Sep-28-10 Marmot PFL : Oh Canada...Topalov knew that d6 only looked weak, and couldn't be taken. Which was true only as long as the QB guarded Re8. 23...Bf5? 24 Nxd6 Bxd6 25. Rxd6 Rxe2 26. Rxd8+ Kf7 27. Bxe2 with 2 rooks and pawn for the queen. Sep-28-10 Nezhmetdinov : It looks quite straight-forward by the end... Sep-28-10 cjgone : Wow, and I thought Carlsen losing was unexepected... Damn... Losing to a 2500 player.. Ouch. Sep-28-10 markwell : No, he lost to a 22yr old near 2600 player, who will only get stronger and who played a strong game, the way all 2600 players play strong games. But I guess you have to know some chess to realize that. Sep-28-10 pulsar : <No, he lost to a 22yr old near 2600 player, who will only get stronger and who played a strong game, the way all 2600 players play strong games.> <markwell> I agree; Bluvshtein ain't no pushover. Sep-28-10 dumbgai : Bluvshtein is no fluke. He once scored a miniature against Shirov with the black pieces: Shirov vs M Bluvshtein, 2005. This game ranks right up there with P Charbonneau vs Anand, 2006 in Canadian chess history. Sep-28-10 Ladolcevita : It's just one pawn and the endgame is gone....perhaps topalov should have done some material exchange earlier before,for instance that e4 knight... Sep-29-10

Albertan : What a great day for Canadian Chess! I have analyzed this game extensively with the help of Chessbase 10, Chessbase Megadatabase 2010 and Deep Rybka 4 (3 hours in analysis mode) and posted this analysis to the first page of my blog at: http://albertan1956.blogspot.com/ using Chessviewer Deluxe. This is game 18 in the Chessviewer Deluxe game index. I hope you drop by and play through this game. Sep-29-10 messachess : <"Bluvshtein is no fluke.> Yeh. He's beaten the best, and now again. He needs to get that rating up to take all that talent somewhere.--invitations. Sep-29-10 goodevans : Why did Topa give away the c-pawn so easily? Was it doomed anyway? Sep-29-10 iamsheaf : Absolutely natural. If Mr T doesn't manage an opening advantage then the outcome like this isn't entirely surprising. Oct-02-10

Albertan : <dumbgai: Bluvshtein is no fluke. He once scored a miniature against Shirov with the black pieces: Shirov vs M Bluvshtein, 2005.> I was helping with the organization of the Canadian Open that year and had the opportunity to watch the game and the players closely,Shirov was caught completely off-guard by Bluvshtein's Theoretical novelty in that game. Shirov remained huddled with his hands on the top of his head for the longest time after the novelty was played. It was amazing to witness this game in person! Feb-06-11

GrahamClayton : <goodevans> Why did Topa give away the c-pawn so easily? Was it doomed anyway? <goodevans> ,

If Topalov kept his king on d6 and played 34...g5 to support the f4-pawn, Bluvhstein would have played 35.♔e4 followed by Kf5 and Kg6, and the capture of the Black pawns.