Corus 2003 at Wijk aan Zee, Round 13

by Aviv Friedman

Corus chess tournament round 13 (last):

Hard to believe how time flies,

GM Anand vs GM Bareev

and it is already the last round of this great event. It is definitely the last chance to take stock of the players and their performance here. The winner Anand, playing with great confidence, usually well prepared and cautiously maximizing his chances. He played objective, logical chess and his win was justified. As he has noted, he now has 59 games without a loss in Wijk Aan Zee. Taking no risks and not fearing giving a quick draw here or there to preserve energy. For Judit Polgar this must have been her best event ever. Clear second place in such a high category event, and also undefeated is a great reason to be all smiles. She left the impression that it was all a breeze but of course it was a continuation to her climb up the ELO scale where she surpassed the magic 2700 number. Bareev may not have repeated his amazing run from last year, but still had some impressive wins that reminded to all why he is the world's number 8 ranked player. His opening preparation might not be up to Vishy's but he makes up for it with an admirable middle game play and impeccable technique. For Loek van Wely this has been a memorable tournament. When you score well enough to accumulate more points than your last two performances in the same event combined, you know it can't be bad! Perhaps under a stricter second, Loek's preparation and attitude was of a true professional. He fought hard, minimized his careless mistakes from the past and chalked up wins against some of the world's best.

WGM Kosteniuk vs GM Karjakin

Time to go back over 2700 as he has done before. Grischuk, after last year's clear 2nd place played some aggressive games here, and combined some neat wins alongside bad losses. All in all he proved one more time that he is a part of the world's elite by right and is here 'to stay'. For the 'Einstein' world champ this has not been a kind event. It is not often we see him lose 3 games in one event and finishing on a low note (for him) of only +1. He missed against Anand and still is clearly a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps the fact that he last played in a classical time control tourney was in Dortmund 2001(!) made things more difficult for him. Clearly Ivanchuk was not quite himself in the event. As always he showed some very nice chess, but it was clear that the fact that he might be asked to replace Pono in the FIDE match with Kasparov, if the latter forfeits his spot was affecting his game. This match, even the loser's share is quite hefty (roughly 450,000) and it can throw anyone off track. No one more than Ponomariov himself who after winning the FIDE champs so impressively and then placed second in Linares had a poor first half of this tournament, much attributed again to the pressures to sign and commit himself to the match. Once FIDE announced it extends any deadlines until after the Corus festival, he returned to his strong self and won a few nice games. Radjabov in his debut at a mega event such as this left a very good impression of a great fighter and as he proved against Ponomariov, can beat anyone on a good day. His second test is coming up next month in Linares Spain, where he would have to compete in addition to Anand, Kramnik and Pono, also with Kasparov and Leko! Lets wait and see how he goes about that. 50% is hardly anything to wow about for players at the caliber of Shirov and Topalov. They sported some high quality chess on some days, horrible defeats in others. Shirov's attempts to sacrifice to muddy the waters in every game brought him mediocre success (but lots of spectator's fun) while Topalov certainly didn't maximize his chances fully by missing some winning chances in some games. I don't think that Karpov can be too sad about his showing here. Not very active in classical chess and twice and more the age of some of his opponents, Anatoly reminded us of he was for many years compensating for the rust and lack of the latest theoretical knowledge with experience and his magical understanding. The winner of the B group, Michal Krasenkov had only a few moments of shine here (beating Shirov and drawing Anand with black easily) but after all he visited the lion's den and lived to tell about it. He is certainly someone who can do better if he participated in a few of this, and I hope he gets the chance to. Last and unfortunately for this event least is Timman, who had one of if not the most forgettable events of his illustrious career. Catastrophe after catastrophe where he didn't just lose to the best, but literally hung material in many games and left the impression that most titled players in the pressroom could have done better. He finished with 8 goose eggs and not one win.

Finally, the tournament produced a lot of interesting games and novelties and some real duds. I felt there was a large number of blunders and misses compared to other high level events. The world's number 1 player, Kasparov was missed of course. As Anand had said, his ominous presence that adds so much color to the festival had left a void. Overall a fun event to attend and hopes for another successful one in 2004!

Last round's synopsis:

Timman - Krasenkov: An obviously demoralized Timman decided to sidestep any theoretical discussion in the Sicilian in favor of a sideline with 3.b3 and 4.Bb5+, many expected a quick draw but surprisingly it was a real game. Maybe Jan decided to go down in flames since he sacrificed/lost his Q early on. Krasenkov must have felt too sure of himself, since his technique was just awful! He managed to hang the f pawn in a silly, careless way and then kept giving his opponent chances to save his lost position. Timman was literally hanging by a thread even after the pawn 'gift' and was certainly losing for a long time. Eventually after more inaccuracies from black he somehow managed to draw!

Karpov - Kramnik:

GM Karpov vs GM Kramnik

A peaceful path of the classical Nimzo Indian, after all Karpov likes to be safe since he is not 'studying' the latest theory as he used to. The only thing to report is that after 15.Bd3 in a totally even position, Karpov decided he has played enough and Kramnik agreed. 1/2 :1/2.

Radjabov - Polgar: Queen's Indian, Nimzo variation was also a quiet affair. Statistically this line has a very large number of draws in it. Often times white retreats his R to e3 on move 15, but 15.Re1 is hardly new. 16.Qd2 is not common, but the sometimes seen 16.Ne5 doesn't seem to give much anyways. 2 short moves later the players decided to end their tournament successfully and shared the point.

Anand - Bareev:

GM Anand vs GM Bareev

Evgeny showing complete loyalty to his Burn French. Certainly today there was nothing to fear since after Polgar drew quickly, Anand offered a draw and guaranteed himself clear first place, his third in the Corus history. The opening was pretty interesting with 10…a6 being an interesting new move. 10…c5 happened recently in Timman - Kortchnoi in Curacao, but after 11.d5 white is much better ( 11…Nb6 12.dxe6! Nxc4 13.exf7+ Kh8 14.Qc3 regaining the piece advantageously) The difference is that with the c pawn still on c7 this d5 push does not work. After the prophylactic 11.Bb3 a5!? Was very interesting. Vishy said he decided to offer a draw on move 14 to see how his opponent feels about the position, and of course was quite fine when it was accepted.

Topalov - Grischuk: The last Sveshnikov of Corus 2003. The first 19 moves have been seen before, and 20.Bd3 looks like the novelty, sacrificing a second pawn. White got some nice light square control on f5 and d5, but the true question was what if black took another pawn on c3 on move 21? If 22.Nd5 Qd4 seems ok, and I didn't see 22.Bxh7+ working either. Maybe we would know in another game in the future. After the Q trade the position looked about equal, perhaps Grischuk was playing to win since he could have clearly gone for 45…exf3+ in place of the risky 45…e3?! All of a sudden the black pawn weakness started to tell and white cashed in for a pawn after he traded his B for the N on move 48. The endgame of R and 3 vs R and 2 was clearly winning but Topalov surprisingly manage to botch it. The Bulgarian sloppily managed to transpose into a R and 2 vs R where the defending R keeps attacking one of the pawns, so the attacking R is obliged to stay and defend it, and when the K tries to come to help it gets checked ad infinitum and hence it is a draw. Topalov was quite disappointed after the game.

Van Wely - Shirov:

GM Van Wely vs GM Shirov

Before the game a local journalist told me he expects this to be a full-bodied game as he heard from Loeky that he is 'going for it'! Well, the opening didn't promise that. A Queens's gambit accepted with a quick Q trade, where white possesses a small edge. Loek said he felt good after the opening and indeed he had a position, which one can't lose unless he tries to push hard as he did. The over ambitious 21.e4?! was a bad start in the decline of the Dutchman. The activity he got for the pawn he gave was not sufficient. After 30.f4?! h5! The game was decided; Black won a second pawn and with it any hopes Loek might have had for catching Polgar or finishing in clear 3rd.

Ivanchuk - Ponomariov:

GM Ivanchuk vs GM Ponomariov

This was also a Queens's gambit accepted, albeit without any Q exchanges. Right out of the opening Ruslan chose a strange move in 13…Na5 ceding the B pair to his opponent. He could have gotten it back at a price of initiative and better development, and instead opted not to. One might wonder what was this Na5-b3-a5 maneuver all about, since it lost precious time. On move 19 Rf or A to c8 was an option although after Qe2 in response to the former and Qd2 in response to the latter leave white on top. 20…Rd6?? Was simply losing after the strong 21.Qc5! which wins the exchange and soon thereafter the game. I guess Ponomariov was simply too tired from this long event to play up to par.

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

ICC Coverage of Corus 2003 Copyright © Internet Chess Club 2003