This is the final position after 19…Rhe8
Bareev shockingly offered a draw and gave up the match without fighting. He did the same in another game with the White pieces. Leko is now advanced to Mexico City. He will join Kramnik, Anand, Svidler and Morozevich.
GM Leko (2738) – GM Bareev (2643) [B19]
FIDE candidates Matches Elista, Kalmykia Russia, 11.06.2007
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.0-0-0 Be7 13.Ne4 Qb6 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.g4 c5 16.Bc3 0-0-0 17.dxc5 Qxc5 18.Bd4 Qc6 19.Rhe1 Rhe8 Game drawn 1/2-1/2
Bareev was down 3-1 against a superior opponent. He stood very slightly worse in a drawish position where a world-class contender would have close to zero chance of losing. His draw offer is not so shocking when one considers his choice of the Caro-Kahn opening.
Twice a quick draw when behind, i can’t hooray that. No fighting chess, exit.
When Judit’s prospects looked bleak vs. Bareev, she fought tooth and nail, and almost staged a comeback.
When Bareev’s prospects looked bleak, he cowered in the corner and conceded the fight without any resistance whatsoever.
Isn’t the point of chess, or any other game/sport, to WIN? Judit proved herself to be a competitor, while Bareev did not. Based on that observation, it is a shame that Judit was not the one to get a crack at Leko.
If I were Judit, I’d be ticked at Bareev: “You beat me, and then you put up no fight against Leko? Bah!”
(Whatever the Hungarian is for “Bah!” 🙂 )
LOL. if bareev wasn’t a “fighter”, he would have never defeted Judith and many others before.
the point is Bareev got absolutely no idea how to beat Leko. He lost games 1 and 3, was worse in games 2 and 4. If you know all about “fighting chess”, then look at the position and tell us what he should have done. Hint: “lose another game” like Gata did today doesn’t count 🙂 Gata didn’t fight. He lost 🙂
Well if you have a look at Bareev’s opening repertoire you’ll see that he only ever seems to play the French Defense and the Caro-Kann against e4. No kidding, chessgames shows him with 13 open games and just 2! TWO! duex! II! TWO!!!! sicilians.
So I understand he might wish to play what he knows, but the circumstances – i.e. candidates, must win game – dictate that he needed to try to win. Seeing that he has apparently never pushed the king’s pawn in his professional life I can even understand why he is afraid of the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Defense – he wouldn’t know where to begin! Yet he had nothing to lose except 1 or 2 points off his ratings and a chance to go to Mexico to play for the world championship, to make it to the big time.
So why doesn’t he spend the free day preparing a surprise?
I could suggest two options:
A) 1…g6 transposing into KID or Grunfeld, which he would at least have some familiarity with.
B) 1…Nf6 Alekhine’s Defense, with an unbalanced position and a chance for white to make mistakes
Bareev doesn’t play either of those however, because he never plays anything other than e6,d5,c6 as Black (against d4 it’s slav/semi-slav).
I don’t think anyone could ever accuse Bareev of ‘aiming high’.
It’s not only as black, but he drew a white game very quickly. You can say: ‘what can he do in this position to win?’ Well, first of all: BY PLAYING ON! Apart from his choice of opening which I agree with the previous poster ‘is not aiming high’.
He played only theoretical moves in both his quick draws, so he can’t be surprized or disappointed about the outcome, can he? No, it’s simply not fighting chess he showed in this match (I’m not talking about other matches, or the person of Bareev overall).
If you play Caro Kann say after 15 moves: well, I can’t win this against a player like Leko, it’s about the same as a tennis pro serving by lobbing the ball slowly over the net against Federer and not hiiting the ball back, saying: well, I can hit back but Federer will smash it off somewhere later on. I can’t beat him by slowly lobbing the ball over the net.
(Well, don’t do it like that then! And don’t play Caro Kann!)