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Anand continues his unbeaten streak. The miracle might just happen. I, for one, would welcome a rematch.
I am not sure who Hal Bond is quoting when he says the pundits believe that would be unfortunate. I can see how the establishment would, as always, root for Kramnik, especially with the added flavour of East-West rivalry in a post Crimea environment. But Anand has arguably brought more people into chess than anyone since Fischer. A rematch could provide both high drama and mass interest, imho.
Close to the time control Karjakin had 14 seconds to make 6 moves. Mamedyarov let his clock go below 5 minutes so that he wouldn’t have to record moves. There was a flurry of moves and Karjakin made the time.
Candidates 2014
Round Twelve
March 27, 2014
Topalov, Veselin – Svidler, Peter
B49 Sicilian, Taimanov Variation
The commentators, as usual, are Viktorija Cmilyte and Peter-Heine Nielsen. Today, they broke away from two press conferences because games still being played were getting exciting. Surely there must be a way of recording the whole conference and then showing the rest of it later. I can’t remember the last time I have had just a couple of sentences from Peter Svidler!
Topalov beat Svidler, and he did so quite easily. In a Taimanov Sicilian White got a nice positional plus, which grew into a serious advantage when Svidler “started missing stuff”. He concluded: “I can’t explain why I kept missing stuff. The result is perfectly deserved.” Topalov didn’t look as tense as usual – perhaps because he won and because Peter didn’t try to win the press conference.
________
The game Aronian-Kramnik wasn’t to decide the tournament because Kramnik was already out of contention and Aronian was a full point behind Anand. Aronian played the risky 24. e4 but Kramnik didn’t try to make something of it and repeated moves. He said that his only goal was first place and then his mind was a suitcase – I took that to mean he just wants to go home now.
Actually, instead of Ba6 in the end, Kramnik had an interesting maneuver in 28…Nb5 29.exd5 Na5! which might have given him something. Aronian was stunned when the FIDE Press Officer showed him this line.
___________
(Official Site) - Andreikin wanted to try a Caro-Kann against Anand, exactly the line that Carlsen played in game 2 of Chennai WCC match.
Anand definitely had an improvement ready, as he deviated on move 15 with Qd3-f3. In this development he kept more pieces on the board.
Black was trying for a usual queenside counterplay, while white centralised his pieces waiting to answer black’s c6-c5 break with d4-d5.
Black immediately went astray by allowing the pawn to advance further, all the way to d7. In addition, white launched an attack against the enemy king.
However, Andreikin didn’t roll over, and he sacrificed a bishop to lead the white king out in the open field.
His efforts paid off when Anand conceded a draw by “taking a practical decision” to repeat the moves.
Anand commented later – “I looked at Kd2, but there are two rooks, queen, knight jumping around, and I couldn’t see it through. ” He added that 36. Bd2 might have been a better try.
Anand got up from his table and went over to see what was going on between Mamedyarov-Karjakin at once point. It looked to me like they had just passed the time control and were trying to bring their score sheets up to date but to others it might have looked like a draw.
__________
Mamedyarov-Karjakin was a back- and forth-contest. Karjakin thought that Anand would win his game, so he wanted to play for a win and probably overpressed. He spent a lot of time on 27..Nc6. Mamedyarov took over the initiative and a position was reached where Karjakin had 14 seconds left for six moves. He played six good moves, reached the time control and then “tortured me for 30 minutes more” (Mamedyarov).
At the press conference, perhaps realizing he was becoming the closest threat to Anand, Karjakin was irritated about what happened. “First I'd like to mention that this is a stupid time control. Why do I pay my money to the Association of Chess Professionals if they don't protect the players? Besides, I agree with Vladimir Kramnik who spoke about the tiebreak here. The mistakes of London are just repeated and I don't understand why.” Even though all the players have signed their contracts, and knew the rules in advance, it does seem to be a legitimate question.
Karjakin would like a uniform time control rule, favoring the 30-second increment they had in the World Cup.
Mamedyarov then told an anecdote that was so long and convoluted that the interpreter gave up and said, “Things were said.” to end the press conference.
________
Emil Sutovsky of the ACP answered Karjakin’s rant on his Facebook page:
"Karjakin's statement was surprising. "Why do we play the tournament with such a stupid time control? What do I pay ACP for? Why isn't it protecting chess players' right?"
First of all, Karjakin (as everyone else) didn't pay ACP a cent in 2012-2013, he confirmed his membership for 2014 only three weeks ago and also paid the membership fees. While we worked regardless the contributions.
Second, and this is even more important: the decision to have time controls only with the increment in all formats (classical/rapid/blitz) starting from the next cycle was made by the World Championship and Olympiad Commission last year exactly on my initiative.
Moreover, I announced this decision publicly.
As long as the Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 was played with the time control with no increment, it was decided to play the Candidates' with the same time control and there's some logic in that.
Anyways, one could ask for clarifications after the Regulations of the tournament was published - I guess, dozens of players can confirm that their inquiries on any subject, which is at least indirectly connected to ACP's work, NEVER stay unanswered."
________
(ChessVibes) - Anand is still very likely to win the event and qualify for the World Championship, but the situation could have been even more comfortable for him. If he had converted his game today, he would have needed only a draw out of his last two games. Now, for instance if he loses to Karjakin on Saturday and draws his last game, Karjakin can overtake him by winning his last game because the tiebreak would be in his favor.
First we'll have another rest day, and then let's see what Saturday will bring, with the games Karjakin-Anand, Kramnik-Topalov, Svidler-Mamedyarov and Andreikin-Aronian.
______
I think it is a foregone conclusion that Kramnik and Topalov will not shake hands before their game!
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Thursday, 27th March, 2014, 04:13 PM.
Another day of fighting chess. The game between Anand and Andreikin was particularly exciting. At the end, although Vishy had the advantage the complexities were very dangerous. Rather than risk it, he took the draw. A win would have pretty well put him out of reach. Instead, the tournament is still not over.
The tournament is incredible tight - and Anand needs to work hard even if he has a strong lead. I was expecting more segregated rankings, but Mamedyarov and Andreikin exceeded expectations. Funny thing - Anand can lose both games and still qualify if the right combination of results happens.
Topalov was annoyed that Peter Svidler was sitting with his second in the back of the hall prior to the round. Technically he was right - the security check was already done and now his second can pass him a secret device. I let him vent. After the game he came back and apologized, noting that the room was well lit and nothing could really happen.
It was also interesting to note Karjakin's rant about the "stupid" time controls - no arguments from me!
It looks very much as if Anand has now won the Candidates'. His closest competitor, Aronian, went down in flames while Anand at this moment (move 55) appears to have secured the draw against Karjakin. That would give Anand an insurmountable lead with one round to go.
Congratulations, Vishy Anand.
It's all over but the cheering. Vishy Anand has cinched first place in the Candidates' Tournament and will play a rematch against Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship this fall, time and place TBD. Not bad for a guy who was discounted as down and out. :D
Kramnik had his press conference and ten minutes or so later, Topalov had his press conference.
Standing after Round Thirteen
Anand 8.0
Aronian 6.5
Mamedyarov 6.5
Andreikin 6.5
Kramnik 6.5*
Karjakin 6.5
Svidler 6
Topalov 5.5
_______
*omitted in the first draft - sorry.
Comments
(Anand) - "I really hesitated before making the decision to participate here”, Anand told at the press conference. "Honestly, I made a mistake when I announced that I would take time to think about it. I had to say directly "I am participating" and then in case of changing mind just put the invitation down. I set aside the decision, because I wanted to make it consciously. I needed some time to recover.
The story of what happened at the London Chess Classics Rapid comes to my mind. Kramnik lost a silly game against Nakamura and despite the fact that the day before Vladimir defeated me, I decided to cheer him up and invited him for the dinner. At the dinner it turned the way around, rather he was comforting me. He was asking why I hesitated playing at Candidates' and his support really helped me to make this decision."
(Stewart Reuben) – I looked up the regulations if either Carlsen or Anand doesn't play.
3.6.2 If a player refuses to participate in the World Championship Match, he will be replaced as follows: The runner up finalist of FWCM 2013, GM Viswanathan Anand, replaces the World champion Magnus Carlsen and the runner up of the Candidates Tournament 2014 replaces the challenger. In case any or both players refuse to participate when invited, or for any further replacements needed, the FIDE rating list of January 2014 will be used to determine their replacements.
- Actually tomorrow's round will impact prize money distribution !
- Actually, if it's all draws tomorrow, and Anand declines another match with Carlsen, someone on 50% and some random tiebreaker will get a match with Carlsen!! Of course, this is the sort of absurd situation that can arise when we have a qualification system for the Candidates that so narrows down and randomises the qualification prospects of strong players that it is almost inevitable that 2 or 3 of the strongest miss out.
- EVERY strong player had at least TWO chances to qualify for the Candidates (Grand Prix, World Cup). So if they didn't, they weren't good enough (Naka, Caruana, Gelfand, Grischuk). No excuses.
- Very convincing victory by Anand. Winning with a round to spare, the only player on a plus score ... I don't think any expected this, or the insane blunders by so many of the other players. I am very much looking forward to a Carlsen - Anand rematch.
I am also pleasantly surprised by Andreikin. People were saying that both he and Anand had no business in this event, and they have both shown otherwise.
- Both Andreikin and Karjakin played without any fear in this tournament. Stress got better of Aronian and Kramnik.
- What a fight Anand gave in an adverse situation! Karjakin could not break into his defense. Anand has taken risk of sacrificing a piece or pawn time and again. This shows that he has in-depth grip of positional chess. Even technician like Karjakin gave up, which otherwise he would have won with any other player in the tournament. Hats off to Anand! You roared back! You displayed judicious mixture of risk and retracing and kept your cool under tense condition. You are worthy candidate to challenge Carlsen. All the best for a showdown.
- I agree. When I saw the type of endgame Anand has went into, I thought "Big mistake, not against Karjakin!" But Anand has shown that he was up to the task. We have a clear winner and worthy candidate. Congratulations. I'm looking forward to the match.
- What the hell happened??? The Boss had promised us a Russian.
- If there's one thing that compensates for what will be a very boring rematch with a foregone conclusion, it is that Ilyumzhinov didn't get what he wanted. Yay!!
It would seem that Ilyumzhinov needs to find a different god to pray to. Or perhaps he should contact his alien friends next time.
- Both Naka and Caruana had multiple chances to qualify for the Candidates and didn't -- Naka being owned by Gelfand in the Grand Prix and then by Korobov at the World cup; Caruana being inferior to Mamedyarov at the Grand Prix and losing to MVL at World Cup. The best players made it to the Candidates.
- Nothing silly at all about the qualifications. Mamedyarov and Andreikin were superior to Naka and Caruana when it mattered most...and both have acquitted themselves well at the Candidates tournament.
It's very clear what one has to do to make the Candidates (other than Carlsen/Anand): 1. Finish 1st or 2nd in the Grand Prix (requires multiple good results, not just one great result and 2 horrible ones) 2. Reach the final of the World Cup 3. Remain consistently in the top 5 in the world from July 2014 thru June 2015. 4. Convince a sponsor from your country to host the Candidates so you can be chosen as a wild card
That's several ways to qualify...if you can't do that, you don't belong in the Candidates. Period.
- At the press conference, Anand said that it was Kramnik who persuaded him to play in the Candidates. It is really wonderful to see two best players of the modern era being such good friends off the board. You are a good man, Vladimir!
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Sunday, 30th March, 2014, 01:28 AM.
Reason: added comments
After round 13, it is officially confirmed that Vishy Anand will meet Magnus Carlsen again!!!
I am personally very happy with this outcome.
Perhaps Magnus will be more willing to attack and takes risks now that he has secured the World Title, and hopefully Anand will have somewhat less pressure and play better than last time, as he won't have anything to lose this time.
My bet is that Carlsen will keep his title for quite a while, but as long we got interesting and exciting chess I'll be happy with that.
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