Mikhail Tal Memorial - Alexander Morozevich Still On Top

Ponomariov and Mamedyarov win in round five

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Alexander Morozevich drew Alexei Shirov yesterday and retained the lead after the fifth round of Mikhail Tal Memorial. Ruslan Ponomariov moves up on the crosstable after scoring a fine win against Peter Leko's Marshall Attack. Pono employed a "naive" 18. Bc2, which apparently drops the pressure along the a2-g8 diagonal and allows easy f5-f4 for Black. This is exactly what Leko tried to do, but White gave a pawn back to exchange the Queens. In spite of White's pair of Bishops, Leko was probably holding even before missing powerful 34. Rf1! after which Black position collapses.

Azeri star Shakhriyar Mamedyarov mentioned on a couple of occasions that opening repertoire with Black is his weakest point. Against Gata Kamsky, however, he reached a perfectly playable Sheveningen Sicilian without problems. At one point, Kamsky went for enterprising 21. Bg7!? instead of regular 21. Bc3, but the problem was that Black is not forced to take the Bishop. Mamedyarov seized the advantage with correct 21...Bxc2! and converted later into full point.

Round 5 results:

Morozevich, Alexander - Shirov, Alexei draw
Ponomariov, Ruslan - Leko, Peter 1-0
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Kramnik, Vladimir draw
Kamsky, Gata - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1
Gelfand, Boris - Alekseev, Evgeny draw

Round 5 standings:

1. Alexander Morozevich - 3.5
2-4. Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - 3.0
5-7. Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko - 2.5
8-9. Gata Kamsky and Evgeny Alekseev - 2.0
10. Alexei Shirov - 1.0

Round 6 pairings:

Shirov, Alexei - Alekseev, Evgeny
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Gelfand, Boris
Kramnik, Vladimir - Kamsky, Gata
Leko, Peter - Ivanchuk, Vassily
Morozevich, Alexander - Ponomariov, Ruslan

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