29.12.2005 Ninth round summary

Konstantin Sakaev

Sergey Rublevsky experienced absolutely no problems this round - despite reaching a complicated position, Alexander Khalifman offered a draw already on the 14th move. Alas, another Petersburger Peter Svidler was even less successful, suffering a painful opening loss. It is unclear what exactly surprised him, as Evgeny Bareev had not invented anything new...

An uneventful draw occurred in the game Jakovenko-Kramnik. For some reason Dmitry is not playing for a win against strong players, acting as practical as possible. Vladimir Kramnik did not hesistate long, and took the draw. Vadim Zvjaginsev once again employed 1.e4 c5 2.Na3? - Alexander Motylev got an advantage out of the opening, but then allowed it to slip away - another draw. Sergey Volkov simply wore out his young opponent. It is difficult to hold for 60 moves in a cramped position, although at some point there was a feeling that Evgeny Tomashevsky can escape. The most exciting game of the round was Morozevich-Dreev. A good creative achievement of Alexander!

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