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 |
|
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.)
Results/schedule:
