There’s absolute war on the chess board between Topalov and Shirov in round 7 of the Mtel Masters today. Both players are gunning for the other King. Both are fearless players. Both are playing to win. Who will be the last to stand after this heavy weight bout?
At the end, they were forced to repeat moves and the game ended in a draw.
Round 7 results:
Topalov, V 1/2 Shirov, A
Carlsen, M – Dominguez, L
Wang, Y – Ivanchuk, V
Official website: http://www.mtelmasters09.com/
[Event “Mtel 2009”]
[Date “2009.05.20”]
[Round “7”]
[White “GM Topalov”]
[Black “GM Shirov”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “D44”]
[WhiteElo “2812”]
[BlackElo “2745”]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 dxc4 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Nxg5 hxg5 10. Bxg5 Nbd7 11. exf6 Bb7 12. g3 c5 13. d5 Qb6 14. Bg2 O-O-O 15. O-O b4 16. Na4 Qb5 17. a3 exd5 18. axb4 cxb4 19. Re1 d4 20. Qxd4 Bxg2 21. Kxg2 Qxg5 22. Qxc4+ Kb8 23. Rac1 Bd6 24. Qc6 Qd2 25. Kg1 Rxh2 26. Re2 Qd3 27. Re3 Qd2 28. Re2 Qd3 29. Re3 Qd2 30. Re2 {Game drawn} 1/2-1/2
Click here to replay the game.
Amazing game.
yes, amazing. White plays a novelty on move 23 and forces a draw a few moves later.
Guess most of it was theory – it seemed to follow Carlsen-Shirov for quite a while but the variations are so complicated I myself would not venture into those realms. Kudos to both.
Beelze
Forgive my lack of vision but I don’t see why Topalov cannot take the h2 Rook. For example: After ..Qd3,
1. Kxh2 and now 1..Rh8+, White moves his King to g2 or g1 and White has big material advantage.
Can somebody illuminate the position?
I will give the computer a try now.
26. Kxh2 ?? Wxf2+ ! and 27. … Rh8#
Wxf2? W for Wolf? Wife? Widow? Whatever?