Alekhine Memorial

[Mick Norris]

Starts today - interesting line up, tough for Mickey Adams, let's hope he does well

http://www.alekhine-memorial.com/

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Heh. A weekend trip to Paris (despite going several times, I've never yet been to the Louvre) combine with seeing round 1 on the Sunday, would have been nice, if I'd realised that this tournament was happening. Never yet been to St Petersburg... Are these split venue tournaments becoming more common?

[Leonard Barden]

Round 1 just started, including Anand v Adams, Spanish Anti-Marshall with a4.

[Leonard Barden]

Drawn rook ending, messed up by the world champion, Houdini now -1.55 to Mickey. Heading for K+3Ps v K+R.

Tablebase says K+3Ps v K+R is a win for Adams.

[Mick Norris]

Aronian has lost and Kramnik is winning, so interesting start

[PeterTurland]

Looks like Micky has Vishy on the ropes.

It is a tablebase win, so it is sort of 'in the bag'

[Roger de Coverly]

It is a tablebase win, so it is sort of 'in the bag'

The doubled g pawns made it easy enough. Rook v fgh pawns can be a win for the pawns if they can get far enough forward.

[Mick Norris]

Wins for adams and Kramnik - does anybody know what the pairings are for the rest of the event?

[Leonard Barden]

Wins for adams and Kramnik - does anybody know what the pairings are for the rest of the event?

The draw order is 1 Vachier-Lagrave 2 Ding Liren 3 Kramnik 4 Anand 5 Svidler 6 Gelfand 7 Adams 8 Vitiugov 9 Aronian 10 Fressinet

so that Adams plays Aronian next Sunday in round six (the first at St Petersburg) and Kramnik in the final round.

[Mick Norris]

Thanks, found the pairings now

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/alekh ... d-in-paris

Aronian - Kramnik tomorrow, also Adams - Svidler

[Jonathan Bryant]

Drawn rook ending, messed up by the world champion....

Where's the suggested improvement?

I was thinking instead of 32 Rxa6 White could try 32 Rc6 with the idea of cleaning up the queenside with something like 32 ... Rxb3, 33 Rxc5 Ra3, 34 Ra5 b3, 35 Rxa6 b2 36 Rb6 Rxa4, 37 Rxb2

but 33 ... Rc3, 34 Ra5 Rc6 looks tricky in that line.

Is the idea that after

33 ... Rc3, 34 Rd5 b3, 35 Rd8+ Kf7, 36 Rb8 White can get behind the pawn if 36 ... Rc4, 37 Rxb3 Rxa4, 38 Rb7+ Kf6, 39 Ra7?

Although Black's 36th not forced, obviously and I'm thinking 34 ... Rc8 (idea: ... Rb8) might be a better try for Black in this variation too.

[Mick Norris]

Heh. A weekend trip to Paris (despite going several times, I've never yet been to the Louvre) combine with seeing round 1 on the Sunday, would have been nice, if I'd realised that this tournament was happening. Never yet been to St Petersburg... Are these split venue tournaments becoming more common?

Looks like you would have struggled to get in
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/alekh ... ith-a-bang

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Heh. A weekend trip to Paris (despite going several times, I've never yet been to the Louvre) combine with seeing round 1 on the Sunday, would have been nice, if I'd realised that this tournament was happening. Never yet been to St Petersburg... Are these split venue tournaments becoming more common?

Looks like you would have struggled to get in
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/alekh ... ith-a-bang

The comparison there between London and Paris, and the English/British and French chess-playing public, and the different arrangements and organisation is fascinating. If AGON or another organiser went for a model like that, where in London could such an event have been held for free (with sponsorship) in a public space?

From the article: "There are about three hundred seats available, just like at the Candidates' Tournament. But here it comes: whereas there were about 100-150 spectators on average every day in London, the first round in Paris was visited by at least a thousand spectators. All day long people were queuing outside the pavillion, and only when others were leaving, new spectators were given access."

And: "..with about 33,000 FIDE rated players, France is really a chess loving country. During the Immopar tournaments in the early 90s there were also thousands of spectators."

[John Moore]

And Mickey goes 2 out of 2 with a win against Svidler.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And Mickey goes 2 out of 2 with a win against Svidler.

And takes the lead as well. Kramnik and Ding Liren both lost (to Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave).

Adams is back inside the top 20 in the world and up to number 18 on the live list:

http://www.2700chess.com/

If he keeps this up (I hope he does!) he will be up there with the rating he had back in the early 2000s.

When was the last time Adams was that high up the live or official list?

To put it in perspective, his peak rating of 2755 (world number 5) and 2754 (world number 4) was back in July 2000 and October 2000.