Pouring Gas on the Fire

"Fire on Board" author Alexi Shirov intends to take this tournament by storm. He has won his first 5 games by attacking fearlessly. Yesterday against Loek van Wely, a tough defender, Shirov launched a kingside attack on move 8 that became a wild, double edged battle. As the two went over the game afterwards for 30 minutes, it was clear that Shirov's position was more precarious than he thought during the game. Yet he won again- possibly due less to the soundness of his play and more a matter of how well his opponents have held up psychologically in the line of fire.

His competitors have taken notice. Chasing him are Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen, who faced off against each other. Both lost ground to Shirov as they fought to a draw. It also was an interesting psychological battle as Carlsen first chose to avoid a sharp game by passing on playing a Sicilian, to which Nakamura responded with a quiet and obscure line of the Ruy Lopez. The game gradually built to a wrestling match for control of the center. When Nakamura seemed to be getting the upper hand, Carlsen exchanged a piece for 3 pawns to alter the whole dynamic. Again it looked promising for Nakamura as he gained back a pawn but Carlsen found the best defense. After the game, Nakamura found it difficult to be satisfied with drawing the world's highest rated player (Carlsen) and the World Champion (Anand) in his last two rounds. "I'm here to win this tournament and with Shirov winning again, my drawing makes it that much harder."

Also in second place chasing Shirov is Vassily Ivanchuk, who spoiled Nigel Short's bid for his first win by wriggling his way to a draw. And coming up behind him is Vladimir Kramnik who played for his first win yesterday and he got it. Kramnik passed on playing his now-not-so-automatic Petroff's Defense as he wanted to win, not draw. He confessed that he bought a book at the tournament bookstore this week (yes, like a normal person) on the Pirc "that says that every line for black wins, which is of course not true. But I looked through it on my rest day and thought I'd give it a try."

Curiously, far back in the pack is Vishy Anand, who scored his fifth straight draw against Peter Leko. I enjoyed the privelege of sitting next to the World Champion (OMG!!!) as the two analyzed their quirky yet dull game. At one point, Leko said he didn't play a line because he "didn't want to lose any momentum." Anand raised his eyebrows, cocked his head to the side, and politely added "I looked at a lot of lines in this game but not once did the word "momentum" come to mind. Ha!" All the lines looked at from then on were viewed in terms of losing momentum that wasn't there and they were cracking each other up throughout. A very friendly, pleasant exchange that was a treat for this interpid reporter. And it left me wondering if Anand has the fight in him to want to win this tournament.

For those who want to take the title from Shirov, the good news is he still has to play every one who is in contention. And yet, I have this feeling that Alexi would say to them, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"