The Chess Mind

Just tidying things up. Here, with my comments, are the games from round 11. The games from rounds 12 and 13 will probably show up within 24 hours.

The game of the tournament? Granted, Kramnik's play wasn't terrific, but Carlsen's was, and it marked a double milestone for him: a win in classical chess over the former world champion - with the black pieces, at that - was a great achievement, and it helped him to win (equal first) in one of the chess world's great super-tournaments.

You can replay the game here. The annotations are mostly based on Carlsen's comments in the press conference, but I've added a few notes here and there as well.

More later tonight; for now, here's a quick wrap-up.

In Group A, all the key games were drawn, leaving Aronian and Carlsen co-champs. (I'm not sure at the moment who had the better tie-breaks, but it's irrelevant as the tournament does not use them in determining the winner.) Polgar didn't achieve anything against Aronian's Marshall Gambit, while Carlsen-Radjabov went back and forth but never saw Norwegian in any serious danger. Anand tried very hard to break Kramnik down and get a third share of the title, but the latter held on and pulled out a draw.

Round 13 Results:

Ivanchuk - van Wely 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Adams 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Eljanov 1-0 (Gelfand's first and only win in the event)
Leko - Mamedyarov 1-0 (A bit of a massacre)
Carlsen - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Anand - Kramnik 1/2-1/2

Final Standings:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 8
3-4. Anand, Radjabov 7.5
5-6. Ivanchuk, Leko 7
7-8. Adams, Kramnik 6.5
9-11. Mamedyarov, Topalov, Polgar 6
12-14. Eljanov, van Wely, Gelfand 5

Group B:

All the relevant games were drawn, so Movsesian won with 9.5 (and a 2788 TPR), a point ahead of Short and Bacrot. This means that Movesesian qualifies for next year's Group A tournament.

Group C:

Coming into the last round, Caruana led Negi by a full point, and as it turned out they were paired for the finale. Negi chose the Marshall Gambit with the Black pieces, but Caruana successfully held the pawn and went on to win. Thus Caruana, who scored 10/13 (2696 TPR) won by two points ahead of Negi and Reinderman, and automatically qualifies for the Group B event next year.

Games later!

Round 13, the final round, is underway, so I'll keep this relatively brief.

The big result of round 13 was Carlsen's win - with Black - over Kramnik. Kramnik losses are rare enough, and he loses with White just a little more frequently than Roger Federer loses a tennis semi-final. Anyway, Carlsen played very well, and, helped along by a Kramnik miscalculation on move 29, he managed to win the game and catch Aronian in first place. As all the other games relevant to first place were drawn, the key standings saw Carlsen and Aronian with 7.5 and Anand and Radjabov with 7. With Carlsen playing Radjabov in the last round, anything could happen!

Round 12 Results:

van Wely - Anand 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Carlsen 0-1
Radjabov - Leko 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Eljanov - Topalov 1-0 (!)
Adams - Polgar 0-1
Aronian - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 7.5
3-4. Anand, Radjabov 7
5. Ivanchuk 6.5
6-9. Leko, Adams, Kramnik, Mamedyarov 6
10-11. Topalov, Polgar 5.5
12. Eljanov 5
13. van Wely 4.5
14. Gelfand 4

Pairings for Round 13: (The last round)

Ivanchuk - van Wely
Polgar - Aronian
Topalov - Adams
Gelfand - Eljanov
Leko - Mamedyarov
Carlsen - Radjabov
Anand - Kramnik

Other Groups:

In group B, Movesian continued his winning ways, defeating L'Ami, while his closest pursuers (Short and Bacrot) drew each other. Thus with one round to go, the leading standings are:

1. Movsesian 9
2-3. Short, Bacrot 8

Meanwhile, in Group C, Caruana continued to win. Of those entering the round within a point of the youngster, only Negi kept pace. He's still a point back with a round to go, but as they're playing each other (Caruana has White) anything's possible.

1. Caruana 9
2. Negi 8

Finally, in the finale of the Honorary Group, Timman beat Korchnoi's 1...e5 in the last round, while Ljubojevic defeated Portisch. The final standings look like this:

1. Ljubojevic 4
2-3. Timman, Korchnoi 3
4. Portisch 2

I'll be unavailable to blog until late Saturday at the earliest, so this overly brief recap will have to do until then. A pity, because it was an extremely eventful round, with Carlsen finally losing his lead in the tournament. He had White against Anand, but - thanks again, Judit - now that he's on a roll, it's trouble for the rest of the field. The world champion defeated Carlsen, and now they're tied at +2.

They're joined at that score by Radjabov, who defeated tail-ender Gelfand with his signature opening, the King's Indian Defense. (Gelfand loves queenside openings, but as long as Radjabov's playing the Schliemann he really ought to make an exception.) Yet +2 isn't good enough at this point, as Aronian defeated van Wely, and enjoys solo first at +3. Three other players are at +1, so with two rounds to go the tournament is far from decided.

Round 11 Results:

Aronian - van Wely 1-0
Ivanchuk - Adams 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Eljanov 0-1
Topalov - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Radjabov 0-1
Leko - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Anand 0-1

Standings after Round 11:

1. Aronian 7
2-4. Radjabov, Carlsen, Anand 6½
5-7. Kramnik, Adams, Ivanchuk 6
8-10. Mamedyarov, Topalov, Leko 5½
11-12. Polgar, Eljanov 4½
13. van Wely 4
14. Gelfand 3½

Pairings for Round 12:

van Wely - Anand
Kramnik - Carlsen
Radjabov - Leko
Mamedyarov - Gelfand
Eljanov - Topalov
Adams - Polgar
Aronian - Ivanchuk

Other Groups:

In Group B, Movsesian continues to lead, but his 8/11 score is only good for a half-point over Short and Bacrot. In Group C, Caruana extended his lead to a full point over the chase pack; he has 8 points, while Reinderman, Nijboer and Negi have 7. Finally, in the Honorary Group Korchnoi made a colossal blunder in a dead drawn* ending against Ljubojevic, just trying to hard to win. Portisch meanwhile defeated Timman, which means that the winners caught the losers: Korchnoi and Ljubojevic lead with 3-2, while Portisch and Timman trail at 2-3.

* Positions can be objectively "dead", but experience teaches us over and over again that if a player really sets his mind to losing a game, there is almost no force in the whole of reality that can stop him.

In rounds 3 and 4 of the Honorary Group at Corus, both Viktor Korchnoi and Ljubomir Ljubojevic have been putting on a show (especially the latter). So for your entertainment, here are their games from those rounds, mostly with comments from the Corus website and Ljubojevic's round 4 press conference, but with some of my own as well. The Timman-Ljubojevic game is especially worth replaying, as it reprised the 12.Nxf7 sac from the remarkable Topalov-Kramnik game in round 9.

Just in case you were making plans to sit and watch in the morning, you can reschedule! The tournament resumes on Friday and concludes on Sunday.

Here's a brief video interview with former world champion Anatoly Karpov, taken by ChessVibes at the Corus tournament. It's fairly short, but he has some brief comments about Carlsen and the Corus tournament, Fischer's passing, and "handshakegate". (If I recall correctly, he too has had some non-handshake games, but the interviewer didn't bring that up. It might have proved entertaining had he done so, but he was right to refrain. I don't believe he and Kasparov ever abstained from shaking hands, but I think he did abstain on several occasions involving Korchnoi and other Soviet defectors.)

Horrible. Loek van Wely was completely destroying Magnus Carlsen, but after several consecutive blunders turned a pretty straightforward win into a loss. This gave the youngster clear first, as Levon Aronian drew a quick game (with Black) against Michael Adams. That kept Aronian in clear second, half a point behind Carlsen, while Adams remained in a big tie for third another half a point back.

Also in that third-place tie is Viswanathan Anand, who got nothing with White against Peter Leko and drew in 19 moves. Teimour Radjabov almost moved into a tie for second, as he enjoyed what looked like a big advantage against Veselin Topalov, but he couldn't convert it and that too ended in a draw. Vladimir Kramnik remained in the tie as well, as his attempts to press against Boris Gelfand were in vain. Vassily Ivanchuk is the fifth member of the third-place quintet, graduating from the lower score group with a long grind 'em out win against Pavel Eljanov.

The last game, which, amazingly, was the only one not to feature someone who wound up tied for third or better, was the quick draw between Shakhriyard Mamedyarov and Judit Polgar. Even they're not so far back, though, so the tournament remains very much in the air - at least as long as Carlsen doesn't receive more gifts!

Round 10 Results:

van Wely - Carlsen 0-1
Anand - Leko 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Polgar 1/2-1/2
Eljanov - Ivanchuk 0-1
Adams - Aronian 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 10:

1. Carlsen 6.5
2. Aronian 6
3-7. Adams, Anand, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Kramnik 5.5
8-10. Leko, Topalov, Mamedyarov 5
11. Polgar 4.5
12. van Wely 4
13. Gelfand 3.5
14. Eljanov 3

Pairings for Round 11:

Aronian - van Wely
Ivanchuk - Adams
Polgar - Eljanov
Topalov - Mamedyarov
Gelfand - Radjabov
Leko - Kramnik
Carlsen - Anand

Other Groups:

In the B-group, Movsesian won, giving a full-point lead over Bacrot, who drew, and Short, who also won. C-group leader Caruana lost but maintained his half-point lead over Reinderman, who also lost. While Caruana's lead remains, the chase pack has grown, as Nijboer (who beat Reinderman) and Negi are also just half a point back. (In the Braun watch, he just lost his fourth game in a row, so we'll put an end to the GM-norm watch at this point.)

Last but definitely not least, the Honorary Group had a great round today. Ljubojevic decided to go macho against Timman, playing the black side of the Cheparinov knight sac from yesterday's Topalov-Kramnik game. And he won! Meanwhile, Korchnoi also won with Black, against Portisch, and now enjoys a full-point lead in that event.

Leading Standings in Group B:

1. Movsesian 7.5
2-3. Short, Bacrot 6.5
4. Nepomniachtchi 6

Leading Standings in Group C:

1. Caruana 7
2. Nijboer, Reinderman, Negi 6.5

Honorary Group Standings:

1. Korchnoi 3 (out of 4)
2-3. Timman, Ljubojevic 2
4. Portisch 1

Group A games, with comments, here.

In the no-handshake game du jour (video here), Veselin Topalov exploded a three year old novelty bomb wholly prepared by his sometime second (and fellow non-handshaker) Ivan Cheparinov. Fortunately for Vladimir Kramnik, he didn't walk into this in their Elista world championship match, but it was still a magnificent and decisive victory for Topalov against an elite (and hated) opponent.



In this very popular position from the Anti-Moscow Gambit in the Semi-Slav, White generally plays 12.Nxd7 - a move we've already seen three times in this tournament (Radjabov - Anand, Radjabov - van Wely, and Kramnik - Aronian). Here, Topalov detonated a new and most unpleasant move: 12.Nxf7!?/!! As far as I can tell, White has at least sufficient compensation for the sacrificed piece, and that's just speaking objectively. From the practical standpoint, Kramnik was in a hopeless situation. Maybe he had considered this in passing at some point in his general home preparation, but Cheparinov's analysis went to move 40 in some variations. Kramnik was unable to pull a Capablanca*, and was quickly lost. Topalov blundered a valuable pawn on move 34, but his play was otherwise clean and even the blunder wasn't enough to rescue Kramnik. (For those who are interested, videos of Topalov presenting the game to the press can be found here. In my game file, linked below, I've included all of his analysis and added some of my own.)

Topalov's win brought him back to 50% and put Kramnik in danger of falling further behind tournament leader Magnus Carlsen. As it turned out, he too lost his first game of the event, to the hitherto winless Peter Leko. Leko enjoyed an edge on the White side of the Breyer Defense (closed Ruy), but it wasn't obvious that this would translate into a full point. Then Carlsen blundered a piece, and that was the anticlimactic end.

The other decisive game was Adams - van Wely, which saw Fischer's 6.Bc4 against the Najdorf. The game was well-played and balanced for a long time, but on move 32 van Wely blundered a pawn to a subtle tactical trick. The rest of the game was fairly easy for Adams, who won his first game after eight consecutive draws and moved into a third place tie with Kramnik, Anand, and Radjabov.

Speaking of draws, the four remaining games all ended peacefully, three of them extremely quickly. The most important of the draws was Aronian-Eljanov. I thought this game would give Aronian an excellent chance to take the lead, with White against a tail-ender. I was right, but not the way I thought: he drew in 20 moves, but Carlsen and Kramnik going down it was enough to move into a first-place tie.

Radjabov continued his crazy flirtation with the Schliemann, but Polgar chose a line with a lame reputation. This game did nothing to rehabilitate it, but it was still good enough for an easy draw. Gelfand-Anand was a reprise of their second game from Mexico City. In an Open Catalan, Anand used the rare 10...Bd6 to achieve easy equality in the earlier game, and it worked the second time around as well. He's now tied for third with Kramnik, Adams, and Radjabov, half a point behind the leaders. The fourth draw, Ivanchuk-Mamedyarov, was unlike the other three. It went all the way to move 41 (the others were drawn in 25 moves or fewer), and wasn't a nice, neat, tidily balanced game. Ivanchuk was better, even winning, but let his young opponent off the hook in time trouble.

Results for Round 9:

Adams - van Wely 1-0
Aronian - Eljanov 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Kramnik 1-0
Gelfand - Anand 1/2-1/2
Leko - Carlsen 1-0

Standings after Round 9:

What had been a stratified leaderboard has turned into a horse race, and it looks like a photo-finish will be necessary. Ten players are within a point of first!

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 5.5
3-6. Kramnik, Adams, Radjabov, Anand 5
7-10. Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Leko, Topalov 4.5
11-12. van Wely, Polgar 4
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 3

Pairings for Round 10:

van Wely - Carlsen
Anand - Leko
Kramnik - Gelfand
Radjabov - Topalov
Mamedyarov - Polgar
Eljanov - Ivanchuk
Adams - Aronian

Suddenly, just about every game is important for the standings, and that's the way we like it! Let's hope the players feel inspired and rise to the occasion.

The round 9 games can be replayed, with my comments, here. Now on to a brief summary of what's happening with the other groups.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1. Movsesian 6.5
2. Bacrot 6
3. Short 5.5

Leading Standings for Group C:

1. Caruana 7(!)
2. Reinderman 6.5
3-4. Negi, Nijboer 5.5

Sadly, Braun has lost his third straight game, and unless he gets really hot the last four rounds he'll have to wait until his next tournament to achieve his final GM norm.

Honorary Group:

A repeat of the last round, really: two draws: one perfunctory (Timman-Portisch, 1/2-1/2, 18), one - Korchnoi's, of course (Ljubojevic-Korchnoi, 1/2-1/2, 31) - full of excitement. Korchnoi and Timman still share the lead at 2-1, Ljubo and Portisch are 1-2.


*Referring to the Cuban's brilliant on-sight refutation of the Marshall's big-league Marshall Gambit debut from New York 1918.

Yesterday Ivan Cheparinov twice refused to shake Nigel Short's hand at the start of their 8th round game in the ongoing Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, and was forfeited for his action. Cheparinov and his manager, Silvio Danailov, filed an appeal, correctly, and the matter went to the Appeals Committee. Their decision was that Cheparinov had to apologize, the players had to shake hands, and that they'd have to replay the game today.

And that's what happened. Here's the apology - it's as unconvincing as possible, but they didn't require sincerity or tears:

Dear All,

I accept the decision of the Appeal Committee and on the name of chess ,the chess fans and showing respect to the opinion of my colleagues would like to state the following:

I apologize officially to Mr. Short, to the Organizing Committee and the sponsors of Corus chess tournament.

I am ready to play the game today at 13’30 and will shake hands with Mr.Short according to the decision of the Appeal Committee.

Best regards,

Ivan Cheparinov

Shake hands they did, and you can find a picture of that cheery event here. And then there's the game (which you can replay here). Short won, and in very good style, at that. Best of all are his post-game comments:

"I played a bloody good game." "I was going to quit the tournament but at some point I became determined." "There is a god and he's not Bulgarian."

Gens una sumus, indeed.

The Group A tournament in Wijk aan Zee is clearly the main event, but the Group B, Group C, and Honorary Group tournaments also feature strong players and great games. (There have probably been some fine games in the amateur competition as well, but if I try to hunt them down I won't have a semblance of a life.) I've picked out four games, somewhat at random, that struck me as interesting.

The first two are from Group C, and present the losses of former leader Arik Braun. It's a pity that his wins aren't being presented, but the two losses are significant. The first one, to GM Efstratios Grivas, was a real crowd-pleaser. Grivas opened with a (temporary) knight sacrifice, and although Braun resigned one move too soon, could have concluded with a queen sac. An excellent game by Grivas, best known in the chess world as a prolific author. The second Braun loss determined the leadership of the event as of round 8, as he and co-leader GM Fabiano Caruana squared off. The quality of this game was at times erratic, but its importance makes it noteworthy.

The next two are Korchnoi's games from the Honorary Group: an eventful Queen's Gambit win over Lajos Portisch in round 1, and a well-played draw by both players, Korchnoi and Timman, in round 2.

The games, with some comments, are here. Sated yet?

First, you can find the video of the start of Short-Cheparinov here. Second, I had wondered parenthetically in my post on round 8 of Corus what would happen in Tuesday's Topalov-Kramnik game; you'll find the answer in the aforementioned video link. Here's what it says:

Addendum: Apparently there is no handshake planned for the Topalov-Kramnik game on Tuesday. In an interview an in the Bulgarian sports news agency SportNi Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov was asked: "On Tuesday Topalov plays Kramnik. FIDE has said the players will have to pay a fine of they do not shake hands." Danailov's answer: "I think there will be no shake of hands because nobody will give his hand first."

It's too late to enter it, but the various prize-winning entries can be found here as a PDF, and you can download the problems as a PGN by going here and then scrolling down for it. This tournament will keep everyone busy!

(In passing, for those who will check it out, there's a cook of the Gurgenidze & Akobia entry. It's not mentioned in the PDF, but in the PGN file the line "7.Rd3+? Kxd3 8.d8Q Kc2" is given, presumably as an argument for the necessity of 7.Rd4, the main move. Unfortunately, the position after 8...Kc2 is an easy win for White, starting with the obvious 9.Qc7/8+.)

Today's round was another lame one, as often happens before a rest day, but the four quick draws were to some degree offset by three hard-fought games. Let's start with the quickies.

Eljanov - Adams was the quickest and least interesting of the bunch, an Open Catalan that saw a novelty on move 15, liquidation of the central tension on move 18, and a draw on move 20. Van Wely - Leko was more interesting from a fan point of view, but it too followed familiar lines. The 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian often finds Black combating White's bishop pair by quickly opening the center, trying to use his superior development. That's what happened here, and ultimately van Wely neutralized Black's initiative by returning the bishop pair, resulting in a boringly level game. In Mamedyarov - Aronian, White seemed to have a slight edge in a Meran Semi-Slav, but he was unable to maintain it. A balanced ending with a stable pawn structure was the result, and as usual, that spelled draw. The "marathon" of the quickies, Radjabov - Ivanchuk, made it all the way to move 28 before the draw was agreed. The sideline of the Classical Caro-Kann they chose looked interesting, but had been seen before in high-level play. (Well, at least the fans probably liked it until the draw was agreed.)

Kramnik - Polgar was a meatier affair, but still drawn. Kramnik played an old favorite of his, the Queen's Indian-cum-incipient Hedgehog with 7.Re1. Polgar played an interesting pawn sac, entering an ending with queens and rooks. She never had compensation for the pawn, but that doesn't really mean that she was in serious trouble, either. Kramnik's king was a little vulnerable, and the way to handle that was to enter a drawn rook ending that Polgar held without much trouble.

If White had won in Carlsen - Gelfand, he could have increased his lead over Kramnik and Aronian to a full point. He did reach an ending with an extra pawn, but like Polgar, Gelfand defended very well and held. All rook endings are drawn (except when they aren't)!

The one decisive game du jour was Anand - Topalov, which found the current champion defeat the erstwhile champ in an English Attack. White may not have had much from the opening, but Black found it difficult to coordinate his pieces. Between the h3-c8 diagonal and then the a1-h8 diagonal, Topalov couldn't figure out how to unravel his pieces, and Anand won nicely. (Thanks again, Judit.) This should effectively eliminate Topalov from contention, but now Anand is right back in the mix.

Round 8 Results:

van Wely - Leko 1/2-1/2, 27
Carlsen - Gelfand 1/2-1/2, 67
Anand - Topalov 1-0, 40
Kramnik - Polgar 1/2-1/2, 49
Radjabov - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2, 28
Mamedyarov - Aronian 1/2-1/2, 27
Eljanov - Adams 1/2-1/2, 20

Standings after Round 8:

1. Carlsen 5½
2-3. Kramnik, Aronian 5
4-5. Radjabov, Anand 4½
6-9. Mamedyarov, Adams, Ivanchuk, van Wely 4
10-12. Polgar, Topalov, Leko, 3½
13-14. Eljanov, Gelfand 2½

Pairings for Round 9: (On Tuesday; Monday is a rest day for everyone but Short and Cheparinov in Group B.)

Adams - van Wely
Aronian - Eljanov
Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov
Polgar - Radjabov
Topalov - Kramnik
Gelfand - Anand
Leko - Carlsen

I expect draws from Carlsen and Anand, but Aronian will have a good chance to reach a first-place tie with the white pieces against tail-ender Eljanov. And Topalov - Kramnik should be entertaining, too. (Will they shake hands?) Let's turn to the other groups.

Leading Standings in Group B:

1. Movsesian 6
2. Bacrot 5½
3-5. Smeets, Stellwagen, Harikrishan 4½

Short has 4 and Cheparinov 3½, but with their game yet to be played one of them will make it onto this table.

Leading Standings in Group C:

1. Caruana 6
2. Reinderman 5½
3-5. Braun, Van der Wiel, Negi 5

Braun started with 5/6, but has lost the last two games - to Caruana in today's round - and now not only doesn't lead but has fallen below the rating standard needed for his final GM norm. Fortunately, most of his remaining games are against players on the bottom half of the crosstable, so as long as he isn't too badly shaken his chances of achieving that norm are still very good.

Honorary Group, Round 2:

Korchnoi - Timman was a real game, with the grand old man pressing hard for many moves before acknowledging the draw. Portisch - Ljubo was a damp squib of a game (drawn in 14 moves), but fortunately they'll only play each other once more.

Honorary Group Standings:

1-2. Timman, Korchnoi 1½
3-4. Portisch, Ljubojevic ½

Finally, we close the post with a link: the round 8 games, with my comments, are here.

As noted earlier today, the Short - Cheparinov game from the Corus Group B tournament was adjudged a forfeit when Cheparinov twice refused to shake Short's hand at the start of the game. Cheparinov was willing to shake hands after the arbiter was brought into the matter, and as that seems to agree with the actual FIDE rule, Cheparinov filed an appeal. The Appeals Committee agreed, deciding the following:

1. We declare that GM Cheparinov must make a public excuse to GM Short in a written form before 11.00 hours January 21st 2008 for his refusal to shake hands. 2. Then the game between Ivan Cheparinov and Nigel Short has to be replayed on Monday January 21st 2008 at 13.30 hours. 3. Both players must shake hands at the start of the game. 4. Any player failing to comply with the present decision forfeits the game.

More info here.

They're here. Round 8 report - and games - coming shortly.

Here's the trick: Insult your future opponents or those they are associated with. That way, when it's time to shake hands at the start of the game, they'll refuse and be forfeited, at least in FIDE events. That's what happened in today's (non-) game between Nigel Short and Ivan Cheparinov. Much more on the matter here, for those who are interested, but I'll reproduce the relevant FIDE rule here:

Any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a FIDE tournament or during a FIDE match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.

What do you think, readers? Is this the dumbest rule ever, an attempt to mandate hypocritical acts of respect for even the most vile opponent? (I mean this as a general point, not a remark about Short in particular.) Or is this a reasonable attempt to put the game above personal disputes and nationalistic squabbles?

Last night's massive Fischer post has me too tired to enthusiastically annotate today's Group A games from Corus, but here are the results. (The games will follow in due course.)

Round 7 Results:

Eljanov - van Wely 1/2-1/2
Adams - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Radjabov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Anand 0-1
Topalov - Carlsen 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Leko 1/2-1/2

There were only two decisive games, but everyone put in an honest day's work. Ivanchuk - Kramnik was the shortest game, and it went 37 moves and forced Kramnik to solve some problems before he achieved the draw. Eljanov - van Wely was also drawn, but only after 72 moves and both sides - especially van Wely, near the end - missed good chances for more. Adams - Mamedyarov was a literal fight to the finish, as the game was agreed drawn only when there was no other legal possibility: the players went down to bare kings. Adams had good chances in that game as well, but Mamedyarov's did a better job of neutralizing White's advantage than Adams did of increasing it. Topalov - Carlsen and Gelfand - Leko repeated the pattern: White had an advantage, but missed chances to increase it, resulting in two further draws.

That leaves us with the decisive games, Polgar - Anand and Aronian - Radjabov. Surprisingly, Polgar achieved an advantage coming out of the opening (a double surprise, as her prep usually isn't that great while Anand's generally is), but she lost the thread and then her objectivity. That's generally a fatal combination, and so it was here. Anand won, and thanks to Polgar's present everyone else is going to suffer: once Anand gets confident, he starts chewing up the field. Finally, Aronian's win was about the only really clean performance of the round: he not only achieved an advantage, he carried it through to the finish, to the special delight of Armenians everywhere. The win brings him into a tie for second with Kramnik, half a point behind the tournament's youngest participant.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Carlsen 5
2-3. Kramnik, Aronian 4½
4. Radjabov 4
5-10. Mamedyarov, Adams, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Anand, van Wely 3½
11-12. Polgar, Leko 3
13-14. Eljanov, Gelfand 2

Pairings for Round 8:

van Wely - Leko
Carlsen - Gelfand
Anand - Topalov
Kramnik - Polgar
Radjabov - Ivanchuk
Mamedyarov - Aronian
Eljanov - Adams

Carlsen and Kramnik both have a nice opportunity to solidify their places at the top with White against underperforming opponents, while Anand - Topalov looks likely to eliminate at least one of the world champions from first place contention.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1-2. Movesian, Bacrot 5
3-6. Harikrishna, Stellwagen, Smeets, Short 4

Leading Standings for Group C:

1-2. Caruana, Braun 5 (Braun was bludgeoned by Grivas; I'll have that game for you later.)
3-5. Nijboer, Reinderman, Grivas 4.5

Honorary Group Results, Round 1:

Kortchnoi (or "Korchnoi", or "Kortschnoj") - Portisch 1-0
Ljubojevic - Timman 0-1

These games will also be presented later on.

Etienne Bacrot, the current leader in the Group B event at Wijk aan Zee, won a very nice game over Jan Smeets in the Marshall Gambit in round 5. Or perhaps we could say that Bacrot, Naiditsch (his second), and their computers won the game. The game went 38 moves, and Bacrot was in his home preparation through at least move 27. (His comment to that move: "A tactic that was found just before the game.") Since recognizing the strength of that move requires at least a little examination, it's possible that at least another move or two was part of his preparation. So it was a nice accomplishment: 27+ moves at home, 11- moves at the board.

Anyway, draw your own conclusions, but enjoy the game, which you can replay here.

Round 6 Results:

van Wely - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Leko - Topalov 0-1
Carlsen - Polgar 1-0
Anand - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Aronian 1-0
Radjabov - Adams 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Eljanov 1/2-1/2

Leko - Topalov was a well-balanced English Attack with no one enjoying more than a very slight edge until move 49. Leko chose to trade queens, but Black's two connected passed pawns gave him a large advantage which he was able to convert without much trouble. A completely unnecessary loss for Leko, and a gift for Topalov, who has fought back to 50%.

Radjabov - Adams saw one of Fischer's pet lines from his later career, the Exchange Ruy, but the result was a very un-Fischerlike draw in 25 moves. Radjabov offered what was at best a micro-improvement on move 15, and Adams had no trouble neutralizing it.

Carlsen - Polgar was a 4.Qc2 Nimzo, and one of that line's main themes, the bishop pair, proved the decisive factor. Carlsen's active bishops and Polgar's shaky pawn structure led to White's winning one pawn and then another, with the result one would expect. The victory puts Carlsen in clear first, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Radjabov.

Anand - Ivanchuk saw a rather offbeat twist put to the Classical Caro-Kann, but what might have become an interesting and unusual game ended in an 18-move draw. Compared to van Wely - Gelfand, however, that was going the extra effort. Van Wely innovated on move 14 of a Queen's Indian, and it was effective. Previous games in that line had taken 27 or more moves to wind up drawn; this game, however, found its way to peace in just two more moves. That's what progress in chess is all about. (To be kind, van Wely had lost in the last round and has played hard games throughout the tournament, while Gelfand had lost two straight. So a day off is understandable, as long as they don't make a habit of it.) Mamedyarov - Eljanov was also drawn, but while it looked like the point would be split from early on, they played it to the finish.

Finally, there was the marathon game Kramnik - Aronian. Unlike the micro-novelties mentioned above, Kramnik had something major up his sleeve in the currently hot Moscow Variation of the Semi-Slav. His 26.Nc3! was a big improvement over 26.Qd3 from Radjabov-Anand, Mainz (rapid) 2006. White achieved a clear advantage in the double-rook ending, but never a clearly winning position. Kramnik maneuvered around, but ultimately found nothing better than to enter a R + f & h pawn vs. R ending. This is theoretically drawn, but like R + B vs. R, it's quite possible to lose it, even if you know the basic defensive principles. This ending started on move 57, and through 46 more moves he defended well, if not perfectly, so that the position remained drawn. But on move 103 - finally - he erred, and Kramnik seized his chance and won.

The games, with my comments, are here.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Carlsen 4.5
2-3. Kramnik, Rajdabov 4
4. Aronian 3.5
5-10. Adams, van Wely, Mamedyarov, Ivanchuk, Polgar, Topalov 3
11-12. Leko, Anand 2.5
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 1.5

Pairings for Round 7:

Eljanov - van Wely
Adams - Mamedyarov
Aronian - Radjabov
Ivanchuk - Kramnik
Polgar - Anand
Topalov - Carlsen
Gelfand - Leko

This could be a very meaningful round, as three of the leaders have Black against especially strong opponents (Carlsen, Kramnik, and Radjabov), while two of their opponents are serious contenders in their own right. Further, this is a great chance for Anand to begin his own comeback. Although Polgar is ahead of him in the standings and has had decent results against him the past few years, his overall record against her is very good and his opening prep is almost always far better. So it's a chance. Topalov seems able to stop on a dime and change direction (he can lose two or three games, shrug his shoulders, and then win six in a row), but Anand has long been a player who needs to get his confidence going before he can roll.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1. Bacrot 4.5
2-4. Movsesian, Smeets, Stellwagen 4

Leading Standings for Group C:

1. Braun 5
2-4. Reinderman, Caruana, Nijboer 4

Pairings for the Honorary Group: (Starts in the morning)

Ljubojevic - Timman
Korchnoi - Portisch

The return from the rest day was a mixed bag. There were three decisive results (that's good), but the four draws were all pretty lame (that's bad). Gelfand hasn't been a drawing machine so far (that's good), but only because he has turned into a punching bag (that's bad). The national representative, Loek van Wely, has been playing very well and performing well above his rating (that's good), but he suffered his first loss today (that's bad). Rather than continuing with this and making jokes about frogurt, let's get to the details.

The Mamedyarov - van Wely contest was interesting and well-balanced until near the end, when the Dutchman apparently overlooked Mamedyarov's plan to create a passed f-pawn. Unfortunately, this was the sort of error that was practically impossible to overcome, and he fell back to 50%.

Eljanov - Radjabov was a King's Indian that turned into a sort of Modern Benoni, and things progressed smoothly for the second player. That opening often turns into a race between Black's queenside play and White's attempt to bust through the center with e5 (see for example yesterday's van Wely - Topalov game), and this time Black was ahead in the race. If White had recognized this in time and taken a defensive posture, he'd have survived. Instead, he continued aggressively with 24.f4?, and was overwhelmed. This returned Radjabov to a first place tie.

Adams - Kramnik was a Petroff with 5.Nc3, and when Adams forsook the aggressive try 17.h5 the game quickly devolved to a draw. Aronian - Anand was even less interesting. Instead of 16.Na4, which was played in four previous games that ended in a short draw, Aronian innovated with 16.Nd2...which was drawn four moves later. Ivanchuk - Carlsen was another quickie draw, but Carlsen did have to solve a minor problem (appropriately, since he's a minor) before achieving equality. He did, he did, and they drew.

Polgar - Leko took a bit longer than the three games mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but the result was never in doubt. Polgar met Leko's Marshall Gambit with an interesting idea. She played d3 (well-known) and sacrificed that pawn to reach an ending with bishop and knight against two bishops, but with Leko saddled with an isolated d-pawn. It wasn't enough: Black simply gave up the d-pawn to reach a position where the bishop pair was perfectly active, and White's choices were to make no progress or to enter a hopelessly drawn opposite-colored bishop ending. So, a draw.

Finally, Topalov - Gelfand saw Topalov escape the last-place cellar by sending the blunder-prone Gelfand to take his place. Their game, a Petroff, saw White enjoy a small advantage until Black's 26th move, when Gelfand first blundered a couple of pawns and lose his queen on the next move. Sometimes, this just happens, even to grandmasters, and this time around it's Gelfand's turn. He'll be back.

The games are here, with my comments.

Round 5 Results:

Mamedyarov - van Wely 1-0, 41
Eljanov - Radjabov 0-1, 33
Adams - Kramnik 1/2-1/2, 25
Aronian - Anand 1/2-1/2, 20
Ivanchuk - Carlsen 1/2-1/2, 20
Polgar - Leko 1/2-1/2, 35
Topalov - Gelfand 1-0, 28

Standings after Round 5:

1-3. Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov 3.5
4-5. Kramnik, Polgar 3
6-10. Mamedyarov, van Wely, Leko, Adams, Ivanchuk 2.5
11-12. Anand, Topalov 2
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 1

Pairings for Round 6:

van Wely - Gelfand
Leko - Topalov
Carlsen - Polgar
Anand - Ivanchuk
Kramnik - Aronian
Radjabov - Adams
Mamedyarov - Eljanov

At last, the update promised in the previous post. Have a look.

I'll have more to say about the round 4 games from the Group A event in Wijk aan Zee, along with my analysis, some time later today. (It's a rest day, so you won't fall behind.) For now, here are the results and standings:

Round 4 Results:

van Wely - Topalov 1-0
Gelfand - Polgar 0-1
Leko - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Anand - Adams 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Eljanov 1-0
Radjabov - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 4:

1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 3
3-6. Radjabov, van Wely, Kramnik, Polgar 2.5
7-9. Leko, Adams, Ivanchuk 2
10-11. Mamedyarov, Anand 1.5
12-14. Topalov, Gelfand, Eljanov 1

Pairings for Round 5: (On Thursday)

Mamedyarov - van Wely
Eljanov - Radjabov
Adams - Kramnik
Aronian - Anand
Ivanchuk - Carlsen
Polgar - Leko
Topalov - Gelfand

Group B Leaders:

1-3. Smeets, Bacrot, Harikrishna 3
4-6. Stellwagen, Movsesian, Cheparinov 2.5

Group C Leaders:

1. Braun 4 (He's an IM, but if he keeps playing this well he'll achieve a GM norm and then some.)
2. Caruana 3.5
3. Carlsson 3

Round 3 of the A Group at Corus was a complete dud, but that doesn't mean that anyone else forgot how to play real chess. In group B, six of the seven games were decisive, while group C saw four decisive results (a reasonable cooling off after 13/14 decisive games the first two rounds). Smeets and Bacrot lead in Group B with 2.5/3, while Caruana (send him back!) and Braun are a perfect 3/3 in Group C.

To celebrate the actual chess going on in the auxiliary events, let's have a look at what was probably the most notorious game of the round, 13-year-old Hou Yifan's quick dismemberment of Nigel Short. Click here.

What a lousy round! All 7 games drawn in group A, four of them in 28 moves or fewer, while two of the other games had some fight but never much drama. Only Radjabov - van Wely really taxed the opponents and gave the spectators something meaty to chew on. (Vegetarians and vegans can supply their own alternative metaphors.)

Round 3 Results:

Radjabov - van Wely 1/2-1/2, 85 moves
Mamedyarov - Kramnik 1/2-1/2, 23
Eljanov - Anand 1/2-1/2, 17
Adams - Carlsen 1/2-1/2, 38
Aronian - Leko 1/2-1/2, 28
Ivanchuk - Gelfand 1/2-1/2, 22
Polgar - Topalov 1/2-1/2, 45


Standings after Round 3:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 2.5
3. Radjabov 2
4-9. Kramnik, Polgar, van Wely, Ivanchuk, Adams, Leko 1.5
10-14. Topalov, Eljanov, Gelfand, Anand, Mamedyarov 1


Group A Pairings for Round 4:

van Wely - Topalov (Two battlers - this should be a fine game.)
Gelfand - Polgar (Why have only a rest day on Wednesday, when you can start a day early?)
Leko - Ivanchuk
Carlsen - Aronian (The leaders face off in a reprise of last year's most exciting Candidates match.)
Anand - Adams
Kramnik - Eljanov (It's a little early, but if Kramnik doesn't win this it's hard to see him contending for first.)
Radjabov - Mamedyarov (The Azeri championship.)


Despite the games' brevity, it's still worth checking them out, and you can do so here, complete with my notes.

We start with the results and scoretable:

Round 2 Results:

Topalov - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2, 36 moves
Gelfand - Aronian 0-1, 30
Kramnik - Radjabov 1/2-1/2, 79
Carlsen - Eljanov 1-0, 54
van Wely - Polgar 1/2-1/2, 37
Anand - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2, 36
Leko - Adams 1/2-1/2, 98

Standings after Round 2:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 2
3. Radjabov 1.5
4-9. Kramnik, Polgar, van Wely, Ivanchuk, Adams, Leko 1
10-14. Topalov, Eljanov, Gelfand, Anand, Mamedyarov .5

There were only two decisive games today, but all of the games were genuine fights. (If anything, some of the games went too long.) Taking the games in order, we have:

Topalov - Ivanchuk. The opening was ironic, as Topalov was for some time the only super-GM playing the Modern Benoni on a regular basis. It's not that others have joined him; rather, he has given it up and now no one plays it - at least except for Ivanchuk on this day. Sometimes playing your opponent's favorite opening against him is a clever psychological ploy, but on other occasions it's a dumb idea, as he knows where the bodies are buried. The latter interpretation seemed more apropos today, but Topalov couldn't find a way to really increase the advantage. He remained a bit better, but after an error on move 27 Topalov needed to force the draw.

In Gelfand - Aronian, the latter did his homework, producing a serious improvement on Black's play in the earlier game Gelfand - Sokolov, Merida 2005. In the dynamic situation that arose, Aronian had somewhat the better of the play, but Gelfand was still in the fight (albeit precariously) until his blunder on move 29. Two moves later, he resigned.

Kramnik - Radjabov was a theoretical battle in the Bayonet Variation of the Classical King's Indian. Kramnik achieved a very small edge and was said to be happy with his position after the queen trade, but all he was able to achieve was a R + B + 2P vs. R + B + P ending, with the pawns on the same side. That material balance was established on move 36 and continued, without a shred of White progress, for another 41 moves. Finally, Kramnik swapped rooks and agreed to the draw. Not a great start for the erstwhile world champion, who has burned two whites in two rounds - and not even against his (ostensibly) main rivals.

Carlsen - Eljanov was a technical contest in which the youngster twice outplayed his older opponent. A good game by Carlsen, but Eljanov's play was perplexing.

Van Wely - Polgar was a missed chance for the Dutchman, who was much better most of the way. The Hungarian's openings were shaky, as usual the past couple of years, but her tactics were as strong as ever - the alert 28...Rf8! saved the day.

Likewise, Anand - Mamedyarov also saw the first-named player enjoy an advantage from start almost to finish, but without managing to bring home the full point. Anand's suggested 22.h3 might have made the difference, but missing that, Black was able to escape to a surprisingly drawish double rook ending.

Leko - Adams resembled Kramnik - Radjabov, in that both games relatively quickly reached an ending where all the pawns were one side of the board, White had an extra pawn, and tried for a long time without success to make something of it. There's a difference, though: while Kramnik never had a chance to succeed, Leko's ending was objectively more likely to bear fruit. Nevertheless, Adams defended well, and Leko never got too close to a win.

B- and C-Groups:

In the B-Group there's a 6-way tie for first with 1.5 points; the leaders are Stellwagen, Short, Smeets, Bacrot, Harikrishna and Cheparinov. "Only" 4 players lead in the C-Group: Caruana, Li Shilong, Braun, and Van der Wiel.

Round 3 Pairings: (A-Group)

Radjabov - van Wely
Mamedyarov - Kramnik
Eljanov - Anand
Adams - Carlsen
Aronian - Leko
Ivanchuk - Gelfand
Polgar - Topalov

Round 2 games from the A-group, with my brief comments, are here.

All the short games were drawn and all the long games were decisive in round 1, and the youngsters are showing that 2008 will be a different year than its predecessor. If 2007 was the year of the geezer (Anand winning the world championship with Kramnik and Gelfand in tow; Kamsky winning the World Cup with Shirov second, etc.), this year looks to be different. Radjabov won the ACP Rapid World Cup a few days ago, and he, along with Aronian and Carlsen, won in round one today.

Round 1 Results:

Kramnik - van Wely 1/2-1/2, 25 moves
Radjabov - Anand 1-0, 85
Mamedyarov - Carlsen 0-1, 40
Eljanov - Leko 1/2-1/2, 27
Adams - Gelfand 1/2-1/2, 21
Aronian - Topalov 1-0, 62
Ivanchuk - Polgar 1/2-1/2, 24

In Kramnik - van Wely, the ex-world champion seemed to come out of the opening with a nice edge, but by the end he had nothing and a draw was the appropriate result. Normally this would be a bad result for Kramnik - a draw with White against the lowest-rated player in the field, but today it was good enough to put him in front of his two fellow world champions!

Radjabov - Anand was a complete success for the youngster. The players entered a Moscow Semi-Slav (and not for the first time), and while Anand seemed to be better prepared (unless Radjabov's move repetition was just a psychological trick), he very quickly outplayed the world champion, reached a won ending, and ground out the full point with good technique. These kids are growing up!

Speaking of kids, the youngest of them all made his mark on the round as well - but strangely. Carlsen offered a Dragon Sicilian against Mamedyarov, who chose instead a gruesomely passive version of the Closed Variation. Carlsen equalized without any problem. The position remained balanced for quite a while, but Mamedyarov started to lose the thread around move 30. By move 37 he was lost, but a bad technical error by Carlsen allowed Mamedyarov to equalize. Both players made their 40th moves, and thus reached the time control, and then...0-1. Why? I don't know at this point. Did Mamedyarov lose on time? If so, then perhaps Carlsen made his 40th move on the board but called his opponent's flag before hitting his own clock. Or maybe Mamedyarov had a cell phone in his pocket and it rang. Whatever the case, there's no justification for his resignation, if that's what happened, based on the score of the game as I have it.

Eljanov - Leko was a snoozer. In a stodgy Queen's Indian variant Leko managed to outplay his opponent to some degree and was slightly better most of the way. Apparently he didn't think there was enough to do with that small edge, however, so they called it a day on move 27.

Adams - Gelfand was a real nail-biter. Not because it was tense, but because the game was so boring biting one's nails was necessary to spice things up a bit. My Gelfand prediction is off to a good start! (To be fair, there really wasn't much to do in the final position.)

The appropriate corrective to that game is the Aronian - Topalov struggle. Topalov has introduced another sharp opening to his repertoire - the Grunfeld - and the game saw action practically from the jump. Topalov made an unnecessary but interesting pawn sacrifice, and after the first round of complications ended he was up the exchange for a pawn. His 22nd move was an outright blunder, however, one typical of his play throughout his career (as noted by Bareev in his discussion of the Kramnik-Topalov match, in From London to Elista). The position was approximately equal after that, but Aronian's play in the endgame was far superior and he went on to win.

Finally, Ivanchuk - Polgar was a short draw, but Ivanchuk missed a nice chance, an exchange sac typical of the Topalov era. A very surprising miss by Ivanchuk, who needs to gain some confidence soon.

In group B, Stellwagen, Smeets, Bacrot and Cheparinov were the winners (remember, the group B winner advances to the group A tournament in 2009; likewise with the group C winner, to next year's group B), while in group C all the games were decisive! As for the Honorary Group (Korchnoi, Timman, Ljubojevic and Portisch), they don't start until the 18th.

Group A games, with my comments, here.

It's like opening day in baseball: the fresh start to a new season. Last year's failures are forgotten; hope springs anew! Chess at the top the past year and a half has been especially topsy-turvy: Topalov has been toppled - though he has made a comeback of late, Kramnik is resurgent and Anand is the champion. Young players are encroaching on the geritol crowd, with Aronian, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Karjakin and Carlsen making their presence known. So here we are, at the beginning of 2008, and we can wonder what the new year will bring.

The Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, which starts today (Saturday), is our opening day; the first super-tournament of the year. It might not be much fun for the players, suffering in the cold, windy conditions of Holland in the winter, but for chess fans it's a wonderful treat! Linares, Dortmund, and the MTel Masters are small round-robin events, but at WaZ we get to see 14 players go at it. Or rather, 46(!!) - there are large three round-robin events and a fourth four-man group held simultaneously! There's the premiere event - the A Group - but there are very, very strong B and C Group events as well. And as if this wasn't already an embarrassment of riches, there's a double round-robin featuring some of the greatest players in the world from the 1970s and '80s.

Let's start with a preview of the A Group.

Participants:

Vladimir Kramnik 2799 #1 in the world
Viswanathan Anand 2799 #2 (and world champion)
Veselin Topalov 2780 #3
Shakriyar Mamedyarov 2760 #6
Peter Leko 2753 #8
Vassily Ivanchuk 2751 #9
Levon Aronian 2739 #10
Boris Gelfand 2737 #11
Teimour Radjabov 2735 #12
Magnus Carlsen 2733 #13
Michael Adams 2726 #16
Judit Polgar 2707 #22
Pavel Eljanov 2692 #27
Loek van Wely 2681 #35

(Average rating: 2742; Category 20)

What a field! Here are my predictions, guaranteed to be at least partially wrong.

Kramnik: I believe he will finish in the top three, and may win. His play since coming back from his illness in early 2006 has been outstanding, and he seemed especially hungry last year after coming in second in Mexico City. Normally he's an underdog to Anand in this event, due to the latter's superior skill as a "fish-killer", but there really aren't any fish here. So Kramnik's chances are excellent, if he continues to play with verve.

Anand: The favorite, though maybe not a big one. His record here is outstanding - it's by far his most successful super-tournament year in, year out. If he fails to win, it will most likely be because someone outscored (I don't mean this tautologically, but in the sense that someone will really get hot) him rather than a poor score on his part.

Topalov: I don't think so. He'll probably finish between third and fifth. In almost every event he has a poor stretch, and since this tournament, unlike Morelia/Linares and MTel, isn't a double round-robin, he won't be able to catch up in his usual revenge style. He can get hot, but that won't harm those who already beat him.

Mamedyarov: He gets better all the time, but until he wins a super-tournament it's guilty-until-proven-innocent. Expect him around 4th-6th place if he's in good form.

Leko: He can win this event, but his fairly high degree of risk aversion makes it unlikely. Expect him to go plus 2 (plus or minus one) - if I had to pick one spot for him, it would be third.

Ivanchuk: For much of 2007, he was a rocket; by the end of the year, however, he had turned into a meteor. I'd love to see him bounce back and even win the tournament, but I'm predicting a sixth or seventh place finish for the man who loves chess.

Aronian: Like Ivanchuk, he started 2007 hot but fizzled - his kryptonite appeared in Mexico City. He'll be back. He's a wildcard for me; I have no idea how he'll finish.

Gelfand: Draw, draw, draw, draw, draw...so much talent, so little will to risk. He'll draw 9 or 10 games, minimum, some quickly, and won't be invited to another super-tournament until 2010.

Radjabov: After a great start last year (he tied for first in this tournament in 2007), his results were generally subpar. Radjabov just won the ACP Rapid World Cup a few days ago, however, so he seems in good form for this event. I think a repeat victory is unlikely, but a finish in the top half of the table is a reasonable possibility.

Carlsen: A star on the rise. Carlsen is from a country with brutal weather, so he probably doesn't mind the Wijk aan Zee winter. This could be dangerous for the field, and I think he'll threaten for first.

Adams: Slowly but surely, and perhaps sadly, he is sinking down in the world's rankings. It's hard to believe, given his history, but I think he'll be fortunate to achieve an even score.

Polgar: She'll gain some upsets, but the less often she plays, the less likely it is that her overall tournament will be a success.

Eljanov: A talented young player, but still outclassed in this company.

van Wely: A very talented player who works really hard, but he'll have to be in good form not to turn into the daily full-point bye.

Think you can do a better job of predicting? (You probably do, and can.) Give it your best shot!

And now, here are the pairings for round 1, which, horribly, starts at 7:30 a.m. ET:

Round 1 Pairings:

Kramnik - van Wely
Radjabov - Anand
Mamedyarov - Carlsen
Eljanov - Leko
Adams - Gelfand
Aronian - Topalov
Ivanchuk - Polgar

Comments: Kramnik needs to win to contend for first. If Anand wins, Radjabov probably won't have a good event. Likewise, I think Leko has to avoid losing if he wants to compete. Aronian-Topalov is probably the most intriguing first-round game, and Ivanchuk too will be in trouble if he loses with White to Polgar.

The B-Group:

This group is very strong as well (Cat. 15, Avg. rating 2618 - and it would be significantly higher without local player Spoelman (2424)), starring two 2700s and a former world championship finalist:

Cheparinov 2713
Bacrot 2700
Movsesian 2677
Sargissian 2676
Harikrishna 2664
Short 2645
Krasenkow 2636
Stellwagen 2625
Koneru 2612
Nepomniachtchi 2600
l'Ami 2581
Smeets 2573
Yifan 2527
Spoelman 2424

Group C:

Even this group is pretty strong, a Category 10 tournament (avg. rating 2494) with some impressive stars:

Caruana 2598 (Send him back!!)
Nijboer 2578
Braun 2536
Reinderman 2533 (Once an A-group participant!)
Negi 2526
Grivas 2509
Li Shilong 2502
Carlsson 2501
van der Wiel 2490
Ushenina 2484
Krush 2473
Zhaoqin Peng 2461
van der Werf 2389
Ruijgrok 2329

Legends:

But wait, there's more! I think three of the four tournaments are likely to have a lot of speedy handshakes, but nostalgia lovers will still appreciate the Honorary Group consisting of:

Korchnoi 2605
Timman 2561
Ljubojevic 2543
Portisch 2530

Get ready, folks: the next two and a half weeks will be a chess fan's paradise! The tournament website - a very good one, I hasten to add - is here.