Report of round 7 - CCT 2008

Levon Aronian rebounded today with a comfortable win over Teimur Radjabov. The Armenian said he was surprised by the Modern Benoni that arose after the opening, but “pretended not to be”. After the game he criticized black’s play in the 10...b6 line. 13.Qa4! (see diagram 1) made life immediately unpleasant for black, for example he could not play 13...Qc8? because of 14.Nde4! Nxe4 15.Nxe4 b5 16.Qd1 with problems defending his d-pawn. In the game, black managed to exchange his light squared bishop - a thematic idea of the opening -, but at a cost of a pawn. It is possible that black needed to try 21...Bc3!?, although after 22.Nxc3 Qxc3 23.Qc1 white maintains his advantage. Levon was consolidating for a while, and was slowly improving his position, until, on move 40, he played the inaccurate 40.Qb2+?! (40.Ra1! wins quickly) - “trying hard not to win” - Aronian. Still, white’s edge was considerable, and the strength of his b-pawn decided the issue.

A deja vu for world champion Vishy Anand and Judit Polgar, who had a very similar game and opening exactly 10 years ago in the 6th round of Corus 1998. Vishy lost that game, and was in real trouble today. After the game, the Indian was displeased with his 17...Qc7?,(see diagram 2) missing 18.Rd3, and suggesting 17...Qe7!? in its place. Both players were in agreement that white had many good ways to improve her position, and get very close to a winning advantage. 27.Ra1! would have been a good way to go, instead of the mistake 27.Nd2? Qxf5! that brought black back into the game. Worse yet for the Hungarian, she could not accept the change of events and consent herself to trying for a draw, and drifted downhill. After 34.Nd6?! and 36.g3?! she was already in trouble, and soon black’s queen and knight duo proved too strong. A first victory to Anand, and a heartbreaking loss to Judit.

Boris Gelfand pushed hard in a Catalan versus Peter Leko. Boris gained a better position, mainly due to black’s weak Bb7, and his plan of 20.Rdc1 and 21.Qd1 was praised as a very good one. Black had to play very accurately, as post game analysis by the players, alongside the always colorful Ljubomir Ljubojevic, showed. For example, had black played 22...Bc6? white would have had 23.axb5 axb5 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 and now not 25.Nxd5? Bxd5 26.Bxd5 Rd8! “for your information” -- Ljubo, but rather 25.Bxd5! exd5 26.Nxd5 and wins - “for YOUR information” -- Leko. When the Israeli could not crack the Hungarian’s position, he tried the queen ending, but black held the draw comfortably.

The game between Michael Adams and Shakhryar Mamedyarov was a battle to the last pawn, literally. White enjoyed a spatial advantage out of the Steinitz Ruy, and had a good grip on the position. “The position is more pleasant for white” , said Adams, who added in the post-mortem, that his plan with 27.h3 and 28.Kh1 might have been too slow. Still, white was in control, but lost the thread somewhat around the time control. Mickey mentioned that Shak suggested 43.Nd5 as a possible alternative to the game’s 43.Qa8+. What the Englishman missed was black’s strong 46...Rb2!, after which white is happy to make a draw, which he succeeded in accomplishing on move 62.

Veselin Topalov declined Magnus Carlsen’s invitation to play against the Marshall attack, and so a quiet Spanish was the order of the day. Black played very dynamically, but never managed to equalize. On move 26, Topalov should have tried 26.Bg5!,(see diagram 3) since after 26...Bxf2+ 29.Kf1! Rc6 30.Rac1! is close to winning for white, and Magnus would have had a tough defensive task coming. Even the endgame where white’s bishop was better than black knight wasn’t an easy task, but the Norwegian’s active defense brought him his share of the point.

After being on the unlucky side of some misses, today it was Loek van Wely’s turn to make it off the hook. In the semi Slav, Pavel Eljanov was much better in a typical isolani position. He had his knight anchored on the pivotal d4 square, and controlled the only open file. Deprived of counterplay, Loek was playing a waiting game, but when the Ukrainian played hesitantly, the Dutchman first traded the menacing knight on d4, and then struck strongly with 33...d4!, eliminating any danger. In time trouble, Eljanov made further mistakes, and entered a single rook endgame, where he lost a pawn and had to suffer. The critical point of the endgame, occurred on move 52, when Loek played 52.Kf7? (see diagram 4) allowing his king to get boxed in with a draw, he should have opted for the precise 52.Kf8! with a theoretical win.

Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimiar Kramnik followed “an interesting Petroff” - Ivanchuk, which has been seen many times in recent Corus tournaments. The Ukrainian enjoyed a slight advantage in the middlegame, but Kramnik played very precisely with 27...h6!, equalizing. After a few further exchanges, a draw was agreed.

Grandmaster group B saw Sergey Movsesian winning against Daniel Stellwagen, and joined Etienne Bacrot in first place, after the latter quickly drew Erwin L’Ami.

Italian-American Fabiano Caruana took advantage of Arik Braun’s loss to Efstratios Grivas, by beating Pontus Carlsson, and thus joined the German youngster in the lead - both with 5/7 points.

In the first round of the Honorary Group, the peace pipe was not passed around. Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Jan Timman produced a Benoni, thus far a surprisingly popular opening in Grandmaster Group A. In a complicated position Timman made a slight error with 22…Rc7, where 22…Rb8 would have given him a better version of the game. However, Ljubojevic played 23.Rf1?, losing valuable time and the chance to trade the white squared bishops with 31.g5. Soon after, the Dutchman uncorked the powerful (see diagram 5) 30…Nb3! with the point 31.Nxb5 Bxb5 32.Rxb3 Rxe4 33.Nc3 Ne3! 34.fxe3 Bxf1 35.Kxf1 Rxe3 and Black wins. Ljubo’s 33.Re1 didn’t cut it either and White was soon lost.

The duel between Viktor Kortchnoi and Lajos Portisch was won by the former. According to the victor, the game was “poor”. In a normal position, Portisch made a couple of mistakes, finally resulting in a bad endgame.