Corus 2003 at Wijk aan Zee, Round 12

by Aviv Friedman

Corus chess tournament round 12:

GM Ivanchuk & Friend

One of the readers who saw my article from yesterday messaged me a very cool story that suggested I should also add Ivanchuk to the top of the nicest chess players list. It wasn't very hard to convince me, as I always have a warm spot in my heart to the Ukrainian GM. I have written before about the time in Groningen (Holland) where he strolled into the analysis room, saw two much lower rated amateurs analyzing a game, and joined them for what turned into a long session of quality help for them. Imagine playing a tennis match in your neighborhood court and having Sampras come over and give you tips and advice for hours!

GM Ivanchuk & Friends

This year again Chuky showed his outgoingness: Last Sunday night he dined at the Horse Club restaurant, as he often does. He ordered a drink and a chessboard and pieces and soon after he received these, a young girl approached him. The girl excitedly shared with Vassily that she has learned to play chess just a few short weeks before and expressed her will to play a game against him. Very unsurprisingly, he set his work aside, obliged and they went on to play. The 'mini kid' had white, and after a fierce battle a peaceful draw was agreed upon (perhaps Chuky needed that draw to make up for his one win in the main event!) All kidding aside, Ivanchuk is a great sport and was very generous with his time, giving a new chess fan an experience of a lifetime. Thanks to Victor de Bruin for the story and photos!

To the games:

Krasenkov - van Wely:

GM Krasenkow vs GM Van Wely

If you blinked, you missed it. Obviously tired, Michal offered a very quick draw after 10 moves of theory in the Bogo Indian. A happy Loek could not and needed not refuse and so the first game of the round is over uneventfully.

Polgar - Anand:

GM Polgar vs GM Anand

The two leaders meeting in the penultimate round was an obvious source of excitement. In a main line classical Caro Kann, Judit sprung a novelty on move 16 with the enterprising 16.g4!? pawn sacrifice. Vishy picked up the gauntlet and took it, and white seemed to have a pretty strong initiative. In the pressroom and with the nod of Fritz 7, white was for choice. Feeling the pressure Vishy came up with the risky (but forced looking!) 18...g5 of which he was quite proud of since it rudely deals with the attacking posture of all the white pieces. He was rightly concerned about lines like 18…Kh7 19.Nh4 Bxh4 20.Rxh4 Nf6 21.Be5 with the strong idea of Rf4 and if 21…Ne8 22.Qb4! . On move 20. Many were looking at the very interesting 20.Qe2!? h5 which was worth a try as in the game Vishy defended strongly after 20.Bxh6 although he was surprised somewhat by 22.d5. A few short moves later Polgar had to settle with a 3-fold repetition and a 1/2:1/2 score was registered.

Kramnik - Timman:

GM Kramnik vs GM Timman

This was dubbed a mismatch, even with Kramnik's rocky performance, Timman has been the punching bag of the event, and till now matters have been drifting from bad to worse. Today Jan decided on a quick deviation from theory in the Taimanov/Paulsen Sicilian with 8…Bd6?! He then decided to sacrifice a pawn for some activity but it wasn't really enough. It was soon obvious that white in addition to the pawn also has the compensation and after 16…c5?! And 18…d4? The demise was brutal. What can be said about Timman's collapse? No doubt he waits for the end of this terrible tourney for him.

Grischuk - Radjabov: The advanced French has been the weapon of choice of the young Russian so seeing it was no surprise. As a matter of fact, Sasha had this position after move 14 before, then he opted for 15.h5 whereas here he decided to go g5 without much thinking. What came next is some really tough to understand or explain moves! After the trades on c4 and f5 white was definitely somewhat better, note the pawn on b4 was safe cause of Qxg7 if it is taken. Later who knows why white played 31.e6?!( !? maybe) and sacked 2 minors for a R.

GM Grischuk vs GM Radjabov

I admit to being quite lost in the complications, and anyone else I tried to consult also admitted to now knowing what was going on, not even after the game! I wonder if the players can even tell right now what occurred… I can opine that the exchange up endgame of R vs B looked quite drawish but with little time in sudden death black managed to botch it badly and lost.

Bareev - Ivanchuk: A classical Nimzo Indian, with 10.Be2 looking new, although Bareev thought 8…b6 was. After 12.c4 black had other options such as 12…Qh5 that were likely preferable to 12…Qe4. White typically sacrificed his center pawn to open lines and got a lot of play for it. Bareev felt he had an awesome position but wasn't sure how to go about maximizing it. Black had to worry about his Q being embarrassed after ideas like Bf5, and so 19…Nb4 was forced. The game got very interesting after 21…Bxf3 22.e6! And in the ensuing complications black decided correctly on giving up his Q but 25…Rxe7 was much better than 26…Nd5?! A possible line would go: 26.Rxh5 Bxh5 27.Qxb4 where white is only slightly better. In the actual game white was much better thanks to his better coordination and the weakness of the Bh5. The last mistake was 32…a6? Where 32…h6 or 32….Bg6 were keeping the fight going. In the final position g4 and f5 are coming and if 35…Nd4 36.Qd7 wins and so Ivanchuk had to resign.

Shirov - Topalov:

GM Shirov vs GM Topalov

If it is an advanced Caro Kann, then chances are Shirov is white. And if that is true, then he must go into some crazy line where he gets to sacrifice a piece! It isn't clear what compensation white had for his piece, it actually looked messy like his Anand game where vishy said he never felt worried about white's initiative. This activity did push the black Q to the funny h6 square, but move 26…Ne6 was very inexplicable to me. Why hasn't he played 26…e4 that seems natural and forced is beyond me… What happened next is that white won the black Q and 2 pawns for a r and a B and the black K was exposed enough for white to deliver a perpetual. I suppose deeper analysis with more time might tell us if anything special was missed.

Ponomariov - Karpov:

GM Karpov

It looks like Karpov is now adopting the fashionable Petroff is a main weapon here, not going for the Ruy or Caro again. His new idea of 16…Bd5 didn't leave anyone wowing as 19…Be6 brought it right back to where it came from and then the standard N hop to d5 happened anyways! Soon this boondoggling started to tell with a weak black kingside, and 25.Nxd5 was aiming for the Q and B battery on the b1-h7 diagonal. After taking on g3, Black chose the ugly recapture with the pawn to free his Q to go to f6 and defend against the abovementioned battery. After 29…h5?! 30.Rxe6 white transposed into a much favorable ending, culminating with winning 2 pawns. Albeit, the presence of B of opposite color always makes the win more difficult and Karpov showed no intentions of playing dead. On the last move of the time control, Pono could have given an exchange for a pawn, leaving him with a strong B and 2 pawns for it. It is fair to say that not even Karpov would have escaped then. The point is to avoid trading Q after the sac, and with the black R vulnerable on e7 there is no trade. Instead after the Q trade in the game, Karpov played very smartly with 44…b5! Not that he was out of the water yet but the win became difficult. Anyways, after a lot of 'cat and mouse' type of torturing, Ponomariov finally broke through and managed to win technically.

GM Karjakin vs FM Stellwagen

Photos by Jan van de Mortel, courtesy Corus Tournament Organization.

ICC Coverage of Corus 2003 Copyright © Internet Chess Club 2003