Radjabov defeats Aronian at Amber

Vladimir Kramnik collected one point in his mini-match against Peter Svidler, and so did runners-up Vishy Anand and Vasily Ivanchuk (against Peter Leko and Boris Gelfand respectively). With one round (two games) to go the World Champion is two points ahead in the combined classification. Kramnik also tops the blindfold competition, where he can no longer be caught. He needs a win in the last round to equal the record that Alexander Morozevich set last year (9? out of 11). Anand already clinched the rapid competition. The Indian grandmaster has 8 points from 10, which is two more than his closest followers. The last round will start on Thursday at 12.30 hrs local time.

Vishy Anand and Peter Leko drew a Marshall Gambit in their blindfold game. 'Fortunately I remembered the line,' Leko remarked as he walked into the hospitality lounge, referring to less accurate moments in this tournament. In his opinion the line he played is the best way for Black in the Marshall. All his pieces are put in the most active positions and he has full compensation for the pawn deficit. An assessment that apparently Anand fully agreed with when on move 22 he offered a draw.

The rapid game also saw a Marshall, this time with Leko behind the white pieces. Before you start searching your database we can inform you that only the last move was new. Till that point the players had been following the game Polgar-Svidler, San Luis 2005, which continued 32.Rxc6 and the game was drawn after 39 moves. In today's game it was an immediate draw after 32.Ke3. As Leko summarized the game, 'Let's say it's not the refutation of the Marshall. I was hoping that somewhere Vishy would miss something because it's quite a long line. But he didn’t.'

In their blindfold game Vasily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand followed the game that the latter lost against Kramnik three days ago. If Ivanchuk believed that following a game that his opponent lost was a promising strategy, these hopes were soon thwarted when Gelfand played 16…Nd5. This move was found in the post-mortem between Kramnik and Gelfand and it equalizes completely. Having taken a closer look Ivanchuk didn't disagree and on move 22 a draw was agreed.

The rapid game also ended in a draw, but this time there was considerably more drama. Gelfand got a good game out of the opening, some sort of Volga Gambit, but completely missed the queen sacrifice 17…Nxb5 that gave Black a winning advantage. But the game wasn't over yet. With 30.e5 Gelfand managed to create complications and with 34.Ne6 he even forced a draw.

The blindfold game between Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian was a protracted battle that ended in the White player's favour after 69 moves. Radjabov emerged from the opening with the better chances, but as he put it, the position remained 'tricky.' In a post-game comment he believed that instead of 31…Re8, Black had better gone 31…b3 immediately. The rest of the game he described as a 'normal clear' game, where Black was struggling, hoping to reach a draw, and White kept trying to convert his undeniable advantage. In the end White succeeded.

Aronian also lost the rapid game thanks to the saddest blunder so far, even sadder than some of the accidents we've seen in the blindfold. After six(!) moves, with full sight of the board, the Armenian grandmaster blundered a full piece. He didn't resign right away, but obviously the verdict could no longer be changed. Aronian didn't have an explanation for his oversight, except for the fact that after Wijk aan Zee and Morelia-Linares he feels drained of energy. Or as he put it himself, 'My brain is melting down after so many tournaments.'

In their blindfold game Vladimir Kramnik confronted the Grunfeld Defence of Peter Svidler with a rather rare line that poses Black no real problems but nevertheless forces him to be on the alert. The choice didn't come as a real surprise to Svidler, who knew that with a two-point lead the World Champion wouldn't take any crazy risks. 'But there were a few points were I had to be accurate. It's not exactly rocket science, but you have to pay attention.' That's what he did and after 27 moves the game was drawn.

In the rapid game Svidler made an attempt to improve on the game Leko-Kramnik from this Amber tournament with 24.Bc2, but Kramnik reacted to the point and three moves later it was clear that he was in no danger. Very soon they ended up in a position with barely any pieces and the game was drawn. 

Loek van Wely got a pleasant position in his blindfold game against Paco Vallejo, but the Dutchman was critical of the way he 'exploited' his advantage. After the game he thought that instead of 12.e5, the positional pawn sacrifice 12.c5 (12…dxc5 13.Nd2 followed by Nc4) would have been better. And instead of allowing Black to push his d-pawn to d3, it would have been better to occupy that square with his own queen with 14.Qd3. Nevertheless Van Wely got the better chances, if only for the fact that he obtained a comfortable lead in time, and once he played 20.Ng5 Vallejo faced problems that were not easy to tackle when you're running short of time. On move 38 the grandmaster from Mallorca lost on time, but by then his position was already pretty hopeless.

In the rapid game Vallejo equalled the score with a nice win. In the opening he got a better game and with 22.f5 he posed Van Wely serious problems because of the locked in bishop on g4. Still, after 30 Van Wely believed that he would make a draw, but once he saw White's simple 31.fxe6 he realized that he was lost. The rest was suffering for the Dutchman and after 61 moves he had to resign.

Alexander Morozevich inflicted a painful defeat on Magnus Carlsen in their blindfold game. After 12.Nb5 the Norwegian youngster had to improvise and chose 12…Kd7 having rejected the pawn sacrifice 12…Rc8. Despite the awkward position of the king Carlsen thought he was OK, but he criticized 14…Bd6, where 14…b5 would have been better. 'His 20.Qg4 was very strong and I didn't see what I should do. After 20…g6 he has 21.Qf4, so I went 20…g5, but of course this is a terrible weakening. After 21.f4 I was basically lost.'

Carlsen's revenge in the rapid game was sweet. He got a nice game from the opening and although Morozevich tried to fight back with inventive play, Carlsen confidently claimed the point.

Results round 10:

Blindfold: Anand-Leko 1/2-1/2, Ivanchuk-Gelfand 1/2-1/2, Radjabov-Aronian 1-0, Kramnik-Svidler 1/2-1/2, Van Wely-Vallejo 1-0, Morozevich-Carlsen 1-0.

Rapid: Leko-Anand 1/2-1/2, Gelfand-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2, Aronian-Radjabov 0-1, Svidler-Kramnik 1/2-1/2, Vallejo-Van Wely 1-0, Carlsen-Morozevich 1-0.

Standings after the tenth round: 1. Kramnik 14.5; 2-3. Anand, Ivanchuk 12.5 each; 4. Svidler 11.0; 5-7. Gelfand, Aronian, Morozevich 10.5 each; 8-9. Leko, Carlsen 9.0 each; 10. Radjabov 8.5; 11. Van Wely 6.0; 12.  Vallejo 5.5.

/www.amberchess.com/