Candidate's Matches Update

By The Weekender

WORLD CANDIDATES PLAYOFFS

Aronian, Gelfand and Shirov qualify

THREE more global superstars—Levon Aronian of Armenia, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexei Shirov of Spain—qualified for the second and final round of the World Candidates Matches in Elista, capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia.

The three won their tiebreak playoffs against Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and Michael Adams of England, respectively.

Aronian, Gelfand and Shirov will join Gata Kamsky of the United States, Peter Leko of Hungary, and three Russian super GMs—Alexander Grischuk, Sergei Rublevsky and Evgeny Bareev—in the second and final round of the matches, which begin on Wednesday, June 5, also in Elista.

The World Candidates Matches kicked off on May 26 and will end on June 14, Thursday next week.

In the most exciting playoff, it took Aronian five tiebreak games before breaking down 16-year-old Carlsen, now dubbed “Magnus the Magnificent” by the media.

Armenia’s Olympiad megastar drew first blood in their playoff, but the Norwegian Wonder Boy held on with two draws before avenging his loss for a tie.

But then, drawing on his experience and tactical skills, Aronian prevailed with two blitz wins in succession to wrap up the match, 4-2..

Gelfand and Shirov took only three games each to dispose of former world champion Kasimdzhanov and Adams, respectively. They had identical scores, 2.5-0.5, from two wins and one draw each.

Adams’ loss was heartbreaking because Shirov was able to force the playoff only in the sixth and final game of their best-of-six regulation mation. In their playoff, Adams appeared to have lost his focus.

Gelfand and Kasimdzhanov were both winless entering their playoff, having drawn all their six games. But in the playoff, Gelfand sat down to business and gave the former world champ no quarters, winning both games with Black and drawing with White..

The eight qualifiers will play another series of best-of-six matches to determine who—just four of them—should take part in the World Championship tournament to be held in Mexico in September.

The final four winners in Elista will join four others seeded directly to the world title series, namely, reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik, world No. 1 Viswanathan Anand, 2005 world championship runner-up and four-time Russian champion Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich.

It was not explained how the four top seeds as well as the 16 candidates for the Elista matches were selected—how, for instance, was No. 2 junior player Magnus Carlsen selected and not the No. 1 junior, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, who beat former world No. 1 Garry Kasparov, who retired from active competition in 2005.

Nevertheless, Carlsen proved to be the most exciting player to compete in Elista.

Decisive games in Elista playoff matches

• L. Aronian (2759) – M. Carlsen (2693)
Rd 7, Modern Benoni (A62)

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.g3 Bg7 8.Bg2 0–0 9.0–0 a6 Secures b5 10.a4 Re8 11.Bf4 Ne4 12.Nxe4 Rxe4 13.Nd2 Rb4 14.b3 Rxf4 15.gxf4 Bxa1 16.Qxa1 Nd7 17.Ne4 Qe7 18.Rc1 b6 19.Rc3 Nf6 20.Re3 Nxe4 21.Bxe4 Qd8 22.Rg3 Qh4 23.e3 Qe7 24.Bd3 Bb7 25.e4 Re8 26.f5 Qh4 27.h3 Bc8 28.Qc3 Qf4 29.Qf6 Qe5 30.Qxe5 Rxe5 31.f4 Re8 32.f6 Bd7 33.Re3 b5 34.axb5 axb5 35.e5 Kf8 36.Kf2 Kg8 37.Be2 Kf8 38.h4 Kg8 39.Ke1 Kf8 40.Kd2 h6 41.Bd3 h5 42.e6! fxe6 43.Bxg6 exd5 44.Bxe8 Bxe8 45.Re6 c4 46.Rxd6 cxb3 47.Kc3 Kf7 48.Kxb3 Kg6 49.Kb4 Kf5 50.Kc5 Bf7 51.Kxb5 Be6 52.Kc5 Kxf6 53.Kd4 Kf5 54.Ke3 Bf7 55.Kf3 Be6 56.Ra6 Bf7 57.Ra8 Kf6 58.Ra6+?? Kf5 59.Ra1 Bg6 60.Rg1 Kf6 61.Ke3 Bf7 62.Rg5 Ke6 63.Kd4 Kf6 64.Kc5 Ke7 65.Rg7 Kf6 66.Rxf7+!

After 66.Rxf7+!

A decisive exchange sacrifice, e.g., 66…Kxf7 67 Kxd5!, and White’s pawn majority prevails.
1–0

• M. Carlsen (2693) – L. Aronian (2759)
Rd. 10, Queen’s Indian Defense (E12)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 c5 8.Be2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 a6 10.0–0 Nc6 11.Nf3 0–0 12.Qd2 Qb8 13.Rfd1 Rd8 14.Rac1 d6 15.Qc2 Qa7 16.a3 Rac8 17.Qb1 Nb8 18.b4 Nbd7 19.Bg3 d5 20.cxd5 Nxd5 21.Nxd5 Bxd5 22.e4 Bc6 23.Nd4 Ba4 24.Rxc8 Rxc8 25.Rc1 Qa8 26.f3 Bg5 27.f4 Rxc1+ 28.Qxc1 Qxe4 29.fxg5 Qxd4+ 30.Bf2 Qe5 31.Qc8+ Nf8 32.Qxa6 b5 33.Bf1 hxg5 34.Qc8 f5 35.Bc5 Qf6 36.h3 e5 37.Bxf8 Qxf8 38.Qe6+ Qf7 39.Qxe5 Qd7 40.Be2 Kh7 41.Kf2 g6 42.Qe3 Qd8 43.Qe5 Qd2 44.Kg3 Qc1 45.Kh2 Qxa3 46.Qe7+ Kh6 47.Qf8+ Kh7 48.Qe7+ Kh6 49.Qe5 Kh7 50.Qe7+ Kh6 51.Bxb5 Bxb5 52.Qe5 Kh7 53.Qxb5 f4 54.Qd7+ Kh6 55.Qe8 Qb2 56.Qf8+ Kh7 57.Qe7+ Kh6 58.h4 f3 59.Qxg5+ Kh7 60.h5 gxh5 61.Qxh5+ Kg7 62.Qg4+ Kh7 63.Qd7+ Kh6 64.Qc6+ Kg7 65.Qc7+ Kh6 66.Qf4+ Kh7 67.Qf7+ Kh6 68.Qxf3 Qxb4 69.Kh3 Qb1 70.Qf6+ Kh7 71.Qf3 Kg7 72.Kh4 Kh7 73.Qf7+ Kh8 74.Qh5+ Kg7 75.Qg4+ Kh7 76.Qh5+ Kg7 77.Qe5+ Kh7 78.Qd5 Kg7 79.Qd4+ Kh7 80.Qd7+ Kh8 81.g4 Qh1+ 81.Qe1+! was more precise 82.Kg5 Qc1+?? 83.Kg6 Qb1+ 84.Qf5! 1–0

• R. Kasimdzhanov (2677) – B. Gelfand (2733)
Rd 7, Queen’s Indian Defense (E15)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 0–0 12.0–0 f5 13.Bb2 Bd6 14.Rc1 Rc8 15.Nf3 Qe7 16.Qd2 Nf6 17.Ne5 Ne4 18.Qe3 c5 19.f3 Nf6 20.Kh1 cxd4 21.Bxd4 Bxe5 22.Bxe5 dxc4 23.Qd2 Rfd8 24.Qb2 Nd5 25.Bd4 e5 26.Bxe5 c3 27.Bxc3 Nxc3 28.Rxc3 Qxe2 29.Rxc8 Rxc8 30.Qd4 Qxa2 31.Qd5+ Kh8 32.Rd1 h6 33.f4 Qc2 34.Re1 Qf2 35.Rg1 Rc2 36.Qf7 Bd3 37.h4 Be4 38.Kh2 Rc1!!

After 38…Rc1!!
Decisive.

39.Qe8+ Kh7 White resigns as there’s no way he can attack the king and mate is in the air. 0–1

• Shirov,A (2699) - Adams,Mi (2734) [C43]
Rd. 6, Petroff Defense (C43)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.Bd3 d5 5.dxe5 Be7 6.0–0 Bg4 7.Bxe4 dxe4 8.Qxd8+ Bxd8 9.Nd4 0–0 10.Nc3 Nd7 11.h3 Bh5 12.e6 fxe6 13.Nxe6 Re8 14.Nxd8 Raxd8 15.Bg5 Nf6 16.Rfe1 Bg6 17.Rad1 Kf8 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Nd5 e3 20.Nxe3 c5 21.Kf1 Rd4 22.c3 Bd3+ 23.Kg1 Rd6 24.Rd2 b5 25.Nc2 Red8 26.Red1 Ke7 27.Ne1 Be4 28.Rxd6 Rxd6 29.Rxd6 Kxd6 30.Kf1 Kd5 31.Ke2 Bb1 32.a3 Kc4 33.Kd2 Be4 34.f3 Bg6 35.b4 Kb3 36.bxc5 Kxa3 37.c6 Ka4 38.g4 Be8 39.c7 Bd7 40.Nd3 Ka5 41.Nc5 Bc8 42.Ne4 Kb6 43.Nxf6 Kxc7 44.Nxh7 Kd6 45.h4 a5 46.h5 Ke7 47.Ng5 Bb7 48.h6 Kf6 49.f4! If 49…Kg6 50.h7! 1–0