TAL ROUND 8

Let's hope we get something a little more exciting today.
I am beginning to lose interest.
Six day on antibiotics ought to have pepped Carlsen up a bit.
He has White today, agains the fly-by-night Chess champ
Ponomariov, who is 1/2 point behind him in the stakes.

B89 SCHEVENINGEN Sicilian, English attack.
What fun!!



after:



Carlsen goes for something different on move 11. Qe1 ?!
Always original.
Wish I knew what went through his head here, when we expected
11.h3 or 11.a4 or maybe 11.Bd3

This is where Carlsen begins stirring the pot:
finding unlikely but non-dangerous moves to make Black use up his time.

Clearly he hasn't made up his mind where he wants his LSB to go.
Will he now continue the kingside advance with h4/g5 after putting
his Rook safe or go for the queenside advance with a3, preventing
Black playing b4. We shall see.





Carlsen was lucky that Black didn't insert d5 exd5 Nxd5 before White could play Nf4.
And after 16.Bc4 Carlsen has turned the corner.
Why is Black so shy of pushing his center pawns?



after:



Is there going to be an almighty rumpus on the =e6= square?

Oh no! 19.Nfxe6 rather than 19.Ndxe6??????????
Am I looking at the wrong board, or has he messed up???





I don't understand this at all.
He is still OK, but missed a lovely sequence.
Maybe I'm wrong.
I shall have to check it later.
OK, forget about what might have been and concentrate on what is.
Golden rule.

Now, let's hope he plays 21. Nf5



Well, what do I know.
He plays 21. Qd3 instead.
I wouldn't have minded 21. g5
What's with the 22...Rd8?? When I thought 22...just about anything else.
Such as 22...Bb7/Kh8

This has turned into a ragged, untidy game.
Carlsen will probably win it, but I hate it when I see things that he doesn't.
I give up.
Going for a walk.






So, he DID win. And from the first twenty moves I would have said ' in style'.
However, the ending took the shine off it, with errors on both sides.
The aftertaste of this game is not so much that Carlsen won, but that
Ponomariov lost by playing 22....Rd8

Still, excitement is worth a lot, after the damage limitation we saw all week.
Hope Magnus feels completely recovered by the time he comes over to London.
I won't go out of my way to visit there this year.