Two's A Company: Moro and Ivan Lead 15th Karpov Tournament

Alexander "Moro" Morozevich (left)

World-class player Alexander "Moro" Morozevich of Russia is on the run in the 15th  Karpov Tournament. having 3 wins and only 1 draw, Morozevich proved his class by demolishing grandmasters Viktor Bologan in the 1st round, Alex Motylev in the 2nd round, and Emil Sutovsky in the 4th round. Alexei Shirov, who is on a 50% performance in the tournament, has been so far the only player to draw a game against Morozevich. Leading the tournament along with Morozevich is the rising talent Ivan Saric of Croatia.

Morozevich's most brilliant game in the tournament so far, was his round 1 game against the Moldovan Viktor Bologan. Bologan (Black) initiated on what looked like a promising Queen sacrifice as early as on the 13th move only to be "return-sacrificed" by Morozevich. As their game progressed to move 35, both sides seemed to have equal chances until Bologan blew it up with 36...Bxg3?, overlooking the intermediate 37 Rxd5 (which Morozevich actually played). Immediately after this 37 Rxd5!, Morozevich gained favorable exchanges: R+R for Morozevich vs R+B for Bologan, in a very clear endgame. Bologan resigned after 96 moves. 

Meanwhile, Ivan Saric busted Ian Nepomniatchi (which Saric had an overwhelming space advantage in their game), Emil Sutovsky (a R+B vs R+R game with Saric having the supposedly inferior R+B side. But with connected passed pawns in the center, Saric easily won), and Pavel Eljanov (Saric won the game beautifully on what some may call  "an endgame masterpiece". It's worth checking it out on Chessgames.com). Just for the record, Saric won rounds 2-4 while drawing round 1 to Alexei Shirov.

NOTE

ROUND 5 UPDATE!

RUSSIAN GRANDMASTER DMITRY JAKOVENKO CATCHES UP WITH THE TWO LEADERS:

Saric 3.5/5

Morozevich 3.5/5

Jakovenko 3.5/5

© Guy Chessman

2014