Day 2: 2002 Corus at Wijk aan Zee

Another fun day at the De Moriaan community center where the Corus festival is being held. Round 2 brought a few exciting games, but before our daily synopsis of them, allow me to say something in favor of the impeccable organization. Every little detail is well thought out and taken care of. Everyone's convenience, from the players to the journalists and spectators, is tended to thoughtfully. It goes without saying, that round times start, well… on time, and despite the full ballroom, silence is observed. The most “serious” incident that the chief arbiter could report was a mobile (cellular) phone going off, prompting its blushing owner's quick action to turn it off. The pressroom was quite busy today, with many visitors - journalists from all over the world - chess GM's and IM's, and other dignitaries. The attitude is always positive and helpful, no matter if you are a celebrity or an ordinary chess fan. This is what I call 'chess done right'! As I write these words, we are anticipating one of the regular treats here in the pressroom: the daily conference and game demonstration by one of the players (usually the winner of one of the best games). Now on to the games:

Timman, showing his game in the press room

Piket - Bareev: A Semi Slav with 4…a6 where white traded his doubly attacked c pawn in place of defending it with b3. White didn't seem to get a lot, with both white and black's queen's bishops being quite passive. White sacked a pawn temporarily. After a few tactical blows, an endgame with white being down 2 pieces for a very active rook appeared. The players agreed to a draw soon thereafter.

Kasimdzhanov - Gelfand: A little trip down memory lane with a QID line that was topical in the 1980's. White had a strong center, but black managed to keep the balance by some exchanges. Eventually, white banked his chances on creating a passed "d" pawn but quickly realized that while it was limiting black's play, it was not going too far. A peace offering soon followed and accepted.

Lautier - Dreev: After the opening of this game I was optimistic about having a wild game in the Botvinnik Semi Slav (Bg5). But black wanted none of that, and chose h6 with a quiet positional game of maneuvering. No sooner than the middle game was starting did the players decide to save their energy and call it quits. Quite disappointing…

A view of the playing hall

Gurevich - Leko: In a somewhat unusual symmetrical English, white had a bit more space and some pressure. Black chose the relieving strategy of exchanging some material down to balance the game. Here too, similar to the Kasimdzhanov - Gelfand game, white ended up with a passed "d" pawn that was not advancing anywhere. The result was also a draw.

Van Wely - Timman: For a long time, this super tactical g3 Benoni followed the famous game Korchnoi - Kasparov Luzern 82 (check your databases, it is worth seeing!) once again Timman had a chance to play his novelty from 1980 15… Rf8! but then Van Wely erred similarly to other previous games with 19.fxe5? Nxg3! Which as Timman said in the press conference, is at least a draw by perpetual, black can even look for more. White declines the second piece and black's initiative developed massively. Then it was Timman's turn to go wrong with 22…Bxf5? Whereas 22…Nxf5! was as, Van Wely put it, 'winning cleanly'. Both sides were missing in their calculations that after 23…Be4? (23…c4 was still good for black) white should have taken the B with unclear consequences. As the game went black won in grand style. Clearly the best game of the day, winning the public prize unanimously for Timman.

Festival organizer Jeroen van der Berg and bulletin editor Jan Van De Mortel enjoying ICC

Adams - Grischuk: This seemed like an easy game for the British GM. He got a comfortable edge in a quiet, patient Ruy Lopez. White was expanding and gaining space with a seemingly new plan of capturing on b4 with his a pawn, and later playing c4, when the young Russian started creating some chances on the kingside. His provocative move 20… g5!? (maybe ?!) got some threats going, but Adams in typical style sidestepped them, gave one pawn to keep matters safe and then took his opponent's sacrificed piece. Although it took some time for white to get rid of all of black's activity, Adam's advantage never was in doubt. He eventually won.

Morozevich - Khalifman: A Mieses Scotch that followed the known paths for a while, even the idea of playing c5 as white and trading the f1 bishop for the b6 knight is not new, although is usually frowned upon. Black seemed to be ok and obliged white's exchange offer. In return, white got a dangerous passed "e" pawn and control of the dark squares, but it was not easy to assess who was really better. To me, it seemed as if black gave white all the time in the world to organize his pieces. Around move 46 playing b5 (with the idea of cxb a6+ and Kxd5) and also Rf6 looked very good for white. Instead, white advanced his "a" pawn to the 7th rank, but active defense by black was about to lead to an exchange of rooks and a drawn endgame. A draw was agreed without actually needing to play it.

Tomorrow is a rest day at Corus. Round 3 is on Tuesday, the 15 of January.