Tal Memorial Blitz: Two losses and no wins, the Tiger is yet to wake up!
The Tal Memorial 2016 tournament began with the traditional blitz tournament and Anand had a miserable outing. He drew seven games and lost two to finish with 3.5/9. Azeri GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov won the event with 7.5/9. The main tournament begins today, in a while, but before that, enjoy our brief overview of Anand's performance.
Tal Memorial Blitz: Two losses and no wins, the Tiger is yet to wake up!
Now, Anand found an accurate way to hold. Black played 54...Bxa5!, resulting in a draw. How?
Nepo had understood that capturing the black pawn would mean an instant draw -- the wrong bishop combined with the advancing h-pawn. So, he tried to zugzwang Anand into being forced into advancing his g-pawn, allowing hxg4 and winning.
But one of the greatest things about Anand is how calm he can remain under pressure, calculating things accurately. When Nepo finally got his dream position above, he understood why: after 1. Bf5 Black would indeed have no choice but to play 1...g4, but the problem is that after 2.hxg4 Black is stalemated! And if 2.Bxg4 then the wrong bishop and h-pawn ending are left. Seeing this, he smiled ruefully and stuck out his hand for the draw.
But this was followed by more draws -- in the first six rounds, Anand had six draws. And then, he suffered two consecutive losses.
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.09.25"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Giri, Anish"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2790"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[EventType "blitz"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[WhiteClock "0:00:12"]
[BlackClock "0:00:08"]
Nc3 {1} a6 {0} 6. Be3 {1} e5 {2} 7. Nf3 {1} Be7 {1} 8. Bc4 {0} O-O {3} 9. O-O {
1} Qc7 {1} 10. Bb3 {1} Be6 {2} 11. Nh4 {1} g6 {6} 12. Bh6 {5} Re8 {5} 13. Qd2 {
1} Nbd7 {8} 14. Nf5 {1} Bxb3 {50} 15. axb3 {7} Nc5 {5} 16. Rae1 {18} Ne6 {9}
17. Ne3 {9} Rac8 {6} 18. h3 {33} Bf8 {2} 19. Bxf8 {8} Rxf8 {1} 20. Ncd5 {14}
Nxd5 {9} 21. Nxd5 {0} Qd8 {1} 22. b4 {17} Nf4 {26} 23. Nxf4 exf4 24. c3 {20}
Qf6 {3} 25. Qd5 {22} f3 {24} 26. g3 {2} Rc7 {2} 27. Re3 {2} Re8 {2} 28. Qd3 {14
} Re5 {6} 29. Rd1 {14} Rd7 {22} 30. Rxf3 {13} Qe6 {0} 31. Kg2 {6} Rxe4 {2} 32.
Rf6 {2} Qxf6 {2} 33. Qxe4 {0} Qe6 {2} 34. Qd5 {5} Kf8 {11} 35. Qd4 {5} Kg8 {4}
36. Rd3 {1} Re7 {16} 37. Qxd6 {14} Qxd6 {6} 38. Rxd6 {1} Re2 {1} 39. Rb6 {4}
Rxb2 {1} 40. Rxb7 {1} a5 {1} 41. b5 {1} a4 {2} 42. c4 {3} Rb4 {7} 43. c5 {7} a3
{1} 44. b6 {1} Rc4 {7} 45. Rb8+ {0} Kg7 {1} 46. b7 {1} 1-0
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.09.25"]
[Round "8.4"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Li, Chao b"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A06"]
[WhiteElo "2790"]
[BlackElo "2624"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[EventType "blitz"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "180+2"]
[WhiteClock "0:00:07"]
[BlackClock "0:00:37"]
Nxd5 {1} 6. O-O {2} c5 {9} 7. Nc3 {5} O-O {13} 8. Qb3 {4} e6 {23} 9. d3 {4} Nc6
{3} 10. Bg5 {2} Qd7 {4} 11. Ne4 {43} b6 {2} 12. h4 {12} Bb7 {6} 13. h5 {2} h6 {
8} 14. Bd2 {7} g5 {3} 15. Rfc1 {13} f5 {12} 16. Nc3 {2} Kh7 {19} 17. Nxd5 {14}
exd5 {2} 18. Bc3 {7} d4 {16} 19. Bd2 {2} Rae8 {1} 20. Qd1 {3} Ne5 {4} 21. b4 {7
} Bxf3 {18} 22. Bxf3 {3} Nxf3+ {2} 23. exf3 {1} Qd5 {2} 24. bxc5 {10} bxc5 {1}
25. f4 {1} g4 {4} 26. Rab1 {5} Rf6 {17} 27. Rb5 {4} Rc6 {1} 28. a4 {5} a6 {2}
29. Rbb1 {22} Rce6 {2} 30. Rc2 {13} Re2 {5} 31. Ba5 {8} Qf3 {4} 32. Rxe2 {2}
Rxe2 {1} 33. Be1 {1} c4 {5} 34. Rc1 {26} cxd3 {8} 0-1
Vishy has had a long association with Mikhail Tal, mainly due to his games but also the chess club where he grew up playing. Vishy was asked to say a few words on Tal, who he had known and played. “Even though Mikhail Tal was only world champion for one year, I think he won more fans in that year than many others in their lifetime. He is obviously one of the most popular world champions ever, and I have a personal connection as well, in that I grew up in the Mikhail Tal Chess Club in Chennai.”
Anand's greatest strength is his ability to bounce back from bad situations. It should be a matter of time before the Madras tiger will be back in business.
Anyway, Anand and Kramnik are not the only world champions at the venue...
