Round 9 Pairings:
Jakovenko – Carlsen
Ivanchuk – Svidler
Karjakin – van Wely
Volokitin – Eljanov
Onischuk – Alekseev
Nisipeanu – Shirov
Standings after 8 rounds:
1. Carlsen 6½
2-4. Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Eljanov 4½
5-8. Svidler, Jakovenko, Alekseev, Volokitin 4
9. Shirov 3½
10-11. Nisipeanu, van Wely 3
12. Onischuk 2½
Official website: http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/aerosvit2008/index_e.htm
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
With a name like Jakovenko, not a chance!
Magnus rules!
Get the kid more Orange Juice!
Magnus is gonna spank that booty!
Oh, and he is going win the chess match too!
No, it will be a draw is my prediction- Carlsen will keep a 1.5 point lead into the last 2 rounds.
Carlsen blunders, Jakovenko wins.
carlsen won’t blunder today … not a chance …
he will try to win …
and i hope he will …
and be numero uno at the end of this tournament
it will shake the drawish mentality around
Carlsen needs 2.5/3 finish to be virtual world number 1- which isn’t too likely- although he will be tied with Anand as virtual number 1 for a day if he wins today- both will be on 2798.1
A draw is more likely though.
In the April list Morozevich was third ranked with 2774.
In the current virtual ratings just 2 or 3 months later 2774 would not be enough for 6th place!
The top ratings are going up like crazy!
No one can stop Carlsen! He’s Wonderboy!
All Jakovenko had to do to stop him was to show up….Carlsen refused to fight.
He is not obsessed with rating. The mission is to win the tournament and that is what he is going to do.
He probably didn’t spend even a second of thought about his rating, and certanly not about some unofficial live rating list.
ebutaljib,
Carlsen had an opportunity for a historic performance, one that we’d be talking about for decades, but with his last two games it looks like he’s decided to blow the opportunity and take the disappointing route to a safe tournament victory instead. I hope he shows some fight in the final two games.
Players don’t tend to ocupy themselves with statistic.
I’m not talking statistics…Banja Luka, Sofia’s sacking of Rome, Fischer’s sweep of the US championship–there was chance to add Carlsen’s Aerosvit to the list of utterly impressive, historic performances, but it looks like he has chosen the much more hum-drum mission of simply coasting to a tournament win in the second half. At the beginning of the tournament, that humble mission is laudable, but when given the opportunity to make history, a champion takes it instead of taking the easy way out. Big disappointment. Maybe he will decide to fight in the last two games, but I doubt it because I think you are right about his mission. Sigh.
You think this was planned??? They were never aiming or thinking about ‘historic’ performance. It just happened.
At the outset, it is of course not planned and the humble mission of winning the tournament when you are the highest seed is reasonable and expected. But after winning game after game after game, it is time to change the mission. Why not try to win big and make a splash rather than coast to a close, but safe, win? See the opportunity and seize the moment. That’s the path of champions (like Fischer and Kasparov).
Easier said than done. I’m sure it happened to you too that something just went your way and you were just satisfied with that. You didn’t feel like putting some more effort to make things better, since you were already satisfied with the way things were going.
Certainly there is a temptation to relax and be satisfied with good results, but one characteristic of a true champion is a drive for greatness rather than being just satisfied with an A-.