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10 best chess games of 2012 – pgn available for download

I just noticed this post on GM Pogonina’s website and I thought I could easily go through the games on my Tablet, but unfortunately there was no PGN for download. Using a Chess board on a webpage is not the world’s easiest thing.

So I searched the relevant games she had listed there, on Chessgames.com, and created a PGN. Thought it will be useful for others too.

Now I can sit back and play through the games using my Analyze This Android app!

Download Best 10 games of 2012.pgn

“Top-10 chess games in 2012 according to Natalia Pogonina:
1. Volokitin – Mamedyarov. I had very few doubts about the first place. This is a fantastic game.
2. Kramnik – McShane. I believe this was Kramnik’s supreme masterpiece in 2012. A great example of a sacrifice of an exchange.
3. Carlsen – Caruana. Magnus is known for his remarkable endgame technique. This game is a living proof of how good he is.
4. Gelfand – Anand. Gelfand took full advantage of the light-squared bad bishop. The fact that this game way played in the WCC match adds to its importance.
5. Bodnaruk – Javakhishvili. A great game by Anastacia Bodnaruk. White sacrificed two rooks and slaughtered the Black king.
6. Gustaffson – Kramnik.  A wonderful journey of the a-pawn 🙂
7. Ivanchuk – Vachier-Lagrave. The sacrifice on d5 is standard, but it never gets old. Especially when accompanied by such a nice move as 26.g3.
8. Carlsen – Topalov. A wild duel with fireworks. I love replaying this game over and over again 🙂
9. Aronian – Morozevich. A lot of splendid games have been played at Tal Memorial, but I decided to pick this one. Both sides has their chances, but in the end Black prevailed.
10. Rodriguez – Veskovi. An impressive attack on the king.”

BTW, the complete list of 38 games is here

Chess reading for the week – March 18

Here are some interesting chess posts for the week:
From Indian Express : Interview with Pentyala Harikrishna
Harikrishna is currently rated 2706 and is India #2 and World #43!
“On the possibility of breaking into top 10:
In order to reach the top 10, I have to gain another 35 to 40 points. I need to perform consistently in at least six to seven tournaments in the next seven months. I have to chose the right tournaments to play against good players.”
From Vishy Anand on Twitter during round 3
The champ is closely following each game and really appreciates what the players are going through.
From ibtimes.co.uk : Young Norwegian Number One is the David Beckham of Chess
“I have no doubt that when I am playing at my best, I am the best. The ratings don’t lie,” said Carlsen
Carlsen recently fronted an advertising campaign for the fashion label G-Star Raw alongside the actress Liv Tyler, counts Hollywood actor Ben Stiller as a friend, and was recently offered a role – as a chess grand master – in the film Star Trek Into Darkness.”
From chess-news.ru : “When the Brilliant Players Are At the Board”
“We have followed the game closely with Ruslan Ponomariov who gave a live commentary on Chess-News radio. Here we offer you some of his remarks which were available on our Twitter page:
Ponomariov on Ivanchuk-Aronian opening:
“Ivanchuk today plays like Aronian“
“What Ivanchuk does looks more like improvisation than preparation”
“Ivanchuk playes a bit impudently, but it’s unclear how to refute…”
“Honeslty, at the moment I’m a bit disappointed in Ivanchuk“
“Ivanchuk’s position is way too insecure now”
Ivanchuk has 3 minutes for 17 moves. Ponomariov: “Here he should already play following his intuition and forget that the hands are trembling…”
“It’s hard to commentate when the brilliant players are at the board…”
“For Ivanchuk it’s already not about winning the tournament; important is that he will at least recover”
From chessbase.com : A bodycheck, a Krushing attack, a rook retreat…
“The London Candidates Tournament is great, but something’s missing: not a single female player. For those of you suffering withdrawal our ChessBase Magazine columnist GM Karsten Müller has taken a look back at the Women’s World Team Championship and some of the instructive and entertaining endgame it produced”

Revisiting Linares 1998

Today is the day when Anand won his first Linares title in 1998 (yeah Carlsen was just 8 years old!). Anand again won Linares nearly a decade later in 2007 and 2008!
The “Wimbledon of Chess” was played from 22-Feb-1998 to 9-Mar-1998.

XV Ciudad de Linares (ESP), 1998 ————————————————————— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ————————————————————— 1 Viswanathan Anand g IND ** 1= 0= == 1= =1 =1 7½ 2 Alexei Shirov g ESP 0= ** == =1 10 10 11 7 3 Garry Kasparov g RUS 1= == ** == == == == 6½ 4 Vladimir Kramnik g RUS == =0 == ** =1 == 1= 6½ 5 Peter Svidler g RUS 0= 01 == =0 ** 10 =1 5½ 6 Vassily Ivanchuk g UKR =0 01 == == 01 ** 0= 5 7 Veselin Topalov g BUL =0 00 == 0= =0 1= ** 4

Here are some interesting games from each round.

Round 1 – Shirov 0-1 Anand, rest drawn

Shirov – Anand, 0-1
A rare concentration of heavy pieces around a pawn!

Shirov – Anand, 0-1
Final winning position

I consider this a model game where the two Rooks nicely outplay the White Queen.

Round 2 – All games decisive. Anand 1-0 Svidler. Ivanchuk blunders!

Ivanchuk – Shirov, 0-1
Position after Ivanchuk’s 30.Rf3??
Black to play and win (solution at the bottom)


Round 3 – Kasparov defeats Anand, Ivanchuk blunders again!

Svidler – Ivanchuk, 1-0
Position after Ivanchuk’s 47…Nb7
White to play and win


Round 4, 5 – All games drawn

Round 6 – Shirov on fire, rest drawn


Shirov – Svidler, 1-0
Position after Black’s 25…g6
White to play and win

Round 7 – Topalov wins his first, Ivanchuk loses his 3rd


Ivanchuk – Topalov, 0-1
Position after Black’s 51…Kg5
Ivanchuk chose the fastest way to lose and
played 52. Rxh4 and resigned immediately


Round 8 – All drawn
Round 9 – Ivanchuk defeats Shirov, rest drawn.


Shirov – Ivanchuk, 0-1
A position that could have been!

Round 10
Topalov – Shirov, 0-1
How did Shirov choose to end the game?
Black to play and win
Ivanchuk – Svidler, 1-0
Can White stop the Black pawn on a3?
White to play and win
Round 11 – Svidler 1-0 Topalov, Shirov 1-0 Kramnik
Round 12 – Kramnik 1-0 Svidler, Anand’s master piece!
Ivanchuk – Anand, 0-1
Can you find a win for Black?
Black to play and win
Round 13 (last round) – Svidler 1-0 Shirov, Anand 1-0 Topalov

Anand – Topalov, 1-0
Position after Black’s 27…c5
After Anand’s Nb6+, Topalov gave up his Queen
and went on to lose 50 moves later
And thus Anand edged out Shirov to win Linares 1998!
Tid bits
  • Mighty Kasparov (2825) could only win one game and drew the rest of them to remain undefeated!
  • Shirov (placed 2nd) won the most games (five)


Solutions

Ivanchuk – Shirov
30… Rxe4 0-1

Svidler – Ivanchuk
48. Qxe5 dxe5 49. Rxd7 1-0

Shirov – Svidler
26. Bd7 Rd8 27. Be6 Re8 28. Qg5 1-0

Topalov – Shirov
47… Bh3! 48. gxh3 Kf5 49. Kf2 Ke4 50. Bxf6 d4 51. Be7 Kd3
52. Bc5 Kc4 53. Be7 Kb3 0-1

Ivanchuk – Svidler
47. Bc8 Kf7 48. h6 a2 49. Bxe6+ Kxe6 50. h7 a1=Q 51. h8=Q
and White went on to win in few more moves 1-0

Ivanchuk – Anand
21… Bxd5 22. exd5 Rxc2!! 23. Kxc2 Qxa2 24. f4 Rc8+
25. Kd2 Bxf4+ 26. Ke2 Qxb2+ 27. Kf3 Rc1 0-1

Download these games