Report of round 12 - CCT 2008

The talk of the town was obviously Magnus Carlsen’s resounding recovery-victory over Vladimir Kramnik, who seemed to be suffering from a cold. The Norwegian was a bit surprised when a Hedgehog occurred, instead of the usual Catalan, but got a fine position, and even “sharpened the game” with his 16...Nc7; An alternative would have been 16...Qa8!? and b5. Magnus smartly avoided playing for ...e5, where the tactics would favor white, and admitted after the game that he was trying to avoid getting into time trouble again. Vlady might have been slightly better in the middlegame, but with 28.Qa4? (28.h4!) matters started to get out of hand for the Russian. He somewhat naively continued with 29.Qxa6?, (see diagram 1) missing that after 29...Ra7 he cannot take on b6: 30.Qxb6? Reb7 31.Qd4 Bf6! and wins. Kramnik played 30.Qb5 and offered a draw, but at this point Carlsen was already confident enough to decline it. The ending was much better for black, and after 37...Rd6?! the youngster was winning. White could not have played 39.Rxb6 Ra1, lost both his b-pawns, and had to resign a few moves later.

Pavel Eljanov broke the ice against Veselin Topalov. The excitement started early, when the Bulgarian interestingly decided to give up a piece in a typical Benoni structure. His 12...Nd7!? closed his bishop in, (see diagram 2) and after the sacrifice white looked better, but after 19.Nf1?! black got some strong counterplay. As Pavel said after the game, Topalov’s chances laid with playing ...b5 at some moment. Without this move, white slowly improved his position, exchanged pieces, and after the faulty 35...Rg5?! and 36...Bxb2, white was simply winning. When the harmony amongst the white pieces reached it’s peak, Veselin had no choice but to throw in the towel.

Judit Polgar inflicted a first loss on Michael Adams. The Hungarian invited her opponent to accept a pawn sacrifice in the Petroff, one that was “checked with the computer” (Polgar). If white played 16.Rxb7 Bd6 gives black compensation, but instead the Brit lost his way, and after 20...Qe2, black had the better of it. Even after the queen trade there was no relief, as white’s four pawn islands were very vulnerable. The critical moment was when white exchanged rooks with 27.Rxe8+?, (see diagram 3) leading to a lost pawn ending. Polgar’s technique was flawless, and she cashed in on move 44.

The Van Wely - Anand game was an interesting classical Queen’s Indian defense, Loek came out with a fine position, and in the post mortem suggested playing the plan of 21.Kg2, followed by 22.Ng1 and 23.f4 as a promising one. Anand played provocatively with 24...g5!?, trying to take advantage of the knight on g2, and the endgame that ensued was evaluated by the world champion as an equal one. He tried to press on, exchanging queens, but almost lost when he neglected to include ...a5 right around time control. Now the Dutchman could have played a5 himself, for example instead of 39.Kf3?, (see diagram 4) with the plan of play a6, Nd3 and b4. When Vishy eventually played 40...a5, the position was dead equal, and after the trade of the minor pieces, peace was agreed upon.

Vassily Ivanchuk was unhappy with his play against Levon Aronian. He was very critical of his 14...Bxc3?, saying he should have opted for 13...exd5! 14.Bxd5 Bd7. After 17.a4 (A move Chuky forgot about) Aronian was better, and probably close to winning after the Ukrainian’s 20...b4?!. Levon should have played 22.Rd2! Qxd2 23.Nxd2 bxc3 24.Qc2 cxd2 25.Rd1, with a huge advantage. Instead the game transposed into a major piece ending where white was still winning, but when the queens were off, the rook ending was not easy to win. The white king could never easily leave his kingside pawns, to help escort his passed b-pawn, so black had time to exchange some pawns, and a draw was inevitable.

Peter Leko was pleased with his game versus Teimur Radjabov. In a line where white is usually the one to press for a win, the Hungarian was the one with any such chances. In a highly popular line of the Queen’s Indian, he played a rare line with 17...Bb5 and 18...a5, and got a comfortable position. With 19.Nc4 white “pulled the emergency break” (Leko), and proposed a draw. Black declined, gave up his extra pawn, and consolidated. When white correctly avoided 23.Nxb6 Bxe1 24.Nxd7 Re8, where black is better, Leko gave back his extra pawn, and soon thereafter forced a draw by perpetual check.

In Shakhryar Mamedyarov - Boris Gelfand white played an innocuous line if the Sicilian, and black completed his development without any problems. Black’s control of the dark squares thanks to his well placed centralized knights, led to white inviting some exchanges. When an endgame of queens and opposite color bishops arose, a draw was the expected result.

Sergey Movsesian assured himself at least a tie for first in the Grandmaster B group, after handily beating Erwin L’Ami. He is at 9/12, a full point ahead of Etienne Bacrot and Nigel Short, who drew each other.

Fabiano Caruana is in a similar situation in Grandmaster group C, after beating Friso Nijboer. His 9/12 give him a point lead over Parimajan Negi, who won against Efstratios Grivas. The two leaders face each other tomorrow, with Caruana as white.

Few would have put their money on Ljubomir Ljubojevic after he lost his first round and quickly drew his next game, but one hair-raising draw and three wins later, victory was his. In the final round against Lajos Portisch, hostilities started early on when the Hungarian grandmaster erred in an apparently innocuous hedgehog. Ljubojevic won an exchange and soon returned the goods to start a devastating kingside attack (see diagram 5): 23.Nf4! Kg8 24.Ng6 Re8 25.Rxa1 fxg4 26.hxg4 a6 27.Rc1! axb5 28.Rc3 with the idea Queen up, Rh3, Queen to the f-file and finally Rh8#. After a perfect execution of this plan, winning his third game in a row, Ljubojevic was very pleased to have emerged on top: “Corus is the Temple of Chess; I hope we will preserve this sanctuary and that Corus Chess will be as solid as its Steel!”

Meanwhile, Viktor Kortchnoi still had a theoretical chance of tying for first. In practice, however, he came out of the opening with a disorganized army and several weak pawns. After two consecutive losses, Jan Timman was full of determination and found a nice way to implode his opponent’s position with a Trojan Horse (see diagram 6): 28.Nd8! Rb5 29.a4 Rb3 30.Bd4 Kg7 31.Ne6 Kf7 32.Ng5 Kg7 33.Re1 h6 34.Re6! Rf8 (or 34…hxg5 35.Bxf6 Kf7 36.Rxd6 cxd6 37.Bxh8) 35.Rxd6! and white won as after 35…cxd6 36.Ne6 Kf7 37.Nxf8 Kxf8 38.Bxf6 and 35…hxg5 36.Rxa6 Rf7 37.Rc6! followed by Re2-e6 black loses a piece.