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Mar-11-06
 | | Zito: peter leko vs levon aronian what hipen in that one? |
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| Mar-11-06 | | bane77: Looks like 21.Rf3 leads nowhere.
21.Rf3 Rg8 22.Rg8+ Kg8 23.Qf6 a6 24.Nc3 e5 and black is better.
Some stronger more needs to be found instead of 21.e5. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | EricCartman: <you vs yourself> <Sometimes, Topy needs to show human-esque results so that he has an argument to make against cheating:)> I wouldn't be surprised if Topalov would have cheated (and ofcourse the other GM's). His results are just too unbelievable. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | s4life: < I wouldn't be surprised if Topalov would have cheated (and ofcourse the other GM's). His results are just too unbelievable.>
For a 1200 player like yourself I guess they are... |
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| Mar-11-06 | | Monoceros: Meh, not one of the most interesting games of the tournament. It's hard for me to believe that Topalov, deliberately choosing this QGA-like setup with lots of open lines and wholesale exchanges, was really trying for a win. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | euripides: There is a bit of a crisis at the moment in the black defence to d4. While the QID is rock-solid, none of the aggressive options for Black is as highly regarded as the Sicilian against e4. Topalov probably wanted to play a Nimzo - one of the best solid winning attempts - but 3 Nf3 didn't allow this. After White's third move, Black can go out on a limb by playing the Benoni; otherwise Topalov went for one of the sharpest options available. I don't blame Vallejo for being cautious, either: I think the last two defeats must have been pretty bruising as they seemed to reveal a deficiency in his preparation at this level. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | euripides: Mind you, it would be nice to see Topalov take the KID up again. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | EmperorAtahualpa: Vallejo-Pons has an equal record against Topalov in 11 games now. Impressive! |
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| Mar-11-06 | | Monoceros: <euripides: Topalov probably wanted to play a Nimzo - one of the best solid winning attempts - but 3 Nf3 didn't allow this. After White's third move, Black can go out on a limb by playing the Benoni; otherwise Topalov went for one of the sharpest options available.> Good point; I hadn't thought of it that way. Hm....is the Bogo-Indian played much these days? Playing 3...Bb4+ with the notion of inviting transposition back to the Nimzo is another possibility, anyway. But, poking about the Opening Explorer, I notice that pure "Bogo" lines are pretty drawish. (I should mention that I've never played the Bogo-Indian nor played against it.) |
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| Mar-11-06 | | euripides: <Emperor> I know nothing about the Bogo except dim memories of some Karpov crushes on the white side. Not Topa's cup of tea at all, I think. |
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| Mar-11-06 | | Monoceros: To my utter surprise, Topalov has played 3...Bb4+ three times in the database. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... None of the three games is recent.
Incidentally, it's just a little discouraging to learn that Topalov is a year younger than I am. It reminds me of Tom Lehrer's line, "It's humbling to think that when Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for two years." |
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| Mar-11-06 | | euripides: <Mono> I stand corrected ! Speaking as a slightly older contemporary of Gazza (chess not footie), I'm afraid there are many more distressing anniversaries ahead ... there comes a time when Svidler and Ivanchuk look like young men ... |
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| Mar-11-06 | | alexandrovm: <Incidentally, it's just a little discouraging to learn that Topalov is a year younger than I am. It reminds me of Tom Lehrer's line, "It's humbling to think that when Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for two years."> interesting comment. |
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| Mar-12-06 | | blingice: Here's a rules question: couldn't white's 28th move be determined as a draw? That position was the third time it occurred, but not in consecutive order. |
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Mar-12-06
 | | WannaBe: <blingice> Here is what I know (and it ain't much...) The position does NOT need to be consecutive.
Most likely I'm completely way-off here, let me look at the game again... There was a rook move by both sides, on move number #26. So the repetition actually started on 27. |
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Mar-12-06
| | WannaBe: <blingice> If you are thinking of that sequence between number 22 and 25. I can understand that. But the rook move by white and black changed it. |
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| Mar-12-06 | | blingice: <WannaBe> Ah yes, my eyes were focused solely on the king and queen. |
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Mar-12-06
 | | Richard Taylor: <TheGadge: Mmmm..The hassle of being in Kiwiland. Going to bed when every one else is waking up. Where are you in NZ> Cheers. I'm in Auckland - actually I sate up to 4 am reading a book about a famous prodigy -not a chess player. He was contemp. of Norbert Wiener - I sell used books so I read some before I sell them sale - this prodigy went haywire as some of them do -interesting book called "The Podigy" - lol! |
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Mar-12-06
| | Richard Taylor: <badest: <Richard Talylor> I am not so sure Topa was out of form... he does take chances, and push too hard for the win at times. Now if it was Leko, I would completely agree with you> If you study his games he is always aware of postional features -and will go for an endgame if it is dynamic or favours him - I think the chances he takes are minimal - but yes he is an edgy and innovative player - but hehind that is positional logic as there is with all the great tacticians - and all of these Super GMS are capable of positional considerations of course -- Pons seems to me to beless mature - he may improve he is quite young I think - sometimes he plays positions that even Topalov gets confused by...has immense talent but not so careful of positional elements I think. Leko I sometimes think is potentially the greatest player at Linares - but these views are always subjective. Lekeo reminds me of maybe Smyslov or Fischer - but he has his own style of course. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | alexandrovm: <WannaBe: <blingice> Here is what I know (and it ain't much...) The position does NOT need to be consecutive. ...> I didn't know this. I was thinking that the repetition of the "same board position" must be cosecutive skiped only by one move. Anyhow, as I read somewhere, the rook lift by white broke the repetition of the "same board position". That's why they needed to start over again, to make the draw... |
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| Mar-13-06 | | Fan of Leko: <euripides> What we need is a top player like Alekhine, Botvinnik or Bronstein who isn't afraid to play the Dutch. |
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| Mar-13-06 | | euripides: <fan> Nigel Short used to play the Dutch and got battered into submission. I think perhaps Kramnik used to play the Stonewall. |
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| Mar-14-06 | | Monoceros: I posted the following to Veselin Topalov's page because I thought it would be more relevant there but nothing is going on there but the endless, "Kramnik sucks! No he doesn't! Yes he does!" flame war. Aren't chess players supposed to be a little smarter than most? It's getting tiresome indeed to see that kramnik is teh suuuuuuuck, toppy is teh chess grAnd/\/\axt0rz, w00t, W00T!!1!1!! Anyway, back to chess. The discussion here prompted me to explore further what Topalov has played over time against 1. d4. He's tried but then dropped the Dutch, for example (thirteen games listed but no later than 1998.) He's managed transposition to the French with 1...e6 a fair number of times over the years. After 1...Nf6 2. Nf3 he's actually tried the Old Benoni four times, which makes sense I suppose from someone who's played the Modern Benoni and the Benko Gambit so many times. In response to 1...Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 he experimented with the Bogo-Indian way back (three games, 1990-1992) and the Queen's Indian (also three times, 1993-1997; the dates make it seem like Topalov was trying out one thing and then another over the years) but usually it's the Benoni, Benko, or transposition to the Queen's Gambit for him. He tried out the Old Indian seven times (no later than 1991.) It looks also like after 2000 or so he's tended away from the King's Indian though not entirely; same with the Benoni and the Benko. He even played the Budapest once (I guess it's appropriate). What's to be made of this? Not much, maybe, except that it's interesting actually to see how his repertoire has evolved over the years. Especially in the early years there's definitely this sense of trying one idea for a short while and then dropping it. |
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| Mar-14-06 | | little fluffy: Hi Monoceros.
Thank you for your analysis. But imo it is not just about his 1.d4 games. He has also tried many openings against 1.e4 as well. In the past, he has tried the Najdof, the Dragon, the Moller and Archangel variation of the Spanish, the Pirc. Recently he even tried the Berlin Wall and the Sveshnikov. So my guess is Topalov is trying to broaden his repertiore, making him hard to be prepared against. |
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| Mar-21-06 | | LIFE Master AJ: I did not really study this game, (in depth); nor did I follow it on-line. Having said the above, I agree that this line would not be the best choice if you really needed a win. |
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