Corus 2003 at Wijk aan Zee, Round 6

by Aviv Friedman

Corus chess tournament round 6:

The annual "pressroom pool", where one gets to bet on the players in the A group, much like any office pool on sporting events, is always fun and amusing! The way it works is that the players get a point 'worth' based on their chances to win or how they might place in the event. The pool

GM Dvreught vs GM Karjakin

participants must then pick players with a point value that must not exceed 100 points. There is no limit to how many players with a total < 100 one can pick. Every day points are awarded to the bettors based on how their 'teams' performed. The cost for the pool is 5 Euros and prizes are divided: 1st: 62.5%, 2nd: 25% 3rd: 12.5%. Here is how the point value is assigned this year:

Kramnik	50	Ivanchuk	30
Anand	40	Polgar	25
Ponomariov	40	Karpov	25
Topalov	35	Van Wely	20
Bareev	35	Krasenkov	20
Shirov	35	Radjabov	20
Grischuk	30	Timman	15

1a. Loek van Wely makes more points in group A than Harmen Jonkman makes in group B
1b. Jonkman makes equal or more points than Loeky.

2a. Wim Boom (the lowest rated player in the C group) ends up with 0 or ½ a point.
2b. Boom gets 1 or 1.5
2c. Boom gets 2 points or more.

GM Zhang

3a. Karjakin finishes in 1-3 place in group B
3b. Karjakin finishes in 4-5 place in group B
3c. Karjakin finishes between 6-14 place.

Good luck to all the Pool Pickers!

Round 6 games:

Bareev - van Wely: Both players are quite versed in the Russian variation of the Gruenfeld defense, having tested it in the top levels before. 13.Bf4 is unusual; most common is 13.Bg5 after which the concept of white sacrificing his b2 is not uncommon. Sometimes black gives up his f8 R for the white dark squared B for that. Here white had 2 B and control of the dark squares in return for the pawn. I must say that van Wely was playing very quickly and confidently and has obviously prepared this beforehand. Only after 19.Rc1 did he finally have to think. Van Wely looked very confident, pacing in a relaxed, assured way and indeed black's extra pawn looked more meaningful than the activity that white was trying to generate. White sacrificed a second pawn for more play and smartly avoided winning the exchange on move 34 with Bd8 since 2 passers and a minor would have meant a lot of work defending. Instead he took a pawn and now had enough compensation for his deficit. In serious time trouble he smartly gave an exchange for a pawn, which he could have collected at ease, going into a drawn endgame, but inexplicably, he moved 40.Rd8 and immediately grabbed his head in his hands, realizing he forgot to insert 40.Bxc7 first! While white's two B certainly prolonged the game, Loeky managed to score the full point. He now has a full point more than last year's, with 7 more rounds to go! What a difference a year makes.

Timman - Topalov:

GM Timman vs TM Topalov

The two players were following the famous Svidler - Kasparov game from Linares 99 (a nice win for Gary) for a bit, but 12…Qa5 replaced Kasparov's 12….Re8 from that game. The idea is that after 13.Qd2 as was played by Timman, with the idea of 14.Nd5, black swung his Q to h5. Black looked quite fine, and his plan of 15….e5 and 17….d5 took over the initiative. Inspired by his impressive win in this event over Radjabov, he again played a nice exchange sacrifice that gave him an awesome chain of pawns from h6 to e3. White did wisely to give up a second pawn to exchange rooks, and open some lines for himself. Still, black looked better thanks to his dangerous looking pawns, but how to advance them without creating more open space for white to penetrate through? I didn't like 37…Qc6, I liked 37…Be5 better, although the question of how to progress still remains. Topalov's valiant try was a huge risk since Timman at one time simply had a perpetual but got ambitious. He must have been banking on 53.Rc1 but 53….Qc4!! came as a rude shock. A cruel end to a very entertaining game.

Krasenkov - Shirov:

GM Krasenkov, GM Shirov and GM Bareev

The always-aggressive Shirov went for a classical Queens Gambit Accepted where white understandably picked a very sedated line that dates back to the 1930's to avoid anything crazy. Normally after white goes 11.a4 and black takes it (11…b4 was seen previously also) white simply continues his development and doesn't bother to rush to take that a4 pawn, for example: 11…bax4 12.Nc3 Bb7 13.Ne4 has been played more than once before. Here 12.Rax4 was seen and Shirov spent some time considering his next move. After 12…Nb4 Krasenkov went 13.Bb5+ instantly and again Shirov went on a long think. When he finally moved, some wondered if this is all in Krasenkov's preparation, but the answer came when he now went on the longest think of the event thus far! Turns out that Shirov's 13…Nd7(?) was a bad mistake from which at this level it was impossible to recover. After 13…Bd7 and a trade white is only slightly better but here in our game the advantage in development and the pressure against the weak a6 pawn guarantees white an ending with an extra pawn as a minimum. That happened in the game and Black's demise was quite straightforward: Shirov's time trouble combined with white's pawn up and all the chances helped Krasenkov registered his first (but impressive!) win in Corus. Analysis by GM Alterman (PGN format).

Ivanchuk - Anand:

GM Ivanchuk vs GM Anand

The short game of the day. Not really a game since Ivanchuk was way too excited to play and Vishy with black is happy with a draw. The reason Chuky is a bit wound up is that as you may recall, he has signed with FIDE to fill in for Ponomariov in case the latter ends up forfeiting his spot in the match with Kasparov. With a decision expected daily, possibly today even, the Ukrainian GM was thinking in terms of a few hundred thousand dollars rather than a chess game. For the record a few known moves of a Queens Indian defense were played, and as vishy told me, just as he wondered after dxc5 which recapture to make (he was thinking after he made his choice, a draw offer might come) Chuky just 'bailed' him from extra thinking and offered a draw which was accepted. Funny how the website recorded a few extra moves from the DGT sensory board since the players moved them for a post mortem analysis. The draw was agreed after 13.dxc5 of course.

Ponomariov - Polgar:

GM Ponomariov vs GM Polgar

A nice idea by Polgar in a standard Simagin Nimzo-Indian, rather than the well known 10…a5 she went for 10…bxc5 and 11…e5!? Striking at the center. The good news is that black manages to break white's nice center, the bad news is that white maintains a small bind and control of the very important d4 square. Polgar counted on an active Q and white's worse pawn structure. To try and keep the game going, white sacrificed his a pawn, certainly with enough compensation, penetrated with his Q, which forced a trade. White looked better, despite of black's extra, doubled pawn, but Judit wisely trade her N for the B on d4, weakening it. Eventually black was left with the weakness on c6 defended twice but only attacked twice, as usual in such situations it was not enough and after reaching the second time control (minus one move) the players decided they had enough for the day.

Karpov - Radjabov:

GM Karpov vs GM Radjabov

Personally I find the Gligorich-Taimanov line of the Kings Indian to be one of the most boring lines of the opening. With Karpov not very active in classical time control tournaments and not so up on his theory, it is understandable he would play such a line. After all, the theoretical changes in this are more cosmetic than earth shattering. Young Radja played very sensibly and maturely and in the late middle game started taking over. His space advantage and piece agility led many to think that the Azari youngster would win again (He has beaten Karpov before) but the old lion made a fight out of it. The endgame where black had a B pair and an extra pawn looked hard to hold but he somehow managed to minimize the material to where he could give his B for black's last 2 pawns, going into a R and B vs R endgame, with no pawns which is a theoretical draw. While I have seen GM's lose this before with ample time, it is hardly a surprise that someone of Karpov's stature did it with little time left. 50 full moves were played with no capture and no pawns to push and after 6 long hours it was declared drawn.

Kramnik - Grischuk: The first moves followed with a slight transposition the Topalov - van Wely game from the previous round. Grischuk was quick to deviate with 9…Bg4 and the position resembled those 5.f4 Najdorf's (albeit without a6 for black). The consensus was that Sasha was already equal when he played his 18…Nh5. 2 moves later the draw was officially recorded. It is incredible how 'off' Vlady is in this event, tough to say if he is just off form or now that the main sponsor of the Einstein Group the organization that has the rights to his world championship title) has withdrawn is having an extra bad influence on him. Will his match with Leko get postponed or cancelled?! With so much potential money involved how can we blame this lackluster showing?

Photos by Jan van de Mortel, courtesy Corus Tournament Organization.

ICC Coverage of Corus 2003 Copyright © Internet Chess Club 2003