Try saying that title five times fast! At the end of the Tal Memorial in Moscow, three players shared first with 5.5/9 scores: Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Even after applying all the tiebreakers they had available to them, there could be no clear winner; while both Aronian and Karjakin had better tiebreaks than Mamedyarov, they had identical scorelines against all opponents, which seemingly leaves the two of them in a dead heat tie for first.
American fans will be glad to see Hikaru Nakamura finishing this very strong event with a +1 score. In fact, his 5/9 finish includes no losses at all, though he did miss a couple chances to win -- including in the final round against Alexander Grischuk, which could have given Nakamura a share of first. Grischuk, Nakamura and Wang Hao shared fourth place instead, just ahead of Vladmir Kramnik (4.5/9), Boris Gelfand (3.5), Alexei Shirov (3.0), and Pavel Eljanov (2.5).
The players aren't quite ready to leave Moscow yet, as the World Blitz Championship is set to begin on Tuesday. The Tal Memorial's participants will be joined by more of the world's elite, including last year's blitz champion, Magnus Carlsen. Many chess fans have been waiting for a Carlsen-Nakamura blitz matchup at the World Blitz Championship ever since Carlsen dominated the event last year, only to later lose to Nakamura in an Oslo blitz tournament later in the year. I looked for betting odds on the tournament, but couldn't find any, so we'll call those two the favorites for now. I'll be sure to let you know who comes out on top later this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment