🔸Tata Steel Masters
🔸Round 1
⚪️Kramnik,Vladimir (2787)
⚫️Wei,Yi (2743)
🔸1-0
🔍Annotator: [GM Elshan Moradiabadi ]

📗9.Nb5
Kramnik has beaten Topalov in this line before.

📗17.f4
typical. White intends to play e4 and e5 and gain space on the kingside.
17...Kf8 18.Kf2 Bg4 19.h3 Bd7 20.e4

📗28...Nd4?
[serious inaccuracy.]

[28...Bxg2 29.Rxc8 Kxc8 30.Kxg2 Nd4 31.Kf2 Ne6 is passive but holdable.]

29.Rc4! Ne6 30.f5 [now white has the initiative.]

📗41...a5?!
[41...Nb4 Wei Yi should try to get rid of the pawns as soon as possible. There are three of them left and giving up a piece for them is not a bad plan!]
42.Nc4+ Ke6 [42...Kd4]
43.Rh7

📗48.Ne3+?!

[48.Nd6+ Ke5 49.Rh8!! Rxh8 50.Nf7+ Kd5 51.Nxh8 c4+ 52.Kc3 Kc5 53.Ng6 and white is winning.]

48...Ke5 49.h5

📗50.Kc4? [Kramnik almost let go of everything he had gained.]

50...Ne4? [50...Rd2 51.Kxc5 Ne4+ 52.Kc6 Kd4 and black can make a draw by winning back the lost material.]

51.Kb5? [51.Ra6 Rd2 52.h6 Rxb2 53.Ng4+ Kf4 54.h7 Rb8 55.Nf6 Ng5 56.Rxa4 Rh8 57.Kd5+ Kf5 58.Ra6 Nxh7 59.Nxh7 Rxh7 60.a4 Rh1=; 51.Rg6! Rd2 (51...Rb8 52.h6 Rb4+ 53.Kd3 Rd4+ 54.Ke2 Rd2+ 55.Ke1 Rh2 56.Ng4+ Kf5 57.Nxh2 Kxg6 58.Ng4 c4 59.Ne5+ Kxh6 60.Nxc4+–) 52.h6 Rxb2 53.Ng4+ Kf5 54.h7 Rb8 55.Rg8+–]

📗51...Kd4?

[51...a3 This was the last chance and probably good enough to make a draw.]

52.Nc4 a3 53.Nxa3 Nd6+ 54.Kc6 Nf7 55.Nb5+ [A clear victory in Kramnik's style. Wei Yi needs to learn a lot of ending.] 1-0

🔸Aeroflot Open Moscow 2018
🔸Round 8
⚪️Kamsky,Gata (2677)
⚫️Antipov,Mikhail Al (2598)
🔸1-0

📘For the first time, this position from French defence, exchange variation arose in Atousa Pourkashiyan-Carolina Sanchez in 2002 (9.c3 0-0-0 10.b4 f6 Nbd2 1-0). Then, the game Aryan Tari (2593)-Mikhail Antipov (2588) in 2018, went 9.b4 N×b4 10.Qb3 Nbc6 11.Q×b7 Rb8 12.Qa6 f6 13.Ba3.
Now, Kamsky has a new plan for Antipov.
9.Bd2 f6 10.b4 a6 11.a4 g5 12.Na3 g4 13.Nh4 Kf7 14.b5 +/-

🔸Aeroflot Open Moscow 2018
🔸Round 8
⚪️Paravyan,David (2603)
⚫️Erigaisi,Arjun (2458)
🔸1-0

📘 25...Qd5?
(25...Rd5= Black should have prevented White from playing the strong 26.Qe5.)
26.Qe5 Rd1+ 27.R×d1 Q×d1+ 28.Ka2 Qd5+ 29.Q×d5 e×d5 30.f5!
Black will lose the knight soon.
1-0

🔸Aeroflot Open Moscow 2018
🔸Round 8
⚪️Maghsoodloo,Parham (2594)
⚫️Mareco,Sandro (2632)
🔸0-1

📘 44.N×d5?
A time-trouble blunder.
( Better is 44.Qc2. The white queen is completely out of play so activating her is the most logical plan on the board.)
44...Qb7! 45.Qc2 Na7 46.Nf6+ g×f6 47.Qe2 f×e5 -+

🔸Aeroflot Open Moscow 2018
🔸Round 9
⚪️Sjugirov,Sanan (2652)
⚫️Esipenko,Andrey (2571)
🔸1-0

📘 14...Bd3??
Esipenko's miscalculation.
15.Qa4! A strong intermediate move.
15...Qc7
A(15...B×c4 16.B×c6+ b×c6 17.Q×c6+ +-)
B(15...Rc8 16.Rad1 +-)
C(15...Qc8 16.Nb6 +-)
16.Nb5 a×b5 17.B×c6+ Q×c6 18.Q×a8+ Ke7 19.Nd6 +-

⚪️#307 (Strategy-White to Move)
🔸Prokopchuk,Evgeny (2440)
🔸Brodsky,Michail (2515)
🔸RUS-Cup4 Perm 1997