Vassily Ivanchuk Wins Tal Memorial
Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) won the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow by a clear point from the rest of the field. Going into the last round it had been an exciting tournament full of great fighting chess...but the players evidently felt that had provided enough entertainment already and early draws were much in evidence.
It's an unfortunate way to end a great tournament, but if the rules allow early draws and the players are willing to offer or accept them, then surely it's the rules that are most at fault not the players?
An honourable exception to the last round malaise was the game between Gata Kamsky and Ruslan Ponomariov. Whilst the other games were over before the ink was dry on the scoresheets, Gata and Ruslan battled it out for 74 moves down to bare kings. Nuff respect!
On a related note, FIDE has announced that for the forthcoming Dresden Olympiad (12-25 November), draw offers will not be allowed until at least 30 moves have been played. Of course, if players want to draw with each other then they could try to engineer a repetition of moves but this new stipulation for the Olympiad can only help to ensure all games are genuine efforts.
The results of the last round of the Tal Memorial:
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | - Shirov, Alexei | ½-½ | 12 | D27 | QGA |
| Gelfand, Boris | - Morozevich, Alexander | ½-½ | 13 | A04 | Dutch System |
| Kamsky, Gata | - Ponomariov, Ruslan | ½-½ | 74 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin |
| Alekseev, Evgeny | - Leko, Peter | ½-½ | 25 | C53 | Giuoco Piano |
| Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | - Kramnik, Vladimir | ½-½ | 22 | E15 | Queens Indian |
The final standings of the 2008 Tal Memorial:
| 1 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2781 | * | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6 |
| 2 | Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2788 | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5 |
| 3 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2720 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5 |
| 4 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2718 | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2788 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | Leko, Peter | HUN | 2741 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4½ |
| 7 | Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2723 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | * | ½ | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | Alekseev, Evgeny | RUS | 2708 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 4 |
| 9 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2742 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | * | 0 | 3½ |
| 10 | Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2741 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | * | 3 |
