Shirov beats Kramnik, leads in Shanghai - VIDEO added
Alexei Shirov won his second game in a row today in Shanghai. He beat Vladimir Kramnik to reach sole first place in the standings. Aronian and Wang Hao drew. Round 4 video now up.Tournament info
The first part of the 2010 Grand Slam Masters Final takes place 3-8 September in Shanghai, China. Rounds 1-3 are played at the Spanish Pavillion of the World Expo. Aronian, Kramnik, Shirov and Wang Hao play for two qualification spots for part II.The second part, where Anand and Carlsen are seeded players, will be held October 9-15 in Bilbao, Spain. Both tournaments are 4-player double round-robins. ChessVibes will produce videos at both tournaments.Like at the first two editions the rate of play is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 60 minutes to finish the game, with 10 extra seconds per move from move number 41. This Masters Final will also use again both the “Sofia Rule” and the “football” scoring system: players will get 3 points for winning a game, 1 point for drawing and 0 points for losing. Games start 14.30 local time which is 08.30 CET.Games round 4
Game viewer by ChessTempoRound 4 report
Things would have been much different if yesterday Alexei Shirov hadn't survived his lost position against Wang Hao and Vladimir Kramnik would have won that easily winning position against Levon Aronian. Instead, Shirov is now the sole leader after winning his second game in a row today against Kramnik, who needs to win with Black (!) tomorrow to keep chances of reaching the second stage in Bilbao.Today the tournament moved to the Lu Bo Lang house at the Yuyuan Gardens, in the center of the beautiful Old City.
The playing hall is at the third floor of the building, which has been completely renovated inside, but has kept its four hundred years of history intact. Two beautiful Chinese ladies in silk white dresses are waiting and opening doors (or pressing elevator buttons) all day long. Bill Clinton has been there too, we heard. It didn't surprise us.Wang Hao was very solid today and drew with Aronian, who expected to have some advantage when the Chinese allowed him to play a4-a5. Anatoly Karpov, who is currently running for FIDE President, played 15...a5 last year against Ghaem Maghami but Wang Hao's 15...Rd8 wasn't too bad either. Both players thought that 18.e3 was too slow and 18.Nd2(-c4-b6) should have been played immediately.
Alexei Shirov played a line he had on his repertoire about two decades ago: 4.f3 against the Nimzo. However, after 6...0-0 he was on his own and there he considered 7.e5 "the most principled move". The computer likes White for most of the game, and perhaps Shirov too, but he was modest enough to call it a "fairly balanced game". At the very end Kramnik still had drawing chances with 37...d2, but he blundered big material in big time trouble. Are we really sure we like this time control?
Don't miss this round's video, which will be up quicker than normal. It starts with images of the Yuyuan Garden and somewhere in the middle there's the Shirov-Kramnik time scramble.Videos
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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.
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