India’s chess supremo Viswanathan Anand is in the hunt for his first ever Tal Memorial title after he bounced up to third place at the Super Grandmaster tournament in Moscow on Saturday, with a win over his former World Championship opponent, Boris Gelfand of Israel.
The Tal Memorial tournament, held annually since 2006 to commemorate former world champion Mikhail Tal, the greatest attacking player of all time, has eluded Anand on four previous appearances. However, he looks well-placed to set that record right. Anand held the joint lead in the tournament with the Netherlands’ Anish Giri and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi after three of 10 rounds, before a loss to Vladimir Kramnik in Round 4 on Friday saw him slip to fourth position.
However, the Indian ace responded with a rejuvenated performance with the White pieces against Gelfand, who is having the worst tournament of his life, sitting on only ½ points after four rounds. He now sits on 3/5 points, a point behind Giri and half a point behind Nepomniachtchi.
Hits and misses
Anand started the tournament with a quiet, precise draw with Giri in the first round on Monday, but as early as his first game with White, some pyrotechnics were on offer. His opponent in the second round on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani No. 1 Shakir Mamedyarov, sacrificed a piece for two pawns on the king-side in the classical Ruy Lopez move, leading to a position that looked scary on the board. Anand was, however, able to refute the sacrifice and soon emerged a pawn ahead after the exchange of Queens on move 30. Qxg4 took the steam out of Black’s attack. Anand played accurately, and joined the lead with Giri and Nepomniachtchi at 1.5/2 points each.
The third round clash on Thursday with China’s Li Chao was a quiet affair, and ended in a draw, but the next round saw Anand’s clash with long-time rival on-board (and long-time friend off it) and the highest rated player at the tournament, Vladimir Kramnik. Everything seemed to go off-track for the Indian here, as he got into an awkward position with Black by the middle-game in the Giuoco-Piano opening, with one too many committal pawn moves.
Kramnik was looking for a rebound after a loss to Nepomniachtchi in the previous round, and he pressed home his advantage as Anand found himself in a fatal pin. Kramnik was able to convert, leaving the Indian at fourth position ahead of his clash against Gelfand.
The crucial win for Anand
A loss to Kramnik meant that the Round 5 clash with his former world championship challenger became a crucial game with White for Anand. Gelfand is having an utterly forgettable tournament, having lost all but one of his games, and against Anand as well, he looked out of sorts.
Anand, for his part, played precisely and capitalised on the inaccuracies like Black’s 27. Bf6 in the middle game, until he sprung a surprise on the Israeli with a bishop-sack on 37. Bxe3, exchanging his bishop for three passed pawns in the endgame.
Although the sack was unsound, strictly speaking as it relinquished the advantage Anand already had, the three passed pawns posed too many complications for a beleaguered Gelfand, putting him under immense pressure to find the most precise moves. The Israeli faltered, earning Anand a much-needed win.
The Indian ace will play Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia in the next round on Friday, who is also lagging in the tournament with only 1.5 points in 5 rounds. To continue the hunt for his first title at the Tal memorial, Anand will hope to win his first game with Black, which will also help in tie-breaks as they are settled with number of wins with Black if points are tied at the end of 10 rounds.
Highlights galore
Anand’s win was the only one in Round 5, which was a sedate affair by comparison to other rounds. The tournament commemorates Tal’s sacrificial and combative style of play, and the players in tribute have played creative, aggressive brand of chess in Moscow so far, led by the tournament leader, Anish Giri.
Giri has acquired a reputation for playing draw-ish lines, and has off-late garnered a lot of criticism for the same. However, Giri’s play in the tournament seems to set out to shut the lid on his detractors, winning three out of his five games and drawing the two with Anand and Nepomniachtchi. His game with Russia’s Peter Svidlerin in Round 4 was a clear example of the same, where Svidler’s Queen ventured too far into Giri’s camp on 17. Qxg7, and Giri was quick to capitalise with a knight-sack, nabbing a critical pawn on e7.
Ian Nepomniachtchi also continued his fantastic form in 2016, which he displayed through the Olympiad in Baku as well, where he was a standout performer. His win over Kramnik, a higher-rated and much more experienced player, showed the leap in stature of the second youngest player in the tournament.
Incidentally, Nepomniachtchi’s victims have been largely his compatriots, Tomashevsky and Kramnik, from Russia, and he is yet to play Gelfand who is being seen as a soft target. Giri, on the other hand, have the highest rated opponents lined up next, and that should give Anand a chance to make his play for the top with an attacking game with Black against Tomashevsky.
Standings after Round 5:
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