Norway’s wunderkind Magnus Carlsen is third while Armenia’s Levon Aronian has advanced to fourth place.
Here’s the top 20 list, which includes the birth year of each player:
1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2813 (1975)
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2788 (1969)
3 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2772 (1990)
4 Aronian, Levon ARM 2768 (1982)
5 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2760 (1983)
6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2759 (1975)
7 Leko, Peter HUN 2756 (1979)
8 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2756 (1987)
9 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2755 (1968)
10 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2751 (1977)
11 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2740 (1986)
12 Svidler, Peter RUS 2739 (1976)
13 Wang, Yue CHN 2736 (1987)
14 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2733 (1983)
15 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2732 (1972)
16 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2727 (1983)
17 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2721 (1983)
18 Kamsky, Gata USA 2717 (1974)
19 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2717 (1985)
20 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2717 (1990)
Game of the week. According to our annotator, GM Lubosh Kavalek, Alexei Shirov will soon be 37 and “knows his best years are behind him. He would like to be more stable and play well, but he is still enjoying sharp, complicated lines. As a result, he can win strong tournaments…but he can also flop….” At the recent Bazna tourney, the Latvian-Spanish maestro produced a last-round masterpiece against Romania’s Nisipeanu. “In the Taimanov Sicilian,” Kavalek says, “Shirov took the life out of the black pieces with an astonishing exchange sacrifice. Lacking coordination, Nisipeanu could not find the way out of the squeeze and had to wait for Shirov to find the final blow.”
White: A. Shirov (2745)
Black: L. D. Nisipeanu (2675)
Kings Tournament, Bazna 2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.0-0-0 Bb4 9.f3 (The English attack is playable even against the Taimanov Sicilian.) 9…Ne7 10.Nde2 b5 11.Bf4! (The fight for the dark squares begins.) 11…e5 12.Bg5 Qb6 (Nisipeanu tries to improve a line that did not work well for black in the past. In the game Anand-Polgar, San Luis 2005, black got a worse position after 12…Bb7 13.Kb1 Ba5 14.Bxf6! gxf6 15.Qh6 Qb6 16.g3!, intending 17.Bh3. Last year against Sergei Karjakin, in the Ukrainian town of Foros, Nisipeanu protected the square h6 by playing 12…h5 and he almost equalized.) 13.a3 Bc5 14.b4! (Fighting for the weak square d6.) 14…Bf2 15.Qd6 Qxd6 16.Rxd6 Neg8 17.Ng3 h6 18.Nd1! Ba7 19.Be3 Bb8 (Black was hoping for 20.Rd2 d6 21.c4 bxc4 22.Bxc4 Be6, but that’s not the way Shirov plays chess.) 20.Bc5! (A smothering positional sacrifice of the exchange, pinning the black king and the rooks to the back rank.) 20…Ne7 21.Ne3 Bxd6 22.Bxd6 Bb7 23.c4! (The pawn on e5 is not going anywhere. Meantime, white wants to establish superiority in the center and on the queenside.) 23…Bc6 24.Kb2 Ng6 25.Ngf5 Kd8 (Black can’t protect the pawn on g7 with 25…Rg8 because of 26.Bc5! Kd8 27.Nd6, for example 27…Rf8? 28.Bb6+ Ke7 29.Ndf5+ Ke6 30.Nxg7+ Ke7 31.Nef5 mate; or 27…Kc7 28.Nxf7 Ne8 29.Nf5 and the squeeze is still on.) 26.Nxg7 (White has already picked up one pawn for the exchange and more are on the way.) 26…Ne8 27.Nxe8 Rxe8 28.Nf5 Re6 29.h4 h5 30.c5 Re8 (The attempt to bring the rook on a8 into play with 30…Kc8 backfires after 31.Ng7.) 31.g4!? (It’s time to storm. Shirov creates a dangerous passed h-pawn.) 31…hxg4 32.h5 Nf4 (After 32…gxf3 33.hxg6 fxg6 34.Nh6 Bxe4 35.Nf7+ Kc8 36.Nxe5 Kb7 37.Rh7 white’s attack is decisive.) 33.Nh6 gxf3 34.Nxf7+ Kc8 35.Bxe5 Rxe5 (After 35…Rf8 36.Nd6+ Kd8 37.h6 Ng6 38.Bd4 f2 39.h7 Ke7 40.Rh6 Rf6 41.Nf5+ Kf7 42.Nh4, clearing the way to promote the h-pawn, white wins.) 36.Nxe5 Kc7 37.h6 Rh8 38.h7 Bxe4 39.Rh4 (Winning a piece and the game.) 39…Rxh7 40.Rxf4 Rh2+ 41.Kc3 and Black resigned.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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