Day 12: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

Bareev's shocking defeat yesterday in a mere 20 moves (and van Wely's loss today) sent many of us journalists to our databases to check the 'history of miniatures' here in Wijk Aan Zee. There have been plenty! The record clearly belongs to the late world champion Petrosian who beat Dutch GM Hans Ree in only 8 moves(!): Petrosian,T (2640) - Ree,H (2420) Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee round 12, 1971

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Bb4 5.Nd5 Nxd5 6.cxd5 e4 7.dxc6 exf3 8.Qb3 1-0

There were other such memorable moments; many remember Karpov losing to Christiansen in 12 moves in 1993: Christiansen,L (2620) - Karpov,A (2725) [E12] Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee round 2, 1993

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.Bf4 Nh5 11.Be3 Bd6 12.Qd1 1-0

Lastly, this 'pearl': Huebner,R (2620) - Tal,M (2605) Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee, 1982

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 f6 6.d4 Bg4 7.dxe5 Qxd1 8.Rxd1 fxe5 9.Rd3 Bd6 10.Nbd2 Nf6 11.Nc4 0-0 12.Ncxe5 Bh5 13.Bf4 Bxf3 0-1.

Round 12 games:

Morozevich - van Wely: Admirable preparation and guts? Or fool hardyness? Loek repeated the French Rubinstein that brought Bareev a fat goose egg vs Khalifman. He was entering the same sub line as he did in his loss against Anand in a blind game in Melody Amber 2001 13…Nd7. Moro deviated from that game with 17.Bxe3 in place of Anand's 17.Bc3, a new idea Fritz endorses, as was 18.Rg3. Sadly for black, an even shorter miniature was created after the horrid 18…Qc5?? Losing at once after 19.Qh6 (19…g6 20.Rh3) The real test was 18…Nf6 with a possible line a la Fritz: 19.Qh4 Ne4 20.Ng5 Qxg5 21.Rxg5 Nxg5 22.Qxg5 f6. It is not that easy for white to win there. One line many looked at was: 23.Qg6 e5 24.h4 Be6 25.Rg1 Rf7 26.h5 Re8! And if 27.h6 Ree7! with a defense. Clearly, white can improve, since this is not forced and white is significantly better.

Leko - Adams

Leko - Adams: The Ruy Lopez Moller variation is an occasional guest at the high levels. Today, Leko deviated quite early with 9.h3 (usually 9.axb5 comes first). After 14. b4, Adams interestingly and correctly sacrificed a piece for 3 pawns with 14…cxd5!. As expected, Leko was quick to blockade the pawns putting his B on b3 and a N on d3. For a brief moment, it seems he is taking over, but Adams' wise trade of his pride Bc3 guaranteed him a jump to the c3 square with a rook. Hence, his draw offer after 27…Rxc4 (which would have been followed with 28…Rc8) was accepted.

Gelfand - Dreev

Gelfand - Dreev: 16 moves of theory in the Panov Botvinnik line of the Caro, 2 original moves (16…f6!? Is new, 16…Bf5 was seen before and white is slightly better.) and draw time! OK, it is hard to blame Dreev who must be quite tired after 2 long games in the previous 2 rounds.

Bareev - Lautier

Bareev - Lautier: Today, Bareev played in the spirit and style of Russian-German GM Arthur Yusupov. A quiet, Colle-like system led quickly to an unbalanced position, with white enjoying a queenside pawn majority to black's central one. 18.c5 assured Bareev a slight edge. I didn't like 19…bxc5?! At all! Not untypical to the position, white's initiative led to black defending his weaknesses. After 21.Bd3 Qa7, the black queen was out of play. It was time for some central action. Black chose to trade some pieces to relieve the pressure, but then with the absence of his Bg7, white managed to shift the arena to the kingside. The crisis came on move 28 when white struck with the very enterprising sac of 28.Bxa6! I am not sure it is absolutely the best, but it is good and with the time trouble raising its ugly head, it was a great practical decision. Play was forced for a while, but in time trouble, black missed a claim of a draw by repeating the same position 3 times. Black's position got hard to defend but on move 33, white missed 33.Rxd5 with Nxe8 and taking on e5 with a won position. Soon after making the time control, which happened a bit after move 40 thanks to the mutual blitzing, white had the decisive 45.Nxd5!. Still, it was far from over because white took his time cashing in. Even his decision to sacrifice his queen back on f2 into the rook ending was not so clear to me (54.Qc6). The final mistake came on move 60, the second time control when black went 60…e3+?. After 61.Kf3 white blocked and then took the passed pawns for the cost of his "a" pawn. Bareev only needed to find 65.Re4! the finishing touch. Not a clean game

Timman - Kasimdzhanov

Timman - Kasimdzhanov: A contemporary Rossolimo Sicilian with Timman playing an idea that was played before, similar to one Fischer used in his reunion match with Spassky in 1992 (7.a3 and 8.b4) It is a dangerous pawn sacrifice to accept, and here too black avoided any greed. Still, Timman was pressing, gaining some advantage on the queenside while Kasimdzhanov opened the center. I am sure white was having a slight pull but black defended quite well. White eventually exchanged some wood when black overtook the "d" file, the players repeated moves and agreed to a draw.

Gurevich - Piket

Gurevich - Piket: Piket surprised with his choice of Czech Benoni, an opening with a bad reputation for its cramped position. Nowadays, there are different ways for white to gain a slight but continuous edge. Alas Gurevich strangely chose 9.a3 rather than play for b4. Without worrying about black's b5 pawn sac (which almost always ends well for white) he played 10.a4 to prevent it! Well, this line is so dubious for black that white was much much better. Black lashed out with 24…f5?! With hopes for counterplay. On move 27. white played the suspicious 27.Qh6?! where 27.g5 was worth a try. Likewise on move 28.Ng5?! Again 28.g5 with the idea of advancing the "h" pawn looked strong. With time trouble looming, white completely lost the thread of the game. After 29…Rb4! black was very ok, and even better a few moves later. The nervous 32.h4? made matters worse for white: 32…Rxc4 was just winning. Black's initiative forced white to sac his Q for a R and a minor piece, but when the dust has cleared after time trouble, white was dead lost. A fine recovery by the every resourceful Dutchman!

Grischuk - Khalifman

Grischuk - Khalifman: The players followed a Taimanov-turned-Scheveningen Sicilian game between Geller and A. Sokolov from 1983. White had a new idea in place of Geller's 18.Rxf4, he played 18.Qd2 and took on f4 with his queen. While this is playable, white didn't get much of an advantage and black should have played 18…Ne5! with a complex game. White admitted to wanting to offer a draw before making his 23rd move. He thought better of that, realizing this is his last chance to score a win and share (or just win!) first place outright. 23.h3! was suggested by Khalifman as a good move restricting the future of the black Q. One motive that keeps repeating in this game, although never played, is the idea of Nc7 with Ba7 snaring a rook. This restricts the movement of the black queen, except in the game he got to play 24…Qg4! with a tempo. Later, black offered the exchange gladly, and was quite fine, but 29…Re8? was a grave error. 29…g5! Would have been fine for him. Without it, white played 30.h4! which forced black to be patient and perhaps repeat Nd7e5, since 32…Nc5? Was miserable. The ending held minimal technical difficulties for someone at Grischuk's level -- the 18 year old scored the full point.