Thursday 13 March 2014

Candidates starts with 3 draws and a surprise

The 2014 Candidates Tournament began earlier this evening, with 3 drawn games, and one big surprise.
Kramnik -Andreikin was drawn pretty quickly, as both players raced through existing theory before reaching a drawn r+p ending. Karjakin-Svidler finished with a repetition in the middlegame, although I thought Karjakin looked better. I also thought Mamedyarov had the edge against Topalov, but a perpetual check was how that gamed finished.
But the big surprise was the win by Anand over Aronian. Anand seemed to have a small advantage for most of the game, but towards the first time control, Aronian got his knight trapped on the edge of the board. There may have been a complicated line that allowed him to escape with something from the diagrammed position, but he did not find it and resigned after 42. ... Bb5 43.Rb4 Nb2 44.Bxb5 axb5? (44. ... a5 allowed him to fight on, albeit in a worse position) 45.Ke3 Re8+ 46.Kd2 Rd8 47.Kc3 1-0
So Anand leads after 1 game, Aronian is at the tail, and everyone else sits in the middle!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

44...a5 45.Bb6 leaves Black a piece down for nothing.