Viswanathan Anand wins the Botvinnik Memorial Rapid

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Botvinnik Memorial Rapid in Moscow 2011 (Day 2)

Viswanathan Anand wins the Botvinnik Memorial Rapid

Mark Crowther - Saturday 3rd September 2011

Viswanathan Anand won with 4.5/6 beating Magnus Carlsen who lost all his games on the second day. Photo ©

Viswanathan Anand won with 4.5/6 beating Magnus Carlsen who lost all his games on the second day. Photo © | http://chess.ugrasport.com

Viswanathan Anand dominated the Botvinnik Memorial with a score of 4.5/6. World number one Magnus Carlsen lost all his games on the second day and finished last with 1.5/6. Kramnik and Aronian tied for 2nd on 3/6. I don't know if the players were asked to be more enterprising but the quality of play was, for me, quite low on day 2 with only Aronian's win against Kramnik in the final round appealing. Viktorija Cmilyte won the women's event and there too the top seed finished last.

Round 4

Aronian - Carlsen Round 4. Photo © Russian Chess Federation Video Website

Levon Aronian sacrificed two exchanges against Magnus Carlsen in their game four. It was very much in the spirit of the event of crowd entertainment.

Apparently Evgeny Bareev called Aronian's 2nd exchange sacrifice against Carlsen "poetic", and the game overall "an absolute masterpiece" according to a tweet from Chess in Translation. This is really way over the top. Carlsen subsided to a loss in 85 moves after not playing terribly well would be a better summary.

Anand - Kramnik Round 4. Photo © Russian Chess Federation Video Website

Anand and Kramnik drew a regulation Semi-Slav in 41 moves.

Round 5

Anand beat Aronian in Round 5. Photo © Russian Chess Federation Video Website

Anand defeated Aronian in a game that might easily be described as complete garbage. Aronian's attack was at best speculative, even so he was rewarded with an error of 33.Kf1 instead 33.g4. He was right back in the game with either 33...Qh5 or 33...Bh6 instead 33...Bf4 just lost the house. Whether it is unfair to look at the game with an engine is up to you. But I think we're used to better rapid games from the top four in the world than this.

Carlsen-Kramnik Round 5. Photo © Russian Chess Federation Video Website

Carlsen too hardly added to the quality with the choice of 1.Nf3 b5? Kramnik quickly took control of the whole of the centre of the board and then mated Carlsen.

Round 6

Kramnik-Aronian in Round 6. Photo © Russian Chess Federation Video Website

Levon Aronian won one of the better games of the day to catch Vladimir Kramnik, he exploited black's inability to find a home for his light squared bishop to the maximum and then pushed home his passed d-pawn to win the game.

Viswanathan Anand against Magnus Carlsen

I doubt very much Carlsen wanted to lose all three games on the day but that is what happened. He lost the exchange and although he had some compensation he was ground down by Viswanathan Anand who finished with 4.5/6.

Botvinnik Memorial Moscow (RUS), 2-3 ix 2011											cat. XXIII (2810)
					1		2		3		4
1.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	*	*	½	½	1	1	½	1	4½	3000
2.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2791	½	½	*	*	½	0	½	1	3	2815
3.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2807	0	0	½	1	*	*	½	1	3	2810
4.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2823	½	0	½	0	½	0	*	*	1½	2612

Round 1 (September 2, 2011)
Anand, Viswanathan	- Kramnik, Vladimir	½-½	34	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Aronian, Levon	- Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	43	E15	Queens Indian
Round 2 (September 2, 2011)
Aronian, Levon	- Anand, Viswanathan	0-1	48	D10	Slav Defence
Carlsen, Magnus	- Kramnik, Vladimir	½-½	35	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Round 3 (September 2, 2011)
Anand, Viswanathan	- Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	27	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Aronian, Levon	½-½	51	B70	Sicilian Dragon
Round 4 (September 3, 2011)
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Anand, Viswanathan	½-½	41	D43	Anti-Meran Gambit
Carlsen, Magnus	- Aronian, Levon	0-1	85	A36	English Botvinnik
Round 5 (September 3, 2011)
Anand, Viswanathan	- Aronian, Levon	1-0	38	C88	Ruy Lopez Closed
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Carlsen, Magnus	1-0	28	A04	Dutch System
Round 6 (September 3, 2011)
Aronian, Levon	- Kramnik, Vladimir	1-0	45	A18	English Opening
Carlsen, Magnus	- Anand, Viswanathan	0-1	66	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin

Women's Event

Viktorija Cmilyte won the women's event with 4 wins and two losses (one in the final round with first place secured). Top seed Humpy Koneru finished bottom.

Botvinnik Memorial w Moscow (RUS), 2-3 ix 2011											cat. XII (2545)
					1		2		3		4
1.	Cmilyte, Viktorija	g	LTU	2525	*	*	0	1	1	0	1	1	4	2676
2.	Danielian, Elina	g	ARM	2517	1	0	*	*	0	1	½	1	3½	2610
3.	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2536	0	1	1	0	*	*	0	½	2½	2490
4.	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2600	0	0	½	0	1	½	*	*	2	2401

Round 1 (September 2, 2011)
Danielian, Elina	- Cmilyte, Viktorija	1-0	53	E60	King's Indian without Nc3
Kosintseva, Tatiana	- Koneru, Humpy	0-1	46	C84	Ruy Lopez Centre Attack
Round 2 (September 2, 2011)
Kosintseva, Tatiana	- Danielian, Elina	1-0	41	B12	Caro Kann Advanced
Koneru, Humpy	- Cmilyte, Viktorija	0-1	45	A61	Benoni
Round 3 (September 2, 2011)
Cmilyte, Viktorija	- Kosintseva, Tatiana	1-0	33	D38	QGD Ragozin
Danielian, Elina	- Koneru, Humpy	½-½	66	D02	Queen's Pawn Game
Round 4 (September 3, 2011)
Cmilyte, Viktorija	- Danielian, Elina	1-0	61	A35	English Symmetrical
Koneru, Humpy	- Kosintseva, Tatiana	½-½	69	E46	Nimzo Indian Rubinstein
Round 5 (September 3, 2011)
Cmilyte, Viktorija	- Koneru, Humpy	1-0	32	D38	QGD Ragozin
Danielian, Elina	- Kosintseva, Tatiana	1-0	24	A09	Reti Opening
Round 6 (September 3, 2011)
Kosintseva, Tatiana	- Cmilyte, Viktorija	1-0	38	B77	Sicilian Modern Dragon
Koneru, Humpy	- Danielian, Elina	0-1	52	D11	Slav Defence

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

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