Instructive draw favourites

In the third round Anand-Kramnik was on the list, the first of two meetings between the top favourites to win the tournament. When I say "Petroff" you might think "boring draw". Yes, it was a draw, but of the fascinating and quite instructive kind. The players played a theoretical rook ending till and including the pawn ending where White was stalemated! We have images from the game and the press conference afterwards in a new video by Macauley.

The players are trying to squeeze water out of stone in some of the current opening variations and I think this is an accurate description of Anand's 16.Qa4 and especially the line he went for with 19.Bb5. This time it backfired and the game, perhaps together with Leko-Gelfand, can by added to the to be written Winning with the Petroff. However, the rook ending was drawn and how exactly was instructively shown by the players. The fans had the feeling they were reading a Dvoretsky manual. Here's Macauley's video, which includes the press conference and commentary by Kramnik's second Loek van Wely:

Click To Play

Morozevich recovered from his loss to Kramnik by beating Svidler in a rare Scotch line that started with 7.Bc4. Black seemed to go for the refutation with some aggressive moves but soon it turned out only White profited from them. With a bishop pair and a pawn centre White only had to defend against Black's desperate attack to clinch the point.

Grischuk played a good game with White against Aronian, and got a nice attacking position. However, he had spent much time and got into serious timetrouble. When Aronian made a big mistake the Russian did not have time left to find the win and had to go for a perpetual.

Leko did manage to get an advantage against Gelfand's Petroff, but the Israeli defended well and after 42.cxd3? it was Black's turn to to even try to win this game. Probably nobody is sure at the moment if this queen ending was winning for Black.



Standings:



Playing schedule:

Round 1: Thursday, Sept. 13th 2007, 14:00h Kramnik  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Svidler Morozevich  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian Anand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand Grischuk  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Leko	Round 2: Friday, Sept. 14th 2007, 14:00h Svidler  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Leko Gelfand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Grischuk Aronian  0-1  Anand Kramnik  1-0  Morozevich
Round 3: Saturday, Sept. 15th 2007, 14:00h Morozevich  1-0  Svidler Anand  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Kramnik Grischuk  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Aronian Leko  ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?  Gelfand	Round 4: Sunday, Sept 16th 2007, 14:00h Svidler     Gelfand Aronian     Leko Kramnik     Grischuk Morozevich     Anand
Free day: Monday, Sept. 11th 2007	Round 5: Tuesday, Sept. 18th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Svidler Grischuk     Morozevich Leko     Kramnik Gelfand     Aronian
Round 6: Wednesday, Sept. 19th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Kramnik Gelfand     Morozevich Grischuk     Svidler Leko     Anand	Round 7: Thursday, Sept. 20th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Grischuk Kramnik     Gelfand Morozevich     Leko Svidler     Aronian

Second half

Round 8: Friday, Sept. 21st 2007, 14:00h Svidler     Kramnik Aronian     Morozevich Gelfand     Anand Leko     Grischuk	Free day: Saturday, Sept. 22nd 2007
Round 9: Sunday, Sept. 23th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Aronian Grischuk     Gelfand Leko     Svidler Morozevich     Kramnik	Round 10: Monay, Sept. 24th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Grischuk Gelfand     Leko Kramnik     Anand Svidler     Morozevich
Round 11: Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Morozevich Gelfand     Svidler Grischuk     Kramnik Leko     Aronian	Free day: Wednesday, Sept. 26th 2007
Round 12: Thursday, Sept 27th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Gelfand Kramnik     Leko Morozevich     Grischuk Svidler     Anand	Round 13: Friday, Sept. 28th 2007, 14:00h Aronian     Svidler Grischuk     Anand Leko     Morozevich Gelfand     Kramnik
Round 14: Saturday, Sept. 29th 2007, 14:00h Anand     Leko Kramnik     Aronian Morozevich     Gelfand Svidler     Grischuk	Sunday, Sept. 30th 2007 Possible tiebreaks, closing ceremony