Saturday 2 June 2007

2007 Candidates Matches- 3 players through

After 5 games of the 2007 Candidates Matches, 3 players have made it through to Round 2. Peter Leko and Gata Kamsky had convincing 3.5-0.5 victories,over Mikhail Gurevich and Etienne Bacrot respectively, while Alexander Grischuk won 3.5-1.5 over Vladimir Malakhov.
In the remaining matches Rublevsky leads 3-2 over Ponomariov, Bareev is 3-2 against Polgar, as is Adams over Shirov. Kasimdzhanov is tied 2.5-2.5 with Gelfand (all games drawn), and in probably the most exciting match Aronian and Carlsen have had 2 wins each and are also tied 2.5-2.5.
Of my pre-tournament predictions, Ponomariov looks to be in the biggest trouble, while Aronian and Gelfand have 1 game in which to do something. Of course being behind doesn't rule out the remaining players, especially if you are Judith Polgar. Her round 5 demolition of Bareev has kept her alive, although she needs to do it again in round 6 just to force tie-breaks.

Polgar,J - Bareev,E
Candidates Matches Elista,Russia, 2007

1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 e6 6.Be2 Nd7 7.d3 g6 8.0-0 Bg7 9.Bf4 Qb6 10.Nd1 Ngf6 11.a4 a5 12.g4 e5 13.Bd2 Nc5 14.g5 dxe4 15.dxe4 Nfd7 16.Bc4 0-0 17.h4 Ne6 18.Bxe6 fxe6 19.Qh3 Qd4 20.Nc3 Qxd2 21.Rad1 Qxc2 22.Rxd7 Qxb2 23.h5 gxh5 24.Qxe6+ Kh8 25.Rxg7 Kxg7 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.g6 hxg6 28.Qxg6+ Kh8 29.Kh1 Rf4 30.Qxh5+ Kg8 31.Rg1+ Kf8 32.Qh8+ Kf7 33.Qg7+ 1-0

1 comment:

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