2009 Tal Memorial
Round 1
| Carlsen, Magnus | – Kramnik, Vladimir | ½-½ | |||
| Aronian, Levon | – Svidler, Peter | ½-½ | |||
| Gelfand, Boris | – Ponomariov, Ruslan | ½-½ | |||
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | – Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | |||
| Morozevich, Alexander | – Leko, Peter | ½-½ |
Round 2
| Carlsen, Magnus | – Morozevich, Alexander | ½-½ | |||
| Kramnik, Vladimir | – Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | |||
| Leko, Peter | – Gelfand, Boris | ½-½ | |||
| Svidler, Peter | – Ivanchuk, Vassily | ½-½ | |||
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | – Aronian, Levon | ½-½ |
Official website: http://tal.russiachess.org
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan,
I noticed that ALL ten games in the first two rounds of the Tal Memorial ended in draws.
Is it that they are all so equal in chess ability or that they are all just playing it safe and not taking any aggressive chances?
To encourage wins and losses instead of a lot of draws, what do you think of the 3 point win, 1 point draw, 0 point loss system?
It is the curse of Drawnik!
See Susan they gettin mad now, see, chess is a draw but the traditionalist want bloodshed! As we move closer to UM strategy more games are gunna be drawn,see Susan,white wont be winnin all the games!1 So they gunna trick a “white player” into blundering and losing.Im getting older like Kasparov says and i think they tricked my lil sister in one game from the last event, with the “old chess”. They sneaky though u gotta watchem, while they watchin you!!! hehe.
Blame Kramnik?? Rd 1 he sacrificed an Exchange in pressing Carlsen for the win. In rd 2 he sac’d his queen vs Anand. Vishy returned the material to reach a bishop of opposite colors endgame.
Can’t blame Kramnik for the draws…
Chess is a drawish game, and it shows up most at highest levels where the game is best understood. Amateurs make a lot of mistakes and so they play a lot of wins, but with perfect play, chess’s greatest flaw and perhaps final downfall will be the likelikhood that it is fundamentally a draw.
I am okay with draws, as long as they are high quality. I dislike the 3-move repetitions inside of 20 moves.