Corus Wijk aan Zee, 14-29 Jan 2006
Last Edited:
Friday September 1, 2006 2:25 PM
Round 3: Chukky chucks it away
Round 3 (2006.01.16)
Topalov, Veselin - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 44 C42 Petroff defence
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 28 A34 English 1 c4 c5
Gelfand, Boris - Adams, Michael 1-0 39 E09 Nimzo Indian
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Sokolov, Ivan 1/2 26 D45 Queen's gambit
Kariakin, Sergey - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 32 B42 Sicilian
Aronian, Levon - Leko, Peter 1/2 31 E15 Queen's indian
Tiviakov, Sergei - Van Wely, Loek 1/2 25 B22 Sicilian 2 c3
Corus Wijk aan Zee (NED), I 2006 cat. 19 (2716)
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Positions after Round 3 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 . = . . . 2.5 2986
2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2801 . * . 0 . . . 1 . . . 1 . . 2.0 2828
3 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 0 . * . . . . . . . 1 . 1 . 2.0 2869
4 Adams, Michael g ENG 2707 . 1 . * 0 . . . . . . . . = 1.5 2731
5 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2723 . . . 1 * = . . . . . 0 . . 1.5 2711
6 Leko, Peter g HUN 2740 . . . . = * . . = . = . . . 1.5 2711
7 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2709 . . . . . . * = . = . . = . 1.5 2684
8 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2717 . 0 . . . . = * . . . . . 1 1.5 2726
9 Kariakin, Sergey g UKR 2660 0 . . . . = . . * . . 1 . . 1.5 2739
10 Van Wely, Loek g NED 2647 . . . . . . = . . * . . = = 1.5 2689
11 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2752 = . 0 . . = . . . . * . . . 1.0 2628
12 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2686 . 0 . . 1 . . . 0 . . * . . 1.0 2603
13 Sokolov, Ivan g NED 2689 . . 0 . . . = . . = . . * . 1.0 2570
14 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2669 . . . = . . . 0 . = . . . * 1.0 2565
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Steve Giddins reports direct from Wijk aan Zee
Before proceeding to the events of round 3, I must add one small word
of apology with respect to yesterday's report. To my eternal shame, in
my list of British players who have beaten reigning world champions, I
omitted my good friend Matthew Sadler, who beat Khalifman in a Bundesliga
game in 2000 when the latter was the reigning FIDE champion. The omission
is all the more embarrassing for the fact that I spoke on the telephone
to Matthew only hours before penning the report! I plead temporary (?)
insanity, brought on by an excess of blood in my alcohol stream.
The game which was inevitably today's centre of attention was the clash
of the overnight leader Vasyl Ivanchuk with Vishy Anand. Fresh from two
straight wins with the black pieces, "Chukky" today had his
first white, whilst Anand was coming off a disappointment against Aronian
yesterday, when an ending with an extra pawn and the better minor piece
yielded only half a point. In the event, however, the spectators were
rather disappointed, as after obtaining much the better position from
the opening, Ivanchuk blew up in suicidal fashion, something which has
happened to him on many occasions in the past.
The first game to finish was Mamedyarov-Sokolov, which was curiously
reminiscent of Mamedyarov's first round game with Bacrot. There too, a
highly interesting opening led to an unclear position, which then fizzled
out into an early repetition. Against Sokolov, the world junior champion
faced a novelty on move 14, with 14...Bd6 having been played in a previous
game Odendahl-Malakhatko, Vlissingen 2005. Sokolov's choice of 14...Be7
offered White some tempting tactical possibilities, such as 17 Bh5+, but
the post-mortem suggested that Black always has enough to hold the balance.
As played, Mamedyarov obtained an extra pawn, but Black has a good initiative,
and after prolonged thought, the young Azeri felt that he had to allow
the draw. In the final position, he would like to play 26 Bf3, but after
26...Qxd6 27 Nxd6 Ne3 Black has enough activity to draw.
Aronian-Leko saw White repeat the 14 Bg5 of Mamedyarov-Gashimov, 2005
World Junior, annotated in the January 2006 issue of the BCM. Leko departed
from that game with 17...Qxb7, and although White's position soon looked
imposing, he actually had tactical problems with his knight on d6 and
the piece line-up on the d-file. The post-mortem revealed some fascinating
variations, notably the sacrificial try 24 Qf4 g5 25 Nxg5. As Aronian
showed, after 25...e5 26 Qh4 exd4 27 Nf5, Black has the one and only move
27...Qe5!!, and after the further forced moves 28 Nxh6+ Kf8 29 Nhxf7 Qxe2
30 Qh8+ Ng8! (again forced - 30...Ke7 31 Qxa8 Qxd1+ 32 Kg2 wins) 31 Qxd4
Ngf6!, despite having his knights all round the naked black king, White
is unable to create any threats and is lost. After long thought, Aronian
was forced to reject the line in favour of a quieter continuation, but
achieved nothing and a draw soon resulted by repetition.
Tiviakov-van Wely was a fairly quiet draw in a 2 c3 Sicilian, but the
remaining games all ended decisively. Kamsky's Kan Sicilian soon produced
a typical Hedgehog structure against Kariakin. Perhaps still feeling the
ring-rust from his prolonged absence from the top-flight chess, Kamsky
fell a long way behind on the clock, and when he allowed the tactical
blow 24 c5!, the writing was already on the wall. His flag dropped at
move 32 in a hopeless position.
Yesterday's hero, Mickey Adams, had a bad day at the office, failing
to equalize against Gelfand's Catalan and going down to a heavy defeat.
Rather than his usual 4...Be7 and 6...dxc4, Adams adopted the closed system
with 4...Bb4+ and 5...Be7, a favourite of his predecessor as England no
1, Nigel Short. However, White soon secured more space in the centre and
his albeit temporary knight penetration to d6 annexed the bishop pair,
after which Black was always suffering. A pawn soon went West, and Gelfand
made no mistake with the remainder.
Finally, Topalov bounced back from yesterday's defeat to win against
Bacrot, but in thoroughly unconvincing style. The FIDE world champion
chose the currently popular line 5 Nc3 against Bacrot's Petroff, but obtained
nothing at all from the opening. As the game simplified to a queen ending
with equal pawns, a draw seemed the inevitable result, until Bacrot blundered
with 33...c5?? (33...Kg7 seems safe enough), and after White's obvious
reply, he was faced with a choice of a lost queen ending or a lost king
and pawn ending. He chose the latter, and resigned a few moves later.
Ivanchuk - Anand [A35]
Corus Wijk aan Zee A Group rd 3
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 e3 e5
Here 4...e6 would lead to a Symmetrical Tarrasch after 5 d4 d5, but Vishy
preferred to avoid an IQP structure.
5 Be2 d5 6 d4 exd4 7 exd4
"Here, I realised that for the second time in 14 years, he had tricked
me into this position!", said Anand after the game. Sure enough,
their game from the Manila Interzonal in 1992, had opened 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3
e6 3 c4 Nc6 4 Nc3 Nf6 5 Be2 d5 6 exd5 exd5; 7 d4, reaching the same position!
Then Anand had played 7...Be7, but did not equalize, although the game
was eventually drawn. Here, he played his preparation from just after
the earlier game, "...although I have no idea what has happened theoretically
in the line in the past 14 years!".
7...Be6 8 Be3 dxc4 9 Qa4!
An excellent move, which introduces the possibility of 0-0-0 in many
variations.
9...cxd4
9...Qa5 10 Qxa5 Nxa5 11 0-0-0! with advantage, is one such line.
10 Nxd4 Bd7 11 Qxc4 Rc8?
A move characterised as a "lemon" by Anand after the game.
He should just play 11...Be7 and 12...0-0, although White is slighly better.
Now 12 Nxc6! would have placed Black in a big quandary, eg 12...Bxc6 13
Rd1 with a clear advantage.
12 0-0!? Bd6 13 Nxc6 Rxc6 14 Qh4 0-0
15 Bxa7?!
A very risky choice, and a rare case of a human player being more materialistic
than a computer. Most chess engines prefer 15 Bf3 and 16 Rad1, when Black
has considerable problems.
15... b6
Clearly, this has to be played, whether it works or not, else Black is
just a pawn down.
16 Rad1 Bc5 17 b4
Another idea was 17 Bb5 Qc7 18 Bxc6 (18 Rxd7 Nxd7 19 Nd5 Qxa7 20 Bxc6
Ne5) 18 ..Bxc6, with reasonable chances for Black. The computers all prefer
White, but as Anand put it, "How long can White go on without this
guy on a7?". Sooner or later, Black should be able to develop some
counterplay on the K-side.
17...Be7 18 Qd4 Rd6 19 Qc4 Be6 20 Qa6 Nd5 21 Nxd5
21 Nb5 Rd7 22 a3 is another unclear possibility mentioned by Anand after
the game.
21...Bxd5
The critical moment of the game. White should now force a draw with 22
Bxb6 Rxb6 23 Rxd5 Rxa6 24 Rxd8 Rxa2=.
22 Rfe1?? Rg6
Suddenly, White is lost.
23 g3
The key line is 23 Bf3 Bxf3 24 Rxd8 Rxg2+ 25 Kf1 Rxh2!, and there is
no defence to mate on h1. This is presumably what Ivanchuk missed when
playing his 22nd move. The rest is a mopping-up exercise.
23...Bxb4 24 Bc4 Bxe1 25 Bxd5 Qe7 26 a4
26 Bxb6 Bxf2!, followed by 27...Qf6+, is also hopeless.
26...Rf6 27 f4 Qe3+ 28 Kh1 Bxg3 0-1
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