Wang Hao joins leaders in Moscow as Gelfand resigns in drawn position
Today at the Tal Memorial Wang Hao joined Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the lead. The Chinese GM defeated Boris Gelfand, who resigned in a position that looked lost, but might well be a draw. The other four games did end in a draw.General info
The traditional Tal Memorial tournament takes place 4-14 November in the GUM Exhibition Hall on Red Square, Moscow. Aronian (ARM, 2801), Kramnik (RUS, 2791), Alexander Grischuk (RUS 2771), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 2763), Sergey Karjakin (RUS, 2760), Pavel Eljanov (UKR, 2742), Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2741), Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2741), Alexei Shirov (ESP, 2735) and Wang Hao (CHN, 2727) play a single round-robin. More info here.
Round 7 report
It's not as bad as resigning in a won position, but quite a nightmare anyway: resigning in a drawn position. This is what happened to Boris Gelfand today - well, at least that's what it looks like. So far we haven't been able to find a win for White in the final position of Wang Hao-Gelfand, and the Chinese grandmaster was very surprised himself too.
In fact Wang Hao felt a bit strange about it. "I was very lucky," he repeated a few times in the press room, and even started to apologize for playing on in the ending so long. Unnecessary apologies of course, if only because a draw offer isn't allowed at this tournament anyway. "He is one of the players I have most respect for," the winner said just after I stopped the voice recorder.[audio:http://www.chessvibes.com/audio/talmem10/r7/r7_wanghao.mp3]
The courteous Chinese player is now among the leaders, as both Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew today. Aronian felt he was winning, but he "blundered that g3 was hanging." In a strange way he still feels confident about the last two rounds:[audio:http://www.chessvibes.com/audio/talmem10/r7/r7_aronian.mp3]
Against Kramnik, Mamedyarov was under pressure with black in a Grünfeld, but the Azeri showed that he has made progress recently. He defended quite well and even had some chances of his own, after his opponent went a bit too far, but Mamedyarov was happy with a draw. Here's a clip with his second Elizbar Ubilava:[audio:http://www.chessvibes.com/audio/talmem10/r7/r7_ubilava.mp3]
Pavel Eljanov's early bishop sortie to f4 (an invention by his second Michael Roiz) was not a success against Sergei Karjakin. The young Russian equalized comfortably and quickly got a small advantage, but it was not enough for a win. Here's Eljanov's comment: [audio:http://www.chessvibes.com/audio/talmem10/r7/r7_eljanov.mp3]
The fourth draw of the round was between Alexei Shirov and Alexander Grischuk, who won an exchange for two pawns, but Black had good compensation. Then the Russian blundered an exchange himself, and was lucky to win one pawn back, to end up with a QR-QR ending a pawn down, which he managed to draw. Grischuk after the game:[audio:http://www.chessvibes.com/audio/talmem10/r7/r7_grischuk.mp3]
Games round 7
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Links
Check out Peter’s podcast Masters and Matches! Also, don’t miss Peter’s book The Chess Revolution.
Peter Doggers is Chess.com’s Senior Global Correspondent. Between 2007 and 2013, his website ChessVibes was a major source for chess news and videos, acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
