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Perhaps one of the strongest chess tournaments of the year ... is this annual event. It is one of the most interesting of all the chess tournaments, I always mark the dates on my calendar, and do my best to follow the games.
The event features a small, but extremely strong field, that play a "double round-robin" affair. The tournament is being sponsored by a mobile telephone company, and takes place in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria.
<< There are six participants in this double round robin tournament that goes from May 10 to 20. Time control: 2 hours for 40 moves + 1 hour for 20 moves + 30 minutes to the end the game. The players are not allowed to offer draws, they must consult the arbiter, who will decide (usually against) allowing the offer to be made. >> - From the ChessBase website.
<< The MTel Masters take place in Sofia 9th-20th May 2007. The field for the ten round, double round robin event, is Veselin Topalov, Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gata Kamsky, Michael Adams and Krishnan Sasikiran. Tiebreak games will be played to decide the winner in the case of a tie. The Sofia draw Rule will be strictly applied. The players will not be allowed to offer draws, the decision as to whether the game is sterile is taken by the Chief-Arbiter. >> - From TWIC.
May
14th, 2007: GM S. Mamedyarov leads the M-Tel Masters tournament
in Sofia, Bulgaria ...
with three out of a possible four points. Rounding out the field are Super-GM's:
Michael Adams, K. Sasikiran, L.D. Nisipeanu, {former}
World Champion Veselin Topalov and the America's Gata Kamsky. So far, its
been a tough tournament, and - thanks to the "no-accepted draws" rule,
{see above}; all the games have been vigorously contested. [The CB report.]
At the halfway mark ...
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May 15th, 2007: At the mid-point of this tournament, GM S. Mamedyarov is your leader, as you can see from the cross-table given above. GM Michael Adams is in clear second, Sasikiran and Nisipeanu both have a respectable 2.5, Topalov is finding it tough sledding, (currently he has 1.5 points); and Kamsky is bringing up the rear ... with two losses and three draws. [The Chess Center story, with one photo.]
Round Six
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Thanks to the "no-draw" rule, all the games today were decisive. [The CB report.]
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In the Sasikiran-Adams game, Adams played a strange move ... for all intents and purposes, this appears to be a blunder. (18...Nd5?, maybe just "??" here.) To add to the confusion, the RSS feed for this event was garbled, they obviously were having some sort of transmission problem. (To add to the confusion, I think that the final move should have been 34.Rd5, not 34.Rd6. As I write this, {0909 hours, May 17th}; just about everyone is giving the wrong score for this game ... see this page as well.)
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Kamsky ground down the tournament leader, (Mamedyarov); in forty-four total moves. The opening was a Pirc, where Black seemed to never quite equalize. When push came to shove, a tactical flurry ensued at the end of the struggle, with Kamsky coming out on top.
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In the final game of the round, Topalov began his "usual" second half tournament surge by outlasting and outplaying Nisipeanu, in an extremely tough and tricky endgame ... that arose out of a Najdorf Defence. This is one of those "typical Topalov" games, where he plays hard-hitting and aggressive chess. When it works well, its soooo attractive, but when it doesn't ... .... ...
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<< MTel Masters. Round 6 Field closes as the leaders are defeated and the tail enders win. >>
- From the "London Chess Centre" website.
Round Seven
<<
Friday; May 18th, 2007: In the super GM event, ("The
M-Tel Masters"); GM S. Sasikiran defeated GM S. Mamedyarov with
the Black pieces to assume the position of leader in this tournament. Topalov -
after once being the "cellar-dweller," has now snuck back into a tie for
second place, and is within striking distance of the leader.
>>
(The quick report - from my homepage.)
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There was only one decisive game in this round ... but wow, what a game. [Replay and/or download the games.]
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- In the contest of Kamsky vs. Nisipeanu, Kamsky tried an open Sicilian. Nisipeanu played a type of Scheveningen/Taimanov Sicilian [B47] where Black delays playing ...d7-d6. (The Bastrikov Variation?) Kamsky gambited a Pawn, and looked to be gaining the upper hand. Fierce tactics broke out, followed by many exchanges. When the dust had settled, the pawns were even, but Black had an outside passed pawn. Because of the "no-draw" rule, the players continued until each side only had one pawn apiece. At move 47, with a known "book" draw on the table, the arbiters allowed the players to cease hostilities.
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- In Adams vs Topalov, the English GM tried a Closed Sicilian, the ECO code is [B23]. It looked like "Mikey" might have something cooking when he got his Rooks doubled on the seventh rank. However, Topalov played excellent defense, and at move 36 both sides only had a Rook, Bishop and 2 Pawns left on the board. They continued hacking wood until move 52, when Topalov was left with a meaningless extra Rook Pawn. As his own King was blocking the Pawn, there was no way for it to ever promote, so a draw was allowed.
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- In the key encounter, GM S. Mamedyarov vs. GM K. Sasikiran, (who were the co-leaders after the last round); an English Opening, (1.c4, e5); was tried. Normally, this opening has the reputation of being dull and drawish, but this was a wild fight ... "from the get-go." GM's normally place a strong emphasis on things like Pawn structure and maintaining the material balance, but in this wild "free-for-all," these considerations were thrown out the window. I watched part of this game via a (private) RSS feed, for a while it looked like "Shak" had something cooking as White, as he had a strong, passed foot-soldier on the d-file. However, the talented, young Indian GM got a vicious K-side attack going, where most of the real tactics in this melee remained just beneath the surface waters of the struggle. In the end, the tactics were to favor Black's side of the board ... ... ...
a few hammer blows, and White had to throw in the towel. (0-1, in 41 total moves.)
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Below are the standings after seven rounds, GM Krishnan Sasikiran is your current leader, with 4.5 points from a possible seven points. GM V. Topalov has already snuck back into a tie for second, (with Mamedyarov and Adams); then GM L.D. Nisipeanu, and finally the American representative in this event, GM Gata Kamsky.
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Round Eight
Friday;
May 18th, 2007: (evening) In
the super GM event, ("The
M-Tel Masters"); we have ...
once more ... a shake-up in the standings of the tournament after eight rounds.
Two (out of a
possible three) decisive games, the "biggie" being that Kamsky
defeats Sasikiran with Black.
(The quick report/blurb ... from my
homepage.)
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Once again, thanks to the "no-draw rule," we had two out of three possible decisive results. This is because of the stringent restrictions against early "draws-by agreement," and it is making a huge impact. (Thanks to the organizers ... and whoever came up with this rule.) Is this the future of chess? [Replay the games and/or download them as well.]
<< He may not have his notebook, but he is in fighting spirit. Top US grandmaster Gata Kamsky defeated the tournament leader Krishnan Sasikiran to move into joint second place, together with Topalov, Mamedyarov and Nisipeanu. On the free day there was a soccer match between the chess players and a selection of the Bulgarian champions. >> - From the ChessBase website.
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- In the contest of L.D. Nisipeanu vs. Michael Adams, the Romanian GM had the White pieces, and a Ruy Lopez quickly appeared on the chess board. (1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.Bb5 a6; 4.Ba4 Nf6; 5.0-0 Be7; 6.Re1 b5; 7.Bb3 d6; 8.c3 0-0; 9.h3 Na5; 10.Bc2 c5; 11.d4 Nd7;) Now White played the rather unusual move of 12.Kh1!?, there are less than 20 games in the db with this continuation. (This line was first tried in the game: V. Kramnik - R. Ponomariov; Linares, 2003.) One of the obvious ideas of this play is that White will try to play a Pawn storm on the King-side, using the g-file as a key attacking line. Of course, the only question was: "Would White find the time for this, or would Black's counterplay show this plan to be unsound?" In the end, the creative Nisipeanu found a way to make everything work, and Adams surrendered on his fifty-third move.
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- The struggle between GM V. Topalov and GM S. Mamedyarov was the only draw of this round, but it was far from being a peaceful affair. (At sixty-four moves, it was the longest game of the round!) Topalov opened with 1.e4, and Mamedyarov countered with one of Topalov's favorite openings, The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Black looked to be good out of the opening, White was a Pawn up, but Black had a lot of play ... two wicked-looking Pawns on d4 and e4, that looked ready to march right down the board. When Black won two Rooks for the Queen on move 24, I thought it was over, surely Mamedyarov would roll on to another impressive victory. However, Topalov showed his mettle, White always seemed to have just enough counterplay to make a draw. In the end, we saw a couple of draws. First ... Black sacked material to reach a fortress. (K, R, + 2P vs. K, Q, and 1P) Then White gave back the Queen to break this fortress, we were going to see another endgame where one side would have just a RP ... but would have no way to promote it.
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- The key game of the round was GM Krishnan Sasikiran versus the American GM, Gata Kamsky. This was an extremely complex opening, (D15, Semi-Slav); where ... for many moves ... I was not sure exactly what was happening. In an unusual twist to this opening, both players wound up castling on the Q-side ... I don't think I have ever seen another GM game where this has happened. Even after castling, White looked to be better. However, Kamsky cunningly re-arranged his pieces - and almost without any warning - Sasikiran's game fell apart. (0-1 in sixty total moves.)
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Your leader after eight games is still GM K. Sasikiran, however, there is now a FOUR-WAY TIE for second place ... and GM Michael Adams is only half a point back. (Things have gotten much more interesting ... now, almost any result is possible.)
Round Nine
Sunday;
May 20th, 2007: (early morning)
In the super GM event, ("The
M-Tel Masters");
all the games were drawn, I believe GM Sasikiran is still in the lead. [Replay
the games.]
(The quick report/blurb ... from my
homepage.)
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- In the game, Mamedyarov - Adams, it looked as though White tried to stir something up, but it just my be that the basic mechanics of this opening are too finely worked out, the surprising pawn thrust (13...b5!?) seems to be allowing Black to hold his own in this variation. In the end, White had an outside, passed QRP, but did not believe he could do anything with it.
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- In the contest of Sasikiran - Nisipeanu, the players started off as an English, but play quickly transposed into the Maroczy Bind Sicilian. White might have had something going, but he may not have played the most accurate moves, and Black escaped. A series of sharp blows followed, but in the end, all we had was an endgame where White was only nominally better, (the pawns were equal); and the game was soon drawn.
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- In perhaps the best game of the round, Kamsky assayed a "London System," which features an early Bf4 in the QP game. What followed was an extremely complicated contest, this poor scribe's words cannot possibly do it justice. Blow followed blow, I have not yet worked out all the tactics, but both sides obviously avoided the worst. Just when White seemed to really have something cooking, Topalov came up with some wonderful counterplay, and it was obvious ... sometime just before move forty ... that Black had survived the worst. Now Topalov had an extra Pawn, so if anyone had any winning chances, it was clearly the Bulgarian GM. However, Kamsky grimly defended his position, in the end, he found a clever tactical resource that allowed him to give up a piece but gain the draw by perpetual check.
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Right now, with the players so closely bunched, it is theoretically possible for almost any of the players to win this event, although Adams looks to be something of a long shot at this point.
Round Ten
After
three rounds of the Super-GM event, ("The
M-Tel Masters"); GM V. Topalov was in dead last place ...
with two losses and a draw. At
the half-way point, Topalov was next to the bottom place, with only two
points out of a possible five. The intrepid reporters at ChessBase warned
us that it could happen. Now the amazing possibility has become fact, GM V.
Topalov has risen from the bottom of the score-table to claim clear first in the
M-Tel Master's tournament.
(The quick report/blurb ... from my
homepage.)
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What a tournament! We have seen great, fighting {decisive} games of chess, and we have seen GM's slug it out right to bare Kings!
Round # 10 ... summary of the games:
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- In the contest of Nisipeanu - Mamedyarov, this was a wild affair. It started off as a Sicilian, and it looked at one point like the angry Romanian was bent on razing the squares around the Black King. However, Mamedyarov - again - showed that he could defend patiently, and awaited his chances. Eventually, he got his shot, a temporary {sham} sacrifice of a piece provided "Shak" with some much needed counterplay. At the end of the struggle, both Kings were in jeopardy, and Nisipeanu was forced to take a draw by perpetual check.
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- In the grim struggle of Adams - Kamsky, the English GM seemed determined to take the full point off the American GM, however Kamsky is not about to "roll over and play dead" for anyone! Michael Adams did <seemingly> outplay Kamsky, and eventually won a Pawn, and also had a better Knight vs. Black's Bishop ... which did not appear to be able to affect the key light squares. Kamsky's doggedly defended his position, in the end, Adams appeared to give up. The kibitzers were all hollering about how Kamsky was now winning, but the final position was something of a joke. (Adams surrendered a piece, and retreats his King into the corner. Even though Kamsky will - eventually - be a piece and a Pawn up, Black has no way of evicting the WK out of the corner ... its a "book draw.") A tough struggle of 78 moves ... and one that teaches the lesson that a good defense will save a lot of positions that might seem lost.
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- THE GAME OF THE TOURNAMENT!!! In this crucial struggle, (GM V. Topalov vs. GM K. Sasikiran); could the Indian GM "hold serve," or would the former champ, Topalov - "The Bulgarian Knightmare" - break through to win the tournament ... as he had done so many times before?
The struggle started out serenely enough, the first few moves were: 1.d4 Nf6; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 Bb4; 4.e3 b6; 5.Bd3 Bb7; 6.Nf3 0-0; 7.0-0. First interesting note: (# 1.) All the websites give this as "ECO code" E43, but it actually appears to be a transposition to E52. (4...P-QN3 or 4...b6; is an old favorite of several GM's, Bobby Fischer did a lot to popularize this line through his repeated use of it.) After 13.a4, White had a solid {small} edge, but I had no idea how White could make anything out of this position.
On move 16, Sasikiran made a curious decision (# 2.) to double his own QP's, this appeared to me to be highly questionable. (I think that the Indian GM believed that keeping White's pieces out of e5 was more important than maintaining the integrity of his Pawn structure.)
(# 3.) Then on move 23, Sasikiran decided not to exchange Queens, perhaps thinking that this endgame would be easier to hold ... with the Queens on the board, rather than with the Queens off. (I thought that Black should go ahead and swap ... the ending looked bad ... but not terminal for Black.)
(# 4.) Perhaps one of the big moments - positionally speaking - came when the Indian GM advanced his KRP to h5. (Move 28) This left the Pawn a target and also weakened a whole host of other squares on Black's Kingside.
(# 5.) In my way of thinking, Black made a minor miscue (of sorts) on his thirty-first move. Rather than play 31...Nf6; which appeared to be forced, he opted instead for the dubious King sally of placing his Royal Highness on the h6-square.
(# 6.) Now White had several different plans. With 31.Qf2, White could seek to transfer all of his pieces to the Q-side. With 31.Kf2, White could adopt a "wait and see" attitude. Instead, Topalov opted for the "Tal-like" sacrifice of 31.NxP/h5!? (I am not sure if this sacrifice is 100% correct, hours of work with Fritz have seemed to indicate that its harmless, and only good enough for a draw.) Of course there is the way that machines play chess, and then there is the way that (often fallible) humans play the game.
After move thirty-seven, (NxP/h5); White had three pawns for the piece, but seemed destined to quickly lose two Pawns back ... although Black's King remained insecure. (Of course NOT </= 37...KxN/h5???; because of 38.Qh7 mate.)
(# 7.) Sasikiran was now somewhat pressed for time, although I do not have a concrete estimation of the time that both parties has used up until this point. (I watched part of this game on one popular chess server.) 37...QxP/e3+; was obviously the indicated move, however on his next play, Sasikiran played a very cautious move ... that appeared to be safe ... but in reality, it was a game-breaker. (38...Qe7? Better was >/= 37...QxP/d4.)
(# 8.) On his 44th move, Topalov could have simply grabbed another Pawn, (>/= 44.QxP/b6!, "+/-"); but instead made the decision to exchange the Queens.
(# 9.) Topalov was immediately rewarded with another inaccurate defensive move by Black, Black made "the seemingly sensible" decision to swap the Knights, but now it turned out that Black's Bishop was useless, and White's Pawns were unstoppable. White's three, connected, passed Pawns simply advanced up the chess board, and soon Sasikiran was forced to give up the fight. (1-0 in 59 total moves.)
Once more, Topalov has managed the seemingly impossible. In a relatively short span of five games, he went from virtual "cellar-dweller," to clear first place! Note that Adams lost both games to Topalov, without these wins, the Bulgarian GM could not have won first place.
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In the final analysis, I don't think that any of the players should hang their head, only a half point separates first from the rest - save one. (And Adams is only a half-point back of the big group with five points.) I am also quite pleased to see Gata Kamsky dig his way out of last place, and will wind up gaining points from his overall result in this tournament.
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This has been a grand event, and I am sure that it has given enjoyment and something to chat about for chess-players around the globe. I personally would like to thank the players, the organizers, and all the good people who brought us the games and these great stories, especially the wonderful people at ChessBase. I am especially glad of the "no-draw" rule ... which has done away with the quick and uninteresting ... "draw by agreement."
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Search Google ... for the best stories on this tournament.
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The CB report, Round One.
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The CB report, Round Two.
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The CB report, Round Three.
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The CB report, Round Four.
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The CB report, Round Five.
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The CC report, Round Five.
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The CB report, Round Six.
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The CB report, Round Seven.
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The CB report, Round Eight.
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The CB report, Round Nine.
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The CB report, Round Ten. (The final round.)
[ The official website - for this event.] [ The "Chess Games" page for M-Tel, 2007.]
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Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2009. All
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This page was created on: May 10th, 2007. This page was last updated on: Saturday, July 14, 2012 02:16 AM .
