Anand won today in the only way I could have imagined: he got all of his preparation in and followed it up with precise play so as not to allow any chances.

A first win in classical chess for Anand since 2010 and repeating the feat from his match with Gelfand when he stroke back immediately after a loss – these two factors cannot be overestimated. Anand was glowing at the press conference, barely managing to conceal his smile, Carlsen looked dejected.

In fact the game was pretty one-sided and simple to explain. Anand was better prepared and Carlsen didn’t manage to find a way out of his troubles. What surprises me is that the line he chose is rather forced and it is a must to check it thoroughly before playing it, something Anand did and Carlsen didn’t. Now, why he didn’t I can only guess. After his choice of 7…c6 white is forced to go in for this line if he’s to achieve anything, so it’s really unclear to me why Carlsen wasn’t prepared. Additionally, this line was played in the recent game Aronian-Adams from Bilbao last year and Anand’s improvement was simply the first line of the engine – nothing too difficult there. A baffing opening disaster for Carlsen.

But sometimes losing a game without a chance after a bad opening is a good thing. You realise that you didn’t play, you weren’t given a chance to play, so you can just dismiss it as an odd occurrence and this can help focus on the games ahead. I’m sure Carlsen will do that.

And as for Anand, he’s riding high now, but he mustn’t forget who he’s playing against.

Here is the game with detailed notes:

The Petrosian Memorial finished today and it was a glorious triumph for Grischuk. Kramnik was solid second with a very good performance, Gelfand managed to come back to +1 with a last round win against Leko (a heroic feat, both beating Leko and achieving a great result with a last-round win after playing non-stop for a whole month) and sharing 3rd with Aronian, who continues to be overshadowed by other players’ incredible performances. As for the others, they are very likely to forget this event as soon as possible and Inarkiev will most probably sack his team.

Please don’t think the match is over. Carlsen won, but Anand will fight back.

The curse of queen and rook vs queen and rook positions seem to haunt Anand the same way they haunted Capablanca in his match against Alekhine. Capablanca lost the crucial games 11 and 34 in this type of endgame (some even argue it is something between a middlegame and endgame). I remember reading that Alekhine used to train for this type of positions by going for them on purpose in the tournaments that preceded his match, spurning more favourable options, just in order to be able to train. Amazing dedication and commitment to a higher cause.

Anand lost game 6 in Chennai, barely drew yesterday and lost today (albeit, when they entered the position with only queens and rooks on board his position was already difficult). That should give him something to think about. But more worrying is that again like in game 1, after a normal opening that gave him a good position, he drifted into difficulties as a result of miscalculations (as he confessed in today’s press conference). This doesn’t bode well for him and unless he springs back to life the match may turn to be a worse nightmare than Chennai.

But I believe he will come back roaring after the free day. He made the mistake of playing calmly after a loss in Chennai (that same game 6) and lost, so this time he’ll try to come back with a vengeance.

The game today saw a rare set-up by Carlsen in the 4 d3 Spanish and all went normal until Anand miscalculated on move 18.

In the meantime it’s worth noting that Grischuk is on 4.5/5 in Moscow at the Petrosian Memorial. It’s nice to see another player on a killer streak after Caruana. Today he beat Leko by using 8 g4 in the QGD Tartakower (which I know it gives nothing to white, but Leko must have been surprised).

Black is OK, but needs to know how

Gelfand beat Morozevich, so it’s good to finally see him win a game after going almost a whole month winless (his last win was on 13 October against Radjabov).

The others are drawing and that leaves Kramnik in sole second with +1. He still needs to play Grischuk, but with 2 rounds to go and 1.5 point advantage, we can safely proclaim Grischuk the winner of the tournament.

And on another sidenote, on this day in 1936 Mikhail Tal was born, in 1985 Kasparov became the youngest World Champion, while in 1989 the Berlin Wall (in Berlin) was destroyed.

The long-awaited match is underway and the first game ended in a draw.

The Grunfeld was a surprising choice from Carlsen. He has played it from time to time in the past, but I find it too heavy on the theory for his approach to the openings. It reminds me of his use of the Caro Kann in his first black game in Chennai, a surprise which worked out perfectly, but too dangerous to try again (as Anand showed his improvement in this year’s Candidates against Andreikin).

Anand also tried a line that cannot possibly pose problems in more than one game, 5 Bd2. He managed to get his preparation in and obtained an unbalanced position but then as if his old fears set in – instead of playing aggressively with 21 h4 he went for solid centralisation and this allowed Carlsen to get rid of the unnecessary pieces and obtain a position which must have reminded Anand of last year’s match – there he lost game 6 in an endgame with a queen and rook each, with equal material. To his credit he managed to take his chance when Carlsen missed the only way to pose serious problems on move 42.

My general impression is that Anand started confidently and aggresively, but as the game progressed and he finally had to play on his own he slowly drifted towards the fear-induced state of mind. It was good for him that he managed to save the game as it should give him confidence that he can save these kinds of unpleasant position, something he didn’t manage in Chennai. As for Carlsen, a normal game for him, being caught in the opening he responded well and even managed to put pressure later in the game. He did miss a chance to press for more, but for a first black game he can be satisfied.

Here’s the game with more detailed notes:

It’s time we compare Grischuk with Fischer. Or perhaps it’s better to wait one more round and compare it to Caruana instead?

Grischuk played the rare 5 Qc2 in the Chebanenko Slav and after Morozevich’s timid 5…g6 (5…dc4 is the only way) 6 e4 white got a better game. Grischuk continued with powerful play and it felt as if he destroyed Morozevich. Fantastic performance by the currently number 3 player in the world!

However incredible it may seem, for me the game of the day was Leko-Kramnik. Leko introduced an interesting sacrifice in the well-known lines of the QGD with Bf4. An enterprising play by Leko, who unfortunately had to settle for a draw in view of Kramnik’s almost perfect defence. (If you cannot see the moves and comments, please click on the question mark in the bottom left corner of the board).

Inarkiev scored his first half a point against Gelfand by playing the solid Fianchetto against the Grunfeld. It’s obvious that he came to this tournament with the desire to be solid and that’s much easier done when playing white. Tough luck he started with two blacks and didn’t survive the openings in those games, let’s see how he continues after the rest day when he’s black again against Morozevich.

Aronian tried to squeeze water from stone in yet another Fianchetto Grunfeld against Ding Liren. He failed.

Tomorrow’s a rest day, probably scheduled appropriately so that the players can watch the opening ceremony of the Carlsen-Anand match.

Grischuk made it over 2800 on the live list today after beating Gelfand with black. His 3/3 finish in Baku must have been a wonderful stimulus to continue the rout – now he’s 5/5 in the last 5 games he’s played! One more win and we’ll be comparing him to Fischer, two more – to Caruana.

In a Grunfeld he went for the best method against the same line Gelfand used to almost beat Vachier in Tashkent. In Tashkent the Frenchman suffered from amnesia and couldn’t recall who Botvinnik was, so he ended up lost (even though he saved the game) while in Moscow Grischuk followed Carlsen, who re-introduced the Be6 idea back in 2009. After losing 3 games in a row against Gelfand, Grischuk finally gets his revenge.

Kramnik also won today and again Inarkiev didn’t get out of the opening. It’s tough to start with two blacks in a row in such a company, but I really expected more from Inarkiev’s team – they should have prepared him better for this tournament. Tomorrow he’s white against Gelfand, so I bet he’ll score his first half a point.

The other two games were drawn. Morozevich had an advantage against Aronian, then it was a dead draw, then he blundered, but Aronian missed his chance so finally a draw. A typical Morozevich game. Ding Liren couldn’t do anything against Leko. But not many people can anyway.

When it rains, it pours. Almost every day we have elite chess! Sometimes it’s too much to cover and follow, especially when life gets in the way. Therefore I’ve decided to concentrate on the World Championship match, so my comments on the Petrosian Memorial will be short.

The first round saw one win. In a rather straight-forward effort, Grischuk beat Inarkiev when the latter didn’t seem to know what to do in the Reti very early on. I know Inarkiev, he’s played for my Macedonian team a long time ago and he’s a very friendly person. I read with interest that he has now assembled a team that should help him realise his ambitions. That sounds promising indeed. Obviously he didn’t start well here (nerves, perhaps? It’s his first tournament at this level) and in this company everybody will try to beat him, but I hope he manages to get a grip of himself.

I was curious to see how Kramnik will do after his recent disasters that resulted in his falling out of the Top 10. I also read his interview on chess-news.ru (in Russian) with great interest – Kramnik’s interviews are always among the best! He talks about his recent form, his style, Petrosian and moving to Geneve. So he started today with a solid draw against Ding Liren, using a line in the QGD Exchange that has frequently been used by Short. Good preparation led to an easy draw, even though the game lasted for 41 moves.

I only briefly looked at Leko-Morozevich while in Aronian-Gelfand black had an interesting possibility to sacrifice a bishop on h2 and enter wild complications, but in true Petrosian fashion he decided not to. Perhaps it was better not to change the name of the tournament? After all, it used to be called Tal Memorial…

The final two rounds in Tashkent saw Andreikin emerge as the sole winner of the tournament by making two draws. An incredible result and I doubt it somebody considered Andreikin a probable winner after his dismal result in Baku.

These tournaments are extremely solid affairs and perhaps Andreikin’s -2 in Baku tempted his opponents to come aggressively at him – in the first round he was lucky to win a rook endgame a pawn down against Mamedyarov, then he won in his trademark attacking/messy style against Karjakin and then collected a point thanks to Jobava’s unreasonable musketeering. Otherwise being tough to beat, he used his chances to the maximum and emerged victorious. Undoubtedly a surprise, at least for me, but a result fully deserved and one that introduces him as one of the favourites in this Grand Prix series.

Andreikin did show some nerves in his last round game against Giri. After playing solidly in the opening he suddenly found himself staring at an IQP and facing worse position. Then his defensive instincts kicked in and he confidently saved the draw he needed.

From the 10th round events probably the most interesting was the press conference after the game Giri-Jobava. For the first time we saw direct insults and mocking between the players. I’m not sure we need more of this, but it certainly makes the press conferences more lively! One thing is obvious though – the tournament clearly benefited from the inclusion of Jobava!

And speaking of Jobava, he played another exciting game in the last round against Mamedyarov. In a line in the Benoni, considered to be refuted, Mamedyarov introduced a novelty and both players continued to play the first choices of the engine. To do so in such a complicated position is unbelievable, but not unattainable – just take a look at the game Mamedyarov-Karjakin from round 8. After a sub-optimal choice on move 22, the game conveniently ends in a perpetual practically by force on move 37.

Speaking of convenience, it is certainly so when you get to play your second in the last round when he has no ambition left, lingering at the bottom, while with a win you get among the players with +1, keeping your chances alive in the Grand Prix series. By the strangest coincidence the pair Karjakin-Kasimdzhanov fits my description perfectly. The player busted the second in a most convincing fashion. Here’s the game with short notes.

As I predicted, Jakovenko didn’t pull a Tomashevsky in this tournament, finishing on -2.His play in today’s game against Caruana was simply atrocious. I’m sure he would have tortured someone with 100 Elo points less than him in the position he got after the opening, but when he played Caruana, 100 Elo points more than him, he was unrecongnizable. The following one-move blunder speaks volumes of his psychological condition:

This tournament, more than Baku, convinced me that Caruana is by far the most serious contender in this World Championship cycle. Having great (winning in Baku) and decent (+1, shared 4th, in Tashkent) results while playing very far from your best is an ability only Carlsen has managed to display. And that rarest ability is the mark of world-beaters.

Of the rest of the players, the inconspicuous Nakamura, the exciting Mamedyarov and my favourite Karjakin are the players who kept their chances alive in the Grand Prix after the second tournament in the series. Together with Gelfand (in spite of his horrible result here) and Andreikin they are the probable candidates to qualify for the next Candidates. Anything is possible, especially if you take into consideration that some players may qualify based on rating (like Caruana for example) while others may get a wild-card (Karjakin, who else!)

Top level chess continues without a break with the long-awaited World Championship match and the Petrosian Memorial (Aronian, Grischuk, Kramnik) starting in a few days. No rest for the weary!