Day 5: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

I wasn't sure how to start my daily report for round 5, until I saw reporter John Henderson sitting to my right. I thought I should say a few good words about the management of the pressroom here. Many of the readers might remember John's mistreatment at the BrainGames world championship in London where he was asked to leave after the organizers didn't care for the criticism in his reports. It is fair to say that the Corus pressroom is the antithesis of that. Journalists are treated as best as they could hope, regardless of what they write. There is ample room to work, phone lines for the internet and calling, copiers and fax machines are available to all. The staff headed by Tom Bottema is always friendly and accommodating. Last but certainly not least, there is a fridge fully stocked with every refreshment one might desire. There is a prompt daily bulletin and a daily press conference where a GM is available to show his game of the day and answer questions.

This inner sanctum of the Corus event is indeed the dream of every chess fan but be warned: Only accredited journalists can enter. Yesterday, the man himself, the press chief, forgot his press pass and had to do some convincing to get the guard at the door to let him in!

KingLoek(GM) and sveshi(FM), photograph by Jan Van De Mortel
Transcript of GM van Wely's post game interview on ICC.

Timman - Morozevich: White chose one of the most quiet treatments against the Slav/semi Slav structures possible, but as early as move 6(!) the original thinking Russian struck at the center with 6… c5. In his vintage style, Morozevich allowed white to give him an isolated pawn and interrupt his castling. When it seemed that Timman was building up for a better position, black lashed out with 14…Ne4!? Allowing, and actually forcing white to go for the win of the exchange. Many in the pressroom, analysis engines, as well as humans, thought white was winning but Morozevich was proving them wrong. Perhaps white should have tried 22.a4!? (GM Lobron) instead of the timid h3. He had to bite the bullet with 23.Bxe5 instead of the blunder 24.g4?. Now black missed a golden opportunity with the very strong and decisive 24…Ng5! That literally finished the game. There are many 'behind the scenes' lines, I will let the readers and their Fritzes enjoy the tactical maze. Black was still on top considerably, but picked an optically pleasing, but wrong setup with Nc5 and Bc3 where Bd6 and Nc5 were preferable. One significant difference is that black wanted to play 35…Nf7 noticing at the last moment that 36.Nxd4! was gravely unpleasant. In the time trouble mess, white could have tried 40. Nxe4 with many threats. With the little time he had, chances are black would not have found the fantastic move 40…Rf5! to maintains the balance. The R vs B endgame was not hard at all to draw. Quite an exciting game! No wonder that in a day with so many decisive games, this draw shared the 250 Euro public prize.

1999 FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman

Khalifman - Adams: It is nice to see 2 2700 level players follow a game/line which examples in the database show had been played only between not-so-strong opponents! Adams invited his opponent to accept the Marshall Gambit, but Khalifman chose the not so used 9.d4. The position after 10-12 moves has no examples from world class players. The players spent quite some time trying to figure things out. Eventually, white decided to simplify, and even looked better. Adams coolly traded the light squared bishops, after which a draw was not in doubt, and agreed upon soon after.

Gelfand - van Wely: Not a very exciting game at all. But I am happy to report that Loek is finally on the scoreboard. In a Catalan, white played quite standardly, allowing black to use his temporary extra pawn to complete his development. After many exchanges, black energetically returned his extra pawn to split white's pawns. The position was totally even, and we already know what happens in such cases.

Bareev - Leko: A very nice victory for Bareev! 4. e3 is not considered the most dangerous weapon against the QID, but is certainly not without venom. For a patient, positional player like Bareev, this game of building and slowly maneuvering is quite acceptable. White came out of the opening quite better, especially impressive were his 'jumping boards for his knight' on d4 and c6. Black's cumbersome N maneuver of Nxc5-Na6-Nc7 proved too slow and ineffective. Black did miss a very strong, probably winning, move after white's 25.Kg2? g5! is very hard to answer. When black erred with 27.Qg5?, white won the exchange and easily overcame the difficulties to bring the point home. Just another day in the office for the strong Russian.

Dreev - Piket

Dreev - Piket: Black repeated his game from last summer vs Shchekachev, a game he lost not because of the opening, but his opponent sprung a novelty on move 20.Bg5. Piket thought for quite a while of how to deal with this new approach (20.f4 was in the stem game) alas he didn't manage to find a good plan. 21…Na5? seems bad as the N didn't move for a long time afterwards. White's strong break with 25.g4! brought black a lot of worries in the kingside, not unlike the same ones he had vs Shchekachev! In the ensuing endgame, white wasn't only a pawn up, but more active and had a strong passed pawn. The win was a sure thing, and only a question of time. Dreev must be quite pleased about this game, while for Piket it is back again to the drawing board.

Lautier - Kasimdzhanov: Another decisive game! Here too, theory was followed for quite a bit. Black's 16…Rad8 looks like the first new move, previously 16…Rfd8 has been seen (Lutz - Hoekesma 94). I thought black was doing fine for a long while, keeping the position closed and blockading white's passed "d" pawn. Somehow, in the Q+R+B endgame, black got careless and allowed the white Q to penetrate to h6. Maybe he thought his queenside initiative was enough to counter that, but he was wrong. While nothing happened on the queenside, the white queen kept picking up pawns on the other wing. Black stopped the clock with the inevitable falling of his third pawn.

Grischuk - Gurevich: An unusual sub variation in the advanced French. White took advantage of black's move order (trading on d4 with the b8 knight still in) and tried to capture on d4 with the N. Next he traded on c6 - perhaps interesting was to recapture with the "b" pawn instead of the Bishop, but even as played black didn't seem significantly worse, if at all. White started the action with 16.Qh5. At first, it looked like he might really have something up his sleeve, alas Gurevich clearly understood black's needs of the position: first, he coolly exchanged the menacing N on d4, then he played f5 to close the position. White had to take en passant, and even won a pawn temporarily. Alas, the weakness of his d4 pawn allowed black to regain his pawn. White still tried, passing on a chance to repeat moves, but then the queens came off into a double R + B of opposite color endgame where even after winning a pawn, the draw was certain and agreed on a few moves later.