Chessbase News, Germany
May 27 2007
Elista R01: Aronian, Grischuk draw first blood
27.05.2007 – A great start for Armenian star Levon Aronian and top
seed Levon Aronian, who was able to take a full point from Norway’s
wonderkind Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces. Alexander Grischuk
won the other decided game, against compatriot Vladimir Malakhov.
Judit Polgar was close to a traumatic first-round loss with white
against Evgeny Bareev, but managed to save the day. Report.
The Candidates Matches for the 2007 World Chess Championship
Tournament will be held in Elista, Russia, from May 26 to June 14,
2007. A total of 16 candidates play two rounds of six-game matches to
fill four places in the 2007 World Championship in Mexico City. The
prize fund is US $40,000 per match, most of the money ($320,000)
coming from a personal fund of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
FIDE ($160,000) and the general sponsor, Rosenergomash.
Round one report
Results
Round 4: Wednesday, February 21st
Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Levon Aronian
Peter Leko ½-½ Mikhail Gurevich
Boris Gelfand ½-½ Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½ Sergei Rublevsky
Gata Kamsky ½-½ Etienne Bacrot
Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Vladimir Malakhov
Judith Polgar ½-½ Evgeny Bareev
Michael Adams ½-½ Alexei Shirov
Aronian beats Carlsen with Black, and Grischuk beats Malakhov in the
day’s other decisive game, whilst the other six games are drawn after
hard battles. Playchess was there to broadcast the action, on what
Nigel Short might be tempted to describe as a day of peripatetic
potentates.
Polgar-Bareev was a near disaster for the First Lady. She provoked an
exchange sacrifice, which yielded Black two pawns, and a rock-solid
position. A third pawn dropped off soon after, and by move 30, Black
was also no less than an hour and ten minutes ahead on the clock.
Strenuous resistance in the ending eventually saved her the game, and
the Russian was most likely quite frustrated by the missed point he
would have loved to score against one of his principal angstgegners.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
