Corus Wijk aan Zee, 14-29 Jan 2006
Last Edited: Saturday January 14, 2006 9:03 PM
Round 1: Gunfights at the KO Corral
Steve Giddins reports direct from Wijk aan Zee
Round 1 (2006.01.14)
Topalov, Veselin - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 25 B01 Scandinavian
Gelfand, Boris - Leko, Peter 1/2 37 E06 Nimzo Indian
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Bacrot, Etienne 1/2 24 D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted
Tiviakov, Sergei - Adams, Michael 1/2 72 C77 Ruy Lopez
Van Wely, Loek - Sokolov, Ivan 1/2 41 D18 Slav defence
Aronian, Levon - Ivanchuk, Vassily 0-1 45 E60 Kings Indian
Kariakin, Sergey - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 37 B90 Sicilian Najdorf
Wijk aan Zee (NED), I 2006 cat. XIX (2716)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
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1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2792 * . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.0
2 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 . * . . . . . . . . . 1 . . 1.0
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2801 . . * . . . . . . . . . 1 . 1.0
4 Adams, Michael g ENG 2707 . . . * . . . . . = . . . . 0.5 2669
5 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2717 . . . . * . . = . . . . . . 0.5 2709
6 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2723 . . . . . * = . . . . . . . 0.5 2740
7 Leko, Peter g HUN 2740 . . . . . = * . . . . . . . 0.5 2723
8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2709 . . . . = . . * . . . . . . 0.5 2717
9 Sokolov, Ivan g NED 2689 . . . . . . . . * . = . . . 0.5 2647
10 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2669 . . . = . . . . . * . . . . 0.5 2707
11 Van Wely, Loek g NED 2647 . . . . . . . . = . * . . . 0.5 2689
12 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2752 . 0 . . . . . . . . . * . . 0.0
13 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2686 . . 0 . . . . . . . . . * . 0.0
14 Kariakin, Sergey g UKR 2660 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . * 0.0
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The two favourites for the 68th Corus tournament did not delay in underlining
their class in today's first round. Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov were
respectively the first and second players to finish. Each was challenged
to a gunfight by his opponent, and each proved himself much quicker on
the draw. Anand's opponent, 16 year-old Sergey Kariakin, took on his illustrious
opponent in one of the sharpest lines of the Najdorf. Armed not with a
Colt 45, but a new idea on move 24, "Sergey the Kid" soon found
himself outgunned, and went down in a hail of bullets (see below).
Meanwhile Topalov, facing the Prodigal Son, Gata Kamsky, received a surprise
as early as move one, as the FIDE world champion saw his 1.e4 answered
with 1...d5. Having been out of top-flight chess since 1996, Kamsky presumably
wanted to avoid any opening variations that his opponent would have spent
the intervening 9 years analysing to death. However, the downside of such
an approach is that one almost inevitably has to be prepared to accept
an inferior position out of the opening. Topalov responded modestly, but
secured a definite small plus, only to see his opponent lash out with
the extravagant 10...g5?! Black's position never recovered, and he was
smashed in 25 moves, although it could have been even quicker if Topalov
had found 17.Be5, with the idea 17...f6 18 Ng5!, winning immediately (the
same idea also works one move later).
Gelfand's Catalan sufficed for a small, but nagging endgame edge against
Leko. As in similar QGA positions, the apparent simplicity of the position
is deceptive, and White has almost unlimited potential for torturing his
opponent. Leko defended well, as always, but Gelfand missed one or two
opportunities to make his life more unpleasant (25 Rxc8 and 29 Ra4!),
and the Hungarian held the draw without excessive alarm.
Mamedyarov-Bacrot promised interest early on, but the players soon started
a move repetition, which ended the game in 24 moves, despite great expenditure
of time on both sides. Meanwhile, Van Wely-Sokolov was a hard game to
evaluate. The latter's Slav yielded the usual solid structure, but the
perennial danger of the opening is the burying of Black's light-squared
bishop. This happened in particularly drastic style, with the bishop being
entombed alive on g6, in the same structure as the famous game Winter-Capablanca,
Hastings 1919. Amazingly, though, Sokolov's other pieces proved so active,
and his structure so solid, that van Wely was unable to make progress
and had to accept a repetition of moves, despite being to all intents
and purposes, a piece up.
Aronian has had a great last 12 months, but 2006 did not start so well
for him, as White against Ivanchuk. After an early queen exchange, Aronian's
K-side aggression rebounded against him, and faced with serious positional
weaknesses, he tried to muddy the waters with a piece sacrifice. Unfortunately,
it proved completely unsound, and despite playing on for some time a whole
rook down, he could not avoid the inevitable.
The longest game of the day was Tiviakov-Adams, where the Russian secured
a small edge with his favourite 5 Qe2 Lopez. Adams' 14...b3 could perhaps
have been replaced by 14...cxd4, with the tactical point that after 15
cxb4 Bxb4 16 Bg5 Be7, White cannot win the exchange by 17 Bxf6 Bxf6 18
Nxf6+ Qxf6 19 Nd7, because of 19...Qc6. As played, White won a pawn, but
the post-mortem suggested that Adams could have drawn more easily with
21...Bxe5, followed by 22...Nxb2. He opted for a rook ending a pawn down,
but with White's rook in front of the passed a-pawn. He was tortured for
a prolonged period of time, but for much of the last 30 moves of the game,
White's King was doing little more than an impersonation of the Grand
Old Duke of York, and the half point was finally conceded on move 72.
Kariakin,S (2660) - Anand,V (2792) [B90]
Corus Wijk aan Zee A Group (1), 14.01.2006
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3
This move, the start of the English Attack, has become the dominant
answer to the Najdorf in contemporary practice. The present game follows
established theory for a considerable time, with the first 20 or more
moves being rattled out at great speed by both players.
6...e5 7 Nb3 Be6 8 f3 Be7 9 Qd2 0-0 10 0-0-0 Nbd7 11 g4 b5 12 g5 b4
13 Ne2 Ne8 14 f4 a5 15 f5 a4 16 Nbd4 exd4 17 Nxd4 b3 18 Kb1 bxc2+ 19 Nxc2
Bb3 20 axb3 axb3 21 Na3 Ne5 22 h4 Ra5
Believe it or not, this is all theory. Both players were fully aware
of this, although Vishy had expected another variation, and was having
difficulty recalling exactly how the main previous game had continued
from this position. Kariakin, on the other hand, had prepared the whole
line, but his plan did not prove very impressive.
23 Qc3
The first new move. The game Vishy was trying to recall was Leko-Vallejo
Pons, Melody Amber 2005, which went 23 Qe2 d5 24 Rxd5 Rxd5 25 exd5 Bxa3
26 bxa3 Nd6, with an excellent game for Black. After the present game,
the players looked at 23 Bd4 and 23 Rh3 here, although neither move seems
to pose Black any great problems.
23 ..Qa8 24 Bg2?
This was Kariakin's idea, but Anand later described the move as simply
a blunder, since after the reply, White is lost. White has to defend the
e4-pawn by 24 Bd3, although Black already seems to be better after 24...Nxd3
and 25...d5.
24...Nc7!
The start of a brilliant double piece sacrifice, which refutes White's
whole plan. The threat is 25...Nb5, so White has little choice but to
accept the Greek gift.
25 Qxc7 Rc8 26 Qxe7 Nc4
The silicon-enhanced denizens of the Press Room, your correspondent included,
were all having great fun at this stage, watching the evaluation function
of their chess engines gradually drop from +5 or so for White, to the
realisation that in fact he is totally lost! Anand took somewhat longer
than Fritz to calculate the exact details, but he proved every bit as
sure-footed.
27 g6 hxg6 28 fxg6
In the immortal words of Mike Basman, "Turn off the tape and decide
what you would play!".
28...Nxa3+!
Chosen after some thought, and the best move. As Anand demonstrated after
the game (and Fritz during it!), 28 ..Rxa3 is less clear, in view of 29
bxa3 Qxa3 30 Qxf7+ Kh8 31 Qf2 b2 32 Bc5!, blocking the c-file.
29 bxa3 Rxa3 30 gxf7+ Kh7
White has no way to avoid extinction down the a-file.
31 f8N+ Rxf8 32 Qxf8 Ra1+ 33 Kb2 Ra2+ 34 Kc3 Qa5+!
Again, the most accurate. Recapturing on f8 should win, but as the silicon
beast rapidly informed us, the text is mate in 7.
35 Kd3 Qb5+ 36 Kd4 Ra4+ 37 Kc3 Qc4+ 0-1
Essentially, a game of one move (24 Bg2?), but a great example of Anand's
tactical ability.
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