Ivanchuk, one of the most feared players in chess, got an invitation to join the elite Linares / Morelia tournament when Radjabov withdrew at the last minute due to a robbery. So how did he do in the first two round? Well, he is in a tie for first with Magnus Carlsen as he defeated the World’s #1 player Topalov today!
Ivanchuk (2750) – GM Topalov (2783) [B90]
Linares Morelia, Mexico, 18.02.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 0-0 9.0-0 Be6 10.Bxe6 fxe6 11.Na4 Ng4 12.Qd3 Nxe3 13.Qxe3 b5 14.Nb6 Ra7 15.Nd5 Rb7 16.Qd2 Nc6 17.Rad1 Rd7 18.Qc3 Nb8 19.Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.Rd3 h6 21.Rfd1 Rfd8 22.h4 Kh7 23.R1d2 Qf8 24.Qb3 Qe8 25.a4 Qg6 26.axb5 axb5 27.Re3 Na6 28.Qxb5 Nc5 29.Qc4 Ra7 30.Re1 Qe8 31.b4 Na4 32.Qb3 Nb6 33.Red1 Rad7 34.Qd3 Rc8 35.c3 Ra7 36.Qe3 Ra6 37.Qe2 Nc4 38.Ra2 Rac6 39.Ra7 R6c7 40.Rda1 Qf7 41.Qxc4 White wins 1-0
Click here to replay the game.
Here are the results of round 2:
Round 2: Sunday, February 18th
Peter Leko ½-½ Alexander Morozevich
Levon Aronian ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Vishy Anand ½-½ Peter Svidler
Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0 Veselin Topalov
wow….
Go for it chucky
If it were not for his nerve…
chucky would be the sucessor to Kasparov!!
Somehow even Kasparov is a bit afraid of him!
If you want to see the genius of Ivanchuk check this link out. It is a brilliant game against Svidler with awesome analysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox5YK7uXojg
Great stories about Ivanchuk and Linares can be found here:
http://www.chessbase.com/events/events.asp?pid=110
From reading the press on other sites it seems Topalov misread one of the hand cues from Danilov and it cost him a Knight. Danilov will need to be more careful in the future!
Magnus came so close to winning the 2nd game.
You mean the top rated player. The World Champion is the #1 player.
Amazing how many people here picked Ivanchuk, the #3 man in the tournament, to lose with White.
I am not sure which I enjoyed more. Watching Ivanchuk win or watching Topalov lose. It just seems like the truth is starting to come out. More to come.
The big question:
Will Topalov rating fall back or will he maintain close to the present rating? Keep watching the games as the story unfolds.
topa sub 2700 soon.
i think topa will rapidly decrease to his real level! he is not a 2800 rated player neither yesterday nor today! go topalov go down!!!
topo misread dainalov’s hand signal?? LOL.
I’m just a patzer, but given the white’s two outside passed pawns- and, indeed, an extra pawn, it seems likely that Ivanchuk would have won this anyway without the queen blunder Topalov made.
Brad Hoehne
That was an unbelievable game! Once again Ivanchuk inverts the rules of normal chess! That night tour was awesome – just awesome!