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Leko wins his first game

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Three draws and one victory in the eigth round. Leko won his first game, with White against Grischuk. The Russian hadn't expected Leko to repeat Anand's variation of the day before and hadn't yet checked it thouroughly. Again he was outplayed. So the only player who didn't win so far in Mexico is named Peter Svidler. Today he had an excellent start though, and he needed only three minutes for his first eighteen moves. Kramnik went for some big thinking and defended at his usual top level. Aronian blew up a winning rook ending (that was very similar to the one in Anand-Kramnik) and had to be satisfied with a draw. Anand surprised Gelfand already at an early stage in the Catalan and easily grabbed a consolidating half point.

Gelfand was right to be a little anoyed when he was asked about the reason behind his quick draw against Kramnik. These games will always be part of a tournament. By the way I was told that the Israeli had asked the organizers to do the rest day on September 22nd, because of Yom Kippur. (It would have been more logical to place this restday between the two parts of the tournament and not in the weekend, when most of the spectators are usually coming.)



Svidler had enough of his solid playing style and decided to take some more risks. This really helped the game to become a very nice one and it was a long time ago that the world champion had been in trouble. He found his way out of it with very accurate play.



In Aronian-Morozevich things seemed to go smoothly for White but after 19.c5 Ne4 Black suddenly was doing fine. Temporarily, because afterwards White was winning again, till he made "the move of a child" (h2-h4). Moro agreed that after that he wasn't in danger anymore.



Not that I want to give him any ideas, but Grischuk might regret it that he doesn't have the Petroff in his repertoire. Two terrible losses in the Ruy Lopez, or from another perspective: two instructive victories by Anand and Leko yesterday and today.





Standings (click for bigger version):



Results/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 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Gelfand
Aronian 
1-0 Leko
Kramnik 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Grischuk
Morozevich 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Anand
Free day: Monday, Sept. 11th 2007
Round 5: Tuesday, Sept. 18th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
1-0 Svidler
Grischuk 
1-0 Morozevich
Leko 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Kramnik
Gelfand 
1-0 Aronian
Round 6: Wednesday, Sept. 19th 2007, 14:00h
Aronian 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Kramnik
Gelfand 
1-0 Morozevich
Grischuk 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Svidler
Leko 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Anand
Round 7: Thursday, Sept. 20th 2007, 14:00h
Anand 
1-0 Grischuk
Kramnik 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Gelfand
Morozevich 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Leko
Svidler 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Aronian



Second half

Round 8: Friday, Sept. 21st 2007, 14:00h
Svidler 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Kramnik
Aronian 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Morozevich
Gelfand 
?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Anand
Leko 
1-0 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.”

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