Tal Memorial started

Yesterday, the last big round-robin super tournament of the year 2007 started in Moscow: the Tal Memorial. The main characters present at the capital of Russia are Ivanchuk (2787), Kramnik (2785) Leko (2755), Mamedyarov (2752), Shirov (2739), Gelfand (2736), Kamsky (2724), Alekseev (2716), Carlsen (2714) and Jakovenko (2710). All rated above 2700, these players are bringing the highest level of chess to the Russian schoolboy fans. The first round saw only one decisive game: Leko beat Shirov with White in an Archangelsk Ruy Lopez.

The Tal Memorial is played from 9 till 19 November, with a rest day on 15 November. The time control in Moscow is 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 40 minutes for 20 moves plus 15 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment. After the tournament has finished, it will immediately be followed by the World Blitz Championship (preliminaries 19-20 November, finals 20-21 November including Vishy Anand, who won the tournament last year) and on 23 November a two-game exhibition rapid match between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.

The Tal Memorial schedule:

10 November 2007               11 November 2007         
Leko       - Shirov     1-0    Leko       - Kamsky     .-.
Kamsky     - Gelfand    1/2    Gelfand    - Kramnik    .-.
Kramnik    - Carlsen    1/2    Carlsen    - Alekseev   .-.
Alekseev   - Ivanchuk   1/2    Ivanchuk   - Jakovenko  .-.
Jakovenko  - Mamedyarov 1/2    Shirov     - Mamedyarov .-.

12 November 2007               13 November 2007         
Kramnik    - Leko       .-.    Leko       - Alekseev   .-.
Kamsky     - Shirov     .-.    Kamsky     - Kramnik    .-.
Alekseev   - Gelfand    .-.    Gelfand    - Jakovenko  .-.
Jakovenko  - Carlsen    .-.    Carlsen    - Mamedyarov .-.
Mamedyarov - Ivanchuk   .-.    Shirov     - Ivanchuk   .-.

14 November 2007               16 November 2007         
Jakovenko  - Leko       .-.    Leko       - Mamedyarov .-.
Alekseev   - Kamsky     .-.    Kamsky     - Jakovenko  .-.
Kramnik    - Shirov     .-.    Kramnik    - Alekseev   .-.
Mamedyarov - Gelfand    .-.    Gelfand    - Ivanchuk   .-.
Ivanchuk   - Carlsen    .-.    Shirov     - Carlsen    .-.

17 November 2007               18 November 2007         
Ivanchuk   - Leko       .-.    Leko       - Carlsen    .-.
Mamedyarov - Kamsky     .-.    Kamsky     - Ivanchuk   .-.
Jakovenko  - Kramnik    .-.    Kramnik    - Mamedyarov .-.
Alekseev   - Shirov     .-.    Alekseev   - Jakovenko  .-.
Carlsen    - Gelfand    .-.    Shirov     - Gelfand    .-.

19 November 2007
Gelfand    - Leko       .-.
Carlsen    - Kamsky     .-.
Ivanchuk   - Kramnik    .-.
Mamedyarov - Alekseev   .-.
Jakovenko  - Shirov     .-.

In the first round, Leko started well, using a prepared line against Shirov's Archangelsk and finishing with some accurate moves. Kamsky played very well too, against Gelfand, but because of a terrible blunder the American GM had to be satisfied with a draw. Alekseev-Ivanchuk looked like a correct, strategical draw and Jakovenko-Mamedyarov was a pretty complicated game, where both players were in danger for a while, but the point was split in the end. Magnus Carlsen had an excellent start in Moscow. By now everybody agrees on his huge talent, but as Peter Heine Nielsen said during his interview with ChessVibes, Magnus still needs to improve on his preparation. It seems he listened to Peter, because for his first-round game against Vladimir Kramnik, the Norwegenian boy had prepared extremely well, scoring a half point with Black almost completely on homework.



At the moment of writing, the second round game is going on. Live games here.

Our friends Robert Fontaine and G?ɬ©rard Demuydt of Europe-Echecs are in Moscow and seem to be in good shape as well. Like Leko, they started well in the first round:

Start of round 1



Kramnik interview



Jakovenko interview