Day 13: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

With the arrival of the last round it is indeed time to think of who will win this prestigious event. A look at the long history of the event's winners reveals a long, long list of all the who's who of chess: Euwe, Tartakower, O'Kelly in the 40's, Pirc, Stahlberg, Donner in the 50's, Larsen, Keres, Geller, Spassky, Korchnoi, Portisch etc in the 60's, Tal, Ljubojevich, Browne, Polugaevsky and more in the 70's, Seirawan, Timman, Nunn, Short, Karpov, Anand etc in the 80's Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Kasparov etc in the 90's and of course the first two years of the third millennium belonged to Kasparov again.

As Bareev once said in one of the game presentations, when asked for his opinion and feeling for the absence of Kasparov and Kramnik from the event: "It's a relief". For a change, an event where the winner is not decided before the last round. For some, not having the big names was a shame and a disappointment. Others liked an event where literally any one of the players on a good streak of 3 weeks can emerge first. I enjoyed this event no less than last years'. It is nice to see all sides of professional chess players, weaknesses and deficiencies included. Many games were exciting and contained mistakes, which makes one think there is (chess) hope for us all! Bareev was certainly a just winner, playing practically and resourcefully. He had one "accident" against Khalifman but impressed in many of his other encounters. Very good chess shown by Grischuk (who will get a lot better with time, a scary thought!) and Khalifman who were not far from sharing first place. The 18 year old Russian already has great knowledge and a lot of self confidence, the future is surely bright for him. The former FIDE champ was, as always, serious, original and a great fighter. Adams was stable and strong as always, but was in real danger in some games (Kasimdzhanov for example) but managed to escape and score. Morozevich was enterprising and original as always, but perhaps his last minute invitation hurt his preparation and prevented him from also sharing first place. Leko might be somewhat disappointed with his final result, expecting to score better and perhaps win the tournament. Dreev had his ups and downs, some good games and some great battles (vs Bareev, even though he lost, for example) but his final score is not as good as some might have expected. Timman, celebrating his 50th birthday recently, showed much better form than last year, proveing he is still a dangerous opponent for anyone. He had some great successes here, and a few bad losses, but over all should be satisfied with his tally. Gelfand, after missing early on (losing on time in a better position after playing a good game against Piket comes to mind) never regained his form and played a few in ambitious games with white and so ended a bit below what he wished for. Lautier played quite a mediocre event, again some decent games alongside some not so great losses, but lest we forget that after a slump in recent years, this is somewhat of a comeback for him to the top level, and as such it was quite ok. Piket was somewhat of the Houdini of the event with some lucky breaks that improved his score. He must do something about his chronic time trouble that at this level can make the difference in many games. Gurevich, the winner of the "B" group last year showed he can compete with the "big guys" and survive. He didn't seem too motivated for some reason, but still left a decent impression. For Kasimzdanov, this was the first serious visit to the "lion's den" and while he finished towards the bottom, there is little doubt that he can only go up, and with time be a part of the elite. Last, but not least, local hero Loek van Wely, who had probably the worst event of his life. The sympathetic GM took it all in stride. One would hope he will forget about this tourney as soon as possible, and bounce back to the 2700 playing level.

Piket - Leko

Piket - Leko: Another visit from the Petrosian QID, 15 moves of a 1968(!) game of Kuzmin as white - Black deviated with 16…Ndf6 (not a typo, in our game the nuance of 10.Bb5 c6 added a move to arrive at the same position) in the Kuzmin - Belinkov game, Rfd8 was played, but after only 3 uneventful moves it was time for them to end the tournament peacefully.

Khalifman - Gelfand

Khalifman - Gelfand: What started as the very topical 6.Be3 Najdorf and the promising crowd pleaser of the English attack turned out to be a dud. The line is so popular that so much is known and analyzed and the first 20(!!) moves were seen before. 20…Kd7 is suggested by Ftacnik as an improvement to previous 20…Nxd7?. His line goes exactly as this game, and where he leaves off saying the position is unclear, is where the players decided to call it a day with a draw.

Adams - Timman

Adams - Timman: A somewhat surprising closed Sicilian (although with Adams as white, nothing should be too surprising!) I must admit, I was smiling a bit, thinking of a conversation I had with American GM Joel Benjamin who has a very low opinion on the variation from white's point of view, and now a high level player like Adams uses it. Indeed, it is not so common anymore, now that Spassky is not playing in the top events any longer. It would be interesting to know what Mickey had in mind. Black's 12…Bb7 was a new move, as far as I can tell. 12…d5 was played in the only other game with 12.h4 I could find. Black seemed to have built a great position, I thought he was better because of white's weak "b" and "d" pawns (19.a4?! looked very suspect and later necessitated the weakening 21.b3) There were many ways to play it and Timman was in control, even if he didn't necessarily play the best - he misplayed it on move 29 when he went 29…Bd7 instead of 29…Bxg5 30.Qxg5 fxe4 31.dxe4 Bxe4!. A few moves later, a trading spree happened and the point was split.

Lautier - Grischuk

Lautier - Grischuk: QGD Tarrasch must have been what Lautier prepared for, since Grischuk has been loyal to it in this event, and indeed it was the opening for this match. Lautier deviated from Bareev's treatment earlier in the event with 13.Qc2 (Bareev went 13.Na4) after which the players were repeating the game Burmakin - Dittmar 2001. That game ended in a draw, but white's position was nothing to write home about. Here, white tried 20.Qb2 but again, no one was too impressed by it. White's fear was to lose his "c" pawn of course, and with some extreme measures (namely 27.Rxd5) he managed to hold on to his (now b7) pawn. With the black rook paralyzed on b8, white was doing fine, but not more than that. Around the time control, a mass exchange of pieces liquidated into a clearly drawn position.

Kasimdzhanov - Bareev

Kasimdzhanov - Bareev: Once again, Bareev decided to walk a tightrope with his treatment of the semi Slav's most aggressive approach, 7.g4. Black's 11…Bb4 was a new try to improve on 11…Bc7 and 11…exd4?!. White had an obvious advantage, but the black position was quite resilient. Unfortunately for white, he was impatient and wanted a quick kill. Perhaps white should have chosen 16.Qc3!? Qxe4 because Black sidestepped 16…Qxe4 17.Bxf7 Ke7 18.Bxg6 Qxg6 19.Qxb4+ with a strong attack by 16…0-0. Now white erred with 17.Nf5? that squandered away his advantage. He might have had a draw somewhere with say 19.Rxd7 Bxd7 20.Rg7+ Kxg7 21.f6+ Qxf6 22.Nxf6 23.Nxa2+ with a "balanced mess" but just kept playing without a clear plan, culminating with the last mistake of 26.Nc4 after which he was lost and resigned with the inevitable fall of his center pawns. Yevnegni Bareev thus won the 2002 Corus GM A group event.

Van Wely - Gurevich: Another semi Slav, but no 7.g4 here. All we saw was 17 moves of theory just like the rapid game Topalov - Ivanchuk in 1997, after 18.Qb2 white was a little better. Considering his score in the tournament it is understandable that he offered a draw to end it, and forget about it.

Dreev - Morozevich

Dreev - Morozevich: Black chose an original plan vs white's 8.f3 in the e3 Slav: taking on c4 and bringing his B to d5. An unusual middle game arose with black's 0-0-0 and white playing moves such as Kf2 and Ng2. White seemed better, black's B on b4 looks purposeless. White advanced his forces in the center and the queenside. Still, black defended very stubbornly. 17…f5! Was a great pawn sac white declined and wisely so. The d5 square and the open lines would be more than enough compensation. The battle continued and again white was better. But around time control, he sacrificed 2 minor pieces for a rook. The endgame, despite white's agile rook, ended in a draw. Only further analysis could tell if and when white had missed a win in this game.