Tal Memorial

Vladimir Kramnik wins

The ex world champion Vladimir Kramnik won the 2007 edition of the Tal Memorial. He achieved victory one round before the end and in the last round held Ivanchuk to a draw. Kramnik showed consistent play through the whole championship and did not lose a single game. His final score - 4 wins, 5 draws, 0 lost, 6,5/9.

Exciting fight for the second place

After Kramnik won the tournament, all attention was directed to the fight for the second place. The last round started with 7 people at 1 point distance. Shirov was with 4,5, Gelfand, Carlsen, Jakovenko, and Leko with 4,0, and Mamedyarov, Kamsky, and Ivanchuk with 3,0. Mamedyarov quickly gave up the race drawing with Alekseev on move 16. Later on Carlsen and Kamsky joined him as they drew on move 36. Jakovenko - Shirov and Gelfand - Leko followed suit. Ivanchuk was trying until the last moment to outplay Kramnik, but the opposite color bishops ended the game in a draw.

Kramnik and Shirov - first and second at Tal Memorial

Final standings:

1. Kramnik 6,5
2. Shirov 5,0
3-6 Gelfand, Carlsen, Jakovenko, Leko 4,5
7-9 Mamedyarov, Kamsky, Ivanchuk 4,0
10. Alekseev 3,5

Draws at Tal Memorial

The 2007 Tal Memorial was marked by a high percentage of draws. Alekseev, Ivanchuk, and Gelfand got all their points from draws, and there were entire rounds that finished with this result only. There were a total of 33 draws out of 45 games i.e. 73% of the games. These facts and games such as the 16 moves draw in the last round give more arguments in favor of the Sofia rule.