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Journalism of Courage
Magnus Carlsen took a decisive step as the first half of the Candidates tournament nears its end with a 36-move crushing of Russian Peter Svidler in round six in London. A win over one of his nearest contenders Svidler was in third place,half a point behind the leaders further cemented his position as the favourite. With the draw being the likely result in the Teimour Radjabov-Levon Aronian,the win could potentially push the Norwegian into sole lead.
Svidler had shown good form and preparation to pick up four draws and a win before Wednesday. Playing white,the Russian opener with his king pawn,instead of moving his queen pawn which has got him some success this tournament. However,Swidler is a known e4 player,and had in fact played the exact line of the Breyer variation of the Ruy Lopez before.
A pawn push down the d file later,his rook and bishop were around the center and lurking nearby were the queen and a knight. Whites pieces,by contrast were deep within their own territory,with both rooks and bishops on the last rank.
After some simplification,blacks rook and queen down the middle along with whites passive rook meant a big advantage which would have straight away resulted in a passed pawn. However,Svidlers attempt to trick Carlsen into overlooking a mating attack only left whites position in further danger. After Carlsen thwarted the threat with a queen move,all of whites pieces were left scattered and suddenly his own king was exposed. Svidler resigned a few moves down the line.
Kramnik,coming off a disappointing draw against Aronian in the previous round when he missed several chances to go for the win,pushed his luck a little too far and was lucky to come out with a draw this time against Ivanchuk. Kramniks position was clearly slipping,but he refused to go for the draw,trying instead to see if Ivanchuk would blunder under time trouble. The Ukranian however wasnt falling for it,and secured the draw by move 31,though he had an edge.
throwing the kitchen sink
Carlsens win must surely have had a bearing on Aronians game,as the Armenian tried to extract a win fron a position in which he did not have much of an advantage as black against Radjabov. As the game went beyond the first time control,Radjabov did not let the pressure get to him during the 40th move mark,but was facing a struggle to retain parity as he slipped into trouble with the ticker once more. Boris Gelfand had a winning position against Alexander Grischuk,but faced a hard grind for the win.
Results,round six: Svidler 3 lost to Carlsen 3.5; Kramnik 2.5 drew with Ivanchuk 1.5; Radjabov 2.5 vs Aronian 3.5,Grischuk 2 vs Gelfand 1.5,on going
