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Instructive draw favourites

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
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:



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

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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