Morozevich Wins Tal Memorial Blitz
The blitz tournament appetiser for the 2012 Tal Memorial was won by Alexander Morozevich, who scored 6½/9 points.
Morozevich took the €5,000 first prize on tie-breaks from Magnus Carlsen thanks to his victory over the world's #1 in their individual game in round 7 (Carlsen lost on time).
The positions in the blitz tournament decide the pairings for the main event, with the most significant point being that the top five will have 5 games with white (and 4 with black), while the bottom five have 4 games with white (5 with black).
Although this is a slight disadvantage for the bottom half of the field, the first tie-break if there are tied scores in the main competition is highest # of games with black, so it could work in their favour in some circumstances.
The results in full:
| Name | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts | |
| 1 | Morozevich, Alexander | * | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6½ |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | 0 | * | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6½ |
| 3 | Grischuk, Alexander | 0 | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5½ |
| 4 | Radjabov, Teimour | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 5½ |
| 5 | Aronian, Levon | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 7 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3½ |
| 8 | McShane, Luke J | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | * | 1 | ½ | 3 |
| 9 | Kramnik, Vladimir | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * | 1 | 2½ |
| 10 | Caruana, Fabiano | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | * | 2 |
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Carlsen lost on time to Morozevich in their crucial round 7 encounter
Games are available for replay at this page of the official coverage. The full live video coverage is available for replay here, or divided up round-by-round here.
The serious business gets underway tomorrow (8 June) at 15:00 local time in Moscow (11:00 UTC). Full schedule and more details in our previous news report.
The pairings in round 1 are: Morozevich v Caruana, Carlsen v Kramnik, Grischuk v McShane, Radjabov v Tomashevsky, and Aronian v Nakamura.
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Screenshot from the live video coverage.
