Morozevich loses again, Ivanchuk increases lead
The Tal Memorial saw a fantastic 8th round and in the final phase of the tournament we're seeing an unexpected turn of events. Vassily Ivanchuk profited the most, as he increased his lead to a full point, with one round to go.Photo ?Ǭ© Evgeny Potemkin This year we have seen very different Kamsky's, even within just one tournament. The unpredictable American grandmaster showed one of his very best versions yesterday, beating Alexander Morozevich in a heroic fight. The Russian suddenly found himself in a lost ending, where the same position with a black g-pawn instead of an h-pawn would have been a draw.The encounter Ponomariov-Ivanchuk wasn't less dramatic, and brought back memories of the FIDE Knockout Final of 2002. Would the oldest Ukrainian succumb to the pressure again? This time he didn't, although he came close. Ivanchuk had built up a nice advantage but in timetrouble he gave it all away in just two moves. Then, in the resulting ending, he defended like a lion and saved the draw.Today, Alexei Shirov is the last hurdle to take for Ivanchuk, and it could be a big one. Shirov won his first game yesterday, against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who now lost three in a row. And there was yet another winner: Vladimir Kramnik played one of his better "training games" and in an English sideline he defeated Evgeny Alekseev. 
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Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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