 On the final day of the Botvinnik Memorial, the players gave a simultaneous display for 80 Russian children, with each star playing 10 games. The overall score was 70:10 for the grandmasters, with only World Champion Viswanathan Anand managing to score 10 wins. Later that evening the players, and children, received their prizes, while there was also an entertaining group analysis of one of Mikhail Botvinnik’s games. The Russian Chess Federation website reports that while Vishy Anand won all 10 games, Magnus Carlsen, Tatiana Kosintseva and Levon Aronian conceded half a point. There were two draws against Vladimir Kramnik, Humpy Koneru and Viktorija Cmilyte. Elina Danielian suffered the fate of many foreign grandmasters before her: losing to a group of innocent looking Russian school children. Her score was 4.5 – 5.5. Later in the evening the children who’d managed to draw or win received prizes and had their photos taken next to their victims.
David Paravyan (b.1998, Elo: 2192) drew against Magnus Carlsen The Botvinnik Memorial prizes and trophies were also handed out to the stars (see the photo of Anand above), followed by an inventive means of celebrating Botvinnik's centenary. The modern players gathered together to comment on Mikhail Botvinnik’s win with the black pieces over Vassily Smyslov in the 1941 USSR Championship (you can play through the game at ChessGames).
Botvinnik winner Viktorija Cmilyte seems enthusiastic - her grandmaster colleagues... less so!
Evgeny Surov of Chess-News recorded some of the highlights: 5.d3. Aronian: “In modern chess this is the only way of fighting for an edge in the Ruy Lopez”. 9...d5. Aronian: “The strongest move!” Kramnik: “Yes, it’s best if Aronian comments, as after all in such positions… he keeps ending up worse”. 11...Be6. Carlsen: “But this is a position from my game against Ivanchuk. I didn’t realise that Smyslov and Botvinnik had played it before…” 19.Nh2. Kramnik: “I’m not convinced by this move. I’d play 19.b3 and start to do something on the queenside – Bb2, a4 and so on”. 21...Nh7. During the game Botvinnik admitted the error of his move19…Nf8 (that was clear from one of his comments on the game) and moved the knight back. Question to Kramnik: “Is it hard psychologically to take such decisions at the board?” Kramnik: “At my age it’s no longer hard. The moment I see I’ve made a mistake I immediately move back”. Before 31...b4. Kramnik: “The first move that comes into my head is - 31...b4, so as not to allow White to open the file”. Before 33...g5. Aronian: “I suggest 33...h5!” After 33...g5. Aronian: “But after all that’s better…”
56.а6. Kramnik: “Here Black no doubt has a few paths to victory, but you need to calculate everything. It’s a very sharp position…” |
