Corus Chess Tournament 2007, Round 10

 by John Lee Shaw









Round 10 was always going to be a hard one to predict, as with it being the final round before the final rest day, one never knows whether it will be all blood and gore or total peace and tranquility. In this case we saw a mixed bag, quick draws came from Radjabov-Svidler (19 moves), Motylev-Kramnik (17 moves), and Tiviakov-Navara (18 moves). That is really all that can be said about these games without being inventive.

Of more note was van Wely-Aronian, which saw a case of what's good for the goose is good for the gander -- not that I am calling either player a goose or gander of course. In the Ragozin Defence Queens Gambit Declined, the game saw a prompt endgame which bordered on equality or slightly better for White though no real danger.

This was until (see diagram, left) the clanger of 30...Rxf3? (30...Rd3 =) from Aronian which simply fails to 31.Bc1 and blacks pieces are hanging. A bad oversight one would have to say. A few moves later, with the bishop pair and extra piece in his posession, van Wely was sitting pretty. Then, horror of all horrors, upon move 38, van Wely suffered a time pressure (5 minutes left on clock) wobble and played 38.Rh5? which, (see diagram, right) hands black equality via 38...Rxf1+! White has no option really but to capture on d1, after which 39...Kf7! threatens ...Bxg4+. After 40.Rxh6 Bxg4+, there was nothing left but to shake hands and divide the spoils.


Alexey Shirov has definitely picked himself up from hs slump, and in round 10 severely tested former FIDE World Champion Ponomariov. The game was a Najdorf, which saw white cutting off the b-pawn and winning it on move 22. In contrast, black opened lines in the centre and towards the uncastled white king. Just when he looked to be in trouble though, black was able to force off the queens, and from there the players arrived in a drawn ending and quickly split the point.


If Magnus Carlsen takes one thing from this tournament, (apart from the invaluable experience of playing the best in the world) it will be that he is mortal and has plenty of scope where he can improve in his chess (ok, that's two things but who is counting?). This is a good thing, by the way -- as someone told me once, the only time to worry is when you can't see where you can improve. In round 10 the young Norwegian chess prodigy received a bit of a thumping as black at the hands of World #1 Veselin Topalov.

As in van Wely-Aronian, above, the game took the course of the Ragozin Defence Queens Gambit Declined. Topalov's 12.b4!? (!)  is in my opinion a touch of class, and demonstrates why he is World #1. The move, (see diagram left), forces black's hand somewhat, with 12...Nxc3 being the best response. There then follows 13.Qa1 Qa4 14.Qxc3 where in return for his exchange sacrifice, white has the bishop pair and threatens to become extremely active. Coupled with the fact that black's queen is somewhat out of the loop, black certainly has to find a good way of continuing the game in order to not become decisively worse. Carlsen's idea of a counter sacrifice, 15...Nxc5, though interesting, seems flawes, and certainly after his 16...Be6? he was in a worse stance. After 17.Qc1 Rfc8 18.Qa1 black was strategically lost and Topalov never allowed Carlsen to recover. A wonderful 26-move victory was his.



Another prodigy was to fall fowl of experience in round 10, namely Sergey Karjakin, playing white against Vishy Anand. The World #2 looks totally revitalised after his round 8 defeat to Topalov, where as Sergey Karjakin has looked a little shaky in the last few rounds.

Their game was a Najdorf Sicilian, with opposite side castling and a g-pawn thrust, seeing white slightly better but nothing major. Karjakin then found himself walking in to some Anand preparation, which saw the Ukranian sacrifice his queen for rook, bishop, and pawn, beginning with 21.dxe6!? (see diagram, left). After 21...Rxd2 22.exf7+ Kh8 23.Rxd2 Nb5 white is trying to prove the superiority of his extra rook and piece and mass of k-side pawns when compared to black's queen. Unknown to Karjakin, this very interesting idea had apparently been prepared against by Anand and his then second Niesen, for the San Luis World Championship.

It's test was helped a little by Karjakin's faulty over-the-board play, 30.R1d5? (R8d5) allowed his opponent to penetrate with his queen, and soon black's pieces were the ones looking active. Kingside exchanges only helped black, who marched his king up the board in support of his queen and passed h-pawn. Then another clanger of 43.Rd4? allowed 43...Qe5 and here black should have ended things quite soon. Instead, 'I now showed the worst technique ever' said Anand. 53...h4 dropped the b-pawn and should have yeilded to ...Qc3+, eg: 54.Kd1 h4. Luckily for Vishy, though, he had enough stocked up and made no other errors, picking up the point in 63.

And so, Topalov extends his lead to a full point over Radjabov, and with three rounds left looks to be in commanding stance in the tournament. However, he does have some tough games yet to come, playing Svidler, Kramnik, and Radjabov in his final 3 games. This being said, this tournament is not over yet, with only 1.5 point separating the lead from joint 3rd-6th place. An exciting climax we are in for indeed!

1. V. Topalov -- 7½
2. T. Radjabov -- 6½
3. V. Anand, L. Aronian, P. Svidler, V. Kramnik -- 6
7. S. Karjakin, R. Ponomariov -- 5
9. D. Navara -- 4½
10. S. Tiviakov, A. Motylev -- 4
12. L. van Wely -- 3½
13. A. Shirov, M. Carlsen -- 3


In the B-Group, round 10 saw the leader, Vachier-Lagrave, lose to the top seed, Jakovenko. This resulted in him being joined in the lead by Bologan and Eljanov who both won their games, defeating Nijboer and Smeets respectively.

1. V. Bologan, M. Vachier-Lagrave, P. Eljanov -- 6½
4. Bu Xiangzhi, D. Jakovenko -- 6
6. G. Sargissian, D. Stellwagen, E. L’Ami -- 5½
9. F. Nijboer, J. Smeets -- 4½
11. T. Kosintseva -- 4
12. J. Werle -- 3½
13. S. Atalik -- 3
14. V. Georgiev -- 2½


In the C-Group, 12-year-old Hou Yifan suffered a rare defeat, losing to IM Thomas Willemze, and another great result for IM Wouter Spoelman who drew with group leader Nepomniachtchi. This resulted in Michal Krasenkow closing the gap on the lead, thanks to his defeat of Dutchman Manuel Bosboom.

1. I. Nepomniachtchi -- 8½
2. M. Krasenkow -- 7½
3. E. Berg -- 6½
4. P. Negi, Hou Yifan, W. Spoelman -- 5½
7. M. Bosboom, E. van Haastert -- 5
9. Z. Peng -- 4½
10. N. Kosintseva, J. van der Wiel, H. Jonkman -- 3½
13. S. Brynell, T. Willemze -- 3