Ivanchuk Beats Topalov
By Arvind Aaron

Vassily Ivanchuk, from Lvov in Ukraine, former winner of the Linares Tournament shocked World No.1 ranked Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the second round to joint Magnus Carlsen in the lead after two rounds in the Morelia/Linares Chess Tournament being played in Mexico. The second half of the all-play-all will take place in Linares, Spain.

Anand had to play accurately with the white pieces and make a draw in the pawn down opposite colour bishop ending against Svidler. Anand had beaten Svidler with the same opening last month at Wijk aan Zee thanks to Svidler's big blunder.
Ivanchuk planted a knight on the centre of the board for long to cause anxiety for Topalov. Just when Topalov though he had himself placed a knight well, he lost his knight in a tactic which under-7 boys would spot. Unusual blind spot for the No.1 player of the world to lose in such a fashion.

The event is excitingly poised with the early starters, Anand on fifty percent score and Topalov on minus one. The Leko-Morozevich was a disappointing draw and the latter never had a chance to play his sparkling sacrifices. Aronian sacrificed a rook but only obtained a draw by repetition of moves with the white pieces against Carlsen.

The results (round two): Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1.5 bt Veselin Topalov (Bul) 0.5, Levon Aronian (Arm) 1 drew Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 1.5, Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 1 drew Peter Svidler (Rus) 1, Peter Leko (Hun) 1 drew Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 0.5.

 

home

Published on : 20th Feb, 2007