky had demonstrated his positional vision in his game against
Anand, here Anand shows his own foresight against Ponomariov. Doubled
and isolated c-pawns, one would usually consider would be an endgame
weakness, but here they actually hamper Black. His knight will now have
to take time in attempting to re-activate itself, and it seems
inevitable that sooner or later Black will have to surrender the
d-file, as he is unable to re-inforce it. As for the weakness of the
c-pawns, well they are only weak if they can by attacked, and how that
will happen is not easy to see. Plus, this is balance by the fact that
black also has his fair share of pawn weaknesses. Anand was able to
double rooks along the d-file, but it seems that he misplayed things
slightly. For example, initiating a rook exchange with 33.Rd8 may have
been inferior to 33.Rd7, and his 35.Rf8 brought about a relative
equality in the position. However, Anand was able to advance his
a-pawn, and the diagram position, below, shows the state of play after
White's 44.Bb6. Here, obviously the bishop's capture would present White with unstoppable pawns which would recoup the material with interest. Things became critical for Black upon move 44, where Ponomariov played 44...Ne3+, and after Anand's 45.Kc3 white has a strong advantage. However, there were not any real better alternatives, Black is just in trouble. It was not long before White was mopping up pawns, with 2 passers. Ponomariov called it a day on move 56. An extremely welcome win with White for Anand, as any other result would have dampened his brilliant double-black victories somewhat. Veselin Topalov adopted the Nimzo-Indian against Etienne Bacrot, and according to my database, the game followed Rubinstein-Bogoljubow, 1920 before Topalov unleashed 8...Nc6 (the previous game had gone 8...d6 and been won by White). It was quite uneventful really, with exchanges taking place rapidly, including queens and rooks, and the final position was 6 pawns each and bishops of opposite colour. Draw was agreed after Black's 29th move. _____________________________ |
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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 5 Report
 Topalov
adopted an aggressive stance, beginning with 19.Qb3, eyeing the b-file
and also the a2-g8 diagonal. Kamsky responded strongly, but after
19...Ne6, 20.Be3 Nc7, White is better. Topalov wasted no time in
putting his knight on the central e5-square, and with ...Nfd5, Kamsky
opened up his g7-bishop, threatened White's on e3, and made moves such
as ...f6 to kick out the e5-knight, a remote possibility. This, while
also inviting Topalov to do some liquidating -- which of course would
suit black just fine. Topalov did exchange on d5, but perhaps could
have continued better with the developing 23.Rfe1 instead of
his 23.Bd2. This retreat of the bishop was quite un-necessary, as
the Be3 can not be captured due to Qxf7+. And, should black exchange on
e5 first all roads lead to White's advantage because of the
developmental and slight spacial superiority.After Bd2, then, Kamsky chose to exchange on e5, and this proved to be a misjudgement. Wiser would have been to play ...Qc7, quietly improving his position, and waiting to see what Topalov undertook. Instead, in exchanging off what was his best piece, when certainly not under any pressure or obligation to do so, Black handed white an initiative. In true Topalov style, the World Champion undertook sacrifices, first a pawn, and then rook for bishop (see diagram, below, which shows the position after White's 27.Rxe6).  What
is quite impressive about such sacrifices as this, is that they are
made through judgement and confidence in one's ability, rather than any
immediate win. There followed: 27...fxe6, 28.Re1, and here, Kamsky
could have played either ...Kg7 or ...Rad8 rather than his 28...Qd7.Topalov began to rapidly generate threats, beginning with 29.Qd3 and Kamsky's best response was the self-imposed pin of the g-pawn, with ...Kh7. 30.Re5 began to pressure, and after 30...Nf6, a side-step with the Queen to e3 lined up against h6 and doubled up against e6. Kamsky stood to his task well, but his 33...Rad8 was not good enough, allowing White in to h6 -- ...Rh8 was better. Topalov took what his opponent had presented him with, by means of 34.Qh6 Rg8, 35.Ba5, at which point Kamsky probably had to play 35...Rfd8. Instead, he erred with 35...Qd4, which is losing, and Topalov continued: 36.Bc3 Qc4, 37.Bb3 Qd3, 38.Bxe6+. Kamsky's resistance was futile, and with 42.Rxe7+ Topalov delivered mate in 7 (see diagram) Kamsky resigned his first game of this M-Tel Masters. I actually expected Anand and Svidler to start their game with a big hug, after they had both been defeated by Kamsky in the preceeding 2 rounds. It was all smiles though as Svidler joined Anand at the board, and they settled down to play. It was a closed Spanish, which followed Kramnik-Leko from their World Championship match of 2004. Anand was the first to deviate, with 13...h6 (Leko had played 13...Na5 and the game was quickly drawn). Svidler chose K-side play, obtaining a rather good knight on h4 (always exceptions to the rules of chess!) due to his Bb3 that was powerfully eyeing the long diagonal of a2-g8. The h4-knight was exchanged rather quickly on f5, obtaining the bishop pair for White, but Black neautralised the a2-g8 diagonal rather smoothly with the pawn advance c5-c4. This being said, though, White still had a slight edge in the resulting position, (see diagram below).  Anand's
offering of the exchange of queens with his 20...Qc8 was a little
inaccurate, perhaps ...d5 or ...Rc8 were more direct improvements to
his position. Svidler began to pressure in the centre, with something
of an initiative, but his decision to exchange on c4 rather than
maintaining tension possibly was a mistake. It gave Anand the time he
needed, and possibly White had a small edge in the final position, but
Svidler decided that it was not enough, and they repeated to draw.  It
was the closed Spanish also in the clash between Ponomariov and Bacrot.
A new position was arrived at with 15.Ne3, (15.Bb2 had been tried
previously) and positional jockeying took place with both sides seeking
optimum squares for their pieces. Ponomariov's 18.d4? (see diagram,
left) was a mistake, but Bacrot did not punish for it. There came
18...exd4 19.Nxd4 (really, this move is a second oversight), and here
Bacrot erred with 19...Nce5. What should have followed, was 19...Bxd4,
and if 20.Bxd4 then ...d5! gives White problems. The point is, that
should the knight move, the pawn on e4 hangs to the rook, and if exd5,
then ...Rxd1+ is followed by ...Nxd4. As
it was, both GM's over-looked it and 19...Nce5 brought a position where
Black was equal at worst. Ponomariov's 25.Nf5 sharpened up the
position, and Bacrot really had to play ...d5. Instead, he chose to
exchange bishops on b2, and this gave White some initiative. White
opened up the position, and Black was under pressure until Ponomariov
chose wrongly on his 34th move. To keep up the pressure, 34.fxe4 was
correct, but Ponomariov chose to capture with the rook, and it let
Bacrot off the hook. Exchanges took place thereafter, and the game was
soon ended in a draw.This, then, leaves the standings at the halfway stage as follows: Kamsky, Anand -- 3½; Topalov, Svidler -- 2½; Ponomariov, Bacrot -- 1½.. Another 5 rounds to go, and things are hot in the kitchen. See you after round 6!! _____________________________ |
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M-Tel Masters 2006: Round 6 Report
 Kamsky-Ponomariov was a Closed Spanish, and covered a lot of theory actually. The new move only came with Ponomariov's 19...Rac8, deviating from Morozevich-Grischuk, Russian Team Championships 2006, which went 19...a5, 20.Bc2 Rad8 -- drawn in 56 moves. After exchanging on c5, Kamsky obtained a nice working blockade on the d5 isolated pawn of Black's, and allowed Ponomariov to obtain the 2 bishops, though this was short lived. The position was balanced, and seemed to be heading to a draw, but then Ponomariov erred with his 28...Qxb4, (see diagram, left).  This
allowed Kamsky to pile up on the a-pawn, with: 29.Qa2 Ra8, 30.Rd4 Qb5,
31.Ra4. The Black a-pawn fell, as did the White b-pawn, with an
exchange of a pair of rooks into the bargain. Material being even,
however, Kamsky's position was vastly superior from Ponomariov's. Then,
whilst already under great pressure, Black's 35...d4? (he had to defend
with ...Qb8) as shown in the diagram, left, only helped White. There
followed: 36.e6 Qb1+, 37.Kh2 fxe6, 38.Qh5 Nd6, 39.Bxd4 and after
Ponomariov's 39...Bxf3, Kamsky delivered the final blow, 40.Rxg7+ Kf8,
41.Qh6 and Ponomariov resigned. The other decisive game of the round, came as Peter Svidler, (playing the black side of his beloved Grunfeld Defence), outplayed Veselin Topalov. The World Champion produced a new move with his 16.c4, which Svidler responded to well with 16...e6, and after 17.Bg5 Re8, 18.Qd2, (see diagram, right), White had nothing out of the opening. It is actually quite astonishing how rapidly Topalov's position then began to deteriorate. Svidler exchanged knight for bishop on c4, winning a pawn, though his own c-pawns were isolated and doubled, so this is probably niether here nor there. Then, however, Svidlers kingside began expanding against Topalov's pieces -- his Bg5, pawn on e4, and Qe3 were all quite exposed.  Black's g-pawn was traded for White's e-pawn, and the resulting position was dominated by black, (see diagram, right). Queens were exchanged soon after, and probably Topalov's crucial mistake, was capturing Black's a6 pawn. The sad fact is, that this was probably his best option, which shows really what a bad situation he was in at this point. It allowed Svidler pressure on the queenside, with which to initiate exchanges resulting in favourable changes in position, and Topalov was soon compelled to give up bishop for 2 pawns. This resulted in an endgame of rook and 4 pawns for Topalov, and rook, bishop, and 2 pawns for Svidler. The Russian had the point without too much resistance.  Anand-Bacrot, was a Spanish Marshall, with 16...Bf5 apparently being a new try, which seemed to neutralise things quite nicely for Black. Anand gave up the rook on e4 for the bishop, and with exchanges of pawns on the queenside, he held a slight initiative I suppose. His 22.Nf1, (Qf2 was more to the point) was an error that Bacrot could have punished better with ...f5. Instead, he played 22...Qg5 with equality. Anand's 25.e5? (see diagram, left) was a further inaccuracy, and after 25...f6, 26.h3 Qxh3, 27.Qe4 Kh8, black was better. The position became sharp, with White's rook having penetrated into the black half of the board, while the black rooks were potently doubled along the f-file. Queens were exchanged, and Anand allowed a complicated exchange sequence to take his remaining rook off the board. To be fair, Black was probably far better in the end position, and why it was not played out I am unsure. Anyway, game drawn. This, then, leaves Kamsky still leading by a half point, with Anand in 2nd and Svidler in 3rd. World Champion, Topalov is trailing the lead by 2 points, and with 4 round left does not have very much time to get back in to the tournament. See you after round 7! Round 6 Standings: Kamsky -- 4½; Anand -- 4; Svidler -- 3½; Topalov -- 2½; Bacrot -- 2; Ponomariov -- 1½. Round 7 draw: Anand v Topalov; Bacrot v Kamsky; Ponomariov v Svidler |
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Veselin Topalov Wins 2006 M-Tel Masters Tournament!
So, this is where all eyes turned, the clash between
Gata Kamsky (once ranked #3 in the world, only behind Kasparov and
Karpov), and current World Champion and World number 1, Veselin
Topalov. I can imagine that there was some buzz going around his home
crowd at this vital stage of the tournament. Topalov, again playing
black, knew that if he could defeat Kamsky, he would tie for the lead
with one round remaining. However, Topalov would have White in round
10, and Kamsky Black. The game was a Sicilian Najdorf 6.Bg5 varient,
and Topalov was in no mood to mess about. He played agressively right
from the offset, and the only shame about this is that I can say very
little on the game due to it not lasting long enough. It was quite
simply a stampede by Topalov, who gave Kamsky very little opportunity
to get going. At Kamsky's 21.b3 (see diagram, left) things were already
critical, and I think that after 21...axb3, 22.cxb3 Nc5, 23.Ne2 Nfxe4,
24.Bxe7 Qxe7, 25.Bxe4 Nxe4, Kamsky had over-estimated the effect of his
knigh fork 26.Nb6, as after 26...Qa7, 27.Nxa8 Rxa8, White has nothing
and Black is primed with threats. Kamsky's 28.a4 was pretty forced,
which left 28...Bxe2 for Topalov, and after 29.Rc1 Qf2! White has too
much to cope with and Kamsky resigned. Topalov joined him in the lead
on 5.5/9, with one round remaining.
French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot came in to the
final round of the tournament having not won a single game. His score
was a very surprising -2, so it was unlikely that he would be feeling
very good in facing Topalov with the black pieces when the Bulgarian
would obviously be pumped up after the last few rounds. It was a Slav
Defence, with Bacrot varying from theory with 8...e5 (previously 8...g6
had been played -- draw in 65). Bacrot soon had a bad position,
inactive knight on d7, k-bishop on f8 with very few prospects, while
Topalov's bishops reigned supreme in a crossfire, (see diagram, right). To top
everything off, the black king was soon stuck in the centre, as Bacrot
was compelled to make positional compromise after positional compromise
in order to attempt activity and defend. When the queens came off on
move 27, Black was already facing a difficult situation, and Topalov
was fairly clinical in wrapping up the point, 2 pawns and a better
position up.  In
this, Topalov won the tournament outright by a half point, as Gata
Kamsky could only manage a draw against Peter Svidler. Kamsky did win
the award as the most 'uncomprimising' player, however, something to
smile about in addition to dropping no games apart from to the
tournament winner. We congratulate GM's Topalov and Kamsky on their
fine performances!Final Standings: Topalov -- 6½; Kamsky -- 6; Anand, -- 5½; Svidler -- 5; Ponomariov, Bacrot -- 3½. photographs by kind courtesy of the official tournament website _____________________________ System: Round-robin in two rounds (all play
all with White and Black alternatively). Time Control: 2 hours for 40 moves +
1 hour for the 20 moves + 0.5 hour to the end of the game. The players should not talk during the games; additionally they should not offer draws directly to their opponents. Draw-offers will be allowed only through the Chief-Arbiter in three cases: a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check and in theoretically drawn positions. The Chief-Arbiter is the only authority who can acknowledge the final result of the game in these cases. He will be advised in his decisions throughout the tournament by GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice-President. |
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© 2006 www.chessgateway.com -- Permission is given freely, for the reproduction of this article, for personal and/or social purposes. However, republication is not allowed, unless written permission stating otherwise has been obtained from Chess Gateway. |
Viswanathan
Anand has started his tournament off very well with a win over French
Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot. The game was a Queens Indian, and Anand's
bishop withdrawal of ...Bb7 appears to be a new try. Usually 10.Bxd3 is
played, with results favouring niether White nor Black. Bacrot did
not seem to be equipped with the right plan in answer to the deviation,
and his position began to decline with 14.Bb1? and furthermore with the
over-ambitions 16.b4. 16...g4 from Anand began the swing in scores, and
after 17.hxg4 hxg4 18.Nh2, Black held a slight advantage.
Veselin
Topalov chose the Scheveningen Sicilian in response to Peter Svidler's
1.e4. The Russian was the first to deviate from previous ground,
with his 13.f4 -- Borisek-Gallagher, Sweden 2005 went 13.Kb1 a5 14.Bb5
a4, and was 1-0 in 35 moves.
Veselin
Topalov followed a line that he had played against Michael Adams 7
years previous against Vishy Anand. Topalov deviated with 14.b4 (Nh4
had been played in the previous game, and was drawn), but this didn't
bring him very much for it, and Anand found easy equality. Topalov's
cause probably was not aided by his 19.Qb2!? Moves such as this are
often quite legitimate, but here it just looks cosmetically bad.
19.Nbd2 was a good alternative, stopping Anand's next, 19...c4.
Topalov's 25.Nb3 is probably inferior to 25.Nxd4, and from here on
Anand had the better pieces, and used them to great effect. He started
with 25...Nxe4, grabbing a pawn, and Topalov seemed to rush in to
recouping. The calm 26.Qb2 would probably have been ok for him, but the
Bulgarian played 26.Bxd4, and from there Anand did not look back.
From
someone who started with two Blacks, to someone who started with
two Whites, and after a round 1 draw with Topalov, Peter Svidler went
one better against former World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Their
Sicilian Najdorf followed Bologan-Efimenko, from the Russian Team
Championships of this year. Svidler played on the queenside with 18.c4
(Bologan had played Kb1) but Black was not doing too badly until
27...Ne2? (see diagram) which allowed Svidler to win a pawn with
28.Bxh6 gxh6 and 29.Bc4. A further inaccuracy of 35...e4 (black really
needed to centralise his king, but really things were difficult for him
anyway) allowed Svidler to attack with gusto, sealing the game very
nicely in 43. 
In
round 7, Topalov would meet Vishy Anand, whose tournament had gone a
bit rocky, and so if Topalov had serious wishes to get himself back in
the running, it was obvious that he had to play to win with Black in
this game. It was a Sicilian, and Anand produced a novelty on move 10
with c4. Topalov got in an early ...d5, and after exchanges, white had
very little to play with. After 16.Nf5!? (see diagram) Topalov replied
strongly, with 16...Qe5! the absolute best move in the position. There
followed: 17.Ng3 Bb4, 18.Qxb4 Qxe3+, 19.Kh1 Rb8, 20.Qd6? Something had
gone wrong for White, here, as ...Rb6 or ...Qb6 favours Black. Topalov
chose the former, and after 21.Qc7 Rc6, 22.Qb7, perhaps Topalov could
have played ...Qb6, with an initiative after Qxb6 Rxb6, b3 Ke7 for
example. Such a withdrawal is not in Topalov's repertoire, however, and
he opted for aggression with 22...Rc2, sacrificing a pawn. Anand opted
to grab the pawn on a6, and from this point, Topalov's pieces became
active extremely quickly. Soon after, he was sacrificing again, and
this time a piece for a couple of bits, with 31...Nxf3!?. Queens came
off the board, and in the end it boiled down to 
White having 2 pawns
and knight and bishop, and black having 4 pawns and rook. Anand erred
when he grabbed Topalov's isolated d5-pawn (see diagram), allowing
Topalov to centralise his king and get his pawns moving. Anand
capitulated in 61 moves, and Topalov moved up to Third place, trailing
him by just half a point, and trailing Kamsky by 1.5.
In Round 8, Topalov had the white pieces against former FIDE Champion,
Ruslan Ponomariov. Topalov was obviously carrying his tail high after
his win against Anand in the previous round, but one has the feeling he
pushed a little bit hard in this game, and was possibly a little
fortunate not to pay for it. Ponomariov produced the new 12...Nd7, and
it was clear that Topalov wanted to open things up a little bit, and go
for the king. With his 23.Qg4!? (see diagram, right) he took his eye off the
ball somewhat, and allowed Ponomariov to win the exchange with
23...Nd4, 24.Ne4 Nab5, 25.Bd2 Nc2. Topalov found an interesting
attacking idea, that compelled Ponomariov to give up his queen to avoid
being checkmated. Ponomariov, possibly smarting from allowing his queen
to get caught, misplayed the ending that resulted, and Topalov wrapped
up the point in fine style. He had now caught Anand in second place,
and was a mere point behind leader Kamsky, who he would play in
round 9.