Zurich 2014 begins!

[Javier]

 

The Zurich 2014 Super Chess Tournament has just begun ( January 29 to February 4 ) with an average ELO of 2801. (BTW , I've looked it up and to get an IM norm in this tournament, you'd only need 0.35 points (!!), which is like showing up for the games! XD )

Is this the strongest tournament ever . In my opinion, no, not even close!.

The reason is that only 5 slow games will be played . The other 5 will semi-rapid , and the remaining 5, a blitz tournament.

But not just that, there are big names missing: Kramnik or Topalov are much tougher than Gelfand (and they have a higher rating). Still, a pretty tough tournament!

The preliminary blitz tournament was won by Carlsen (equal first with Aronian).

Magnus began like legendary Tal used to, with a loss in the first round (Later Carlsen said: , quote: "I have almost never played as badly as I did in the beginning here. It was so bad that I could not even get mad" ) , but then he got a couple of draws and ended up with two wins against Anand and Nakamura, the one against Anand in just 21 moves ( ! ). I don't think Anand has ever been beaten up like this, not even in a blitz game... here are my notes to the game:

 

[pgn][Event "Zurich CC Blitz 2014"]
[site "Zurich SUI"]
[Date "2014.01.29"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Carlse n, Magnus"]
[black "Anan d, Viswanathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A06"]
[WhiteElo "2872"]
[blackElo "2773"]
[Annotator "I.M. Javier Gil"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "2014.01.29"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. b3 c5 3. e4 {Javier: This is a reversed Budapest Gambit with the
extra tempo b3, which is a rather useful move in these positions.} dxe4 4. Ng5
Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bb2 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Ncxe4 Nxe4 10. Nxe4 e5 $6 {
Javier: Yes, this cuts off the long diagonal, but reopens the other one, c4-g8,
and makes f4 possible.} (10... b6 $1 {Javier: This seemed like the correct
choice here.} 11. Qg4 Nd4) 11. f4 $1 exf4 12. Qh5 $6 (12. Rxf4 $1) 12... Nd4 $2
(12... Be6 $1 13. Rxf4 (13. Bxe6 fxe6 14. Qg4 Nd4 {Javier: And black is doing
just fine.}) 13... Bxc4 14. bxc4 Nd4 15. Ng3 $11) 13. Rxf4 $16 g6 14. Qe5 $1 b6
15. Raf1 Bf5 16. g4 (16. Rxf5 {Javier: This would have been very strong also.}
gxf5 17. Rxf5 $18 {Javier: White has 2 basic ideas in this position, either to
attack f7 by means of Ng5 or Rf4-g4.} b5 (17... Rc8 18. Ng5 Qe8 (18... Rc6 19.
Nxf7 $18) 19. Nxf7 Rxf7 20. Bxf7+ Qxf7 21. Rxf7 Kxf7 22. Bxd4 cxd4 23. Qf5+ $18
) (17... h6 18. Rh5 Kh7 19. Qf4 $18) 18. Rf4 $1 Qb6 19. Rg4+ Qg6 20. Rxg6+ hxg6
21. Bxb5 $18) 16... Be6 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Rxf8+ Bxf8 19. Nf6+ Kh8 (19... Kf7
20. Nxh7+ $18) 20. c3 (20. Ne8+ $1 {Javier: Not that it matters much, but this
was more accurate.} Kg8 21. Qh8+ $3 Kxh8 22. Rxf8#) 20... Nc6 21. Ne8+ 1-0[/pgn]

 

 

Tournament's official website: http://zurich-cc.com/