Corus Wijk aan Zee, 14-29 Jan 2006
Last Edited:
Friday September 1, 2006 2:25 PM
Round 5: Anand on the march
Round 5 (2006.01.19)
Anand, Viswanathan - Leko, Peter 1-0 49 B90 Sicilian Najdorf
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 54 B42 Sicilian
Topalov, Veselin - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 1/2 46 C87 Ruy Lopez
Gelfand, Boris - Van Wely, Loek 1/2 26 D85 Grunfeld
Kariakin, Sergey - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 41 C92 Ruy Lopez
Aronian, Levon - Adams, Michael 1/2 57 E46 Nimzo Indian
Tiviakov, Sergei - Sokolov, Ivan 1/2 34 C77 Ruy Lopez
Corus Wijk aan Zee (NED), I 2006 cat. 19 (2716)
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Positions after Round 5 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 . . = 1 = . . . . 4.0 2954
2 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 0 * . . . . . 1 = 1 . . . 1 3.5 2880
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2801 . . * . . 0 = . . . 1 . 1 1 3.5 2842
4 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2723 . . . * . 1 . . = . = . 1 0 3.0 2771
5 Kariakin, Sergey g UKR 2660 0 . . . * = . . = . . . 1 1 3.0 2800
6 Adams, Michael g ENG 2707 . . 1 0 = * . = . . . = . . 2.5 2721
7 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2709 . . = . . . * . . = = = = . 2.5 2704
8 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2752 = 0 . . . = . * = . . . . 1 2.5 2730
9 Leko, Peter g HUN 2740 0 = . = = . . = * . . . . . 2.0 2659
10 Sokolov, Ivan g NED 2689 = 0 . . . . = . . * = = . . 2.0 2637
11 Van Wely, Loek g NED 2647 . . 0 = . . = . . = * = . . 2.0 2646
12 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2669 . . . . . = = . . = = * 0 . 2.0 2621
13 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2717 . . 0 0 0 . = . . . . 1 * . 1.5 2563
14 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2686 . 0 0 1 0 . . 0 . . . . . * 1.0 2493
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Steve Giddins reports direct from Wijk aan Zee -
One aspect of Wijk which I have not mentioned is the Hotel Zeeduin, where
the players in the A group are lodged. The hotel's extensive, morning-long
breakfast buffet is inevitably the scene of a good deal of friendly banter
between various players. This morning, it was Loek van Wely's turn to
be the target. As he entered the room, he was greeted by Levon Aronian,
whose near-perfect English and mischievous sense of humour makes him a
regular source of entertainment. "Ah, Loek, how could you play Ra7
and then Ra2 against Topalov? I could hardly believe my eyes - I thought
you were supposed to be an aggressive player?", asked the Armenian,
with a wicked gleam in his eye. Not to be outdone, Loek calmly replied,
in his bass tones, "Yes, but this was a Nimzowitschian manoeuvre,
Lev!".
Today, Loek's game was the first to finish. His opponent, Boris Gelfand,
is the world's foremost expert on the 8 Rb1 system against the Grunfeld,
and his recently-published best games collection contains a whole chapter
on his successes with the line. However, Loek is the last man to be intimidated
by reputations, and so it was to be expected that the position after 8
Rb1 would not be long appearing on the board. Gelfand's last game with
it ended unsuccessfully, as he was floored by a Peter Svidler novelty
at the world team championships in Beersheva late last year (see the Jan
2006 BCM for this game). However, Loek did not wait to see Gelfand's improvement,
instead getting his retaliation in first, with the novelty 15...b6 (Svidler
had played 15...Qa3 16 Re1 and then the new move 16...Rfd8). Gelfand chose
the most natural continuation, but Black's exchange sacrifice is of a
type well-known in such positions. Black clearly had no problems in the
ending, and in the post-mortem, Loek even made some token efforts to show
that he stood better in the final position, although Gelfand was fairly
incredulous at such a suggestion. For now, though, it seems that the ball
is squarely in White's court in this variation of the Grunfeld.
The day's first victory was recorded by Sergey Kariakin, the tournament's
youngest-ever competitor. His opponent, Etienne Bacrot, went down the
deeply-analysed Zaitsev System against the Lopez. This is a line where
Black is frequently able to dismantle the white centre by advancing f7-f5,
but he does so at the cost of considerable risk for his own king. The
recent game Anand-Adams from St Luis was an example of the dangers which
lie in wait for Black in this line. Bacrot preferred 17...f5 to Adams'
17...c4, but after 19 Rf3, he snatched a very hot pawn by capturing on
e4 and d5. Despite the position after 19 Rf3 having been reached many
times between top players, nobody of any note has ever been brave enough
to take the pawn (19...Re5 is the usual move). Bacrot had apparently prepared
the line, but something must have gone seriously wrong in his analysis,
because he was soon consuming vast quantities of time, whilst the white
pieces gathered around his king. By move 25, Bacrot had just 5 minutes
to reach the time control, and once he missed the cute tactic 28 Qf3 and
29 Bd2!, it was all over.
Kamsky's woes continued, as he was outplayed positionally by Ivanchuk
in a Kan Sicilian. The latter is on record as having named Fischer as
his chess hero, and today he turned his pressure into the "Fischer
endgame" of rooks and bishop v rooks and knight. (Those of you to
whom this terminology is unfamiliar are strongly recommended to buy a
copy of Mihai Marin's wonderful book Learn from the Legends, after which
all will become clear). Kamsky showed his usual tenacious defence, but
with the more passive pieces and several pawn weaknesses, he never looked
likely to hold the ending, and went down to defeat in 54 moves.
The Dutch remain without a win between them, although Tiviakov felt after
his game that he had once again squandered good chances. His favourite
5 Qe2 Lopez yielded a small plus, and once he reached the position after
19 Nxe5, he felt sure he should have been winning. However, Sokolov managed
to reach a drawn opposite-coloured bishop ending a pawn down, and the
post-mortem failed to yield a convincing improvement, much to Tiviakov's
frustration.
The game Topalov-Mamedyarov was a fascinating struggle. Topalov's 11
g4 was a novelty in a Lopez line which has been played a number of times
recently, both by his opponent and also by Mickey Adams. After the game,
Mamedyarov considered it a significant improvement, after which Black
has problems. Topalov continued to play enterprisingly, sacrificing the
exchange to maintain the initiative. With Black's pieces out of play,
his pawns soon began to drop like the proverbial ripe apples, but he managed
to exchange queens and activate his rooks in the ending, after which Mamedyarov
did not consider the position winning for White. He secured his half-point
with the very nice sacrifice 38...Rxd3!, forcing a study-like positional
draw by means of a fortress.
Aronian-Adams was the longest game of the day. Black emerged slightly
worse form the opening, and afterwards, Mickey was not too convinced that
his 19...c5 was particularly good. However, he continued to play actively,
offering a pawn with 23...Ne4, rather than passively retreating to h7.
White was probably somewhat better, but in time-trouble, he committed
some inaccuracies between moves 25-30. 27 Qf3?! was described as a "lemon"
by Aronian, who preferred 27 Bd2, whilst 30 Rb1? was just a "blunder"
(30 e4). He then found himself worse, and in the desire for counterplay,
he endangered himself further by 38 f5? (38 Qd4 holds), after which 38...Qg4!
would have given him more problems. Adams instead forced a queen ending,
but was unable to capitalise on his passed a-pawn.
In the most auspicious pairing of the day, Vishy Anand scored a vitally
important win over Peter Leko, taking the sole lead with 4/5, and simultaneously
relegating the latter to a minus score:
Anand - Leko [B90]
Corus Wijk aan Zee
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6
Already a slight surprise, as Leko tends to prefer the Sveshnikov. Perhaps
he was impressed by the ease with which Kariakin drew against him in round
2 in the 6 Be3 Najdorf.
3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 e5 7 Nf3
Vishy in turn gets in his own surprise. This knight retreat was originally
one of the main ideas of 6 Be3 when Robert Byrne played it in the 1970s,
but in recent years, has been almost totally eclipsed by the alternative
retreat to b3.
7...Be7 8 Bc4 0-0 9 0-0 Be6 10 Bb3 Nc6 11 Bg5 Nd7 12 Bxe7 Qxe7 13
Nd5
Technically a novelty. but it does not fundamentally change anything.
13 Qd2 Nc5 14 Rad1 Rad8 15 Qe3 Nxb3 16 axb3 f5 17 Nd5 Qd7 18 Ng5 Nd4 19
Nxe6 Qxe6 20 c3 ½ - 1/2 was the game Predojevic-Shirov, from Sarajevo
2005.
13...Qd8 14 c3 Na5 15 Re1 Rc8 16 h3
16...Nb6?!
This is the first in a series of sub-optimal moves, which converts fairly
comfortable equality into a positionally lost game. White's main problem
is that he has three minor pieces competing for only one decent square,
namely d5. Mark Dvoretsky has written instructively about this type of
positional problem, which he names the "superfluous piece",
and from his writings, it is clear that the defender's main job in such
positions is not to exchange off the redundant enemy lumps. Leko may not
have read his Dvoretsky lately, because he does just that. Black would
have no problems after 16...b5.
17 Nxb6 Qxb6 18 Bxe6 fxe6 19 Re2
Black's error at move 16 has allowed White to offload his two problem
minor pieces, and given him a little more grounds for optimism. He hopes
to prove that the Black central pawn constellation is weak.
19...Rc6 20 Qd3 Qc7 21 Rd1 Nc4?
Another error. He should again play 21...b5, followed by 22...Nb7, when
White does not have much.
22 b3 Nb6
The point Leko had overlooked was that after his intended 22...Na3, White
has no need to play 23 c4 immediately, but can just play 23 Re3! Then
Black has problems with his knight, since if he ever plays b5, he leaves
it stranded, whilst sooner or later, White will be able to prepare c3-c4
in favourable circumstances.
23 c4 Nc8?
No doubt flustered by his previous errors, Leko makes a third bad decision,
after which his position becomes really unpleasant. He should play 23...Nd7
24 b4 Nf6, when it is still not clear how much White has, for example
25 b5 axb5 26 cxb5 Rc1, with counterplay.
24 Red2 h6 25 Qe2
Now White has achieved all he could want. The Nc8 is very bad, and if
it ever moves to e7, White has the tactic Nxe5, followed by Rd7. Meanwhile,
Black must constantly watch for the c4-c5 break, destroying his central
pawn structure.
25...Kh7 26 h4!
With Black tied down in the centre, Anand adds to his problems by increasing
the pressure on the other wing. The plan is h5 and Nh4, probing the weakness
on g6.
26...Qb6 27 h5 Qc5?!
This makes things worse by inviting the knight to d3 with tempo, but
Leko was by now in serious time trouble, just to add to his problems.
28 Ne1 Rc7 29 Nd3 Qc6
30 c5!
Finally, White achieves the long-desired break, and Black's structure
can no longer be maintained.
30...Ne7 31 Qg4 Rf6 32 b4!
A nice waiting move, which emphasises Black's helplessness.
32...d5 33 Nxe5 Qa4 34 Qg3 Rc8 35 Ng4 Rf7 36 Qd6 Rcf8 37 Qxe6 Qxb4
White has various ways to win this position, but Anand decided to play
it safe, leaving the knight on g4 to rule out any Rxf2 tricks, and simply
taking the d-pawn.
38 exd5 Qxc5 39 d6 Nc6 40 d7 Nd8 41 Qe4+ Qf5 42 Re2 Qxe4 43 Rxe4 b5
44 f3 a5 45 Ne5 Rf6 46 Ng6 Rg8 47 Re8 Rf7 48 Rd5
Now there is no 48...Rxd7 trick because of mate on h8.
48...a4 49 Ne7 1-0
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