Corus Chess Tournament 2007, Round 4

 by John Lee Shaw

Tuesday saw a great day's play at Wijk aan Zee, with excellent fighting chess, and some games going on quite late. In the A-Group, a couple of games did draw quite uneventfully, namely Motylev-Aronian, and Carlsen-Anand. The former had me wondering if Aronian might have had something cooked, as he took a huge lead on the clock, and the times at the end were 0:45 to 1:31. The latter was quite uneventful, but Anand did consider trying for more with 17...Rc8 (he played 17...Nxc2). In the end, the draw came very quickly after 17...Nxc2.

India's Viswanathan Anand, always a favourite

The other draws of the round were a bit more pleasing to the spectators, with Loek van Wely surprising Sergey Karjakin with 16.Qa4!? White obtained an advantage, and soon had an extra passed pawn. The young Ukranian seemed to just be able to hold things together, however, as pushing the extra pawn with gusto did not work for van Wely, and consolidating would be a little too slow, allowing some perpetual check ideas from Black. As it was, the game was drawn in 37 top-class moves. I must say, here, that watching van Wely and Karjakin analyse afterwards was a real treat, very frank and humorous, with pieces and ideas flying around all over the place. Quote of the day, was van Wely, to Karjakin at the position around black's 35 or so ... 'you had a big think here for some reason. I thought "what's he thinking about, enjoying his position?" Very entertaining.

Peter Svidler has more things to worry about than just his chess at the moment, the very pleasent Russian GM is hobbling around with a bad foot. I am not sure how he has come about the injury, maybe he was trying some cricket moves or something, but he seemed in quite some discomfort after his draw against Ruslan Ponomariov yesterday. Once again, Peter was not satisfied with his opening play, 'I don't think I equalised,' he told me afterwards. Actually, though Ponomariov did get the best of play, his 15...Nfd7 was not the best move, and White would be ok with 16.Nd5 where Peter actually opted for 16.Nd4, which was not quite so good. His 20.Qc1? however, was a bit of a clanger, 20.Qd3 being about equal. After 20.Qc1? Ponomariov continued with 20...Bxd4 21.Rxd4 and here, could have tried the nice looking 21...Na3+!?. As it was, after Ruslan's 21...Qb6, black obtained a very nice edge anyway, and seems to be quite a lot better in the end position. Game drawn though.

'it just ain't cricket'  Peter Svidler v Ruslan Ponomariov

Kramnik-Navara saw a very tense game indeed, with the World Champion obtaining an edge, but coming up against very high quality and stubborn defence. Though white was better at a couple of points in the game, Navara seemed to have all his I's dotted and T's crossed, and never looked anything but cool under pressure. He kept his pieces active and exchanged in to a drawn rook and pawn ending. Kramnik had nothing left but to share the point. An excellent performance from David Navara, who as well as being a formidable chess player, is also one of the most pleasent.

Shared spoils, Vladimir Kramnik v David Navara

Veselin Topalov managed to lure Alexey Shirov in to a home prepared line in the Grunfeld. Apparently, the line which saw 24 moves of theory, with 25.Qd4 being new, had been looked at 'a long time ago' according to Topalov. Again, watching Veselin explain things in the press conference afterwards was breath-taking on account of his knowledge and ideas, but he was in complete control for the whole game, and once the net was around Shirov, there was very little that he could do in order to stop it from closing. A very nice game indeed from the World #1.

1-0 in convincing style, Veselin Topalov v Alexey Shirov

Teymour Radjabov is currently the star of this Corus tournament, and is strutting around the place with his tail in the air. In round 4 he pulled off a marathon victory over Sergey Tiviakov, which finished quite late. White held the advantage right from the opening (accelerated Dragon) but perhaps let it slip around the 29th move or so. Radjabov played 29.Rd3 (looking to swing the rook over of course) but upon 29...Rh5! from black would have been hard pushed to prove anything. Perhaps Teymour could consider 29.f5!? but after the possible 29...exf5 30.Nd5 Bxd5 31.exd5 Qd7, white is better, but making progress is not going to be easy. In the end, it was a mistake from Tiviakov (61...Bd6, ...Bb6 was better) which allowed his opponent in to his position with 62.Qe6 and from here Radjabov was picking off pawns with gusto. A very nice game indeed.

not only the players are in demand. Tournament Press Officer,
Tom Bottema (in the green shirt) being interviewed for TV.

1. T. Radjabov -- 3½
2. V. Topalov -- 3
3. D. Navara, V. Anand, L. Aronian, P. Svidler; V. Kramnik -- 2½
8. S. Karjakin, R. Ponomariov -- 2
10. A. Motylev -- 1½
11. L. van Wely, S. Tiviakov, M. Carlsen -- 1
12. A. Shirov -- ½


And so, at the first rest day, Teymour Radjabov is leading the Group-A tournament by a half point over Veselin Topalov. It is early days, however, only 4 games of 13 have been played, so there is much time left for things to change drastically. Round 5 sees Radjabov play David Navara, an encounter that could prove very exciting, as they are certainly proving that they want to 'play' so far in this tournament.

In Group-B Bu Xiangzhi found his game against Pavel Eljanov tough going, and relinquished his first point of the tournament. Jan Smeets over came fellow Dutchman Jan Werle, and so takes the lead of the group by a full point. The round also saw a fine result by young Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who defeated vastly experienced GM Suat Atalik in a very nice game. Tatiana Kosintseva also had a fine game, taking the point from Gabriel Sargissian, who is never an easy opponent. Other games were drawn.


1. J. Smeets -- 3½
2. F. Nijboer, Bu Xiangzhi, V. Bologan, P. Eljanov, D. Jakovenko -- 2½
7. T. Kosintseva, D. Stellwagen, M. Vachier-Lagrave -- 2
10. G. Sargissian, J. Werle -- 1½
12. V. Georgiev, S. Atalik, E. L’Ami -- 1


Hou Yifan continues to prove a tough oppenent in Group-C. She played a nice game against Sweden's Emanuel Berg, but only notched up a half point in the end. Spoelman-van der Wiel, and Brynell-Krasenkow were also draws. Winners of the day were Edwin van Haastert over Thomas Willemze, Zhaoqin Peng over Harmen Jonkman, and Nadezhda Kosintseva took the full point from Parimarjan Negi. Group leader is Ian Nepomniachtchi, who defeated Manuel Bosboom.

1. I. Nepomniachtchi -- 3½
2. P. Negi, M. Krasenkow, E. Berg, M. Bosboom, Hou Yifan -- 2½
7. N. Kosintseva, E. van Haastert, Z. Peng -- 2
10. S. Brynell, H. Jonkman, W. Spoelman -- 1½
13. J. van der Wiel -- 1
14. T. Willemze -- ½