Tal Memorial 01: Anand holds the man who comes in peace with accurate play

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 27/09/2016

Anand began with an interesting move order, but then, he was in trouble due to a missed intermezzo. But he managed to make a bunch of accurate moves and held Anish Giri to a draw. The first round of the Tal Memorial belonged to Nepomniachtchi. After only 23 moves and less than two hours of play, Black was forced to resign in a hopeless position. Svidler almost toppled Kramnik, but was unable to put the finishing touch. All other games were solid draws to kick off the event. Nonetheless, here is our illustrated report focusing on Anand's game with a video-analysis by the former world champion and also, master analysis for you to study. Enjoy!

Tal Memorial 01: Anand holds the man who comes in peace with accurate play

The Tal Memorial 2016 with a 200,000 USD prize fund is a premier event in the annual calendar.

Xth Jubilee Tal Memorial is taking place from 25 September to 6 October 2016 in the Moscow Museum of Russian Impressionism. The tournament will be a continuation of the program "Chess in Museums", which is being implemented by the Russian Chess Federation together with the Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko. The General Partner of the Russian Chess Federation for the X Tal Memorial is the state company "Russian Highways" ("Avtodor").

The prize fund for the event is 200 thousand USD.

The tournament is a round-robin over nine rounds played at 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 50 minutes for 20 moves and 15 minutes until the end of the game with 30 seconds for each move starting from the first. The chief arbiter is International Arbiter Anatoly Bykhovsky.

Round One

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	2745	GM	Svidler Peter	½-½	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	2808	10
2	2	2740	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	1-0	GM	Tomashevsky Evgeny	2731	9
3	3	2795	GM	Aronian Levon	½-½	GM	Gelfand Boris	2743	8
4	4	2755	GM	Giri Anish	½-½	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2776	7
5	5	2761	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	½-½	GM	Li Chao B	2746	6

Players observe a brief moment of silence before the start of the round to pay obeisence to the legendary Mark Dvoretsky.

The Madras Tiger had a forgettable day at the office in the blitz event the day before. In the seventh round, He had lost to...

..the man who comes in peace with the black pieces. In the first round of the main event, he was playing Anish Giri once again with black.

Black played the interesting 12...Ne5, allowing White to double his kingside pawns. Why did Anand play this?

But Anand was not completely satisfied with his position. He was self-critical about his decision where he played...

...14...Rd8, which he thought was 'stupid'. Instead, he should have preferred 14...Bd7, which should be closer to A draw despite the 15.Nd5 tactic.

Giri-Anand (Analysis by IM Shar Shah)

[Event "10th Tal Memorial 2016"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.09.26"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Giri, Anish"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2755"]
[BlackElo "2776"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "103"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]

{The first round of the Tal Memorial - Vishy Anand took on the super solid
Anish Giri.} 1. d4 {0} Nf6 {0} 2. c4 {0} e6 {0} 3. Nf3 {0} d5 {9} 4. Nc3 {0}
Nbd7 {24 Vishy has already played this on many ocassions. The idea is to stay
flexible with the bishop on f8.} 5. Qc2 {0 This same move was played by both
Giri and Topalov against Anand in the Candidates 2016.} (5. Bf4 dxc4 6. e3 b5
7. Nxb5 Bb4+ 8. Nc3 Nd5 {is the highly concrete way in which this line is
played.}) 5... dxc4 {199} (5... Bb4 {had been Anand's reply in the previous
games.}) 6. e4 {21} c5 {9 Following the recent game between Bluebaum and
Tomashevsky.} 7. Bxc4 {11} (7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Bxc4 {had been played in the
previous games but the position is relatively even.}) 7... cxd4 {300} 8. Nxd4 {
21} Bc5 {115} (8... Be7 $2 9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. Nxe6 {White wins three pawns and
black king would be stranded. All in all good compensation.}) 9. Nb3 {171} Bb6
{166} 10. O-O {1146} O-O {338} 11. Be2 {194 White's edge is pretty clear. If
Black is unable to develop his c8 bishop he would be worse.} Qc7 {536} 12. Bg5
{66} Ne5 $1 {345 Excellent decision by Vishy Anand. He is not afraid of
doubling his pawns on the kingside. He realizes that he needs the d7 square
for his bishop to come out. For that he is ready to double his f-pawns.} 13.
Bxf6 {781} gxf6 {16 It is not so easy for White to attack the Black king and
hence this weakening is not at all dangerous.} 14. Rac1 {2} (14. Kh1 {with the
idea of f4 is met with} Ng6 {With solid control on the f4 square.}) 14... Rd8 {
730} (14... Bd7 $1 {Was more to the point. The Nd5 tactic doesn't seem to work.
} 15. Nd5 $5 Qxc2 16. Nxf6+ Kg7 17. Nh5+ Kh6 18. Rxc2 Rac8 $15) 15. Na4 {364} (
15. Nd5 exd5 16. Qxc7 Bxc7 17. Rxc7 dxe4 $15) 15... Qxc2 {148} 16. Rxc2 {7} Bd7
{401} 17. Nxb6 {372} axb6 {13 Black has two sets of doubled pawns but he has
finally finished his developed. Yet White should have a small edge here.} 18.
Rd1 $1 {392} Kf8 {82} (18... Rxa2 19. f4 Ng6 20. Bb5 $16) 19. a3 $6 {304} (19.
Rcd2 $1 Ke7 20. a3 {was more accurate.}) 19... Nc6 $6 {304} (19... Ba4 $1 {
would have given Black immediately equal position.} 20. Rxd8+ Rxd8 21. Rc3 $11)
20. Rcd2 {340} Ke7 {161} 21. Nd4 {120} (21. f4 $14) 21... e5 {405} 22. Nb5 {278
} Be6 {74} 23. Rxd8 {44} Nxd8 {63} (23... Rxd8 {Anand didn't take with the
rook because the minor piece endgame would be worse for Black statically and
there is no way to justify his weaknesses. With the rook on the board, the
activity of the major piece can compensate for the structural weakness.} 24.
Rxd8 Kxd8 25. b4 $14 (25. Nd6 Kd7 26. Nxb7 Kc7 $19)) 24. Rc1 {375} Nc6 {12} 25.
Kf1 {9} Rd8 {319 Slowly but steadily Anand equalizes the game.} 26. Ke1 {7} f5
{28 Getting rid of one doubled pawn.} 27. exf5 {67} Bxf5 {11} 28. Rd1 {93} Rg8
{219 Anand insists on keeping the rooks on the board.} 29. g3 {46} (29. Nd6 Be6
$11 30. Nxb7 $2 Nd4 $19) 29... Be6 {47} 30. Kd2 {58} f5 {268} 31. Ke3 {67} f4+
{65} 32. gxf4 {107} exf4+ {9} 33. Kxf4 {5} Rg2 {10 Anand is a very tricky
defender. You can see how on every instance he is ready to give up material to
drum up active play. Hence, against him it is very difficult to win such
positions.} 34. Ke3 {208} Rxh2 {20} 35. Nc3 {114} Rh3+ {349} 36. f3 {22} Rh5 {
30} 37. Rg1 {286} Bf7 {63} 38. b4 {371} Ne5 {168} 39. Ne4 {44} Nd7 {281 In
spite of the limited material White is pushing. But will it be enough for a
decisive advantage. I don't think so.} 40. f4 {0} Rh2 {0} (40... Rh3+ 41. Bf3
Bh5 42. Ng5 $16) 41. Rc1 {1013} Bd5 {421} 42. Nc3 {54} Bc6 {191} 43. Rg1 {124}
Nf6 {181} 44. Rg7+ {42} Kd6 {185} 45. Bd3 {521} Rh3+ {430} 46. Kd4 {15} Rh4 {
225} 47. Ne2 {24} b5 {297} 48. Rg5 {284} Nd5 {454} 49. Rf5 {46} Nc7 {41} 50.
Rf7 {199} Ne6+ {274} 51. Kc3 {8} h5 {60} 52. Rf6 {107 Anand has defended the
position excellently and a draw is a logical result. Quite a good result for
Anand who had the black pieces and was under pressure throughout the game.}
1/2-1/2

Vishy Anand briefly explained his thought process during the critical moments.

Don't miss Anand's analysis! [Credits: ChessCast]

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi was the sole winner of the day and now leads the event with 1.0/1.

Read the full report by ChessBase's GM Alejandro Ramirez on our international newspage here. Do not miss the games Svidler-Kramnik and Nepo-Tomashevsky!

All games in PGN. (With Grandmaster analysis)

All photos by Eteri Kublashvili for the Russian Chess Federation.