Day 11: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

The event is entering its last leg of play - a last chance for some to try and overtake the leader or improve their final standings, and that is exactly what happened today! We are also closing in on the famous "press room pool" results. The pool is a lot of fun: entry fee is 5 Euros. You pick a team of players from the event to score the best. Each player was assigned a point value, from 15 to 40. You pick as many players as you wish, provided you do NOT exceed a total of 100 points! Here is the division:

Adams- 40
Morozevich- 40
Leko-35
Gelfand-35
Bareev-35
Van Wely-30
Kasimzdanov-30
Khalifman-30
Lautier-30
Dreev-25
Grischuk-25
Piket-20
Gurevich-20
Timman-15

Additionally, there are bonus questions (for tie breaks, mostly):

How many total moves will van Wely play?
A. More than 560 B.560 or less

How many games in the GM A and B events will actually end in checkmate or stalemate?
A. 0 B.1 or more

Who will win the GM B group?

100% of the fund is returned as prizes: first gets 62.5%, second gets 25% and third gets 12.5%.

If you have been following the event, chances are you could see which teams (literally all combinations have been selected by the "poolers") are succeeding and which were "betting on the wrong horse"

Today's games:

Adams - Gurevich.

Adams - Gurevich: When I saw a Pirc defense on the board, I immediately thought it was a bad idea for black. I was thinking of how another Brit, Nigel Short, whom Michael Adams knows well, has been terrorizing the Pirc as white. Today, he would have been proud of his colleague's performance: Mickey nursed a slight opening advantage. When Gurevich erred with 14…Rfd8?!, where 14…b4 or even 14…bxa4 were called for, Adams started unrelenting pressure against black's "b" pawn until he won it. After time control, a second pawn was won because of the domination of the white pieces and the dependency of black's on each other. When black lost even more material, he had to resign.

Lautier - Timman

Lautier - Timman: A small surprise, at least to me. I expected white to play a Nimzo-Indian on move 3 - after all, it is one of Lautier's favorite openings. It didn't matter much: Today Joel played a wonderfully simple positional game around black's isolani. He took advantage of Timman's dubious plan of 13…Rc8 and 14...Rc4?! to favorably exchange a few pieces for a much better position. 20.Qa4! left him clearly better, eventually winning a pawn. With fine technique brought the point home. Today, he really made chess look easy!

Dreev - Grischuk

Dreev - Grischuk: The players brisked through the theory of the QGA line they chose for today, following many examples before them. The position is quite risky for black. For example in the past, even after 16…c5 white tried 17.e6! and so 16…Rd8(?) strikes me as a bad idea, since now 17.e6 is even more powerful. White's position was extremely promising, but somehow he let it all slip away. Perhaps his reaction to 20…h5 (21.Qb4?!) was wrong. Maybe 21.Qh3 or 21.Qe2 would have maintained the big advantage. Black wisely traded down even at the cost of a pawn because he managed to trade the last queenside pawn for his "e" pawn. With 3 vs 2 on one side, the endgame was a toughie. I was puzzled a bit to see black allowing an exchange of rooks - after all N endings down a pawn are dangerous, almost as much as pawn endings -- even with limited material, all on the same side. The reason is the possibility of creating a zugzwang with knights. Alas, in our game that did not prove enough. Black defended very well, so after 71 moves, Dreev had to concede a draw.

Khalifman - Bareev

Khalifman - Bareev: The Rubinstein French is quite popular as a weapon to neutralize the long lines of theory in some other variations. It is not a weapon for anyone who wants to play for a win. But at the high level of course, black's first worry is to solve his opening problems and try to equalize. Today however, saw one of the wildest sub lines of the variation. With opposite side castling, white sacrificed 2 pawns for the initiative and open lines opposite the black king. Black tried to improve on previous games with his 13…Be7 ( 13..Nd7 and 13…Qxf3 have been tried before with little success) but this entire line is under a cloud. White gets a huge attack. Here Bareev's 17…Nf4?? was rewarded by 18.Bxf4 e5, 19.Qh6 exf4 20.Rg5! After which, all that was left was to stop the clock. What a shocking loss to the leader. Now Khalifman (along with Adams and Grischuk) caught up with him at 7/11. The game naturally won the public's 250 Euro prize.

Gelfand - Morozevich

Gelfand - Morozevich: The first new move in this Caro Kann, Panov-Botvinik attack seems to be 13…h6. 13…a6 I have seen many times before. White got one of the ugliest pawn structures I have ever seen (one of the pawns was an extra pawn) but with the trade of the last pair of N on d5, more liquidation was forced into a rook ending where the result was an expected draw. Not an exciting game at all.

Piket - van Wely: The Dutch matches are always of high interest for the locals and thus have more than just the game point at stake for the players. Bragging rights add to the enthusiasm and ambition of the players. Today, the dual brought a sharp QGD line, well analyzed by theory, and supposed to be bad for black. I believe Piket even played this for black and got on the losing side of a miniature (Vs GM Alon Greenfeld ) I suppose black didn't really believe the assessments and defended his position, eventually sacrificing a piece. Many, I included, thought it was a desperado sac, but post game analysis showed black was very much in the game. White should have opted for 25.Rh3!? in place of his 25.Qe3?! but later Piket got into one of his chronic time troubles and was worse. Van Wely needed to keep both sets of rooks on the board, since once a pair came off, the weakness of his f7 pawn (and if he manages to advance it, his e6 pawn becomes weak) prevented him from moving his pawn phalanx forward, and the game was drawn.

Kasimdzhanov - Leko

Kasimdzhanov - Leko: The Russian variation of the Gruenfeld is hardly a newcomer to this event. Leko has quite some experience in it, having played against Kasparov and Khalifman, among others, that very same line before. Amusingly, after 17.Rd2, as in the game, Khalifman - Leko was agreed drawn in the 2000 FIDE knockout event. Here, there was no draw offer, and Leko played on with 17…Qxe3. For a long while, black looked quite fine to me. The middle game was equal, but I would have liked much better 28…Bxg2 29.Kxg2 Rd8 and Rd3 if needed. 30…e6?! Gave white some new hope with the d6 square for his N. He was even willing to invest and exchange for a pawn for it. After the smoke cleared, black had to return the exchange for the pawn, due to his queenside weaknesses and the strong passed white "d" pawn. In addition to the pressure on his "f" pawn. The (obviously exaggerated) saying that "all rook ending are drawn" was proven true in this case. White had an extra pawn, but it was a rook pawn. Black had the perfect setup to earn his half a point.