Leko vs Anand : Italian Game - White wins in 22 moves !

Game was played as part of chess24.com Legends Online tournament.

Leko( White) against Anand(Black).

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 a6 7. a4 h6 8. Re1

White has expanded with 7 a4. apart from that classic c3,d3,0-0 and Re1. White will prepare d3-d4.

Leko does not play h2-h3 as he will have Nbd2-f1-g3 and Black doesn't have Nd4 to take advantage of the pin.

 8...O-O 9.Nbd2 a5 10. Nf1 Be6 11. Bb5!

Anand played 10..Be6 and was ok to take with f pawn on 11Bxe6. instead Leko plays 11 Bb5!
leading the diagram above.
The point is not only to double the pawns via Bxc6 but to weaken d4 to play d3-d4  and control the center.

11..Na7 12. d4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Nxb5 14. axb5 Re8 15. Ng3 Bd7 16. h3

Black to play in diagram above. Maxime Vacher-Lagrave had the same position in 2018 against Karjakin who chose 16..c6!? and after exchanging on c6, white played against the d6 pawn with Bf5 and black against the b2 pawn with Qb6 and Rab8.

Anand chose 16..Re5. a move the engines like, was it preparation ? it took me a while to understand that Black wants to take on d4 and then capture the b5 pawn with the rook via Re5xb5.

Anand could also play 16..Bd4 17 cd4 Bxb5 capturing the pawn with the bishop in d7.

lets see what happens next.

17. f4 Bxd4+ 18. cxd4 Rxb5

Anand has executed his rook Manoeuvre and won the b5 pawn. White to play. What would you play with white here ?


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 19e4-e5 comes to mind : however  Black would reply 19..Nh7.
 Leko found a stronger move.
He played in the diagram above 19 Ra3!. The "Rover" also known as Rook Over Manoeuvre. 
White brings his second rook to the kingside via Ra3-f3 or Ra3-g3.


 19. Ra3! d5? ( 19..Nh7 or 19..Ne8 were better) 20. e5 Ne4

White to play
Here Leko found the best move again, 21 f4-f5!. He is not interested in exchanging on e4 regaining the pawn. He is clearly playing for the king's side attack. Anand did not find the best move 21..Qh4 and lost very quickly.

21. f5 Nxg3? (21..Qh4) 22.Rxg3 Bc8? 1-0

Anand resigned in the final diagram above after playing 22..Bc8? without waiting for white's move ! Leko would play 23 Bh6 or 23 f6 winning easily.

Maybe Anand intended 22..Bxf5 on which 23 Bxh6 Bg6 24 e5-e6! gives a large advantage to White.


Here's the animated replay

full game here

Sicilian Rossolimo: Anand shows the way !

In this entry, I will look at a blitz game from Anand versus Nakamura in the London 2014 event.

The Rossolimo variation starts after 1 e4 c5 2Nf3 Nc6 3Bb5

one of the key points is to accelerate white's development. White typically plays 0-0 and starts to occupy the center. Hikaru picked 3..d6 which is less common than 3..g6 or 3..e6. Maybe he wanted to avoid Anand's prep.

And here is the position they reached after 20 Qc3! attacking f6.

White has achieved a winning position in 20 moves. 

Knights cannot be captured.

If Black tries 20..exf5  21 ef5+ Kd7 22 Nf6+ Kc7 23 Qa5 Checkmate

If Black tries 20..exd5 21 exd5+ Kd7 22 dc6+ Rc6 23 Qd4! with checkmate threats.

If 20..e5 to stop Nf6+ then 21 Qa3! and c4-c5 will open up lines for White's attack.

Hikaru played 20..Rh6  but giving up the exchange did not work out.

Full game replay with annotations .

Great example where Anand quickly built pressure againt Nakamura using 3Bb5 against the sicilian

Amber Chess 2011 (Monaco)

Official site: Amber Chess Tournament here

And the winner of the 2011 edition is Levon Aronian. Congratulations to the armenian GM who came first ahead of top players such as Anand, Kramnik, Carlsen ...

Monaco Melody Amber Chess 2011

Monaco (click the picture to expand!)

http://www.amberchess20.com/

March 11 - March 25 2011

Participants

Viswanathan Anand (India),

Magnus Carlsen (Norway),

Levon Aronian (Armenia),

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia),

Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria),

Alexander Grischuk (Russia),

Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine),

Sergey Karjakin (Russia),

Boris Gelfand (Israel),

Hikaru Nakamura (United States),

Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan)

Anish Giri (The Netherlands)

Sadly, the 20th and last edition of an incredible chess tournament I had the privilege to attend in person several times.

You can review several games from previous tournaments on this blog, for instance:

http://www.top10chess.com/2009/03/amber-round-2-aronian-leko-rapid.html

http://www.top10chess.com/2009/03/carlsen-kramnik-blindfold-brilliancy-10.html

Grandmaster tactics: World Blitz edition

White (Current World Champion Anand) wrapped up his blitz Game against GM Ktachiev in one move here.

1.? White to play and win

Top Grandmaster news

White to play for the initiative (23rd move)

Ivanchuk-Kramnik 2009 ,Tal Memorial Round 9

The 2009 Tal memorial just finished, with Kramnik taking first place. Congratulations to Vlad for a victory in a super strong tournament ! His style was energetic throughout the whole tournament.

1-Kramnik 6/9
2&3 Ivanchuk,Carlsen 5.5/9
4&5 Anand,Aronian 5/9

Anand was in contention for first place but lost his last game to Aronian pretty badly.

It looks like Ivanchuk had a very strong attack against Kramnik in the 9th round, but he missed the critical continuation somewhere between move 21 and 25.
Concrete analysis and full game on the following 2 links:

http://www.thechessmind.net/storage/chess-posts/talmemorial2009_rd9.htm
http://www.chessbase.com/news/2009/talmem/games/round09.htm


Post tournament, there is a lot of chatter about Carlsen being unofficially the best rated player in the world ( less than a point ahead of Topalov!). This is following lots of hype about Kasparov training Carlsen to become the next world champ.


My simple and subjective view on the top chess players currently is as follows:

1.Anand and 2.Kramnik are the two strongest players as of November 2009. I believe that if they were to play another match, Kramnik would try to play more dynamically, which is he what he did in his next tournaments. I noticed that Anand had not won a tournament since he is world champ, but played well enough to finish 2nd ( or here 4th). These two players are stronger than the field at this juncture.

Next come 3.Topalov,4.Carlsen and 5.Aronian. These 3 are achieving impressive results with regularity at the very top, but wouldn't at this stage challenge succesfully Anand or Kramnik in a match.
What about the 2010 Topalov-Anand match ? I believe Anand would be clear favorite if the location would be in a neutral country. Having it in Sofia,Bulgaria is definitely increasing Topalov's chances, as Anand may feel psychologically presssured to play in Topalov's home country with obvious and numerous benefits.

After these 5 players, there is another layer of still super strong grandmasters. The main difference would be their consistency (or lackthereof) or experience at the very top.
This would include Ivanchuk,Morozevich,Gashimov,Vachier-Lagrave and Nakamura among many others. Ivanchuk for instance may very well win the Tal Memorial or Wijk aan Zee, as he is a truly brilliant player. He may just not sustain this level throughout the year.
These players are sometimes less well-known, which is why tournaments like London 2009 are exciting as new players are given a chance to compete against the best.
Nakamura will compete in London 2009, and Vachier-Lagrave won Biel 2009 ahead of Morozevich and others.

Anand-Wang Yue, Linares 2009 Variation

The game Anand-Wang Yue 1-0, Linares 2009 can be replayed here.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1535930

Instead of 25..Kf6? losing to 26 Rf3+, Wang could have chosen 25..Kf8 26 Rc7! f6 leading to the following position.

White to play and win (Anand-Wang Yue 2009 Variation)

Amber Chess 2009: Aronian wins in Nice !

Levon Aronian, Nice winner Amber Edition 2009

By drawing his two games against Topalov today, Levon Aronian won the combined 2009 Amber tournament. This is the second win in a row for the armenian grand master, as he won last year's combined Amber event as well.

Levon Aronian overall winner in Amber 2009 !

The tournament was incredibly strong this year, with the participation of Anand,Kramnik,Topalov,Carlsen,Morozevich,Karjakin and many other top GMs.

I think that Aronian's success lies in very strong middle-game skills both from a tactical and strategic standpoint, the ability to save or turn around compromised positions ( see rapid game against Carlsen for instance), finding counter-chances and making superb practical decisions especially in complex positions, and excellent nerves & self-control in time-trouble.

A great example today was his move 32..Re8! in the blindfold Topalov-Aronian.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1541024


Finally Aronian has developed a well-thought out opening repertoire with 1d4 as main weapon for White (with also 1.c4 and 1Nf3 as alternatives). As Black, he can play 1..e5 or 1..c6 against 1.e4, and favors the Slav against 1.d4.

Kramnik, Anand and Carlsen were also in the running for first place during the tournament.
This year's event produced numerous exciting battles, including the blindfold tournament, which showed that top grandmasters can play fast and accurately without a chessboard, which I find personally very impressive. Only a few blindfold games were decided by blunders, with the vast majority displaying quality chess !



Official Website and Final Standings :
http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Excellent coverage also at :

http://www.chessvibes.com/ (with on-site videos)

http://www.chessgames.com/

http://www.theweekinchess.com/

Toward the end, Europe-Echecs provided on-site coverage as well:
http://www.europe-echecs.com/

Anand-Kramnik Amber Tactics 2009 - Round 8

White to play and win

Anand-Kramnik , Amber Blindfold (8)

Anand won the blindfold game and drew the rapid , to win the mini-match 1.5-0.5

Today's tactical position at Amber 2009

How did White surprise his opponent in the position below ?

Anand-Ivanchuk, Amber 2009 (5), White to play

Answer: see 34th move from Anand

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Top 10 Photos from Amber Chess 2009 ( March 17, 2009)

Peter and Sofia Leko

Aronian and Anand (Their two games were drawn today)

Levon Aronian, happy with his play so far




http://www.amberchess2009.com/ for the official site.

Today's Brilliancy by Carlsen in Nice Round 3

Black to play ( 27..., Anand-Carlsen)

Blindfold round 3, Amber Tournament 2009, Nice France

Anand-Carlsen 0-1

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. O-O Bd7 5. Re1 Nf6 6. c3 a6 7. Bf1 Bg4 8. d3 e6 9. Nbd2 Be7 10. h3 Bh5 11. g4?! Bg6 12. Nh4 Nd7 13. Ng2 h5! 14. f4 hxg4 15. hxg4 Qc7 16. Nf3 O-O-O 17. Ne3 Nb6 18. Nc4 Nxc4 19. dxc4 f5 20. exf5 exf5 21. g5 Bf7 22. Qc2 g6 23. Qf2 d5! 24. cxd5 Bxd5 25. Be3 Bxg5! 26. Qg3 Be7 27. Bg2 g5! 28. Nxg5 Bxg5 29. Bxd5 Rxd5 30. Qxg5 Qf7 31. Kf2 Rh2 32. Kf1 Rd8 33. Qg3 Qc4! 34. Kg1 Rxb2 0-1

23..d5! aimed at opening lines. Classic reaction in the center against flank attack.

27..g5! with idea of opening column g. What's a pawn when you are attacking the king ?
25..Bg5! with idea 26 fg5 Bf3 27Qf3 Qh2#

34..Rb2 with idea 25..Rg8 decides the game.

Great attack by Magnus Carlsen today against the current world champion Anand.

Carlsen showed today an amazing ability to play complex and tactical positions in blindfold games. Anand's play was too aggressive on the king-side by pushing g4-g5 early on and got punished in great style. Lots of folks would be proud to play at the same level in a rapid game !

Amber 2009 Rapid round 1

Leko-Anand (Rapid, Amber 2009)
White to play and take the advantage

Full game replayable here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=67594&crosstable=1

Official Site: http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Amber 2009 Round 1 (BLINDFOLD !)

Nice (picture)

ANAND-LEKO (BLINDFOLD, 2009 AMBER).

White to play and win

Full game replayable here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=67595&crosstable=1

official tournament site:

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Melody Amber Previous winners ( Overall)

Here's the list of winners (combined rapid+blindfold) and location of previous Amber Chess tournaments :

Nice, France
2008 Aronian

Monaco
2007 Kramnik
2006 Anand,Morozevich
2005 Anand
2004 Morozevich,Kramnik
2003 Anand
2002 Morozevich
2001 Kramnik,Topalov
2000 Shirov
1999 Kramnik
1998 Kramnik,Shirov
1997 Anand
1996 Kramnik
1995 Karpov
1994 Anand
1993 Ljubojevic
1992 Ivanchuk

Overall Kramnik won it 6 times and Anand 5 times ! Let's say that Morozevich, with 3 wins in the last 6 editions is more than a serious contender too.

Who will win the 2009 Amber edition ?
http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Critical positions from Anand-Kramnik match 2008

Anand-Kramnik (11), after 24..Be3 1/2 1/2

Kramnik-Anand(10) after 29 Qd6 1-0

Kramnik-Anand (8) after 32 e5

Anand-Kramnik (6) after 34..Nc4

Kramnik-Anand (5) after 35 Bf1




Kramnik-Anand (3) after 32..Bf5+

Why did Anand resign after 29 Qd6 ? ( Game 10)

Kramik-Anand (Game 10) after 29 Qd6!

Here are a few variations.

29.. Nxc3? 30 Re7 Curtain

29 ..Bf7 30 Qb4! The knight in a4 is stranded
If we try 30 ..Rab8 31 a6 Nb6 32 Bb6 with large advantage for White.
If we try 30..Qc6 31 Rd1 No rush, threatening 32 Rd7. If Black continues31..Rd8 32 Rd8 Rd8 33 Rb8 and a7 falls

29..Rd8 30 Qb4! Rab8 31 a6 with for instance 31..Rb7 32 ab7 +-.

Clearly it was a premature position to resign, but Anand saw no salvation being low on time and facing Kramnik in very inferior position. He preferred to resign a bit early and focus on the next game ( a draw will suffice to earn him the World Chess Champion title).
In other circumstances we would have expected Anand to continue a couple of moves, as it is never too late to blunder

Anand World Champion ??

Anand is playing today game 10, which he needs only a draw to win the 2008 WorldChampionship against Kramnik.
Anand's wins in round 3, 5 and 6 , without suffering any loss confirmed he is soon to be the uncontested classical world chess champion (succeeding Kasparov and Kramnik). So far his performance in the match is close to perfect play.

It is remarkable to observe how he managed to win twice with the Black pieces, (games 3 and 5), with the same variation where he left his king in the center and attacked along the g-column and the a8-h1 diagonal. Kramnik's idea in playing the variation was probably to survive the middle-game and "win the endgame" with his a- and b- pawns. But he probably underestimated the initiative Black enjoys in this variation. 10 d5 instead of 10 e5 was worth a look.
Game 6 was a different story: 9 h3 and 10 g4 was an aggressive play by Anand, which was further neutralized by Kramnik who managed to swap the queens. However, 19 ..c5?! was a premature and eager sacrifice in my opinion, 19..Rfe8 was called for. Black never got enough play for the pawn in that game. It was too early to counter-attack with Black.

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ALL ANAND-KRAMNIK WCC GAMES SO FAR CAN BE PLAYED HERE:

http://games.top10chess.com/anandwch08.htm

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Kramnik-Anand Tactics (Previous Games)

Kramnik and Anand will compete in a world championship on October 14th. Let's review four previous games between the two champions. These positions were shown in an earlier post in June.

We will have 2 tactical positions won by Anand, and 2 won by Kramnik. Let's the best of these two exceptional chess players battle for the world chess title!

1. Black to play and win !

1. Kramnik-Anand Amber Nice (rapid) 2008

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2.White to play and win

2.Kramnik-Anand Corus Wijk-Aan-Zee 2007

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3. White to play and win

3. Anand-Kramnik, M-Tel Sofia 2005

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4. White to play and win

4. Kramnik-Anand Sparkassen Dortmund 2001

Replay all positions with annoted solutions on this link:

http://games.top10chess.com/kramnikanand.htm

Anand-Kramnik : last 50 chess games / Openings / Prognosis

As Anand and Kramnik will face each other for the 2008 World Chess Championship in Bonn, with the first game starting on October 14th, I have collected their last 50 games played with each other.

The most recent games were played in Nice for the Amber 2008. The blind game was drawn, while Anand won convincingly the rapid game with the Black pieces ( Attack leading to Checkmate). The oldest game presented was played in 2001.

You can replay through the 50 games via this link:

http://games.top10chess.com/kramnikanandgames.htm



Obviously, their games are available for replay on http://www.chesslab.com/, http://www.chessgames.com/ or http://www.chesslive.de/, but I find it cumbersome to repeat the query.

The other advantage of the 50 games link above, is that you can play through the moves manually or automatically (choosing your speed between moves, and pausing if need). One other plus is that the JavaScript tool I am using allows for an engine to be displayed ( by clicking on the ? button, you can activate it and also move pieces on this extra analysis board). Simple but powerful tool, especially for combinations& tactics.

The other alternative is to play through the .pgn file on Fritz/ChessBase or Rybka/Chess Assistant but the JavaScript/HTML link is straightforward to use.

The games are not annotated but the JavaScript tool allows for comments/variations/evaluations ( it takes any annotated .PGN format game).

If anyone has any of these games annotated in .pgn format, I'll be happy to link or display these as well. ( thechesscorner "@" gmail . com )


Openings:

On the opening front, and if their history is any guide for their upcoming match, we would expect the following based on a cursory look at their previous games:

Anand with White would most certainly open with 1.e4. Kramnik has used 1..e5 and specifically the Berlin Defense ( 1e4 e5 2Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6) against Anand, even after the Kasparov-Kramnik 2000 world championship match.
Kramnik has also used the Petroff Defense ( 1e4 e5 2Nf3 Nf6), but lost quickly in 2005 against Anand with it. He also lost key games during the 2008 Dortmund tournament in the Petroff ( Most notably against Naidistch).

Kramnik has also tried the Sicilian Schveshnikov against Anand ( 1e4 c5 2Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cd4 4Nd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6Ndb5 d6) with some success. I would expect him to try it again during their match, and even something like 4..e5 as well. The only caveat would be that Anand can also vary with 3Bb5, entering the Rossolimo.

Kramnik with White has favored 1.d4 or 1.Nf3.
Anand has responded with various systems over time. Currently he favors the Slav/Semi-Slav settings with ..d5 and ..c6.
In Mexico 2007, Anand chose the following for their important encounter :
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6
The game ended with a hard-fought draw.

Anand has also played the West-Indian defense ( 1.d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3Nf3 b6)
Finally, on 1.Nf3, Anand usually chooses 1..d5, and the game can go into Slav, or even Catalan or Queen's Gambit territory.

While opening surprises may occur, Kramnik prefers positional play while Anand favors open positions with dynamic play. Both players had a fantastic 2007 year but are below their top form in 2008. Anand finished last in Bilbao while Kramnik did below par in Dortmund.

Kramnik has in the recent years played more matches (Leko 2004, Topalov 2006) but Anand has played both Kasparov (1995) and Karpov (1998), so his preparation will be world-class.

Bottom line: 50/50 odds !