Masters Final R7: Vallejo beats Ivanchuk

In the 7th round tournament leader Vassily Ivanchuk suffered a surprising loss at the Grand Slam Masters Final against tail-ender Francisco Vallejo. Both Anand-Nakamura and Aronian-Carlsen ended in a draw, and so Ivanchuk is now still five points ahead of Anand, Aronian, Carlsen and Nakamura.

Round 7

At first sight the result '1-0' between Vallejo and Ivanchuk is a huge surprise: the Spaniard, who was declared 'too weak for this field' after a few rounds in Sao Paulo, winning against the legendary Ukrainian, who seems to be in such a good shape. However, in reality Vallejo is simply a very strong player too, and he just underperformed thus far. Also statistically speaking a win for him was likely to come, and we all know that we never know which Ivanchuk will be sitting behind the board.

On Friday it wasn't the super-Ivanchuk that we've seen before. In a position that's not too hard to draw he started playing inaccurately and eventually he lost a rook ending which might have been drawn as well.

[Event "4th Final Masters"]
[Site "Sao Paulo/Bilbao BRA/ESP"]
[Date "2011.10.07"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Vallejo Pons, F."]
[Black "Ivanchuk, V."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A15"]
[WhiteElo "2716"]
[BlackElo "2765"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "93"]
[EventDate "2011.09.26"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. h4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 h6 (6... Bg7 7.
h5 c5 8. Qa4+ Qd7 9. Qh4 Bf6 10. Qf4 Qf5 11. g3 g5 12. Qe3 Nc6 13. Bg2 Bd7 14.
h6 Rc8 {Aronian,L (2750)-Kamsky,G (2725)/Amber blindfold (Nice) 2009}) 7. e4
Bg7 8. d4 c5 9. Bb5+ $5 $146 {An interesting mixture of two systems againt the
Gruenfeld.} (9. Rb1 O-O 10. Be2 cxd4 11. cxd4 Qa5+ 12. Bd2 Qxa2 13. O-O Bg4 14.
Rxb7 Nd7 15. h5 Rab8 {Peralta,F (2557)-Alsina Leal,D (2523)/Barcelona 2009})
9... Nc6 $5 {An equally interesting reply.} 10. d5 Qa5 11. Rb1 a6 12. Bxc6+
bxc6 13. O-O (13. dxc6 Qxa2) 13... Bg4 14. d6 $5 (14. dxc6 O-O 15. Rb7 Rac8 {
is fine for Black.}) 14... Rd8 15. Bf4 exd6 16. Bxd6 Bf8 (16... Bxf3 17. gxf3
Bf8 18. e5 (18. Rb8 Rxb8 19. Bxb8 Be7 $11) 18... Bxd6 19. exd6 O-O 20. Qd2 {
would transpose to the game}) 17. e5 Bxd6 18. exd6 O-O 19. Qd2 Bxf3 20. gxf3
Rd7 21. Rfd1 Rfd8 22. Qxh6 Qxc3 $6 {Objectively there's nothing wrong with
this, but practically speaking it doesn't make Black's life easier.} (22...
Rxd6 23. Rxd6 Rxd6 24. Rb8+ Rd8 {is a simpler way to reach the draw.}) 23. Qf4
c4 24. h5 Qg7 $2 {Now Black gets into trouble.} ({Ivanchuk could still have
forced the draw with} 24... Qa5 $1 25. hxg6 Qh5 $1 26. gxf7+ Rxf7 27. Qxc4 Qxf3
$11) 25. Rb6 Rc8 26. h6 Qc3 27. Rd4 (27. Rb4 $5 {was strong too.}) 27... Qe1+
28. Kg2 Qe6 29. Rxa6 c3 30. Ra3 Rcd8 31. Rxc3 Rxd6 32. Rxd6 Qxd6 (32... Rxd6 $5
) 33. Qxd6 Rxd6 34. a4 Kh7 $6 (34... Rd5 35. Rxc6 Ra5 36. Rc4 Kh7 {seems to be
a better way of defending.}) 35. a5 Kxh6 36. a6 c5 37. Ra3 Rd8 38. f4 Kg7 39.
Kf3 Kf6 40. a7 Ra8 41. Ke4 Ke6 42. Ra6+ Kd7 43. Kd5 Kc7 44. Kxc5 Kb7 45. Kb5
Rxa7 46. Rxa7+ Kxa7 47. Kc6 1-0

At the Bilbao opening ceremony some players said that especially this year they liked the football scoring system, because even with Ivanchuk having such a big lead, 'anything can happen'. On Friday the system was helping the leader who lost, since his 6-point lead only dropped to 5 points. This was because both Aronian-Carsen and Anand-Nakamura ended in a draw and these four players, all in second place, 'only' gained a point. For Ivanchuk, Vallejo was the best player to lose to in the second leg!

Nakamura didn't have any problems achieving the draw. He tweeted:

Thanks to Kramnik I was able to just play something silly like the Berlin and draw against the World Champion relatively effortlessly.

[Event "4th Final Masters"]
[Site "Sao Paulo/Bilbao BRA/ESP"]
[Date "2011.10.07"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Anand, V."]
[Black "Nakamura, Hi"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C67"]
[WhiteElo "2817"]
[BlackElo "2753"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "2011.09.26"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5
8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. Nc3 Ke8 10. h3 h5 11. Bf4 (11. Rd1 Be7 12. Ne4 Bd7 13. b3 h4
14. Bg5 Rd8 15. c4 b6 16. Rd2 Bc8 17. Rxd8+ Kxd8 18. Rd1+ Ke8 19. Bf4 c5 20. e6
Bxe6 21. Bxc7 f6 22. Bb8 {Polgar,J (2699)-Karjakin,S (2788)/Khanty Mansiysk
2011}) 11... Be7 12. Rad1 Be6 13. Ng5 Rh6 14. g3 Bxg5 15. Bxg5 Rg6 16. h4 f6
17. exf6 gxf6 18. Bf4 Nxh4 19. f3 Rd8 20. Rxd8+ $146 (20. Kf2 Rxd1 21. Nxd1 Nf5
22. Rh1 Bxa2 23. Rxh5 {1/2-1/2 Motylev,A (2677)-Malakhov,V (2714)/Olginka 2011}
) 20... Kxd8 21. Kf2 Nf5 22. Rh1 Ng7 23. Bd2 Bf5 24. Nd1 Bxc2 25. Ne3 Bd3 26.
Ng2 Ne6 27. Rxh5 Rg7 28. Bc3 Ke7 29. Rh6 Rf7 30. g4 Bb1 31. a3 f5 32. g5 Nxg5
33. Nf4 Ke8 34. Rg6 Nh7 35. Rg8+ Rf8 36. Rg7 Rf7 1/2-1/2

The game between Aronian and Carlsen was not as spectacular as their first-round game in last month's Botvinnik Memorial, but not bad either:

[Event "4th Final Masters"]
[Site "Sao Paulo/Bilbao BRA/ESP"]
[Date "2011.10.07"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Aronian, L."]
[Black "Carlsen, M."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D55"]
[WhiteElo "2807"]
[BlackElo "2823"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "100"]
[EventDate "2011.09.26"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 h6 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. Rc1
c6 9. h4 c5 $146 (9... Nd7 10. g4 g6 11. cxd5 exd5 12. h5 g5 13. Bd3 Bg7 14.
Bf5 Re8 15. Kf1 Nb6 16. Nd2 Bxf5 17. gxf5 Nc8 18. Ne2 Bf8 19. Kg2 Bd6 20. Nf1
Qf6 21. Qd3 {Botvinnik,M-Ragozin,V/Moscow 1944}) 10. dxc5 Na6 11. cxd5 Nxc5 12.
Bc4 exd5 13. Nxd5 Bxb2 14. Rc2 b5 15. Be2 Na4 16. Rc7 Be6 17. Ne7+ Kh8 18. Qc2
Bc3+ 19. Rxc3 Qa5 20. Ng5 Qxc3+ 21. Qxc3 Nxc3 22. Nxe6 fxe6 23. Ng6+ Kg8 24.
Nxf8 Rxf8 25. Bg4 e5 26. O-O b4 27. a3 Rb8 28. axb4 Rxb4 29. Rc1 Rb1 30. Rxb1
Nxb1 31. Kf1 Nc3 32. Ke1 Kf7 33. Bf5 Nb5 34. Kd2 Nd6 35. Bc2 Ke6 36. Bb3+ Kf5
37. f3 Kf6 38. g4 g5 39. hxg5+ hxg5 40. Kc3 a5 41. Bc2 Ke6 42. Bb3+ Ke7 43. Bc2
Kd7 44. Bd1 Kc6 45. f4 Kc5 46. fxg5 Ne4+ 47. Kb3 Nxg5 48. Ka4 Kc4 49. Bc2 Kc3
50. Bf5 e4 1/2-1/2

Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 | Schedule & results