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Showing posts with the label Wijk aan Zee

Anand extends domination over Kramnik

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Anand continued his winning edge against Kramnik by beating him at Wijk aan Zee in the 12th round. Ironically, Kramnik had been displaying sparkling form and had even beaten the current world no. 1, Carlsen. Anand thus beat 2 of the 3 top players at the ongoing tournament. See full game: Key moments: 18 ... Bf8 Not losing, but Kramnik could probably just continue with 18. ... Bf5 19 Qe5 Qxe5 20. Nxe5 Bd6 and so on. A draw is not bad with the Petroff against the world champ. 27 .. Nb3? Again, Bf5 or Bc5 will do just fine. 34 .. Qg6? Loses immediately at these levels. Probably plain time pressure. One winning line for example is 35 Qxg6 hxg6 36. Bg4 Rxc4 37 Nf7 Kg8 38 Be6 Anand played the immediate Bg4, probably laying a trap into which Kramnik walked in playing Rxc4. The win was demonstrated with usual technique by Anand.

Opening shocks at Corus Chess

The first round of the Corus Chess 2009 edition at Wijk aan Zee started with two upsets. Karjakin beat Morozevich and low ranked Smeets beat Ivanchuk. Radjabov held Carlsen to a draw with the black pieces in a nerve wracking game. In other significant games, Kasimdzhanov beat Yifan in a Group B game which the Chinese girl should have easily held. To her credit, she rejected a draw early in the game by playing on and not repeating moves. Results of Round 1 Group A D. Stellwagen - S. Movsesian ½-½ M. Carlsen - T. Radjabov ½-½ L. Aronian - W. Yue ½-½ V. Ivanchuk - J. Smeets 0-1 S. Karjakin - A. Morozevich 1-0 L. Van Wely - L. Dominguez (Game in Progress) G. Kamsky - M. Adams ½-½ Ivanchuk vs Smeets 0-1 Karjakin vs Morozevich 1-0 Carlsen vs Radjabov (Draw) Results of Round 1 Group B H. Yifan - R. Kasimdzhanov 0-1 K. Sasikiran - E. l'Ami ½-½ D. Reinderman - F. Vallejo Pons 0-1 N. Short - J. Werle ½-½ A. Volokitin - F. Caruana ½-½ H. Mecking - Z. Efimenko 0-1 A. Motylev - D. Navara 0-1 R...

Update after Round 7

Results of round 7 Aronian, Levon - Radjabov, Teimour 1-0 King's Indian Defence Ivanchuk, Vassily - Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½ Petroff's Defence Topalov, Veselin - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ Ruy Lopez Closed Adams, Michael - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Ruy Lopez Modern Steinitz Polgar, Judit - Anand, Viswanathan 0-1 Sicilian Najdorf Variation Gelfand, Boris - Lékó, Peter ½-½ Catalan Eljanov, Pavel - Van Wely, Loek * Slav Defence (Game is still going on) Standings after Round 7 Magnus Carlsen - 5 Vladimir Kramnik - 4.5 Levon Aronian - 4.5

Wijk aan Zee Chess records

Vishwanathan Anand holds the record for most wins at Corus, formerly Hoogovens. He's won 5 titles so far. Max Euwe, Viktor Korchnoi, and Lajos Portisch are next with 4 tournament wins each. Kasparov won it three times and Karpov twice. Here's the leading list. Tournament wins, Name 5 Anand, Viswanathan 4 Euwe, Max 4 Korchnoi, Viktor 4 Portisch, Lajos 3 Garry Kasparov 3 Donner, Johannes 3 Geller, Efim 3 Nunn, John D.M. 2 Karpov, Anatoly 2 Larsen, Bent 2 Nigel Sort 2 Nikolic, Predrag 2 Olafsson, Fridrik 2 Polugaevsky, Lev 2 Salov, Valery 2 Jan Timman 2 Veselin Topalov 2 Sosonko, Gennadi, others

Reggio Emilia Round 4

There are four leaders now at the top at the Reggio Emilia chess tournament 2007 - 2008. Harikrishna beat everybody's favorite whipping boy in this tournament, Navara. One suspects Navara is a bit lacking in confidence in this tournament. Hope he soon starts fighting back as he is capable of. Harikrisha's comeback after his first round loss to Almasi is already impressive. It bodes well for him for the near future where he will play in the GM Group B section of the Corus Chess Championship at Wijk aan Zee, which starts after Reggio Emilia. Tiviakov beat another favorite whipping boy, Godena while Ni Hua held Korchnoi to a draw. Godena obviously walked into Tiviakov's preparation in a French Defence game. He was slowly ground to his defeat. Standings after Round 4: Zoltan Almasi, Vugar Gashimov, Konstantin Landa, P Harikrishna - 2.5 Ni Hua, Mihail Marin, Sergei Tiviakov, Godena, David Navara - 2

Corus Chess 2008 at Wijk Aan Zee

The 2008 Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk and Zee - A Preview The Category 20 chess tournament with average ELO 2741 will be held as usual at Wijk aan Zee from 11 to 27 January 2008. The venue will be the De Moriaan Community Centre and the Bar de Zon. The tournament will be held in different groups. All eyes will be on the premier GM A Group. But players in the GM Group B and GM Group C are no pushovers. In fact, any other city would be proud to host a tournament with players as strong as the ones in GM Group C. As an example, Magnus Carlsen first earned real publicity with his amazing show as a 13 year old kid at Wijk aan Zee. The GM Group A has almost all the top ranked players of the world. This tournament is the first of the Grand Slam events of chess. In addition to the GM Group sections, there is a Honorary tournament running in parallel. Victor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, and Lajos Portisch play in this section. Amazingly even this is a category 13 tournament.

Anand thirsts for a game with Kasparov

V Anand, the recently crowned world champion, is craving for another chance to play Kasparov. Anand, who is preparing for the Corus chess at Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands) tournament to be held in January considers playing a match against Kasparov as one of his dreams. More about this on the Rediff site - http://www.rediff.com/sports/2007/dec/19chess.htm And to put your memories to a jog, here is the Game 10 of the World Championship match at the World Trade Center in 1995. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96IovA3WbU Anand never really got another shot at Kasparov in a match. He was pretty young in 1995 and combined with Kasparov's vicious tactics, he never really had any chance.