Report of round 1 - CCT 2008

The 70th edition of the Corus Chess Festival is up and running! The drawing of the lots for group C already took part on Thursday, at the Zeeduin hotel (which hosts the group A players). The A and B group’s pairings were announced on Friday, in the official opening ceremony that was held in the corporate office of the Corus company in IJmuiden.

The tradition of players feeling each other out in the starting round was kept this time around too. Caution was the word of the day, and the two players that started the trend were Michael Adams and Boris Gelfand. Adams did not get much on the white side of the Russian defense, and called his 14.h4 and 15.h5 ‘over ambitious’. Boris reacted well with 15…b5 and 16…Nd6 (which Michael overlooked). Black was now a tiny bit better, due to the weak c3 pawn, but not enough to really make something of it - draw on move 21.

Next to finish was Vladimir Kramnik-Loek Van Wely, where the Dutchman chose an aggressive set up, correctly thinking that the Russian would prefer a risk-free game for his first round. The two repeated moves a bit in the middlegame, but even after white’s deviation some pieces were traded and a draw was soon registered.

In Vassily Ivanchuk-Judit Polgar, a theoretical duel in the Queens Indian, brought us a middlegame where white had two bishops, to black’s well placed center knight. With the two bishops being quite pacified by the solid black structure and the aforementioned knight, it only took 6 further moves before peace was declared.

Slightly more full bodied but still drawn, was Pavel Eljanov-Peter Leko. In a Queen’s Indian that resembled a Queen’s Gambit declined, white should have tried 14.Rfd1 instead of his 14.Rad1 (see diagram 1), leaving his queen’s rook for the c1 square. Black played thematically, solving all of his development problems. If 20.dxc5 instead of 20.Ne2, then black gets a good version of a hanging pawns structure with 20…Bxc3 21.Rxc3 bxc5. In the game both players had a solid position, but found it unable to improve them. When the four rooks were on their way out, it was time to split the point.

Magnus Carlsen was the first to draw blood in the A group, on the account of Shakhryiar Mamedyarov. He was surprised by white’s 1.e4 (Usually Shakh goes 1.d4), but was quite happy from his position in the Sicilian that ensued. He deviated from his usual 3…e6 structures in favour of 3…g6 and continued harmoniously in playing for the dark squares with 6…Bg4 and taking on f3. White’s only plan was the one he chose with 10.Qd1 and 11.f4, and so Magnus said he felt that in place of the normal counter plan with 1…Rb8 with 12..b5, he should act more forcefully. Thus he liked his 11…c4!, gaining play on the queen’s side. Note that white cannot defend the extra c pawn, as if he was to try 13.Qd3 Rc8 14.b3 then black strikes with the strong 14…b5!. The game was balanced after 14.c3 and for a long while after that. 17…Na4 was a good active plan, as if not, white would have continued with a fast h4-h5. Now black was massaging the weak queenside pawns. White should not have trade queens, and continued to err with 29.Bd4?, blocking the d file and letting go of the indirect control of the g5 square. Now after the good 29…g5! 30.Nh3?! was also dubious (30.hxg5 first was called for), and finally 32.Nh5?! was not necessary, seeding the pressure off of e6. The endgame that appeared, was won for black, despite his temporary double a pawn sacrifice (see diagram 2), because the bishop on g2 was helpless against the rook and knight duo, so white was forced to throw in the towel. Quite an impressive start for the young Norwegian!

The end of the Levon Aronian-Veselin Topalov game, saw the Bulgarian leaving shaking his head in disappointment. As black today, he completely took over initiative in the game, after cleverly sacrificing a pawn. The Armenian was displeased with his opening choice and play, specifically the plan with 8.Bf4. With 15.Qc4?! white was drifting deep, He did not appreciate that after the game continuation, with 16…Nd3+! (see diagram 3) He would have to lose his f2 pawn in addition to the exchange. Topalov could have definitely done better had he played the logical 22…Rd7! keeping his winning chances. Instead he was consuming oodles of time - as was his opponent, and in time trouble lost control of events, trying too hard in a drawish position. Levon gained the upper hand and never let go.

The last decisive game was Teimour Radjabov’s win over Vishy Anand in a wild and crazy Semi Slav. The Azeri GM played very wisely, especially noteworthy was his plan starting with 14.Re1, later enabling the d5 central break. 18.b3 was another very good move, leading to a forced sequence, culminating with the very strong 21.d5! Possibly Vishy overlooked or underestimated 23.e5! (see diagram 4) The pawn was immune, as after 23…Qxe5 24.Ba6 or 23…Nxe5 24. axb4 axb4 25.Nc5 black is just dead. With 29.Ne4 white was increasing his advantage, shuffling his knight to the strong c4 square. Eventually the game was steered into a theoretical endgame where white had two rooks versus black’s rook and bishop (with pawns), which was always close to a draw, but not quite. First white tried to advance his position without playing f4, but after some dancing around played it anyways. It is unclear if it would have been enough for black to save the game, but the strongest defense could have been offered with 69...Kf6 instead of 69…Kd6. Now the black king was cut off and his white counterpart progressed all the way to f6, at which point the world champion was forced to resign.