| Oct-24-06 | | Karpova: Topalov didn't manage to win his first game with white and also the one where everyone would predict a sure win for the former FIDE Champ - playing with the white pieces against the nominally weakest player in the field who already lost two games in a row.
Now it's official: Best possible result for Danailov...sorry, Topalov of course is +1 with 3 remaining games.
The game itself is a typical long fighting game but Sokolov's defensive skills proved good enough to withstand and opponents attack for the first time in this tournament. |
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| Oct-24-06 | | Whitehat1963: Mildly interesting, but not terribly imaginative play from Topalov. Effectively countered. |
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Oct-24-06
 | | Honza Cervenka: <Topalov didn't manage to win his first game with white and also the one where everyone would predict a sure win for the former FIDE Champ - playing with the white pieces against the nominally weakest player in the field who already lost two games in a row.> Sokolov is nominally the weakest but not weak at all. And he is definitely the most experienced player. He also played against Topalov a few quite good games even in last few years and so I am not that surprised by the outcome. |
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Oct-24-06
| | Honza Cervenka: I even expected a bit that Topa (after two games with black where he was all the time in ropes fighting for survival and unsuccessfully) could overpress this game with white pieces losing once again. But he pressed only reasonably and Sokolov defended very well. So the draw is just result here. |
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| Oct-24-06 | | ahmadov: Good game. I am very pleased with the score, especially given that the other game was also drawn. |
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| Oct-24-06 | | Karpova: <Honza Cervenka>
You are right, Sokolov is by no means weak!
I Sokolov vs Topalov, 1996
I Sokolov vs Kasparov, 1999
I Sokolov vs Kramnik, 2004
Anand vs I Sokolov, 1996
I Sokolov vs Judit Polgar, 2003
He scored wins against all the big guns except for Karpov.
But Topalov still hoped for more than that.
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| Oct-24-06 | | Ezzy: V Topalov (2813) - Iv Sokolov (2670) [D18]
Essent Tournament Hoogeveen NED (3), 24.10.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0–0 Nbd7 9.Qe2 Bg4 <Sokolov always plays this variation, so it should be no surprise to Topalov. Kramnik preferred 9..0–0 and 9...Bg6 against Topalov in the world championship match.> 10.Rd1 Qa5 11.e4 Qh5 12.Rd3 e5 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Rxf3 <T Hillarp Persson vs Hector, 2003 14 Qxf3> 14...exd4 15.g4 Qc5 16.Na2 0–0 17.Rf5 Qe7 18.e5 d3 19.Bxd3 Nd5 20.Bg5 Qe6 21.Nxb4 Nxb4 22.Bc4 Nd5 <The only move, as any Queen move allows 23 e6 with a very strong attack for Topalov - eg [22...Qg6 23.e6 Nf6 24.exf7+ Kh8 25.Bxf6 gxf6 26.Qe7 and black is in trouble.]> 23.Rd1 Rae8< increasing the pressure on the e5 pawn> 24.Bxd5 cxd5 <Black is threatening 25...f6 winning the e5 pawn as 26 exf6 loses the queen.> 25.Qb5< Counter attacking the b7 and d5 pawn.> 25...Nxe5 26.Qxd5 Qxd5 27.Rxd5 f6 28.Be3 b6 29.g5 Kf7 <The king now comes into play with an interesting threat of 30...Ke6 attacking both white rooks.> 30.gxf6 gxf6 31.Rd6 Re6 32.Rd1 Nc4 33.Rd7+ Re7 34.Rxe7+ Kxe7 35.Rh5 Rg8+ 36.Kf1 Nxe3+ 37.fxe3 Rg7 38.Kf2 Ke6 39.Kf3< Players at this level should easily play out the draw.> 39...Rc7 40.h4 f5 41.Rh6+ Ke5 42.h5 Rf7 43.b4 Kd5 44.Kf4 Kc4 45.b5 Kb4 46.Re6 Kxa4 47.Re5 a5 48.bxa6 b5 49.Rxf5 Ra7 50.Rf6 b4 51.e4 b3 52.Rb6 Ka3 53.e5 b2 54.e6 Ka2 55.Ke5 b1Q 56.Rxb1 Kxb1 57.Kf6 Rxa6 58.Kf7 Ra2 59.e7 Rf2+ 60.Kg7 Re2 61.Kf7 ½–½Interesting game where Topalov had a slight initiative but Sokolov had plenty of resources to nuetralise Topalov’s active pieces. A hard fought game where a draw was a fair result. |
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| Oct-24-06 | | Tactical: <Ezzy>Hey thanks for the text |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Ulhumbrus: Instead of 13 h3, 13 d5! appears to gain some advantage no matter what Black plays eg 13 d5 Bxc3 14 dxc6! Bb4 15 cxd7+ Bxd7 16 Bg5 and White's Rs have a lead in development over Black's. |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Ulhumbrus: Instead of 18 e5, 18 Nxb4! Qxb4 prepares 19 e5, when the e5 pawn isn't pinned and ...Qe7 will cost Black a tempo. |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Cyphelium: <Ulhumbrus> <13 d5 Bxc3 14 dxc6! Bb4 15 cxd7+ Bxd7 16 Bg5 and White's Rs have a lead in development over Black's.> Lead in development or not, 16.- ♕xg5 would be pretty embarrassing. As for 18. ♘xb4 ♕xb4 19. e5 ♘d5, where is the advantage compared to the game continuation? And why do you think black has to waste a tempo on ♕e7? |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Ulhumbrus: <Cyphelium: <Ulhumbrus> <13 d5 Bxc3 14 dxc6! Bb4 15 cxd7+ Bxd7 16 Bg5 and White's Rs have a lead in development over Black's.>
Lead in development or not, 16.- xg5 would be pretty embarrassing.> In this variation after 15...Bxd7 Black has no longer his QB on g4 pinning White's KN, so that on 16...Qxg5 White can simply recapture Black's Q by 17 Nxg5 <As for 18. xb4 xb4 19. e5 d5, where is the advantage compared to the game continuation? And why do you think black has to waste a tempo on e7?> If Black plays 18...Qxb4 and then moves the Q back to e7 to pin the e5 pawn, that costs two moves with the Queen. 18..Qxb4 concedes something, it removes the pin on the e5 pawn exerted by the Q on e7. |
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| Oct-25-06 | | KasparHauser: A typical draw by Topalov :-) Where is Bufon BTW????? |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Karpova: <KasparHauser> Probably looking for short draws by Kramnik/Leko to complain about... |
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| Oct-25-06 | | Gouki: perhaps Topalov should have played 1.e4! instead of 1.d4, being the aggressive player that he is. maybe he could have scored a win by playing that instead. |
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| Oct-25-06 | | ahmadov: I think Topalov should be happy with this draw. It at least showed that he is not hopeless at all and that he can draw games with GMs like Sokolov. I hope his morale has been boosted after this game and that the rest of the field in Essent will have a more deserved opponent from tomorrow on. |
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| Oct-26-06 | | Cyphelium: <Ulhumbrus> Ok, I misread that. Sorry. But then 15.- ♘xd7 could/should be played instead of 15.- ♗xd7. As for the ♕b4 affair, I don't see any reason for black to play the queen back to e7. He could achieve a similar pin if he wanted by playing 18. ♘xb4 ♕xb4 19. e5 ♖ae8!?. |
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| Mar-27-09 | | WhiteRook48: 1. e4. Maybe. But I'm not sure that Topalov is an e4 player |
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| Mar-27-09 | | WhiteRook48: I cheated into Topalov's Openings played and he plays 1. e4 more than 1. d4 |
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Kibitzing
