V Tal Memoria Chess: Aronian, Karjakin win first place with equal tiebreak points!

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

V Tal Memorial 2010 winners Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian

Hi Everyone,

The 5th Tal Memorial was organised from November 5-14, in Moscow, Russia. The nine-round round-robin event with a time control of 40 moves in 100 minutes followed by 20 moves in 50 minutes was shown live in fantastic high resolution via the www.russiachess.org website.

The last round was as exciting as the rest. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - who had gone into the last round with a half point lead over the rest of the field - lost to Boris Gelfand. That left the final results with three players tying for the top spot - Mamedyarov, Aronian and Karjakin!

And, since Aronian and Karjakin had equal number of tiebreak points, they had to be declared joint winners. This is something very unusual for players to even have same tie-break points. That just goes to show the level of play at top-level chess.

Here are the nice games from the last round. You can run the moves in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Rc1 h6 9. Bh4 Bb4 10. a3 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3 Qxa3 12. Qd2 b5 13. Bd3 O-O 14. O-O Bb7 15. c4 bxc4 16. Bxc4 N5b6 17. Bd3 Rfc8 18. Bb1 c5 19. dxc5 Nxc5 20. Qd6 Qa4 21. Nd4 Qd7 22. Qf4 g5 23. Qf6 gxh4 24. Qxh6 f5 25. Rxc5 Rxc5 26. Nxe6 Rac8 27. Qg6+ Kh8 28. Qf6+ Kg8 29. Bxf5 Rxf5 30. Qxf5 Bd5 31. Qg5+ Kf7 32. Nf4 Bc4 33. Ra1 Rg8 34. Qh5+ Kf8 35. Qxh4 Bf7 36. h3 Rg7 37. Qh8+ Rg8 38. Qf6 Nd5 39. Qd4 Qf5 40. Rxa7 Nxf4 41. exf4 Qd5 42. Qb4+ Kg7 43. Qe7 Kh8 44. Qh4+ Qh5 45. Qf6+ Rg7 46. f5 Kg8 47. Kh2 Qe2 48. Qd4 Qc4 49. Qxc4 Bxc4 50. Rxg7+ Kxg7 51. g4 Kf6 52. Kg3 Ke5 53. h4 Bd5 54. h5 Bb3 55. h6 Bg8 56. Kh4 Kf6 57. f3 Bh7 58. Kh5 Bg8 59. g5+ 1-0

PGN: 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. g3 Bg7 6. Bg2 Nxc3 7. bxc3 Nc6 8. O-O O-O 9. d4 Be6 10. e4 Bc4 11. Re1 Qd7 12. Nd2 Ba6 13. e5 Rad8 14. h4 b6 15. h5 Na5 16. hxg6 fxg6 17. Nb3 Nc4 18. Qe2 Qe6 19. Bf4 Qf7 20. Nd2 Nxd2 21. Qxa6 g5 22. Be3 g4 23. Bf4 Nf3+ 24. Bxf3 gxf3 25. Qd3 Qh5 26. Re3 c5 27. Rxf3 cxd4 28. cxd4 Bh6 29. Kg2 Bxf4 30. gxf4 Qf5 31. Rd1 Kh8 32. Qxf5 Rxf5 33. d5 b5 34. Rd4 a5 35. Rc3 Rdf8 36. Rc7 1-0

Final standings
----------------------

1.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2801	*	½	½	½	½	½	1	1	½	½	5½	2832
2.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2760	½	*	½	½	½	½	1	1	½	½	5½	2836
3.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2763	½	½	*	½	½	1	½	0	1	1	5½	2836
4.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2771	½	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	1	5	2798
5.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2741	½	½	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	1	5	2802
6.	Wang Hao	g	CHN	2727	½	½	0	½	½	*	½	1	1	½	5	2803
7.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2791	0	0	½	½	½	½	*	½	1	1	4½	2753
8.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2741	0	0	1	½	½	0	½	*	1	0	3½	2679
9.	Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2735	½	½	0	½	½	0	0	0	*	1	3	2634
10.	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2742	½	½	0	0	0	½	0	1	0	*	2½	2592

Final round results
--------------------------

Wang Hao	- Karjakin, Sergey	1/2-1/2
Grischuk, Alexander	- Nakamura, Hikaru	1/2-1/2
Gelfand, Boris	- Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	1-0
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Shirov, Alexei	1-0
Eljanov, Pavel	- Aronian, Levon	1/2-1/2

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