Day 3: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

After the first rest day, the players returned for some “chess blood”. Well, ok… not all of them! But there were still some very exciting games! Today was the start of the GM "B" group, a category 8 event with an average FIDE rating of 2444. While the "A" event is composed entirely from male players, the "B" group has 3 strong Women Grandmasters (all of whom are also have the "real" IM title!). (Editor's note : WGM Skripchenko is not listed as an IM on the January FIDE rating list) (Author's note to the editor's note: She has the norms and the ratings. If she isn't an IM, she should be.) But don't be fooled: they are not there for political correctness. These "chess amazons" can play a mean game! Whoever called them the "weaker sex" certainly didn't play chess. On we go to the daily game synopsis:

Group B row of boards, separated from the main playing hall at the left. Group A boards to the right.

Leko - Morozevich: One of the games I thought would provide us with a lot of entertainment, ended on a low note. In a Ruy Lopez, all thought black might be aiming for the ever aggressive Marshall Gambit, but he disappointed us by deviating to classical lines. Leko tried the seemingly new 14.Bg5, but after a few more uneventful moves the players decided to call it a day.

Timman - Gurevich: Another yawner… A topical French with known theory for about 9 moves. But there is a reason why white's 10th is usually Bd5, trying to interfere with black's development: After 10. Bd3, black goes 10…Bb7, solving literally all of his opening problems. Again, some more moves were made, with the draw agreed upon soon after move 17.

Bareev - van Wely: Another bad loss for the sympathetic Dutchman. Loyal to his Gruenfeld defense, he tried it against Bareev's Russian variation. He played quite energetically and followed with a theoretical pawn sac, but perhaps got a bit thrown of by his opponent's Rd1, which looks new. In the tactics that soon followed, white saw further and assessed better, a favorable endgame for white ensued. It might have been just lost, but poor Loeky, perhaps a bit distraught by the turn of events, went down pretty quickly. Sadly, even the rest day didn't change van Wely's bad start in the event.

Veteran GM John van der Wiel plays in group "B"

Gelfand - Adams: This was by far the highlight of the day, deservedly earning Adams the 250 Euro public prize, With the black pieces, he was surprised as early as move 1(!) with Gelfand's 1.e4 (“that was the end of my preparation” - Adams) but quickly entered a Ruy Lopez, clearly aiming himself for the Marshall Gambit, but his opponent declined. On move 10 Adams decided to deviate with 10…Na5 from an earlier game he played with Svidler in Moscow. It was soon proven as a wise choice as Gelfand had no feel for the position. First he opted for 13.Ne2 where Nh2-g4 is the last word on the line. Next he played the very bad 15.Nf5? where Bxe6 would have left him at least equal. Adams quickly took over with a series of logical moves, when Gelfand played 18.c3 (13.Nh2!? was better, inviting 13…d5?! And then 14.h4 Nh7 Nf3 with a good game. Black would have played 13…Rfe8!? And after 14.h4 Nh7, 15.Nf3 Bf8 with a slight advantage) black made even more headway. Not able to play the desired 19.d4? because of exd4 and …c4 paralyzing his light squared B, he had to live with 19.b4 but was worse. Adams had a little slip with Bd8?! Where a5 would have kept everything going black's way but 21. Bb2? was a serious mistake. 21.Be3 was called for with Qd2 and an eye for the kingside with serious counter play. Another mistake followed with 24.Qb3?, 24.d4 was maybe a lesser evil, but certainly no picnic after a line like say: 24…e4 25. d5 exf3, 26. Rxe8 Rxe8, 27. dxc6 Qxc6, 28.Bd5 Qc3, 29.Bxf3 Qb2! So in the game, 24…Qb7! was a hard move to meet. White chose retreat with his queen and then black simply tightened the screws with moves like 25…Ra4! and 29…e4!. When white neglected to play 30. d4. Adams decided on a quick finish with 30…Rxf2! which wrapped the game up powerfully. Very impressive!

Khalifman - Lautier: White was slightly better in a Sicilian Rossolimo. White's idea of h4 was tried before, and with some success, but in our case black's counter idea with 12...Bd5!? looked like it was a good (active) defense. Black managed to activate his king's rook and trade some pieces, all along blocking white's "e" pawn, trying to corral it. Of course, white was still doing fine and even seemed to have found an advantage with 21.d4. But black kept it cool, defending tenaciously with 21…b6 and later preventing white's threat of Qe3 with the correct 24…f4!. Perhaps white should not have traded on c5 as soon as he had because after that a Rook ending was on the board and despite white's slight pull and eventual win of a pawn, a draw was agreed because of white's bad structure and black's activity.

Grischuk - Piket: Another Ruy Lopez, this one's an open one. Both opponents followed known theory until black's 17th, where black tried to improve on the previous 17…b4, which is known to be good for white, with 17…d4, but didn't succeed in my opinion. White played logically, forced the gain of the pair of bishops and even though it seemed like black was getting active, his mobility got neutralized by white's accurate play. White forced the trade of queens while compromising black's already hurting pawn structure even more, won the exchange, and with efficient technique cruised to victory. It is amazing to note how versatile some players are despite their young age, and how professional their attitude is - Grischuk's loss to Adams might have led some to believe the young Russian would be badly affected by it, but only a round later and he bounces back to even.

22 year old GM Kasimdzhanov

Dreev - Kasimdzhanov: Now this is one tough game to comment on! Listening to the titled players in the press room as well as many of the kibitzes on ICC, it seems I am not alone if this feeling. It is amusing to note that at some stage of the endgame where no one could quite tell what is going on someone on ICC shouted:” both white and black win!” not knowing how close he came to how we felt…. Anyway, let's try: The game started as a quiet semi Tarrasch Queen's Gambit - well suited to Dreev patient style. 11…Bd7 was a bit odd and probably new(?) move. Dreev after some thought, decided to answer tactically with Ne4, sacrificing a pawn to compromise black's kingside. White's initiative was developing nicely and black answered aggressively with 17…g3! And Ne5, but only to see white investing an exchange with Rxe5!?. I wonder if white had missed the nice 20…Bb5! Idea (21.Bxb5 Qb6+ regaining the piece) since to me black looked much better after the queens came off. With time trouble approaching, white managed to improve his position more than I thought he deserved- yet, black always looked better, just prolonging the agony of his opponent (disclaimer: I might be so off!, this is how it seems to me though) Finally, with both sides in sudden death all the little tactics didn't help white. Dreev lost with only a few seconds left to his clock. Quite an exciting game!