Seventh Tal Memorial in Moscow The event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from June 8th to 18th in the Pashkov House (Vozdvizhenka Street 3/5, p.1), Moscow, Russia. Rest days are June 11 and 15. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (last round 13:00h). Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time control. The participants are required to comment on their games in the press center after each round. The prize fund is 100,000 Euros.

Round 9: Monday, June 18, 2012 Levon Aronian 1-0 Fabiano Caruana Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Luke McShane 0-1 Magnus Carlsen Vladimir Kramnik ½-½ Alex. Morozevich

Round nine



Dedicated videographers and photographers capture the opening moments

After so many dramatic twists and turns, the Tal Memorial finally ended, and possibly with a genuine record. No doubt the masters of such lists can confirm or debunk it, but with only nine rounds and ten players, five different sole leaders is quite probably a first, at least in a GM round robin.



Caruana ran head first into Aronian's deadly opening preparation

Three players had clear chances, and though Fabiano Caruana had a half point lead, he also had the toughest opponent: Levon Aronian. It was his poor luck that he fell into some prime home preparation by the world number two, and was unable to salvage a disintegrating position.

Annotated game by GM Gilberto Milos

While Teimour Radjabov drew with Hikaru Nakamura to draw level with Caruana, Magnus Carlsen took complete advantage of his last and best chance to lay claim to the crown. In a game that was nearly a model of how to exploit Luke McShane’s opening choice, he left the Brit no chance to complicate the game, and outplayed him quite thoroughly to take clear first and thus become the fifth and last sole leader.



It was an unexpected window of opportunity, and Magnus Carlsen

made it count.



Alexander Grischuk looks down, seated next to his daughter and wife, WGM Natalia Zhukova

Alexander Grischuk had a chance of lifting himself past the 50% mark, when he built a very large advantage in his endgame against Evgeny Tomashevsky, but a mistake on the 40th move dashed this hope away and a draw was agreed shortly after.

The longest game was between the two previous leaders: Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich, both who were trying to recover from a series of painful losses that had dropped them from hero to the break even point. Kramnik emerged with an extra pawn in the endgame, but Morozevich’s active pieces made the task of converting a tough one, and eventually his resourcefulness saved the game.



Teimour Radjabov (3rd), Magnus Carlsen (1st) and Fabiano Caruana (2nd)

Complete round nine games

Tal Memorial 2012 Round nine Play of the Day by Daniel King: McShane - Carlsen

Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili

Final standings

Once again the Russian organisers are providing unprecedented coverage,

with HD video stream of the action and commentary by grandmasters.

In addition there is excellent commentary by GM Ian Rogers from Sydney.

Schedule and Results

Round 1: Friday, June 8, 2012 Alex. Morozevich 1-0 Fabiano Caruana Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Luke McShane Teimour Radjabov 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Levon Aronian 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura Round 2: Saturday, June 9, 2012 Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Levon Aronian Luke McShane 0-1 Teimour Radjabov Vladimir Kramnik 1-0 Alexander Grischuk Alex. Morozevich ½-½ Magnus Carlsen Round 3: Sunday, June 10, 2012 Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Alexander Grischuk 0-1 Alex. Morozevich Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Levon Aronian 0-1 Luke McShane Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Ev. Tomashevsky Round 4: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Luke McShane ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura Vladimir Kramnik ½-½ Levon Aronian Alex. Morozevich ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Round 5: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Teimour Radjabov 0-1 Magnus Carlsen Levon Aronian 0-1 Alex. Morozevich Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Luke McShane Round 6: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Luke McShane Vladimir Kramnik 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Alex. Morozevich 0-1 Hikaru Nakamura Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Levon Aronian Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Round 7: Saturday, June 16, 2012 Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Levon Aronian ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Magnus Carlsen Ev. Tomashevsky 1-0 Alex. Morozevich Luke McShane 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik Round 8: Sunday, June 17, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik Alex. Morozevich 0-1 Luke McShane Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Ev. Tomashevsky Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Levon Aronian Round 9: Monday, June 18, 2012 Levon Aronian 1-0 Fabiano Caruana Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Luke McShane 0-1 Magnus Carlsen Vladimir Kramnik ½-½ Alex. Morozevich

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