By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

INDIAN superstar Vishy Anand drew his last-round game against Ivanchuk to clinch the top spot in the Morelia/Linares tournament. Anand’s closest rival, the young Carlsen, lost to Leko while Morozevich, who had a disastrous start, beat Svidler and ended up sharing second place with Carlsen!
Anand’s performance rating was 2816, while Topalov, the world’s no. 1, was a dismal 2691. Topalov drew six of his seven games in Linares, and lost to Moroz. Toppy, the former FIDE world champ, and Leko, the former world champ challenger, are the unlikely cellar-dwellers of this elite tournament.
Anand will be the new numero uno when FIDE announces its April 1 list. This, according to ChessBase, is “something he has been looking forward to and been close to achieving for more than a decade.”
Carlsen’s sterling 2778 performance is “truly remarkable for a 16-year-old who was the tournament’s underdog.” At the start, ChessBase reports, “some writers were bemoaning the decision of the organizers to include a ‘rabbit’ in such a great event. Cannon fodder, they called him. Henrik Carlsen told us at the start of the tournament that his son had to decide whether to play safe (i.e. defensively) and try to achieve an honorable minus-two result, or to go for broke and slug it out with the big boys. We know what the lad decided. Just half of his games were drawn, producing four wins and three losses on his score card.”
The young Norwegian’s result is, according to GM Lubosh Kavalek, “the finest accomplishment by a 16-year-old player against the world’s elite since Bobby Fischer’s performance at the 1959 Candidates tournament. In that marathon event, Fischer scored 45 percent in 28 games.”
The mercurial Morozevich, who was in last place in Morelia, won four and drew three games in Linares to catch up with Carlsen who scored 1.5-.5 against him in this event. Morozevich did not have a second in Morelia, but his friend, former FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, joined him in Linares, which clearly did wonders for Moroz’s play.
The final standings: Anand, 8.5; Carlsen, Morozevich, 7.5; Aronian, Svidler, 7; Ivanchuk, 6.5; Topalov, Leko 6.
Game of the week. Here is Moroz in his last round victory against his fellow Russian superGM. Romanian GM Mihail Marin annotates.
White: P. Svidler (2728)
Black: A. Morozevich (2741)
French Defense
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares 2007
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 Bb7 10.dxc5. A rare and possibly not best move. White’s desire to clear the d4-square for his pieces is understandable, but the prize to pay is relatively high: Black wins time for his development. 10...Bxc5 In most of the games where this line was played, Black captured with the knight. With his move, Morozevich shows that he treasures the dynamic factors (rapid development) higher than static ones (the exchange of the dark-squared bishops). 11.Bxc5 Nxc5 12.Bd3 b4. In such situations, it is far from clear whether the move a3 slows down Black’s attack or just facilitates it. 13.Ne2. After this voluntary retreat, the second aspect mentioned in the previous comment seems to become valid. Svidler probably disliked the fact that after 13.axb4 Nxb4 Black threatens not only ...Nbxd3+ followed by the fork on b3, but also ...d4. However, both threats could be parried with 14.Be2 . True, this would leave the e4-square poorly defended, but we should also take into account that Black’s knight’s jump to b4 has left the d4-square to White’s mercy. 13...Qb6 14.Qe3?! Slightly carelessly. With a black bishop on b7, White’s main concern should be to maintain the d4-square safely blocked. Therefore, 14.Nfd4 Should have been preferred. 14...d4! The tendency of such pawns to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the other pieces is known from Nimzovich’s time. 15.Nfxd4 Nxd4 16.Qxd4 bxa3 17.Rxa3 Rd8. The g2-pawn is not entirely edible yet, because of Rg1 followed by Rxg7. However, the activity of the black bishop along the h1-a8 diagonal is quite annoying for White. 18.Qe3 Qxb2. 19.Qxc5?! White sacrifices the exchange, but gets no adequate compensation for it. True, after 19.0-0 Black has a great position, but White is very much in the game still. It is hard to say whether Svidler overestimated his attacking chances after the game move or simply disliked his position in general. 19...Qb1+ 20.Kd2 Qxh1 21.Nc3 Qxh2 22.Ra4 Qxg2+ Although Black is temporarily deprived of the right to castle, it is the white king who is in danger. 23.Kc1 Rc8 24.Qb4 Qg1+ 25.Nd1 Bf3 26.Rxa6 Qc5 27.Qa4+ Kf8 28.Ra5 Qg1 0-1.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on g3, h4; Nb4, Qb8, Nf6, Kf7, Bg1
Black — pawns c3, c4, d7, e5, g6; Na5, Rc5; Bd1, Kf5; Nf8
White to play and mate in four moves.
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