Tal-Mem Blitz: Anand wins with two point lead
19.11.2006
– Everyone knows that Indian superstar Vishy Anand is one of the world's strongest rapid chess players. This was driven home forcefully by a magnificent start-to-finish victory at the Tal Memorial blitz final, where 18 players, all rated 2650 or higher, played a double round robin on two days. Anand did not lose a single mini-match and won the event two points ahead of his nearest rival.
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The Tal Memorial chess festival took place in Moscow from November 5th
to 19th, 2006. It was a round-robin super-tournament of Category 20, with
participants from seven countries. It was won by Peter Leko, Ruslan Ponomariov
and Levon Aronian. At the end of the main event there was a very strong
blitz tournament, with nine players from the main tournament, three special
invitees and six top finishers from a blitz qualifier. |
Before we get to the blitz tournament we would like to mention that there
were no tiebreaks in the main event. All three players, Leko, Ponomariov and
Aronian, were declared joint winners and, according to Ruslan Ponomariov, each
received 33% of the fame.
Winner of the Tal Memorial Blitz: Vishy Anand
The blitz tournament was Vishy Anand, from start to finish. The Indian superstar
has been recognised, already in his teenage days, as a truly exceptional rapid
chess player, one who sees everything that occurs in a game just very much
faster than any of his opponents.
Anand has won countless rapid chess events, and most blitz tournaments as
well. The Tal Memorial 2006 was a genuine challenge, with 18 players, all over
2650, 11 in fact over 2700. Anand took the lead at a very early stage, and
ended the tournament with a victory with a round to spare. In the end he had
not lost a single mini-match, i.e. in the two games he played against each
player. The following table gives the results of all the mini-matches in this
tournament.
No. |
Name |
Fed. |
FIDE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
Total |
1 |
Anand |
IND |
2779 |
|
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
23.0 |
2 |
Aronian |
ARM |
2741 |
1.0 |
|
1.5 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
21.0 |
3 |
Radjabov |
AZE |
2729 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
|
1.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
20.5 |
4 |
Svidler |
RUS |
2750 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
|
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
20.5 |
5 |
Ponomariov |
UKR |
2703 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
|
1.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
19.5 |
6 |
Morozevich |
RUS |
2747 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
|
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
0.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
18.0 |
7 |
Grischuk |
RUS |
2710 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
|
1.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
18.0 |
8 |
Gelfand |
ISR |
2733 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
|
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
18.0 |
9 |
Carlsen |
NOR |
2698 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
|
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
17.5 |
10 |
Karpov |
RUS |
2668 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
0.0 |
2.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
|
0.5 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
17.5 |
11 |
Karjakin |
UKR |
2672 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
0.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
|
0.0 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
17.0 |
12 |
Mamedyarov |
AZE |
2728 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
0.0 |
2.0 |
|
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
17.0 |
13 |
Polgar |
HUN |
2710 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
|
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
17.0 |
14 |
Leko |
HUN |
2741 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
|
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
16.5 |
15 |
Jakovenko |
RUS |
2671 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
|
2.0 |
1.5 |
2.0 |
15.5 |
16 |
Bologan |
MDA |
2659 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
|
0.5 |
1.0 |
10.5 |
17 |
Timofeev |
RUS |
2662 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
|
1.5 |
10.0 |
18 |
Jobava |
GEO |
2650 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
|
9.0 |
It is interesting to see how the expectations, based on the ratings of the
players, compared to the results actually achieved in the blitz tournament.
Rank |
Res. |
Player |
Elo |
Pts |
1 |
1 |
Anand |
2779 |
23.0 |
2 |
4 |
Svidler |
2750 |
20.5 |
3 |
6 |
Morozevich |
2747 |
18.0 |
4 |
2 |
Aronian |
2741 |
21.0 |
5 |
14 |
Leko |
2741 |
16.5 |
6 |
8 |
Gelfand |
2733 |
18.0 |
7 |
3 |
Radjabov |
2729 |
20.5 |
8 |
12 |
Mamedyarov |
2728 |
17.0 |
9 |
7 |
Grischuk |
2710 |
18.0 |
|
|
Rank |
Res. |
Player |
Elo |
Pts |
10 |
13 |
Polgar |
2710 |
17.0 |
11 |
5 |
Ponomariov |
2703 |
19.5 |
12 |
9 |
Carlsen |
2698 |
17.5 |
13 |
11 |
Karjakin |
2672 |
17.0 |
14 |
15 |
Jakovenko |
2671 |
15.5 |
15 |
10 |
Karpov |
2668 |
17.5 |
16 |
17 |
Timofeev |
2662 |
10.0 |
17 |
16 |
Bologan |
2659 |
10.5 |
18 |
18 |
Jobava |
2650 |
9.0 |
|
As you can see the highest ranked player won the event, and the lowest ranked
player finished at the bottom. Aronian, Radjabov, Grischuk, Ponomariov and
Carlsen all played better than their OTB rating, while especially Peter Leko
played well below his rating.
Pictures
-
There are a lot of (uncaptioned) pictures of the blitz tournament on the
web site of the Russian
chess magazine "64". Those of the final rounds can
be found here
and here.
There are also two videos you can watch, if the host server will hold up:
the links are located just above the table on the report
page.
-
The Official
web site also has two pages of pictures, smaller in size but
captioned. You can find them here
and here.
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