Nanjing R7: Bacrot blunders, Topalov wins first
Missing a tactic, Etienne Bacrot blundered in a fine position and lost to Veselin Topalov today. The other two games at the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing ended in draws; Gashimov-Wang Yue after a tough fight in a Petroff and Carlsen-Anand in a Ruy Lopez that lasted 68 moves.General info
The third Kanion Cup Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament takes place October 21-30 in Nanjing, China. Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov and Etienne Bacrot play a double round-robin with one rest day halfway. More info here.Videos
Round 7 report
We had almost forgotten that Veselin Topalov was the proud winner of the first Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, two years ago. Today the Bulgarian showed glimpses of that form we know he's capable of, and won his first game of the tournament against Etienne Bacrot.
At the press conference Topalov said he still wasn't happy with the way he's playing. Asked about his recent marriage, and the effect on his chess, Topalov smiled. "I don't know what's different about my chess, but I know the results are different."
Bacrot, for a change, didn't attend the press conference. The losers are usually excused in Nanjing - something that's customary at chess tournaments but in our opinion not necessarily the way to go as fans also want to know about the reasons behind failure and disappointment, not just about succes!? In any case, we briefly spoke to the Frenchman, who was mainly disappointed for spoiling a position that he considered to be at least equal, but probably better for him.Gashimov and Wang Yue drew in a Petroff - often this little sentence is enough to describe games with this opening, but this time we're talking about a real fight with mistakes from, and chances for both sides. Just before the first time control Gashimov played some inaccurate moves that allowed Wang Yue to gain the upper hand, but then the Chinese player let it slip away and even ended up a pawn down at move 40. Thanks to a nice tactic the rook ending wasn't difficult to hold.
The encounter between Carlsen and Anand was a heroic fight - something few expected after the Norwegian's timid 5.Re1 against Vishy's Berlin. But time and again Magnus is able to get something out of a sterile, almost dead equal position, which shows how talented he really is. Carlsen kept on increasing his advantage, until it was winning. But these are long games in Nanjing, and in the end he got tired and missed one or two wins indicated by the computer.Right after the game ended, both players laughed and cheerfully exchanged variations. Then after shaking hands, Anand congratulated his opponent and the two shook hands again. What was this about? "I congratulated him with his first White draw in Nanjing," explained Anand. In one and a half tournaments in Nanjing, it needed a World Champion to stop Magnus from winning with the white pieces...
Games round 7
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Photos thanks to Yu Feng
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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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