I am gonna go ahead and say that Ivanchuk should resign... (move 33 when I write this)

@Ostrapbender

Well at least as a topalov-fan   

My mail was partly a reaction on JonHecht's posting (a raving topalov-hater  )

But I promise to post some analysis on 73...Kd5 in the endgame-section.
A thread has allready been opened there by others.
Mind you I didnt state Toppy missed the win, but that he could have set Leko more difficult
problems, especially given Leko's time-trouble.

One of the main reasons I don't predict extremely young players to win top-flight round robin tournaments is the extreme physical duress these tournaments put on the players.  Carlsen may be extremely gifted, but it will take a couple more years before he will have the stamina to win such a major tournament.  (Of course, I'll watch closely to see if I'm wrong.)

My choice to win the tournament has been Anand all along.

Wow, Anand has won both games against Carlsen.


Edit: I hope that Topalov takes the pawn and gets triple isos, that'd be fun.

Aronian-Morozevich just drawn, but Anand-Carlsen just got interesting...

                           Anand-Carlsen  
http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.phpfen=n3r3/q2b1p1k/p2pN1pp/1p1P...
                              after 30.f5

or should this have been the position?

                           Anand-Carlsen  
http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.phpfen=n1r1b3/q4p1k/p2pN1pp/1p1P...
                              after 30.f5

                                   
The relayer on the Playchess server can't seem to decide...  

---

Apparently the second position (above) is correct, and after 30... gxf5 31.exf5 f6 32.Re1 Nc7 33.Rc1 Bd7 34.Rc3 it looks like Carlsen is in trouble.  I haven't worked out all variations, but it looks like ...fxe6 was never a viable option for Black - in which case Anand's 27.Ne6 may be the game's decisive move.

Quote:


lol, that was on the mark..

Jon,

on the najdorf - Be3 - it looks like Black has got his act together see Van Wely v Shirov, Karjakin v Anand and Svidler v Karjakin (obviously learning) and the Nb3 lines aren't that great./ Look at today's Topalov game v Anand in Nf3 - not so hard to play Black surely ?

On 6 f4 e5 is very comfortable equaliser.

On 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Qb6 (Poisoned pawn) and 7. ........ Nbd7 are fine. And whilst we're on the subject of the pp 10 e5 doesn't exactly look like it's holding up.

6 bc4 isn't exactly the strongest although I'd admit to it being a little trappy. the Nbd7 system neutralised one line  but I don't think the Qf3 systems are dangerous for black in any event - see how quickly Kasparov gave the Bc4 line up after his Short match when he had to defend it - although i think from memory he might have played one more game with white with it after this match.

6 g3 is solid but hardly life threatening

6 be2 not very dangerous in the old main line and the modern Kh1 seems to have lost it's favour not that it was that strong anyway- key point black had to take on board was 9,,,,,,,,b5 was rubbish- most lines are fine . Karpov system only seemed to work for the great man !

I don't doubt that the najdorf can lead to a double-edged game but I am just trying to show you how tough life is for 1e4 players . 

I think Vishy might need to think about getting his old 1d4 back into his normal repertoire in view of his lack of bite with white . 

I also think it's significant that Leko has taken this decision as well !

I know that Vishy is in the lead but it seems to me that he doesn't have any significant novelties and that if you are black you might as well just wheel out the Petroff, Marshall or Najdorf and you'll have an easy time.

Or is this just part of the general problem with 1e4 ?