Corus Chess Tournament 2007, Round 11

 by John Lee Shaw









Round 11 was something of an event in itself, with Peter Svidler causing absolute uproar, by handing Veselin Topalov his first defeat of the tournament. Svidler, who has been nursing a painful foot since early in the tournament was not exactly the happiest after the game, as the result could (and perhaps, should) have been different, but he did not really argue with me when I offered that in chess it is often a matter of who makes the last mistake, and in this instance, it was the World #1.

In the Najdorf, Svidler repeated the line that he had played against Ponomariov in round 4, but varied with 9.0-0-0. Once again, Peter was critical of his opening play (actually, I have not spoken to him once in the tournament when he was happy with his opening play ... too much cricket Peter...?) especially his 11.Kb1 which he felt should have given way to 11.h3 instead. I am not so sure, but I think that his decision to play 12.Bd3 and close off his Queen and Rook battery along the d-file was somewhat mistaken. Topalov certainly played the strongest response to it, 12...b5 with equality. Then, at move 16, white faced a very crucial decision, which is shown in the diagram to the left. Black has just played 15...Nc4 as show, which attacks white's Queen on d2. "The problem here, is where to put the blasted thing," said a frank as always Svidler. He had intended to play 16.Qc1, but then he noticed that after the rather natural 16...b4 there is the also natural continuation of 17.Nd5 Nxd5 18.exd5 Bxg5! and here, upon 19.dxe6?? Bxf4! traps the queen and would be game over. This being said, I am not sure what Peter's objections were to 17.Ne2!? here, but it seems quite alright. Peter felt that he had no alternative but to capture the knight on c4, which is of course a heart-breaking move to play, and quite rightly, as after 16.Bxc4 bxc4 17.Nc1 black holds the initiative. The experienced Svidler felt that he had no choice but to exchange some pieces, so a pair of bishops came off the board, as did a pair of knights. Here, his position did seem to improve slightly, but his plan of 25.Re7 and 26.Rc7? was flawed, and 26...Qa5! saw him with another problem, and forced a rook exchange on c8, and after the necessary tempo of 28.Re2, black was pretty much strategically won. However, Topalov was himself to err, firstly with 33...Rc5 (33...Rc2+ forces 34.Rxc2 Qxc2+ 35.Ka3 Qc5+ winning the d-pawn.) Then, just two moves later, having already lessened his command of the position, Veselin played 35...f5? (35...Rb5! was much better).

After white's opportune 36.Qd2! (see diagram, left) it was quite apparent that the wheels had fallen off of black's wagon. White is simply threatening to advance the d-pawn, and this is a decisive factor. What a complete turn-around! After the exchange of queens with 36...Qxd2 (...Rc7 was also possible, but no better) 37.Rxd2 Kg6 38.d6 would have been a better continuation than Peter's b4. However, some moves later he had the point.











The other win of the round came from Levon Aronian over Sergey Karjakin. Apparently, the coach of the Armenian chess team had advised Levon that even when he knows something well, he should try something different. Thus, in the game against Karjakin he played the Catalan, and duly surprised his opponent. White took an edge out of the opening, but in chess things are rarely one-sided, and black fought back and had equalised by move 20. Some exchanges took place, and the game was looking very drawish in my opinion, that was until black's move 33, when in the diagram position to the right. White has just played 33.Rc5 and here black has  few good options to keep the balance. Karjakin's choice of 33...Rc8? handed white an opening, 34.Rxc8 Nxc8 and now the subtle 35.Qf5! provoked 35...g6, and soon, the h-file was open and black found hisposition penetrated and extremely difficult. Aronian was clinical in converting, and Karjakin was resigning on move 47.


Magnus Carlsen and Loek van Wely nearly had everyone passing out from hunger and exhaustion, their 109 move game went on so long! In the Najdorf, white had a small plus, but the Dutchman had started to take over as early as move 20. He was aided in this slightly, however, white´s 21.Bxe6? was perhaps down to impatience or frustration, and should have yeilded to Ne2. There followed 21...fxe6 22.Ne2 Bh6 23.Rb1 and here van Wely had the interesting (and quite spectacular looking) 23...Rxf2! After 24.Nxd4 Qf7 would be nice for black. Instead, van Wely chose 23...Qxc2 which followed naturally 24.Qxc2 Rxc2 25.Nxd4 Rcxf2 26.Nxe6 R8f6 27.Rxd6 Be3 28.Kh1 Kf7 and black had a slightly better stance. When Loek managed to win a pawn, things looked very dicey for Magnus, but he was able to sacrifice his knight for the extra pawn, and achieved a drawn position which he held without problem and the game ended by deliberate stalemate.


Black managed to equalise without problem in the main line Slav of Navara-Motylev. Actually, one would have to say that white will have to take a careful look at his play following the game, as at move 16 it appears that the position is already critical. Navara's 17.Be3? should probably have come some moves earlier, as Motylev's strong reply of 17...Bxe4! illustrated. In the rather natural line that followed Black won a pawn and obtained a huge position. A further mistake from White (24.Qh5?! -- 24.Rf1 was better) in an already difficult position meant that black was pretty much strategically won upon 24...Rd6. Ironically, it was around here that Motylev began to look a little unsure of himself, and allowed Navara to gradually regroup and improve his position, though it remained difficult. However, with black still standing somewhat better, but seeing no clear way forward, the players divided the point in 42.

Alexey Shirov chose the Petroff against his opponent, Vishy Anand. Apparently Shirov had not expected 3.d4 and so had not prepared for it. With 12.Qh5 Anand had obtained a strong edge, but his 14.c4?! was somewhat inaccurate, and could have given way to stronger alternatives such as Bh6 or Qf3. Still, Shirov did not capitalise on it, by way of ...Bc6 or ...Bxh2 for example, preferring to play 14...Be6 and 15...Bxc4, and then when Bh6 did come for Anand it was with a clearly superior stance. However, queens were soon exchanged, and a draw was agreed with white still slightly better.


Radjabov stuck to his Queen's Indian, having the black pieces against Vladimir Kramnik who to me had seemed in quite a non-plusse mood, certainly in the latter stages of the tournament. The Word Champion would arrive late for most games and dash off as soon as he had finished playing, which I found rather disappointing, especially for the chess public. This is by-the-by, though, just an observation. The game saw Radjabov sacrifice a pawn for which he got the return of nicely placed pieces and a nice structure. It was enough for Kramnik to decide that bailing was quite possibly the wisest option, and the game was agreed drawn after 28 moves.

Sergey Tiviakov once again chose his Accelerated Dragon, this time against Ruslan Ponomariov. White's position fizzled rather quickly actually, and it was black who had the best of things for the latter part of the game. However, Sergey's 25...h5?! was out of context (25...Re5 was better) and helped white catch up, so that a draw was agreed a couple of moves later.


All this left Veselin Topalov hanging to the lead by the skin of his teeth on 7.5/11, while there was a 3-way tie for 2nd-4th place between Aronian, Svidler, and Radjabov. All eyes turned to Saturday, when Topalov would take up the white pieces against Vladimir Kramnik.


1. V. Topalov -- 7½
2. L. Aronian, P. Svidler, T. Radjabov -- 7
5. V. Anand, V. Kramnik -- 6½
7. R. Ponomariov -- 5½
8. S. Karjakin, D. Navara -- 5
10. S. Tiviakov, A. Motylev -- 4½
12. L. van Wely -- 4
13. A. Shirov, M. Carlsen -- 3½

On his way to defeat, World #1 Veselin Topalov makes his move against Peter Svidler

Peter Svidler being interviewed moments after defeating Topalov

the ever delightful David Navara, talking to Committee Chairman Dolf Vos

the World Champion explains his game to press room assistant, Bianca Muhren, herself a WGM

Levon Aronian, round 11 victor of Sergey Karjakin

A change at the top in the B-Group, with Pavel Eljanov crucially defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, (who had been in the top slot since the early rounds), with the black pieces and taking sole lead by a point. A good round also for the Dutch, with l'Ami, Smeets, and Stellwagen also winning, though in the latter's case it was at the expense of countryman Friso Nijboer. The other winner of the round was Gabriel Sargissian over Viorel Bologan. This left a 7-way tie for second between Sargissian, Xiangzhi, Bologan, Stellwagen, l'Ami, Vachier-Lagrave, and Jakovenko, and made for a very exciting climax to the tournament.


1. P. Eljanov -- 7½
2. G. Sargissian, Bu Xiangzhi, V. Bologan, D. Stellwagen, E. L’Ami, M. Vachier-Lagrave, D. Jakovenko -- 6½
9. J. Smeets -- 5½
10. F. Nijboer -- 4½
11. T. Kosintseva, J. Werle -- 4
13. S. Atalik -- 3½
14. V. Georgiev -- 2½

China's Bu Xiangzhi, prior to his game versus Holland's Jan Werle (½-½)

Group-C is still being commanded by Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won again in round 11 defeating Sweden's Stellan Brynell. Michal Krasenkow is a point behind in second place, however, so the young IM from Russia can not take his feet off the pedals just yet.

1. I. Nepomniachtchi -- 9½
2. M. Krasenkow -- 8½
3. E. Berg -- 7
4. Hou Yifan -- 6½
5. P. Negi -- 6
6. E. van Haastert, W. Spoelman -- 5½
8. M. Bosboom, Z. Peng -- 5
10. J. van der Wiel -- 4½
11. N. Kosintseva -- 4
12. H. Jonkman, T. Willemze -- 3½
14. S. Brynell -- 3

Relaxing before their C-Group games, Hou Yifan and Zhoaqin Peng