The Chess Mind

That's right, chess fans, it's the real start of the new year as the annual super-tournament in chilly Wijk aan Zee starts today. As usual, there are three round-robin groups (as well as an open tournament for the amateurs), with the top group the featured attraction. (Especially interesting, of course, is the round 12 (of 13) pairing of those bestest buddies Kramnik and Topalov.)

More info here and the tournament site here. For those who don't feel like clicking, here are the group A pairings for round 1, which starts at 1:30 pm local time, 7:30 am ET.

Topalov-Motylev
van Wely-Radjabov
Karjakin-Kramnik
Shirov-Svidler
Tiviakov-Carlsen
Navara-Aronian
Ponomariov-Anand

The group A results are easily summarized: all draws - most uninteresting - except for van Wely-Radjabov, which was won by Black.

Round 2 Pairings

Motylev - Anand
Aronian - Ponomariov
Carlsen - Navara
Svidler - Tiviakov
Kramnik - Shirov
Radjabov - Karjakin
Topalov - van Wely

Results for all three groups, some pictures, a little reportage and a link to replay the games can be found here. If you can read Russian, chesspro.ru is a great resource; unfortunately, while the site has some English-language content (click the English flag in the upper left corner), there doesn't seem to be any for this event, at least not yet.

In round 1, only Radjabov won; in round 2, only Radjabov (and his opponent) drew!

Motylev-Anand was a very exciting Poisoned Pawn Najdorf that remained in the balance until White played 28.Qf2? - 28.Rxg7+ Qxg7 29.Bxg7 Kxg7 30.Qg3+ Kh8 31.Qg6 Rf6 32.Qe8+ Rf8 33.Qg6 was a draw, according to Maxim Notkin in Chess Today.

Kramnik-Shirov saw White obtain both a positional and a (huge) time advantage from the opening, but Kramnik would have had lots of of work ahead of him, had Shirov not blundered a piece with 34...Rb7??

Carlsen-Navara was yet another game marred by blunders. In a roughly equal position Navara played 31...g5, overlooking 32.c6, winning. Unfortunately for Carlsen, he missed that idea as well, and even went on to lose the game.

Svidler-Tiviakov was a long but convincing performance by Svidler against his opponent's pet line in the Center Counter (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 a6). Those of you who don't enjoy facing that line should study that game carefully (and should also figure out what's happening after 12...Qxb2).

Aronian-Ponomariov was a clean win by White, reminding us of his great strength. Outplaying Ponomariov is no easy feat, but Aronian at least made it look easy.

Topalov-van Wely looked like a crushing win by the ex-FIDE champ, but if van Wely had played 25...e4 the position would have been unclear.

Finally, while Radjabov-Karjakin was drawn, White had good winning chances and perhaps should have somewhere. Karjakin did a good job of holding on, however, and was finally able to build a fortress: a typical idea in queen vs. rook endings.

(For ChessBase's report, with videos and games links, click here.)

Standings after Round 2:

1-7 Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Navara, Radjabov, Svidler, Topalov 1.5
8 Karjakin 1
9-13 Carlsen, Motylev, Ponomariov, Shirov, Tiviakov .5
14 van Wely 0

Pairings for Round 3:

Karjakin-Topalov
Anand-Aronian
Tiviakov-Kramnik
Navara-Svidler
Shirov-Radjabov
Ponomariov-Carlsen
van Wely-Motylev

Another exciting round, albeit one with relatively few decisive results. In the day's most spectacular game, Radjabov won his second King's Indian of the tournament.

Watching the game on ICC was especially interesting, as Radjabov's friend and training partner GM Igor Nataf insisted that the position after Black's 26th move really wasn't so great for White. This is a surprising call, given White's bishop pair, space advantage and targets, and even other observing GMs disagreed. But he was right, and it became clear in a hurry that if anyone's position was in trouble, it was Shirov's.

This was the game of the day not only for aesthetic reasons but competitive ones: Radjabov was the only one of the 7 second-round leaders to win; the rest drew.

In the game Karjakin-Topalov, the ex-champion was fortunate to draw. Completely outplayed by his young rival, Topalov's spectacular 41...Bd2! should have been met by the even more spectacular 42.Qh5! Karjakin continued to have some advantage into the ending, but in the end decided that Black's pawn mass was as dangerous as White's b-pawn and called it a day.

Anand-Aronian featured the real Petroff Defense: the Marshall Gambit. Anand is one of the few top GMs who allows the Gambit instead of avoiding it with the insipid 8.h3. Anand followed the line Kramnik chose against Leko in 2004, deviating from that game and two Shirov games from late 2006 with 19.Qg2, and for a moment it looked as if he might be able to consolidate his extra pawn. It was not to be: Aronian found a nice sacrificial idea, giving up a bishop and then a rook to achieve perpetual check. Maybe 1.e4 is a draw?

Speaking of drawing against 1.e4, Kramnik trotted out his Petroff against Tiviakov and drew with absurd ease. The Petroff can (sometimes) be interesting if White brings something new to the table, but Tiviakov was apparently happy to burn a White to achieve a draw with the world champion. (I'm not trying to pick on Tiviakov here; it's a pretty easy inference from the facts: he deviated from Rublevsky-Kramnik, Moscow 2005 (1/2-1/2, 27) on move 22 and Socko-Kritz, Biel 2006 (1/2-1/2, 52) on move 24, and the game was drawn four moves later.)

Next up on our recap: Navara-Svidler. I'd like to say something illuminating here, but I felt that I understood almost nothing that was going on, including the draw offer. It seemed to me that Black was better when the draw was agreed, and here at least I have a little comfort: the computer agrees with me. (Maybe I should spend some time studying this game!)

Those were all the games involving leaders. One of the two remaining games featured tail-ender van Wely, who missed a great chance to gain some ground on the field. After Motylev's 28...Bxa1, 29.Qxe2 followed by 30.Bxa7 or 30.Bf4 was clearly better, and even after the game continuation, 30.Qxd6 Rxd6, 31.Bxa7 maintained a clear advantage as well. Unfortunately for him, he played 30.Rxe2?, and after 30...a6 31.Bf4?! (31.a4 still preserved some chances) 31...axb5 32.Bxd6 cxd6 White's advantage was only symbolic, and 21 moves later the players agreed to a draw.

Finally, Ponomariov-Carlsen was a complete disaster for Black. After 13...Qxd7?! and 14...O-O, White achieved a paralyzing bind on the queenside and won in 30 very easy moves.

(See the ChessBase report, complete with replayable boards, here. If when you visit that link you don't find video reports, you might want to try again later, as that seems to be the pattern so far throughout the tournament.)

Standings after Round 3:

1. Radjabov 2.5
2-7 Aronian, Anand, Kramnik, Navara, Svidler, Topalov 2
8-9 Karjakin, Ponomariov 1.5
10-11 Motylev, Tiviakov 1
12-14 Carlsen, Shirov, van Wely .5


Pairings for Round 4:

Motylev-Aronian
Carlsen-Anand
Svidler-Ponomariov
Kramnik-Navara
Radjabov-Tiviakov
Topalov-Shirov
van Wely-Karjakin

Today is a rest day at Wijk aan Zee, and as sometimes happens in these events, many of the players choose to make a two-day weekend out of it with quick draws in the pre-day off round. Carlsen-Anand and Motylev-Aronian, and to a somewhat lesser extent Svidler-Ponomariov were all quick and painless.

The game van Wely-Karjakin was more exciting, but the race between White's speedy passed a-pawn and Black's kingside counterattack ended in a tie of sorts: Black sacrificed a rook to achieve a perpetual.

The world champion came close to winning against Navara, enjoying a pleasant advantage almost from the start. Kramnik pushed hard for a long time, but the young Czech kept his opponent's advantage in check, and the game was drawn in 63 very hard-fought moves.

Finally, two decisive results, rewarding the victors with the top two places on the leaderboard. In clear second is ex-champ Topalov, who unloaded a very important novelty (25.Qd4!) in the famous exchange sac variation against the Gruenfeld. Poor Shirov did about as well as could be expected, but went on to lose in 41 moves, leaving him in clear last place.

Topalov's win was not enough to catch Radjabov, who won his game against Tiviakov. Radjabov, like Kramnik against Navara, enjoyed an advantage throughout, but in this game the opponent finally cracked (Black was in trouble, but 67...b5 made what was still hard work into an easy task).

The games can be replayed via this page, which also includes, as always, Peter Doggers' video of the winner of the daily best game prize presenting his victory - in this case, Topalov and his win over Shirov.

Standings after Round 4:

1 Radjabov 3.5
2 Topalov 3
3-7 Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Navara, Svidler 2.5
8-9 Karjakin, Ponomariov 2
10 Motylev 1.5
11-13 Carlsen, Tiviakov, van Wely 1
14 Shirov .5


Pairings for Round 5 (Thursday):

Karjakin-Motylev
Shirov-van Wely (always a fun time when these two play)
Tiviakov-Topalov
Navara-Radjabov
Ponomariov-Kramnik
Anand-Svidler
Aronian-Carlsen

Wijk aan Zee needs a Luis Rentero-type to cajole, threaten and disinvite players when they show a persistent lack of fighting spirit. This is becoming a problem in this year's Bore Us...er, Corus tournament:

Aronian-Carlsen, drawn in 20 moves
Karjakin-Motylev, drawn in 21 moves
Ponomariov-Kramnik, drawn in 19 moves

Nice going, guys! Rest up. It's not as if they're receiving thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars just to show up and play. Oh wait, they are. Never mind.

Another game in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it category was Anand-Svidler. I look forward to reading the round report on the tournament site to learn what Svidler was thinking: when heading for the position after his 20th move, did he just miss 21.Qxc7 altogether, or assume that there would be some sort of queen trap? So just like that, Anand vaults himself into a tie for second.

The tie includes Topalov (who was already there), who never had a chance to cause any trouble with Black against Tiviakov. White might have had a miniscule edge throughout, but it never amounted to anything serious and the game was eventually drawn (in 51 moves). But at least they tried!

Meanwhile, Radjabov extended his first-place lead to a full point by winning yet again with the Black pieces, this time against Navara. Navara avoided a "real" King's Indian by leaving his e-pawn at home, and the game turned into something that looked like a deranged Benko Gambit. Black's compensation for the pawn looked non-existent to me around move 16 or so, but by move 22 the board was a mess. (My guess is that 21.e4 was a big error; not playing 21.a4 left the Nb5 vulnerable.) Radjabov cut his opponent to ribbons in the complications, and now stands atop the leader board with 4.5/5 and a TPR well over 3000!

Finally, the game Shirov-van Wely was yet another sad tale for the Spanish great. In a trendy line of the Najdorf, the players followed the game Al Modiahki - Ftacnik from last year's Turin Olympiad all the way through 25...Nc7. Shirov played a novelty and chose a sequence of moves Fritz finds dubious, leading to a bad to lost position if van Wely finds the best moves. He did - in fact, van Wely could have been Fritz in this game, and duly won. So I wonder about Shirov's preparation: was this a bluff, or did he forget something? Whatever the case, it leaves him in horrible shape here with just half a point out of five. Let's hope he can remedy this!

Standings after Round 5:

1 Radjabov 4.5
2-3 Anand, Topalov 3.5
4-5 Aronian, Kramnik 3
6-9 Karjakin, Navara, Ponomariov, Svidler 2.5
10-11 Motylev, van Wely 2
12-13 Carlsen, Tiviakov 1.5
14 Shirov .5


Pairings for Round 6:

Motylev-Carlsen
Svidler-Aronian
Kramnik-Anand
Radjabov-Ponomariov
Topalov-Navara
van Wely-Tiviakov
Karjakin-Shirov

Another two win, five draw day in Wijk aan Zee, again with a mix of well-fought games and quick siestas.

The leader, Radjabov, drew quickly against Ponomariov, and although he didn't need to stop play after just 17 moves, the game had more life to it than the move count might suggest. In any case, with a one point lead over the field and another Black coming up in round 7, it was a luxury he could afford.

The chase pack couldn't afford to be so cavalier, however, and Topalov tried his best to narrow the gap to half a point. Navara is an excellent defender, however, and Topalov couldn't get anywhere. The result: a very well-played draw by both sides.

The other player in second place going into today's round - Anand - found the going much tougher. Playing Black against the world champion was no picnic, and Kramnik succeeded in gaining a significant advantage from the opening, a classical Catalan. Both sides made some inaccuracies in the ending, but the result was on balance the appropriate one. The players traded places on the tournament table as a result - it is now Kramnik who is tied with Topalov for second, a point behind Rajdabov.

Svidler-Aronian was another well-played draw; Svidler was able to achieve a material edge, but Black's counterplay was always sufficient.

Van Wely-Tiviakov was another story; a short, nondescript draw. Motylev-Carlsen, by happy contrast, was a crazy game where both players missed winning opportunities. I'll draw your attention to three moments in that wild game.

(1) The position after move 8 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 [4...Bd6! equalizes easily, I think, but it's pretty dull] 5.Ba4 Bc5 6.Nxe5 O-O 7.Nd3 Bb6 8.e5 c6!?) encourages an obvious question: why not 9.exf6 (instead of 9.O-O)? I know I did a bit of a double-take when I saw Black's move, and I suspect many of you did, too, if you watched the game. Here's some analysis to help get you started.

9.exf6 Re8+ 10.Kf1 Qxf6 11.g3 Bc7 and now White has a choice between two approaches: one that tries to keep the Ba4 safe, and one that tries to tidy up the kingside:

(a) 12.b4 d5 13.Kg2 Re2! 14.Nf4 Bg4! 15.Nxe2 Bf3+ 16.Kg1 Nxe2+ 17.Nxe1 Qxa1 and Black is clearly better.

(b) 12.Kg2 b5 13.Bb3 d5 14.Re1 Bf5 and there doesn't seem to be any reasonable way for White to keep the extra piece (the threat is 15...a5, and on 16.a3/4 White's c-pawn is overloaded - Black takes on b3 and d3 (in either order)). The position is equal.

(2) The game remained even most of the way, but by Carlsen's 27...Kf7 Black had pretty well lost the thread. White could have won by 28.Re1, an obvious move I'm sure Motylev saw. Perhaps what he missed was that after 28...Nf5, he doesn't have to play 29.Rxe6 Nxd4 30.Re7+ Rxe7 31.Qxe7+ Kg6, which is equal, but could instead play the relatively quiet 29.cxd5!, when 29...Nxd5 30.dxe6+ Kg8 31.e7+ Kh8 32.Qc4 should be winning.

(3) By move 37, it was now Black who was in charge, and had he played 37...Nf4 his winning chances would have been excellent. His 37...Rb4 looked good though, forcing the Bd4 to quit the b-pawn or the c-pawn - or so he thought. After Motylev's 38.Rh8+ Ke7 39.Bxf6+!! (the second exclamation is for his finding it in time trouble) the game is just equal: if 39...gxf6 40.Rh7+ forces a repetition whichever way the king goes, while 39...Kxf6 as in the game returns the exchange. A very entertaining game!

Finally, Shirov's misery continued, as he lost a Sveshnikov Sicilian to Karjakin. As a fan, I prefer round robin tournaments to swisses and knockouts, but on occasions like this it's easy to sympathize with Morozevich, who prefers knockouts for the reason that a player in bad form doesn't have to stick around and suffer repeatedly.

Standings after Round 6:

1 Radjabov 5
2-3 Kramnik, Topalov 4
4-6 Anand, Aronian, Karjakin 3.5
7-9 Navara, Ponomariov, Svidler 3
10-11 Motylev, van Wely 2.5
12-13 Carlsen, Tiviakov 2
14 Shirov .5


Pairings for Round 7:

Shirov - Motylev
Tiviakov - Karjakin
Navara - van Wely
Ponomariov - Topalov
Anand - Radjabov
Aronian - Kramnik
Carlsen - Svidler

This could be the best round of the tournament...if all the top players fight. We'll see. Meanwhile, the games from round 6 can be replayed here; videos for rounds 5 and 6 can be found here and here.

After missing a complicated win earlier, Karjakin maintained some advantage into a rook ending against Topalov, when after 51.Rd6-d7+ Kf7-f8 the players reached this position:

White is up a pawn, yes, but Black threatens to take on f5 with a frightening-looking pawn mass. White could take on d5, but then 52...e3 forces an immediate draw after 53.Rd8+ Kf7 (53...Ke7?? 54.Rd3 e2 55.Re3+) 54.Rd7+ etc.

In the game, White chose a different draw: 52.Rd8+ Kf7 53.Rd7+ Kf8 54.Rd8+ and the players called it a day. Correctly so? Anon wrote to say this:

What happened at the end of Karjakin-Topalov today? To my patzer eyes, it looked like white had the advantage. I'm chalking it up to the "bird in the hand" line of play from Karjakin.

To which I responded, partly trusting the players, but also after having taken a look for myself:

I don't think White (Karjakin) is better in the final position, based on both my own analysis/assessment and my strong sense that if Karjakin thought he had an advantage in a position like this, he'd play it out. (Black doesn't have that many ideas here, so an accurate assessment isn't fairly easily achieved.) But I invite you to earn your keep as a reader and suggest an alternative for White to the rook checks.

It all sounds reasonable (at least to me, but then again, I wrote it!), but when I tried to confirm my results with the computer, I found a hole. Then I tried another idea, and another...and couldn't find a clear draw. Hmm...

So, I followed Anon's lead and wrote GM Alex Baburin of Chess Today fame, and asked (a) what he thought of the position, and (b) what he thought of Karjakin's decision to force the draw. Was I not only missing a draw, but an easy draw well-known to the savants playing in Corus?

He sent the question to IM Maxim Notkin, who writes for Chess Today and for the Chesspro.ru site, and then checked Notkin's results with his own computer. The results were published in CT-2263 (January 18, 2007), which they've given me permission to reproduce. Here it is:

Just a bare summary for this round; I commend the report on the tournament website to those looking for more details.

Results:

Shirov - Motylev 1/2-1/2 (Progress for Shirov!)
Tiviakov - Karjakin 1/2-1/2 (2.c3 vs. the Sicilian equalizes.)
Navara - van Wely 1-0 (The young Czech continues to impress.)
Ponomariov - Topalov 0-1 (An impressive game against a tough rival.)
Anand - Radjabov 1/2-1/2 (Anand had very good winning chances...)
Aronian - Kramnik 1/2-1/2 (...as did Aronian.)
Carlsen - Svidler 0-1 (A tough event for the youngster.)


Standings after Round 7:

1 Radjabov 5.5
2 Topalov 5
3 Kramnik 4.5
4-8 Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Navara, Svidler 4
9-10 Motylev, Ponomariov 3
11-12 Tiviakov, van Wely 2.5
13 Carlsen 2
14 Shirov 1


Pairings for Round 8:

Motylev - Svidler
Kramnik - Carlsen (A great chance for Kramnik to gain ground.)
Radjabov - Aronian (A win does wonders for either player.)
Topalov - Anand (Likewise here, but expect Anand to play for the draw.)
van Wely - Ponomariov
Karjakin - Navara (A decisive result puts the winner into contention.)
Shirov - Tiviakov (Shirov's best chance for a full point.)

Topalov now leads at Corus, thanks to his impressive but slightly weird win against Anand and Radjabov's loss with White to Aronian. Starting with Topalov's game, today's game is yet another demonstration that he is the scourge of the Queen's Indian Defense. Except for the period in the early 80s when Kasparov was smashing the chess world with the Petrosian Variation (4.a3), the QID has been one of the dullest openings in chess, leading to positions liable to cause players and spectators alike to suffer a loss of consciousness. Topalov has breathed new life into the White position, and has won a number of powerful, attractive games against this opening the past couple of years, and today's was no exception.

Topalov's 14.a4 was the important new-ish idea, and while Anand's 14...Nd5 may have been right, to avoid having a prospectless position, he should have met 15.cxd5 with cxd5, according to Topalov (see the videos here), who suggests that the position after 16.Re1 Rc8 17.Bb2 Bb4 18.Bf1 (18.f3 f5 or 18...Qg5) 18...Bxf1 19.Rxf1 is unclear, thanks to White's very bad Nd2.

Another Topalov suggestion comes on move 19. Anand played 19...Qd7, when his rooks were never able to get into the game. Instead, Topalov offers 19...Rad8 20.Qe2 e5! 21.dxe5 Qe6 22.f3 Rd3 23.Rc1 Qa2 24.fxe4 Rfd8, "and it has to be analyzed."

After missing this chance, Anand got squeezed to death, and although his resignation was probably premature, in the sense that White's task wasn't yet a matter of trivial technique, the position was so one-sided and the task so thankless that it's psychologically understandable.

Radjabov, meanwhile, came out of the opening with Aronian in an unclear and messy situation. Aronian did a better job of orienting himself in the complications, reaching a pawn-up ending he duly won. And just like that, the standings had changed: it's now Topalov who is in clear first with 6/8, with Radjabov half a point behind.

Another half point back is a powerful gang of four. One is Aronian, whose game with Radjabov we just mentioned, and the other three are Kramnik, Svidler and Karjakin.

Kramnik was held easily by Carlsen, which was surprising for two reasons. First, Carlsen is among the lower-rated players in the event, and he had a very tough time so far. Second, Kramnik achieved a significant edge in this tournament in his previous White games with the Catalan, but against Carlsen he got absolutely nothing. He did get a chance later on after a Carlsen inaccuracy, but he returned the favor a few moves later and the game was drawn.

Svidler won convincingly against Motylev, whose choice to castle queenside against Svidler's Gruenfeld seemed to me a way not just to ask for trouble, but to practically beg for it. Maybe a computer can play like that, but in the battle of the humans White was crushed.

Karjakin was the recipient of some good fortune against Navara. Navara was winning for a long time, but a series of errors culminating in 41...b4? (41...Ra8 still kept some advantage) and 45...Ba4? (45...Bb5 should maintain equality, or near enough to hold the draw after 46.Rxc3 Rf1+! 47.Kxf1 Rxc3) led to an especially painful loss.

In the other games, Shirov pressed against Tiviakov but had to acquiesce in a draw, and van Wely-Ponomariov also found White without a sufficient edge to win.

(Games available for replay or download here.)

Standings after Round 8:

1 Topalov 6
2 Radjabov 5.5
3-6 Aronian, Karjakin, Kramnik, Svidler 5
7-8 Anand, Navara 4
9 Ponomariov 3.5
10-12 Motylev, Tiviakov, van Wely 3
13 Carlsen 2.5
14 Shirov 1.5

Pairings for Round 9 (on Tuesday):

Tiviakov - Motylev
Navara - Shirov
Ponomariov - Karjakin
Anand - van Wely
Aronian - Topalov (the game of the round, obviously, as far as the standings are concerned)
Carlsen - Radjabov
Svidler - Kramnik (another potentially major game, unless these two good friends take a day off)

Attention here and elsewhere has focused on what's going on in the top group at Corus, but both the B and C groups deserve some attention as well.

In the very strong B-tournament (category 14; average rating 2600), the leader is a bit of a surprise: 16-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with 6/8. Pavel Eljanov, the rating-favorite, is in second with 5.5, and in clear third is Bu Xiangzhi, once the second-youngest grandmaster of all time. Other noteworthy players and scores are Dortmund 2004 champ Bologan in 4th-5th place with 4.5, IM Tatiana Kosintseva (both the only female and only non-GM) tied for 6th-9th at 50%, and last year's runaway group C winner, Suat Atalik, in last place with 2/8.

Speaking of runaway group C winners, 16 year old Ian Nepomniachtchi (absurdly an IM with a 2587 rating) is enjoying a prolonged coronation ceremony with 7.5/8, only drawing with the second-placed Emanuel Berg (6/8). Ratings favorite Michal Krasenkov is in third with 5.5, but the fourth-fifth place tie is a real surprise, shared by Manuel Bosboom and Hou Yifan.

Bosboom is a relatively unknown IM best known for his regular participation in Corus's C event and his 1999 victory over Kasparov in the tournament's blitz event. He's the lowest-rated player here, but having a nice tournament with 5/8. Even more remarkable is 12-year-old Hou Yifan, who sports a 2509 rating (and only the WFM title, which comes automatically with a 2100 rating based on 24 games). It's too late for her to break Karjakin's record for the youngest GM ever, but depending on her schedule and form she has a chance for the number two spot. Very impressive!

Now on to a little chess - I'd like to draw your attention to one game from each of these sections from round 8. First up, Jakovenko-Smeets from the B group, which caught my eye because it featured the Polugaevsky Variation of the Najdorf. (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 b5!?) This ultra-sharp variation has always teetered on the edge of refutation, but no clear, final death blow has been found. It's a rare bird in GM play, so it was nice to see Smeets use it, and he even offered a near-novelty, 12...gxf6 (after 8.e5 dxe5 9.fxe5 Qc7 10.exf6 Qe5+ 11.Be2 Qxg5 12.O-O [12.Qd3 has traditionally been considered critical, but 12.O-O is relatively common]). Unfortunately, the move just looks bad, and Jakovenko was always at least clearly better through the end of the game, which he won.

Even more fun was the game between Nadezhda Kosintseva (Tatiana's older sister) and Emanuel Berg. After White's 12th move, the following semi-normal position arose:



But check out the next three moves:

12...Ng8! 13.Nhf5 Bf8! 14.b5 Nb8!



White's ahead in development, sure, but she has no targets to exploit it, while her knights are tripping on each other's toes. The position is about equal, and it remains so after White's piece sac:

15.f4 h4 16.Ne2 g6 17.fxe5 gxf5 18.exf5



Black still hasn't developed a single piece! Nevertheless, the position remained in balance until a Kosintseva error on move 24, when her position started going downhill.

So you see? Development is overrated!

There wasn't too much movement at the top, with the games Aronian-Topalov, Carlsen-Radjabov and Svidler-Kramnik all drawn - and quickly. But that's not to say there wasn't any action at all. Karjakin lost to Ponomariov, while Anand defeated van Wely in the game of the day. Anand revisited the Poisoned Pawn Variation seen in his game with Motylev, but this time with White. Like that game, he won when his opponent went awry in a probably equal position. Speaking of Motylev, his game with Tiviakov was drawn; finally, the game Navara-Shirov resulted in the latter's first win of the tournament: congratulations!

Standings after Round 9:

1 Topalov 6.5
2 Radjabov 6
3-5 Aronian, Kramnik, Svidler 5.5
6 Anand, Karjakin 5
8 Ponomariov 4.5
9 Navara 4
10-11 Motylev, Tiviakov 3.5
12-13 Carlsen, van Wely 3
14 Shirov 2.5

Pairings for Round 10:

Motylev - Kramnik (Motylev was one of Kramnik's seconds in Elista, so count on a draw)
Radjabov - Svidler (A very big game for both players if they want to catch Topalov)
Topalov - Carlsen (Looks made to order for a Topalov win)
van Wely - Aronian (A must-win for Aronian to stay in the race for first)
Karjakin - Anand (A great chance for Karjakin, but can he bounce back?)
Shirov - Ponomariov
Tiviakov - Navara

Round 9 games can be replayed here.

Topalov scored his third win in his last four games, going through Carlsen like a hot knife through butter. With White in the suddenly popular Ragozin QGD, Topalov produced another of his trademark exchange sacrifices. According to the winner (videos here), Carlsen had one chance to keep things interesting (with 16...Bd7), missed it, and quickly found himself in a hopeless ending.

Radjabov was just half a point back entering the round, but having the White pieces against Svidler only resulted in a very short draw. (Strangely, Radjabov is +3 -0 =2 with Black, but a comparatively dismal +1 -1 =3 with White.) Short, but very interesting. Let's start with this position:



Black is up a piece for the moment, and he can keep it, too, with 16...g5 - but he didn't. Why not? - why did he prefer 16...dxc3? It's clear that White has some compensation, but is it enough for the piece? First, 17.exf6 gxh4 18.Rae1+ Be6 19.Rf4 (threatening 20.Rxe6+ fxe6 21.Qg6+, winning) 19...Kf8 20.cxd4 Qc7 21.Rxh4 Qxc4 looks very good for Black.

The other capture looks much better: 17.Rxf6 gxh4 18.cxd4 h3 19.Raf1 Be6 20.d5 Qb6+ 21.R1f2 O-O-O 22.g3 and now both 22...Rd7 and 22...h5 lead to an unclear position. Rybka "thinks" Black is slightly better in each case, while the pride of Hamburg (Fritz 10) "thinks" it's equal. It's a mess worth analyzing for those who like this variation with either side.

The second interesting moment comes at the end of the game, which concluded with 19.Bg3:

As it turns out, this position was reached once before, and that was in a game between Kramnik and the very same Svidler from the 2005 edition of this tournament. Also a quick draw? No: Kramnik won in just nine more moves:
19...Be6 20.Rac1 Bxc4 21.Rfe1 Kd7 22.Re7+ Kc7 23.Rc7+ Kd5 24.Rd1+ Ke6 25.Rxc4 Rac8 26.Bc7 Kxf7 27.Rxc3 Rhe8 28.Rf3+ 1-0

So why the draw? Kramnik himself supplies the answer in his Informant notes (Informant 92, game 140): Black can improve with 19...Re8 with the idea that 20.Rac1 is successfully met by 20...Re3 21.Rfd1+ Ke8, or 20.Rfd1+ Bd7 21.Rac1 Re3. In both cases the Black king manages to avoid the dangers that befell him in the actual game. The result is that the opposite colored bishops become the most important factor, and here they should lead to a comfortable draw.

This leads to a new question, of course: why did Radjabov play this way? Why burn a White when contending for first place in one of the most prestigious tournaments in chess? I haven't a clue, but if Radjabov has addressed this question somewhere and any of you come across his answer, please let me know.

In other games: Motylev-Kramnik was a perfunctory draw, as expected, but van Wely-Aronian was a real comedy of errors. The position was roughly even through White's 30th move, but then 30...Rxf3? instead of 30...Rd3 landed him in a lost position. Happily for him and for lovers of swindles (but not for his opponent, naturally), van Wely fell into a "cheap, cheap trap" (as one of the GMs watching online put it) in this position:



It's White to move and just about everything wins (or more accurately, maintains the winning position). But a won position isn't a win; one must do something. Well, how about this?

38.Rh5(??)

If Black trades rooks, White wins the h-pawn and then the game, and if the rook moves away, White again wins the h-pawn and the game. It all seems very nice and tidy, but there's just one problem...

38...Rxd1+!! (the second exclamation mark is for the move's emotional impact) 39.Kxd1 Kf7 (the point!)

Black threatens 40...Bxg4+ followed by 41...Bxh5, and while White can save the rook, he can't save enough material to have winning chances, and the game was agreed drawn after 40.Rxh6 Bxg4+.

Karjakin-Anand was a typical exercise in modern chess preparation: Anand had prepared everything through Black's 29th move, and on move 30 Karjakin went astray. Anand criticized his subsequent technique, but still managed to bring in the full point.

In the day's other games, Tiviakov-Navara was a non-game, drawn in 18 moves, while Shirov pushed hard against Ponomariov but couldn't quite achieve his second straight victory.

Standings after Round 10:

1 Topalov 7½
2 Radjabov 6½
3-6 Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Svidler 6
7-8 Karjakin, Ponomariov 5
9 Navara 4½
10-11 Motylev, Tiviakov 4
12 van Wely 3½
13-14 Carlsen, Shirov 3

Pairings for Round 11: (Friday morning; Thursday was a rest day.)

Navara - Motylev
Ponomariov - Tiviakov
Anand - Shirov (No longer a virtual freebie: Shirov has played well the last four rounds.)
Aronian - Karjakin (A must-win for Aronian, and the timing is good: Karjakin has lost his last two games.)
Carlsen - van Wely
Svidler - Topalov (A huge game if Svidler can win.)
Kramnik - Radjabov (Will the KID finally meet its come-uppance?)

[Round 10 games can be replayed many places, including here.]

It was starting to look like first place for Topalov was a foregone conclusion, but a funny thing happened on the way to his coronation. Despite having the White pieces, Svidler got into trouble fairly early in the middlegame, and by move 30 or so he was objectively lost. Fortunately for Svidler and the rest of the field, however, Topalov not only failed to find the clear winning sequence detected by chess engines (understandable), he also more or less completely lost the thread. The result was a winning endgame for Svidler, who had no trouble converting his advantage.

The day's other decisive result was also important for the race for first, and saw Aronian outplay Karjakin. As Kramnik-Radjabov and Anand-Shirov were drawn (and uninspiringly drawn at that), the leaderboard is quite bunchy: Topalov leads by half a point over Aronian, Radjabov and Svidler, with Anand and Kramnik another half a point behind.

Ponomariov-Tiviakov was also a fairly uneventful draw, but both Navara-Motylev and Carlsen-van Wely should have been won by the Black player. Both games wound up drawn, but only after White suffered quite a lot - especially in Carlsen's case, as he had the nuisance of defending with rook vs. rook and bishop for 46 moves. (Note to those who threaten to study that ending but never do: the second rank defense employed by Carlsen (and also used the other day in one of the lower groups) seemed to work quite well - it looks like it might be the most user-friendly approach for the defender.)

Standings after Round 11:

1 Topalov 7.5
2-4 Aronian, Radjabov, Svidler 7
5-6 Anand, Kramnik 6.5
7 Ponomariov 5.5
8-9 Karjakin, Navara 5
10-11 Motylev, Tiviakov 4.5
12 van Wely 4
13 Carlsen, Shirov 3.5


Pairings for Round 12:

Motylev - Radjabov (A good chance for Radjabov with what seems his favorite color.)
Topalov - Kramnik (So much to say, but wisdom includes knowing when to keep one's mouth shut (and fingers inactive).)
van Wely - Svidler (Another great opportunity for Svidler.)
Karjakin - Carlsen
Shirov - Aronian (A few rounds ago, this would have looked promising for Black, but now I think Shirov will at least hold.)
Tiviakov - Anand
Navara - Ponomariov

It should be a great round, and the last round may well prove even more exciting, as Radjabov will have White against Topalov, and the other four players in the chase pack will all have White as well.

Games for the round are available here, and video presentations by today's group A winners are available here and here.

Who'd have thought the schedule would turn out so brilliantly?

Topalov had an edge against Kramnik, but the latter's cool defense held the draw.

Meanwhile, of the three players entering the round half a point back (Radjabov, Aronian and Svidler), only Radjabov managed to catch up. Radjabov played his trademark King's Indian Defense, and although Motylev achieved a good position, he didn't figure out what to do with it and was ground down. Aronian almost caught them, but he failed to convert a won position against Shirov and remains half a point back. And although Svidler had the best chance of the three going into the last round, at least on paper, he lost badly to van Wely, missing some severe tactical blows. (One obvious but so far unmentioned way (as far as I can tell) Black might try to improve on Svidler's play is with 18...Qa7 instead of 18...Qb6. It has the same idea of pressuring White's d-pawn, but without leaving the queen vulnerable to her counterpart (e.g. 18...Qb6 19.Rc5 with the point that 19...Nxd4? 20.Rh5 gxh5 21.Qxb6 costs Black the queen).)

In the round's other games, Tiviakov played an unenterprising line against Anand's Caro-Kann, leading to a short draw. Also drawn, but far more entertaining,was the battle of the prodigies, Karjakin-Carlsen. It's unusual to have both players attacking when kings are castled on the same side of the board, but that's just what happened here. With both kings in danger, the game wound up drawn by repetition. Finally, Navara defeated Ponomariov in a surprisingly one-sided game.

Standings after Round 12:

1-2 Radjabov, Topalov 8
3 Aronian 7.5
4-6 Anand, Kramnik, Svidler 7
7 Navara 6
8-9 Karjakin, Ponomariov 5.5
10-11 Tiviakov, van Wely 5
12 Motylev 4.5
13-14 Carlsen, Shirov 4


And now, as if following a script, we have the perfect last-round pairing: Radjabov-Topalov.


Pairings for Round 13: (Note to online spectators: the last round starts an hour early, at 6:30 a.m. ET. Ugh.)

Radjabov - Topalov (Can Radjabov overcome the White pieces to win the tournament?)
Aronian - Tiviakov (Obviously important: if Radjabov draws, Aronian ties for first with a win.)
Anand - Navara
Svidler - Karjakin
Kramnik - van Wely (These two are usually good for an entertaining battle when they play each other.)
Ponomariov - Motylev
Carlsen - Shirov (The battle to avoid last!)


Round 12 games replayable here, video of van Wely's "press conference" here.

If you've been interested enough in the tournament to follow any of it on here, you probably already know how the tournament finished! All the same, for the sake of completeness, I'll offer a brief recap of the last round, and offer some impressions.

First, the games. Radjabov followed in the footsteps of game 10 of the Kramnik-Topalov match, won by Kramnik. White had an edge out of the opening there, but Topalov had done his homework and drew with ease. That left the players tied for first, and while no one could pass them, Aronian had the chance to catch them with a win over Tiviakov. And so he did, winning easily when Tiviakov outclevered himself with the dubious 22...Nxe5 and the outright bad 23...Ng4.

Kramnik closed to within half a point of the leaders, beating van Wely with a vicious kingside attack. Anand and Svidler could have joined Kramnik, and both had White, but neither succeeded. Anand only drew with Navara, while Svidler had a complete disaster against Karjakin and lost.

Finally, Ponomariov-Motylev and Carlsen-Shirov were also drawn.


Final Standings:

1-3 Aronian, Topalov, Radjabov 8.5 (out of 13) (Names given in unofficial tiebreak order.)
4 Kramnik 8
5 Anand 7.5
6 Svidler 7
7-8 Navara, Karjakin 6.5
9 Ponomariov 6
10-12 Motylev, Tiviakov, van Wely 5
13-14 Carlsen, Shirov 4.5


Concluding Reflections

The big winner of the event, in my opinion, is Radjabov, as this is his first triumph in a chess "grand slam" event. (Now it's Mamedyarov's turn to do something spectacular - it seems these two Azeri youngsters have been one-upping each other for the last 2-3 years.)

The event is also a success for Aronian and Topalov, obviously. Aronian had a great start to 2006 but cooled off as the year went on; it's good for him to start 2007 with fresh momentum. Likewise, this was a useful confidence boost for Topalov after losing to Kramnik and an understandably terrible Essent tournament right after that.

Kramnik also has grounds for satisfaction: he gained points, went undefeated, and came in just half a point out of first. Kramnik's style is made for matches and, to a slightly lesser extent, to elites-only events; he's not as efficient a "fish-killer" as his top rivals. So this was a mild success for him, or at least nothing to feel bad about.

For Anand, however, the event must be a mild disappointment. Unlike Kramnik, he tends to thrive on mixed tournaments, generally holding his own with his peers while snacking on the lower-rated players. This time around, however, he wasn't as brutal on the expected victims and was surprisingly vulnerable against his peers; even so, his TPR was just 11 points below his rating. Thus, a mild disappointment.

Svidler must also be somewhat disappointed: he was having a good tournament, which became a really good tournament after defeating Topalov. After that dramatic victory in round 11, however, he lost his last two games with the White pieces to players well below him in rating and in the tournament table. Had he scored 1.5/2 in those games - a pretty reasonable expectation - he would have joined the troika in the first.

Navara, Karjakin, and Motylev all did well in their Wijk group A debuts, performing approximately to their ratings. That's what one would expect, speaking in the abstract, but when being tested by three world champions and other esconced members of the super-elite, it's an achievement!

Ponomariov and especially Carlsen underperformed somewhat, but not disastrously, and even Shirov can take solace: despite his horrifying .5/6 start, he managed an undefeated +1 score in the remaining seven rounds.

Finally, the two Dutch entrants, van Wely and Tiviakov, also had slightly poor tournaments. The Dutch have been among the lower seeds for quite some time, but it would be nice to see the natives rise up one year and surprise the invaders. As Cubs fans say, wait 'til next year...


Videos here and here, games here.