Candidates round one- The Madras tiger strikes!!!

The FIDE Candidates Tournament is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia).

The first round started today at 15h00 (GMT+6) with very interesting and promising pairings

the players waiting for the start of the round

Round one

Round one – 13.03.2014, 15:00h (GMT+6)
Andreikin Dmitry	½-½	Kramnik Vladimir
Karjakin Sergey	½-½	Svidler Peter
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	½-½	Topalov Veselin
Anand Viswanathan	1-0	Aronian Levon

A fisheye view of the playing hall where the next challenger for the world champion will be decided

As expected, this first round started very calmly and slowly and it seemed that all the players were in a peaceful mood just trying to put themselves in the right truck by playing solid games and not gambling or risking anything but little by little things started to get a bit more exciting…

The two finalists of the last world cup

The game between Vladimir Kramnik and Dimitry Andreikin was more or less a matter of opening preparation; In fact, to those seeing the opening played for the first time, it might have seemed like sharp action was taking place, but the entire Nimzo-Indian line played was a rinse-and-repeat operation that had been seen up until the 21st move last year in Mamedyarov-Kramnik (Moscow, 2013). That game ended in a draw shortly after on the 26th move, and today was not a big improvement as this game ended also peacefully on the 32nd move.

Peter Svidler and Sergei Karjakin

In the game opposing the two other russian players, Sergey Karjakin went for a less usual line against Peter Svidler’s Sicilian Taimanov with 8.f4 b5 9.e5, but got good play and seemed to have the edge in the opposite-side castling attack. Somehow he never seemed to really get going, perhaps a little too positional, and probably missed Svidler’s 22…Bc4! That was good enough for the draw.

Topalov and Mamedyarov in their typical poses

The game between “Shaq”and “Vesco” was expected to be very explosive as the two players are known as being agressive and dynamic wild fighters and effectively they did not disappoint their fans,

The Bulgarian played a novelty in an offbeat Gruenfeld (6…c5!?) in which he seemed very well prepared. It was not enough to force the Azeri into trouble and they simplified into a symmetrical queenless middlegame that seemed headed to a draw.

This was not to Topalov’s liking who tried to inject some dynamism into the position with 19…a5?! but this was a mistake, and suddenly he was worse, fighting for the draw. At the end, Mamedyarov missed his best chance to keep the pressure and they shook hands on move 36.

The star of the first round; The Madras tiger

The game of the day was Vishy Anand, who was paired in round one against the top seed and the bookmakers big favorite, Levon Aronian.

And vishy did it, he blew away the bookies by winning a great game against levon reminding everyone that he still GOT IT!!!!!

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[Event “2014 Candidates”] [Site “Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia”] [Date “2014.03.13”] [Round “1”] [White “Anand, Vishy”] [Black “Aronian, Levon”] [Result “1-0”] [ECO “C88”] [WhiteElo “2770”] [BlackElo “2830”] [Annotator “GM Gilberto Milos”] [PlyCount “93”] [SourceDate “2014.03.10”] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nbd2 {This is AnandÂ´s idea. It’s also possible to take on e5 directly.} Qd7 {As far as I know this is a novelty though not a good one. Black was doing well with other moves;} (11... Nf4 12. Ne4 Na5 13. Bxf4 exf4 14. d4 {Was played in Topalov-Leko (2009).}) (11... f6 12. c3 Kh8 { took place in Anand-Caruana (2013) and Black won.}) 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. Rxe5 Nf6 14. Re1 $1 {The exclamation mark is not so much for the move as it is for the entire plan used by Anand to try to refute Black’s idea.} Rae8 15. Nf3 Bd6 16. Be3 Re7 (16... Nd5 {was certainly an option.}) 17. d4 Rfe8 18. c3 h6 ({Again Black has the option} 18... Nd5 19. Bd2){ <span class="PgnWidget-anchor-diagram"></span> }19. Ne5 $1 {The key to White’s strategy: Give the pawn back to simplify into an endgame with the two bishops.} Bxe5 20. dxe5 Rxe5 21. Qxd7 Nxd7 22. Red1 Nf6 {After this move Black is in big trouble.} ({A better and perhaps necessary try would be} 22... Nc5 23. Bxc5 ( 23. Bc2 Na4) 23... Rxc5 24. Rd7 Re2 $14 {with counterplay and good chances of holding.}) 23. c4 $1 c6 (23... Be4 24. Rac1 c6 (24... bxc4 25. Bxc4 Bd5) 25. a4 {is also very good for White.}) 24. Rac1 R5e7 25. a4 {Black has too many problems in this simple position and I believe is already lost. I checked the game with the computer and was unable to find a clear improvement for Black from here on.} bxc4 26. Bxc4 Nd5 27. Bc5 Re4 28. f3 R4e5 29. Kf2 {[%cal Rc5f8, Rc5a7,Rc5a3,Rc5e3,Yc4a6,Yc4e6,Yc4e2,Yc4a2] The bishops control the entire board.} Bc8 30. Bf1 R5e6 31. Rd3 Nf4 32. Rb3 {The weaknesses in the queen side are decisive. Black is just lost.} Rd8 33. Be3 Nd5 34. Bd2 Nf6 35. Ba5 Rde8 ( 35... Rd4 36. Rb8) 36. Rb6 Re5 37. Bc3 Nd5 38. Bxe5 Nxb6 39. Bd4 Nxa4 (39... Nd5 40. Rxc6) (39... c5 40. Rxc5) 40. Rxc6 Rd8 41. Rc4 {And the knight is trapped.} Bd7 42. b3 Bb5 43. Rb4 Nb2 44. Bxb5 axb5 45. Ke3 (45. Ke2 {would have been a mistake due to} Nc4 $1) 45... Re8+ ({After} 45... Nd1+ 46. Ke2 { the knight has nowhere to go.}) 46. Kd2 Rd8 47. Kc3 {If 47...Nd1 then 48. Kc2 and the knight is lost. A great game by Anand but a very poor one by Levon who lost a classic thematic endgame illustrating the well-known power of the bishop pair.} 1-0

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A fantastic game by the ex-world champion reminding us that he still has to be counted as a favorite in any tournament he takes part in.

Round two will start tomorrow 14-03-2014 at 15h00 (GMT+6)

Round two – 14.03.2014, 15:00h (GMT+6)
Kramnik Vladimir	–	Karjakin Sergey
Svidler Peter	–	Andreikin Dmitry
Topalov Veselin	–	Anand Viswanathan
Aronian Levon	–	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar