The Chess Mind

Looking through my fridge tonight, I found some leftovers from the Corus festival I thought might be of interest. They weren't from the Group A event, which was covered in depth at the time, but from the B and C tournaments instead. Have a look here, and remember not to heat these leftovers in the microwave - your computer might explode.

In Group A, we entered today's final round with a six-way tie for first, but when the smoke cleared only one player was left standing: Sergey Karjakin. Most of the leaders had the extra challenge of dealing with the black pieces, so however much ambition they might have had, Movsesian and Aronian achieved nothing in the opening against Kamsky and Smeets, and had to settle for draws. (Indeed, Aronian was worse against Smeets, but the latter continued his perplexing course of unambitious chess, often offering draws in superior positions.)

Radjabov, however, had the white pieces against Stellwagen, and even achieved an advantage. He spent too many moves temporizing, however, and his opponent was starting to get the edge. Radjabov bailed out and offered a draw, and Stellwagen followed the Smeets model and accepted.

That left Dominguez and the two young superstars, Karjakin and Carlsen. Last year at this time, I thought they would both continue to progress together, and bemoaned the disparity in their publicity in the chess press. Both had their accomplishments and were of almost the same age, but the ink and bytes devoted to Carlsen overwhelmed that given to Karjakin. As it turned out, 2008 was a banner year for Carlsen, who at one point almost made it to #1 in the world ratings, while Karjakin struggled and even lost points. 2009, however, looks like what I had expected.

Since it finished first, let's start with Dominguez-Karjakin. If some of the other leaders seemed more guided by prudence than ambition, the same cannot be said for Dominguez. He burned all his bridges on a kingside attack, and although it was justified, it meant that when he made some errors, the result was a very lost position. Karjakin defended brilliantly, took his chances, and won the game.

Finally, there's Carlsen, who had to beat Wang Yue to tie Karjakin for first. If Dominguez tried to win with head-hunting, Carlsen's preferred modus operandi is sitzfleisch: head for a technical position, do nothing better than the opponent, and wait for the errors. Wang Yue is pretty good at that kind of chess too, but Carlsen is the pro at that nowadays. It was working, too, as Carlsen transformed White's (Wang Yue's) comfortable opening edge into a superior endgame even before the first time control. A mistaken decision just before the time control, however, allowed Wang Yue to equalize, and then the Chinese player even managed to achieve an edge.

It was Carlsen's turn to defend, and he rose to the challenge, achieving a drawn position. The draw might not yet have been his for the asking, but it was pretty straightforwardly there until the last move of the second time control. I'm not sure if Wang Yue's 60th move deliberately set a trap or did so only "en passant", but Carlsen fell for it, big time. It was a great little tactic, and after it there was no way to come back.

Karjakin therefore took clear first and reminded the chess world that he is still a force to be reckoned with.

Final Group A Standings:

1. Karjakin 8
2-4. Aronian, Radjabov, Movsesian 7.5
5-6. Carlsen, Dominguez Perez 7
7. Kamsky 6.5
8-10. van Wely, Wang Yue, Smeets 6
11-14. Ivanchuk, Stellwagen, Adams, Morozevich 5.5


In Group B, it seemed as if no one wanted to win the event. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe the leaders choked like dogs at an obedience school run by the Marquis de Sade. Whatever the explanation, it was ugly. One co-leader, Kasimdzhanov, managed to achieve a lost position in 16 moves by move 16 against Motylev and was unable to save the game. Volokitin, half a point back, was worse all the way, but in a still very defensible position lost on time making his last move. That left Short - Kasimdzhanov's co-leader - and Caruana - like Volokitin half a point back, and they were paired. Short was fine throughout and winning after the first time control. Unfortunately for him, he apparently talked himself out of the obvious and strong 47...cxd2 and uncorked 47...Nh4+??, after which only very accurate play would even let him save the draw. He did in fact defend very well, finding a near-miracle draw until blundering again with 57...Qb5+?? (57...Qd3+ forced a perpetual). For Caruana it's a great triumph, and gives him automatic qualification into the Group A tournament next year.

Final Group B Standings:

1. Caruana (send him back!) 8.5
2-4. Short, Motylev, Kasimdzhanov 8
5-6. Volokitin, Vallejo Pons 7.5
7. Efimenko 7
8. Navara 6.5
9-10. Reinderman, Hou Yifan 6
11. L'Ami 5.5
12. Mecking 4.5
13-14. Werle, Sasikiran 4


In the generally draw-averse C Group (Final stats: just 25 draws in 91 games!), So naturally made an exception, splitting the point with Howell in 19 moves to clinch clear first. As with Caruana, he too gets an automatic berth into the next group for the 2010 event. So's draw meant that Giri could not catch him even if he won, but he didn't in any case. It was a long game, but he could only draw with Harika, so he finished a point out of first. After losing the last two rounds to fall out of contention for first, Hillarp Persson bounced back, crushing Bosboom in a short and attractive game and thus catching Giri in a tie for second.

Final Group C Standings:

1. So 9.5
2-3. Hillarp Persson, Giri 8.5
4-5. Gupta, Howell 7.5
6. Holzke 6.5
6. Harika 6
8-12. Bitalzadeh, Nijboer, Bosboom, Pruijssers, Iturrizaga 5.5
13. Leon Hoyos 5
14. Romanishin 4.5


The tournament website is here; Group A games, with my comments, are here.

At least it seems that way - six people share first place in Group A: Carlsen, Radjabov, Aronian, Karjakin, Dominguez Perez, and Movsesian. Only eight unlucky souls aren't in the first-place tie! Here's how they got there:

Carlsen-Smeets: Complete destruction. Smeets has been enjoying lots of fairly short draws, and against a motivated Carlsen (who began the tournament in uninspired fashion, drawing nine in a row) half the trend continued: it was short, but it wasn't a draw. With White in a Panov/Botvinnik Caro-Kann, Carlsen created weaknesses on both sides of the board, tying his opponent down everywhere. When it was time to start losing material, Smeets gave up.

Movsesian-Radjabov was a short Rossolimo Sicilian with content. Radjabov had to be careful with his king, not hurrying to castle into an attack. Only when Movsesian had allowed the center to open was it time to squirrel the king off to the kingside.

If White had won in Aronian-Morozevich he'd have taken the sole lead, but while it was a complicated and topsy-turvy game his opponent was able to hold the draw.

Karjakin-Adams was a success for the youngest-ever grandmaster, who out-thought or out-prepared the Englishman in a Zaitsev Ruy sideline. Maybe 15...exd4 is playable, but strong OTB and correspondence players have failed to prove it.

Ivanchuk-Dominguez was an easy draw for Black in a 5.f3 Anti-Najdorf. The game's primary value is to the spectators, who can see how high-level players meet this sideline.

That takes care of all the games involving leaders. The two remaining games were draws of varying interest. Stellwagen-Wang Yue was good propaganda for the Berlin, as Wang Yue was clearly better after only 25 moves. Unfortunately for him, he either missed White's fairly simple tactic or thought (wrongly, I believe) that he didn't have anything anyway, and Stellwagen escaped. Finally, van Wely-Kamsky was a very short draw.

Standings After Round 12:

1-6. Carlsen, Radjabov, Aronian, Karjakin, Dominguez Perez, Movsesian 7
7. Kamsky 6
8-10. van Wely, Ivanchuk, Smeets 5.5
11-13. Wang Yue, Stellwagen, Adams 5
14. Morozevich 4.5

We're down to the last round, so here are the pairings:

Kamsky (6) - Movsesian (7)
Adams (5) - van Wely (5.5)
Dominguez (7) - Karjakin (7)
Morozevich (4.5) - Ivanchuk (5.5)
Smeets (5.5) - Aronian (7)
Wang Yue (5) - Carlsen (7)
Radjabov (7) - Stellwagen (5)


In the B Group, the race is heating up. Short could only draw with Efimenko, so he was caught in first place by Kasimdzhanov (who beat L'Ami). Caruana could have joined the tie, but he only drew with Reinderman and was himself caught by Volokitin, who defeated the rapidly sinking Navara.

Leading Group B Standings:

1-2. Short, Kasimdzhanov 8
3-4. Volokitin, Caruana 7.5
5. Motylev 7

Key Last Round Pairings:

Motylev - Kasimdzhanov
Caruana - Short
Efimenko - Volokitin

That worked out well, didn't it?


Finally, Hillarp Persson continued his collapse, losing badly with White against So. So has thus clinched a tie for first place, and can only be caught by the surging Anish Giri, who won his fifth game in a row.

Leading Group C Standings:

1. So 9
2. Giri 8

Key Last Round Pairings:

So - Howell
Harika - Giri

N.B. The staggering wave of anti-drawism in the C Group continued: there weren't any today. That makes a total of three draws the last five rounds, and only 22 (out of 91 games) for the entire tournament! It's even more remarkable, considering how many players are out of contention for the top places, as it's common to see people finish a bad event by drawing games as quickly as possible.

Tournament website here; Group A games with my comments here.

It was an especially noteworthy day in the Corus A Group, as first-placed Aronian and second-placed Karjakin both lost, radically changing the top of the leaderboard.

Dominguez-Aronian saw a terrific piece of preparation by Dominguez, whose (near-) novelty and further analysis essentially won the game at home. That allowed Dominguez to catch Aronian in first, and they have company. Wang Yue-Radjabov looked perfectly comfortable for White for a long time, but Radjabov outplayed his opponent in the late middlegame and ending to win and join the tie for first. The fourth musketeer is the winner of van Wely-Movsesian. Van Wely had a nice position with White in an English, but between Black's KID-style attack and van Wely's time pressure mistakes, Movsesian pulled out the win.

Carlsen and Karjakin are just half a point back. The latter was already there at the start of the round, and the blowout that was the Kamsky-Karjakin game kept him there. Morozevich-Carlsen, on the other hand, was well-played by both sides, and the draw was the right result, earned by both players. Finally, the Dutch battle Smeets-Stellwagen was also drawn.

Group A Standings after Round 11:

1-4. Aronian, Radjabov, Dominguez Perez, Movsesian 6.5
5-6. Carlsen, Karjakin 6
7-8. Smeets, Kamsky 5.5
9-11. van Wely, Ivanchuk, Adams 5
12-13. Wang Yue, Stellwagen 4.5
14. Morozevich 4


In the B Group, Short kept his lead thanks to Navara's amazing self-destruction, but he's still only half a point ahead of Caruana (who beat Sasikiran) and Kasimdzhanov, whose excellent technique defeated Mecking's correspondingly bad technique.

Leading Group B Standings:

1. Short 7.5
2-3. Kasimdzhanov, Caruana 7
4-6. Volokitin, Motylev, Vallejo Pons 6.5


In the C Group, then-leader Hillarp Persson lost to the lowest-rated player in the event (Bitalzadeh) and was passed by So (who beat Bosboom). The biggest story of the day in that group, however, was Russian star Anish Giri's win, or rather what resulted from it. Although the 14-year-old was just an FM coming into the event (not all FMs are created equally [cough, cough]), the win netted him his third GM norm (and apparently the rating is taken care of too), so he now becomes the 12th youngest grandmaster of all time. (His mark: 14 years, 7 months, 2 days. More on this here.) Congratulations!

Congratulations to the whole field of the C Group, for that matter, who had just one draw today. This means that in their last four rounds, they have seen a grand total of three draws. Chess is dead, indeed.

Leading Group C Standings:

1. So 8
2. Hillarp Persson 7.5 (note: they play in the next round)
3. Giri 7


The tournament site is here (and it's a very good one), while the Group A games, with my commentary, are here.

You might remember that in round 10 of the Group A event in Corus the game Radjabov-Smeets was agreed drawn under unusual circumstances. In severe time trouble, Radjabov executed the penultimate move of the time control but knocked one of Smeets' pieces off its square, and Smeets restarted Radjabov's clock and - though this is disputed - told Radjabov to fix the piece on his own time. Radjabov's flag fell (in a winning position) and he protested, ostensibly on the grounds that Smeets spoke to him.

As far as the rules are concerned, it seems that the correct decision would have been to forfeit Radjabov, but the arbiters suggested as a compromise that the players agree to a draw, and they were amenable. You can see much more about all this here and here. What struck me most about the videos was just how implausible the players' comments were, from Radjabov's agnosticism about the rules and his claim that it's "impossible to arbitrate" such a situation, to Smeets' claim that the position on the board was irrelevant. (Yes, I'm sure he would have accepted the arbiters' draw proposal if his position had been winning.) From a purely competitive standpoint, however, I think their comments make good sense. Both players put a positive spin on what happened, which should help them maintain the right frame of mind as the tournament continues.

Another fine round, with lots of action from the leaders. First and foremost, there was Aronian's win in Aronian-Adams. The Armenian convincingly outplayed his opponent, first creating weak pawns in Black's camp and then exploiting them in a textbook-like performance.

If White had won in Karjakin-van Wely, then Aronian would have company in first. Karjakin did obtain an advantage, but wasn't able to close the deal, and so he's half a point back in clear second.

There's a four-way tie for third. Two of the four faced off in Carlsen-Dominguez. Dominguez started the round tied for first, while Carlsen had been at 50%, having drawn all nine of his games. Had Dominguez played ...Qd5 at some point (e.g. on move 29) Carlsen's streak probably would have continued, but once he opened the door the young Norwegian drove through it with a Hummer. In the end, Black was quickly flattened by an attack that went through the a1-h8 diagonal.

Another member of the fearsome foursome was a bit unlucky not to move into second. Radjabov-Smeets saw creative attacking play by White. Radjabov sacrificed multiple pieces, drove Smeets' king all over the board, and although he didn't finish as convincingly as he could have, he was still winning when he made his 39th move. In terrible time trouble, Radjabov's haste to make the move (39.Re7) pushed Black's bishop off of e8. Smeets replied by pushing Radjabov's clock and requesting that he correct the piece first. Radjabov's flag fell, and then he protested to the arbiter on the grounds that Smeets inappropriately spoke to him.

On the merits, based on the rulebook, Smeets seems to be in the right. (See Mark Crowther's useful discussion here.) Fortunately for Radjabov, the arbiters proposed that they split the baby, or at least the point, and on this occasion the Solomonic advice was followed as-is. Radjabov was both unlucky and lucky in the same game, in the same incident!

Movsesian-Wang Yue saw the last of the third placers, with Movsesian securing his spot with a fairly weak effort against his opponent's Petroff.

In the other games: Ivanchuk-Kamsky saw White press throughout, but Kamsky's patient defense and Ivanchuk's tactical lapse on move 56 let Black draw. Finally, Stellwagen-Morozevich was a bit ridiculous, with the two tailenders basically plagiarizing the round 9 game Volokitin-Kasimdzhanov from the B Group.

Standings after Round 10:

1. Aronian 6.5
2. Karjakin 6
3-6. Carlsen, Radjabov, Dominguez, Movsesian 5.5
7-8. van Wely, Smeets 5
9-12. Ivanchuk, Wang Yue, Adams, Kamsky 4.5
13. Stellwagen 4
14. Morozevich 3.5


In the B Group, Short drew and is still in clear first, but there's a big group nipping at his heels.

Leading B Group Standings:

1. Short 6.5
2-6. Navara, Caruana, Kasimdzhanov, Volokitin, Motylev 6
7-8. Vallejo Pons, Efimenko 5.5

(Not all the children are above average, but most of them are!)


In the C Group, the budding "tradition" from the last two rounds came to an end. In those rounds, six of the seven games were decisive, but not this time. In round 10, every game was decisive! Among the winners were the top three: leader Hillarp Persson, and then the prodigies So and (FM, but not for long) Giri.

Leading C Group Standings:

1. Hillarp Persson 7.5
2. So 7
3. Giri 6


Tournament website here, Group A games with my comments here.

The day after the rest day was a mixed bag. Three games were very hard fights that wound up with a winner, while the four draws were all fairly short. Let's start with the wins.

The most important one was Karjakin-Movsesian. Movsesian was in clear first coming into the round, but now he's tied for fourth. In the opening, Movsesian improved on his play in his round four battle with Stellwagen, a game he was lucky to draw, and soon the players reached an equal but imbalanced queen and rook ending. Movsesian was in drawing range for a long time, but Karjakin gradually outplayed him and won the queen ending. This put Karjakin in a tie for first alongside the day's other two victors, Aronian and Dominguez.

Turning to Kamsky-Aronian, the latter used the Berlin Defense, an opening he says he likes to play when he's in a winning mood (see the tournament website's report on the round). I'm a little surprised that it worked on this occasion, as I'd have figured Kamsky for a player whose patient, grinding style would be well-suited for this opening, but it wasn't this time. Aronian quickly gained an advantage, and despite some errors his victory was the normal result.

White's win in Dominguez-Stellwagen produced the third member of the leading triumvirate. Dominguez was better on the White side of a main line Winawer French, and although his technique was a little shaky around the time control, he still had (just) enough advantage to win the ending.

Turning to the draws, van Wely-Ivanchuk contributed to opening theory. In the English Four Knights with 4.g3, Black's usually defends his e-pawn with 12...f6. Ivanchuk ignored this seeming duty with the rare 12...Nd5 and van Wely got nothing. Unless 13.Na4 is strong against this move, it looks like Ivanchuk is onto something important.

Less inspiring were Morozevich-Radjabov and especially Smeets-Wang Yue. The former saw Morozevich end up as "Black" (a tempo down for nothing in a symmetrical position) just a dozen moves into the game; fortunately, the game was so staid that he drew with ease. As for Smeets-Wang Yue, the game finished in perpetual check and duplicated a 2008 game move for move.

Adams-Carlsen was more interesting. Adams played a sideline against Carlsen's Dragon, castling kingside and hoping for a little queenside pressure. Carlsen played actively, especially with 21...e5, and the game remained balanced throughout.

Standings after Round 9:

1-3. Aronian, Karjakin, Dominguez Perez 5.5
4-5. Radjabov, Movsesian 5
6-9. Carlsen, van Wely, Smeets, Adams 4.5
10-12. Ivanchuk, Wang Yue, Kamsky 4
13. Stellwagen 3.5
14. Morozevich 3


In the B Group Short drew and continues to lead by half a point, but the group of sharks ready to chomp his heels is growing.

Leading Group B Standings:

1. Short 6
2-6. Navara, Caruana, Volokitin, Vallejo Pons, Motylev 5.5
7. Kasimdzhanov 5


In the C Group only one game was drawn (for the second straight round), and that one featured Hillarp Persson, the leader. His five closest pursuers all won, so while he continues to lead, the margin has shrunk.

Leading Group C Standings:

1. Hillarp Persson 6.5
2. So 6
3-5. Gupta, Holzke, Howell 5.5


Tournament site here; Group A games, with my comments, here.

Here's a nice, short meditation on Ivanchuk, his love for the game, and his recently resolved trouble with FIDE.

Here's a weird statistic: in four of the eight rounds, there have been only two decisive games, and in each case one of the games was Ivanchuk's and the other Morozevich's. This was the fourth such round. Both players have been having lousy tournaments, but in Ivanchuk-Karjakin "Chuky" finally played like himself, winning a very high quality game against the then-tournament leader. Meanwhile, in Wang Yue-Morozevich, Moro demonstrated that yesterday's win was the aberration, as he once again lost without a fight. He's back to -3 and clear last.

Two draws - Carlsen-Kamsky and Radjabov-Dominguez were super-quick draws. Stellwagen-Adams was also a short draw, but this was a sadder affair than the non-games just mentioned. This one was really heating up when the players bailed out with a repetition. Generally speaking, it looks like Stellwagen and Smeets can't really believe they're here and in such company, as they've both been happy to accept draws in good positions. Indeed, that's just what happened in Movsesian-Smeets. The final position was drawish and that was the likeliest result, but Smeets could have continued without any risk and with some small hopes. With a rest day coming up anyway, he shouldn't have feared expending a bit more energy. The third Dutchman also drew, but that was a completely different story. White really should have won in Aronian-van Wely, but just as van Wely failed to convert a decisive advantage against Carlsen yesterday, so too did Aronian today. The important thing is that they battled and gave the spectators a good show.

Standings after Round 8:

1. Movsesian 5
2-5. Aronian, Radjabov, Dominguez Perez, Karjakin 4.5
6-10. Carlsen, Smeets, van Wely, Adams, Kamsky 4
11-13. Stellwagen, Ivanchuk, Wang Yue 3.5
14. Morozevich 2.5


In the B Group, the top three drew, with only a little action on the lower boards. Here are their leading standings:

1. Short 5.5
2-3. Volokitin, Motylev 5
4-7. Navara, Caruana, Vallejo Pons, Kasimdzhanov 4.5


Meanwhile, there was a bloodbath in Group C, with the only draw involving Bosboom (ironically). Hillarp Persson won and So lost thanks to a crass blunder, so the former leads the latter by a point; a group of four comprising the men's and women's junior champions (Gupta and Harika), Bosboom and Holzke (the recipient of So's blunder) are another half a point back.

Tournament site here; Group A games with my comments here.

There were only two wins today in Group A, but they were both important for the tournament lead.

Ivanchuk-Movsesian was the most important, in that Movsesian's win put him in a tie for first with Karjakin. It was a tense battle in a Scheveningen Sicilian, and Movsesian's kingside and central play proved more dangerous than Ivanchuk's queenside demonstration. It was an impressive win by Movsesian, and so far a very impressive tournament by Movsesian as well. He has been an elite GM for a decade, but until recently never looked like a prospective member of the super-GM club. Yet here he is, ranked #11 in the world and tied for first in a "Grand Slam" event.

Morozevich-Smeets was a tragedy of sorts. Morozevich has had a horrible tournament and Smeets the event of his life, but the game went along the lines one would expect given their ratings. Morozevich pressed all the way, but with patient defense Smeets seemed to have the draw in sight. Unfortunately, he considered all temporizing moves to be equal and blundered, missing a simple tactic. That knocked him a full point off the leaders' pace, but hopefully he'll rebound soon.

The other five games were drawn, but not all draws are created equally. The main virtue of Karjakin-Aronian and Adams-Radjabov was that it reduced commentators' workloads, but the other three games were better. Dominguez-Wang Yue was no barn-burner, but it demonstrated another thematic ending of interest to Berliners. (Also, compare Wang Yue's decision to allow e6 followed by Bxc7 with my comments to Stellwagen-Carlsen from round 2. We keep you ahead of the curve here!)

Much more exciting was van Wely-Carlsen. Van Wely should have bagged his second straight win over a super-prodigy, but he mishandled his advantage and let Carlsen escape with a draw. Likewise, Kamsky-Stellwagen saw the older player - in this case Kamsky - build a winning advantage before letting a resourceful opponent escape. Stellwagen's 53...Qc1!! was especially impressive. There are some beautiful tactics in the notes to these last two games, so do check those out.

Standings after Round 7:

1-2. Karjakin, Movsesian 4.5
3-5. Aronian, Radjabov, Dominguez Perez 4
6-10. Carlsen, van Wely, Smeets, Adams, Kamsky 3.5
11. Stellwagen 3
12-14. Wang Yue, Morozevich, Ivanchuk 2.5


In the B group, the game of the day was Short-Kasimdzhanov, who shared the lead (with Navara) coming into the round. Short ground the former FIDE champ down with another of his museum openings, and now he's in clear first. Navara lost to L'Ami, and he and Kasimdzhanov are now tied for fifth! They were leapfrogged by three players - Caruana (send him back!), Motylev and Volokitin, who defeated Werle, Hou Yifan and Reinderman, respectively. Efimenko-Vallejo Pons was the round's only draw, and in the other game tailender Mecking won his first game, defeating Sasikiran.

Leading Group B Standings:

1. Short 5
2-4. Caruana, Motylev, Volokitin 4.5
5-7. Navara, Efimenko, Kasimdzhanov 4


In group C, leader So was held to a draw, and was caught in first by Hillarp Persson, who beat Iturrizaga. Gupta beat Howell and is in third, half a point behind, and Bosboom is in fourth, another half a point back. Bosboom's case was especially sad. With Black against Leon Hoyos, he played a wonderful queen sacrifice and was pressing all game long. It was a long game, but at some moment he went a bridge too far and lost. A real pity.

Leading Group C Standings:

1-2. So, Hillarp Persson 5
3. Gupta 4.5
4. Bosboom 4

Tournament site here; Group A games, with my comments, here.

There were three decisive games today, and that there been a fourth - the right fourth - there would have been a seven-way tie for first. Instead, because Carlsen-Karjakin was a draw, Karjakin keeps his half-point lead over the field for at least one more day. Carlsen was winning for a fair chunk of the middlegame, but his 29th and 35th moves were big errors that let his opponent escape.

In Movsesian-Morozevich, there was no escape to be had for Morozevich, who is rapidly approaching free-fall mode at -3. In a worse but tenable position, "Moro" either panicked or got overconfident (or simply missed something) and sacrificed a piece. Movsesian took it, made a few accurate moves, and the game was over. As a result, the winner is part of the big second-place tie.

Smeets-Dominguez was a short draw that almost completely rehashed existing theory. Dominguez no doubt enjoyed the easy day with Black, while Smeets (like Dominguez) retains the pleasure of being part of the second-place tie. As he (Smeets) is the lowest-rated player in the field - by a long way, if one doesn't count his compatriots Stellwagen and van Wely - it's hard to resist adding to one's total on the scoreboard.

Wang Yue-Adams saw the Englishman come back to 50%, winning a nice game in a Tartakower QGD. It's not easy to win with Black in that variation, but Adams' win was convincing.

Radjabov-Kamsky had the players "castling": Kamsky was half a point ahead before the round and tied for second, and now it's Radjabov who's in second, ahead of his rival. Kamsky has been playing non-critical continuations the whole tournament, but here too they "castled". Radjabov chose the rare 5.Nc5 line against the Caro-Kann, positionally outplayed his opponent and won. (Radjabov doesn't just win by confusing his opponents in the King's Indian.)

Stellwagen-van Wely was a hard-fought draw in a Najdorf sideline; finally, Aronian-Ivanchuk was a Queen's Indian that always seemed headed for a draw (which it was).

Group A Standings after Round 6:

1. Karjakin 4
2-6. Radjabov, Smeets, Aronian, Dominguez Perez, Movsesian 3.5
7-10. Carlsen, van Wely, Adams, Kamsky 3
11-12. Stellwagen, Ivanchuk 2.5
13. Wang Yue 2
14. Morozevich 1.5


In Group B, Kasimdzhanov only drew with Caruana, which let Short and Navara catch back up by beating Vallejo Pons and Reinderman, respectively (in both cases with the black pieces). The leading group is densely packed:

Leading Group B Standings:

1-3. Navara, Kasimdzhanov, Short 4
4-7. Caruana, Motylev, Efimenko, Volokitin 3.5
(In last, a little sadly perhaps but not surprisingly, is Mecking, who has just one point so far.)


In Group C, Hillarp Persson lost, with White, to Gupta, allowing So to leapfrog him into first with a win over Leon Hoyos. Bosboom bounced back from his round 5 loss, so he's well in the hunt too.

Leading Group C Standings:

1. So 4.5
2-3. Hillarp Persson, Bosboom 4


Tournament site here, Group A games with my comments here.

There was lots of action in round 5, with only three draws in the seven games. Let's get those out of the way with.

In the every day is a rest day department, Kamsky-Wang Yue was a Petroff, and Kamsky's 4.Nc4 suggested that he wasn't looking for an incisive battle either. By move 24, the players were satisfied that they had fulfilled their obligations and called it a day. Ivanchuk-Carlsen was also a 24-move non-battle, and this too was understandable. In Kamsky's case, the need to hide preparation and save strength for his forthcoming match with Topalov explains his quick draws, while Ivanchuk's good news probably left him in little mood for battle today. Finally, draw #3 was Adams-Smeets, which made a little less sense to me. In another Petroff, Adams tried a variation that had a brief flurry of popularity in 1999 before Ivan Sokolov solved it, and nothing in this game suggests it's in for a revival. Perhaps Adams hoped Smeets was too young to remember the line and too busy to have studied it; if so, his gamble failed.

On to the wins. Karjakin-Stellwagen was the most important, in that White's win put the youngster in clear first place. Stellwagen sacrificed the exchange in a Taimanov Sicilian, and while the idea didn't lose it put continuous pressure on the Dutchman to justify it. In the end, he failed to do so, and Karjakin's rooks carried the day.

Aronian-Movsesian was a convincing positional win for the first player. Early on, Movsesian chose queenside pawn weaknesses in return for a little play; unfortunately for him, Aronian was able to neutralize the compensation. Later on White managed to create further weaknesses, and Black was unable to hold it all together. Aronian is now tied for second.

In Dominguez-Morozevich, Black dared to repeat a dubious or at least dangerous idea he had used against Leko last year. It worked then, but with the chance to prep for this, Dominguez jumped all over him. Morozevich was always worse, and didn't put up much resistance either. So far, the event has been a disaster for Morozevich, who is in clear last with a -2 score.

Finally, there was the fun battle between van Wely and Radjabov, who for the sixth time in their history played a Bayonet King's Indian (five times in the last two years). Van Wely, who is always White in these match-ups, improved on a 2003 Ponomariov-Radjabov game. His novelty wasn't bad, and it was probably good strategy too to head for a somewhat older line. In any case, Radjabov failed to solve the problems at the board, and van Wely finished in style with a crushing attack.

Standings after Round 5:

1. Karjakin 3.5
2-5. Smeets, Aronian, Dominguez Perez, Kamsky 3
6-9. Radjabov, van Wely, Carlsen, Movsesian 2.5
10-13. Wang Yue, Adams, Stellwagen, Ivanchuk 2
14. Morozevich 1.5


In the B Group, one of the round 4 leaders, Kasimdzhanov, took another rest day, drawing with Black in just 14 moves. As it turned out, it was a brilliant decision, as his fellow leaders, Short and Caruana, lost to Sasikiran and Efimenko, respectively.

Leading Group B Standings:

1. Kasimdzhanov 3.5
2-7(!). Navara, Efimenko, Short, Caruana, Volokitin, Vallejo Pons 3


In the C Group, Bosboom lost to Gupta and finally fell out of first; his co-leader, Hillarp Persson, won and leads So by half a point.

Leading Group C Standings:

1. Hillarp Persson 4
2. So 3.5
3-4. Bosboom, Howell 3


Tournament site here, Group A games, with my comments, here.

(That's a Proto-(Rest Day), not a (Proto-Rest) Day.)

With the first official rest day coming tomorrow, several of the participants decided that if one day off is good, two days off are even better. We thus wound up with a perfect 6/6 in draws today - in Group A only, I hasten to add - though not all the games were short.

Radjabov-Karjakin was the shortest of the draws, a Slav of sorts that never really got going. Smeets-Kamsky was almost as short (22 moves to the 21 of Radjabov-Karjakin), but I think Kamsky's 21st move may have been inaccurate. If Smeets had played 22.g5, he may have had a little something, and even in the final position there was room to play. It's understandable that Smeets would call it a day, though, as he's the lowest seed and yet tied for first.

The games Stellwagen-Ivanchuk and Movsesian-Dominguez went a bit longer, but there was little danger that anyone would avoid a draw. Wang Yue-van Wely made it to move 46 without anyone obtaining real chances. Morozevich-Adams was a different story. Adams came out of the opening fine, but when he followed a correct pawn sacrifice (16...d4!) with the incorrect 18...Qb5, he was in trouble. Morozevich returned the extra pawn for various positional advantages, but after a long and accurate defense, Adams saved the game. Finally, Carlsen-Aronian saw an exchange of opening errors and an interesting piece sac by Aronian. It kept the game lively, but the sacrifice was ultimately aimed at drawing, not winning, and that's what it succeeded in doing.

Obviously enough, then, the relative standings remain unchanged:

Group A Standings After Round 4:

1-5. Karjakin, Radjabov, Smeets, Kamsky, Movsesian 2.5
6-9. Carlsen, Aronian, Dominguez Perez, Stellwagen 2
10-14. Adams, van Wely, Wang Yue, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 1.5

In Group B, two of the leaders (Short and Kasimdzhanov) remained in place, while a third (Navara) swapped places with his conquerer (Caruana).

Leading Group B Standings:

1-3. Short, Caruana, Kasimdzhanov 3
4-5. Navara, Vallejo Pons 2.5

Last, but not least...OK, but least:

Leading Group C Standings:

1-2. Hillarp Persson, Bosboom 3
3-5. Bitzaldeh, Iturrizaga, So 2.5

Tournament site here, Group A games (with my comments) here.

After three rounds, there's a three-way tie for first in the B-tournament in Wijk aan Zee as Kasimdzhanov, Short, and Navara all have 2.5/3. All three won in round 3, and the first two won in striking fashion. Those wins can be replayed here.

Another good round, and in some ways a copy of the first one. Once again there were only two decisive games, and again the losers were the top seeds, Ivanchuk and Morozevich. They lost with the same colors as in round 1, and to top it all off, Ivanchuk against lost because of time in a game where he was never worse until the losing moment. In round 1, that happened when his flag fell; this time, it was a simple blunder that did him in. Here's the roundup:

Ivanchuk-Radjabov: A King's Indian where Black's kingside play never really got going until near the time control, and even then it wasn't too serious. On the other hand, White may not have made the most of his chances, and the game might reasonably have ended in a draw after 38.Rg3. Instead, Ivanchuk blundered a piece with 38.Rxc7??, and the game was over three moves later.

Kamsky-Morozevich was an Archangelsk that saw Kamsky bow out of a theoretical dispute with 10.d3. White didn't achieve anything out of the opening - which, as I've noted more than once in covering this event, probably isn't his intention given the pending match with Topalov - but it didn't matter. Morozevich misjudged something in the early middlegame, lost several tempi, and allowed White to whip up a deadly attack without having to do anything too special. The result was a massacre.

In the draw department, Carlsen-Movsesian was an easy draw for Black in a 4.e3 Slav - White never had anything. Aronian-Stellwagen saw Black comfortably equalize in a Panov/Botvinnik Caro-Kann, and at the end of the game Stellwagen seemed to be better. I could be misassessing the final position, but unless he was in severe time trouble I think he could have played on. He had some advantage, and just as importantly, there was little risk in continuing. Karjakin-Wang Yue was a dry game where Karjakin was generally a bit better, but with one possible exception late in the game never close to a real advantage. Van Wely-Smeets was short but very lively; a main line Botvinnik Variation Semi-Slav with a strong novelty from Smeets. He drew very easily and I'm sure the entire game was prep. This game might mark the end of 19.Kxf1 in the Uhlmann Variation. Finally, Adams-Dominguez was a well-played, interesting draw in a Fischer Variation Najdorf. Adams was always pressing, but Dominguez managed to keep just enough play throughout to avoid becoming a victim of Adams' long-term assets.

Standings after Round 3:

1-5. Karjakin, Movsesian, Radjabov, Smeets, Kamsky 2
6-9. Carlsen, Stellwagen, Aronian, Dominguez Perez 1.5
10-14. Adams, van Wely, Wang Yue, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 1

Corus B Group Leaders:

1-3. Navara, Short, Kasimdzhanov 2.5
4. Caruana (Send him back!) 2

Corus C Group Leaders:

1-2. Bosboom, Iturrizaga 2.5
3-5. Romanishin, So, Hillarp Persson 2

Tournament site here, games with my comments here.

Today's play was a little quieter, but as compensation there was one more win in today's round relative to yesterday's.

Morozevich-van Wely: In a somewhat sloppy game, Morozevich took down one of his regular customers. The big culprit was van Wely's 26...Kg7, when 27.e5 gave Moro a very usable space advantage. Despite the later errors, the resulting trend was strongly in White's favor, and he eventually won.

Movsesian-Adams: Movsesian used a rare and generally unappreciated gambit in the Giuoco, and it worked out very well. White was able to use all his advantages, and even before his blunder on move 35 Adams had a poor position.

Wang Yue-Ivanchuk: A crazy game, in which the players alternated brilliant ideas and outright blunders. Ivanchuk produced a strong novelty (albeit in an almost unknown position) and Wang Yue almost immediately blundered. Several moves later Ivanchuk made a couple of errors, and then Wang Yue found some remarkable counterplay, leading to an objectively equal but ridiculously messy position. The final error was Wang Yue's: whose suicidal 20.O-O-O+ walked into a vicious attack. The game only went 25 moves, but they were eventful!

Less so Dominguez-Kamsky and especially Radjabov-Aronian. It looks like the usually feisty Kamsky is taking this tournament off, and with the match with Topalov just around the corner I can't say that I blame him. He needs to save his strength and novelties for the event that really counts.

Smeets-Karjakin was a more interesting draw, if only because it demonstrated how to successfully battle against a dangerous strategic plan. Stellwagen-Carlsen was a good battle as well, a Berlin where Black's good defense prevented White from gaining an appreciable advantage.

Standings after Round 2:

1-3. Karjakin, Smeets, Movsesian 1.5
4-11. Stellwagen, Carlsen, Radjabov, Aronian, Dominguez, Kamsky, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 1
12-14. Adams, van Wely, Wang Yue .5

In the B-tournament, 5 players lead: Kasimdzhanov, Short, Navara, Caruana and Efimenko, who each have 1.5/2. Surprisingly, the only 2-0 player between the three events is Dutch IM Manuel Bosboom, a rabid attacking player who leads the C-group.

Games here, with my notes.

Stellwagen-Movsesian was a strange game. In an English Attack, Movsesian improved on an earlier game, but then seemed to misassess his attacking prospects. After a few moves, Stellwagen was winning, and even after an inaccuracy he was still winning or nearly so at the end when a draw was agreed.

Carlsen-Radjabov was a "Tarrasch" Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4) that took a fascinating turn. Carlsen's 14.Bh6!? put some fire in a position that was a move or two away from dull equality (though perhaps 14.Bxd5 Bxd5 and only then 15.Bh6 might have been even better), and it introduced a very unusual sequence. Black played 14...Nxe5, and while White always had it in his power to regain the sacrificed piece (though in very different ways), he did not actually do so until 23.bxc3. Carlsen pushed all the way, but inaccuracies on moves 14 and 15 allowed Radjabov to survive.

Aronian-Wang Yue saw the popular Sokolov Defense (as Vigus has dubbed it) in the Slav. It's a very solid line, and it did its job today. Despite Aronian's novelty on move 17, Wang Yue kept the balance without too much trouble, and when Aronian erred he even managed to win a pawn. Aronian's position was otherwise very good, though, and the game ended in a draw.

Ivanchuk-Smeets had a bizarre finish, as Ivanchuk games often do - sadly. Ivanchuk had been equal or better from start to finish, but lost on time before making his 40th move (the time control).

Karjakin-Morozevich was the other decisive game in the round. Karjakin won in only 26 moves, but it wasn't so much a crush as a Morozevich lapse in a dangerous position that was ruthlessly exploited.

Van Wely-Dominguez was a long draw. Van Wely pushed for a long time, but Dominguez' patient defense sufficed.

Finally, Kamsky-Adams was the dud du jour, but with 6 interesting games here and 14 other contests in the B- and C-groups, it's not worth bothering about. Besides, it makes my life as an annotator slightly easier!

The tournament site is here (and one can find other reports on the goings-on here, here, here, here and here (if you read Russian)), while my annotations can be replayed here.

The festivities begin in less than two hours. Here are the first-round pairings:

Aronian - Wang Yue
Carlsen - Radjabov
Ivanchuk - Smeets
Kamsky - Adams
Karjakin - Morozevich
Stellwagen - Movsesian
Van Wely - Dominguez

HT: Chess Today

It's not as exciting as it was in past years, thanks to the glut of super-GM tournaments we had in 2008, but it's still a highly anticipated event for chess fans everywhere. Part of the charm is that we get three tournaments in one. There's the top tournament, a super-strong category 19 event which gets the lion's share of the attention, but the B and C tournaments are very interesting and strong as well.

This year's B-tournament, for instance, includes former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, 1993 "vice champion" Nigel Short, the great Brazilian Henrique Mecking, prodigies like Fabiano Caruana and Hou Yifan, and several more players who are, have been, or are near 2700. It's a category 16 tournament, and as such is one practically anyone in the A group would be delighted to win. In fact, whoever does win it will be automatically invited to next year's A-tournament, so that helps add a little extra motivation to the contest.

The C-tournament is "only" a category 11, which isn't bad either. Among the strong youngsters in this tournament are Wesley So, David Howell and Anish Giri. Here too, the winners gets promoted; in this case to next year's B-event.

But the A-tournament is the crown jewel, and rightly so. Despite the absence of Anand, Topalov and Kramnik, it remains enormously strong. Here's the list of participants:

Vassily Ivanchuk 2779
Magnus Carlsen 2776
Alexander Morozevich 2771
Teimour Radjabov 2761
Sergei Movsesian 2751
Levon Aronian 2750
Wang Yue 2739
Gata Kamsky 2725
Leinier Dominguez Perez 2717
Michael Adams 2712
Sergei Karjakin 2706
Loek van Wely 2625
Daniel Stellwagen 2612
Jan Smeets 2601

All three events start tomorrow - at 7:30 a.m. ET (unfortunately for those of us in the U.S.)/1:30 p.m. CET. The tournament site is here.