Corus 2003 at Wijk aan Zee, Round 2

by Aviv Friedman

Today’s buzz was once again not directly connected to the main event per se but is related to the world’s youngest GM, Sergey Karjakin’s 13th birthday that falls today! It is amazing how someone with such a miniature stature possesses such fantastic, enviable chess ability and talent! Sergey (or "Car jackin’" as he is often referred to on ICC) is a soft-spoken, precocious youngster who often sounds like a young serious adult in interviews. He is extremely committed to chess – probably ‘for life’ and is naturally the object of many fans and journalists around. Unfortunately, he only speaks Russian and so anyone who isn't fluent in Russian needs to communicate through an interpreter. I have made a mental note to myself to be sure and ask some of the not-so-old players of the A group what they think about him and his far-reaching chess ambitions! Unfortunately for him, his birthday ‘present’ was a bit disappointing since he only drew Humpy from a position where he had 3 minor pieces for a queen, which should have brought a full point home. Lastly on the topic of presents and awards, yesterday best game prize went to Anatoly Karpov for his win over Krasenkov.

GM Koneru - GM Karjakin

Today's other games:

Timman - Grischuk In a Nimzovich variation of the Queens Indian defense, the players were adhering to theory, following an older game between Gelfand and Leko. I wish I could tell you that new and exciting things were to come alas no... after some unoriginal maneuvering moves were repeated and the first peace offering of the day was declared.

Bareev - Radjabov: Another theoretically important battle, this one in the Kings Indian defense. Recently the Bayonet attack (9.b4) in the main line has been giving black a lot of headaches and many KID devotees have stopped playing the opening altogether because of it. Surely the young Azari GM had something new up his sleeve but it was Bareev who deviated from theory with his 15.Rb1. Now normally white goes 15.Ne6 or 15.g3 since the Ng5 is not protected and black might sac his Nf6 and then Qxg5. That didn't happen in the game perhaps since: 15…dxc5 16.bxc5 Ned5?! 17.h4! looks good for white. Realizing that, black was fighting an uphill battle and his 16…h6?! Wasn't great. White increased the pressure and on move 23 offered a piece (23…cxd5 24.e7 and 25.Nxd5 with huge compensation) when it was declined white won in short order. Is this line the demise of the KID?

GM Bareev

Ponomariov - Kramnik: Ponomariov - Kramnik: This was naturally the match up of the day but with Ponomariov as white playing super conservatively and cautiously (maybe an after shock of yesterday’s debacle - how often does he lose like that and with white!) we witnessed a dreamy Nimzo Indian Reshevsky line that didn't even make Vlady blink. Even the ICC crowd was relatively quiet but it was not going to be disappointing! A minority attack on the Q side and some trades into a major piece ending left white with space advantage and some initiative. Black tried impatiently to open the K side by moving his Q away from the defense, but to no avail. When he got lazy and careless with his 34.Kh8 and then 35.Kg7 punishment was swift. 36.b5! was very hard to meet, the pin on the c file was only one problem - after black’s c5 and the capture, black was horizontally slammed with the instant winner 38.Qg6+ and promptly acknowledged defeat. A fantastic rebound to Ponomariov! He also won the 250 Euro public prize for this performance.

GM Ponomariov - GM Kramnik

Topalov - Anand: Contrastingly, this game had some interesting fireworks! The Petroff line didn't seem promising at first to anything but long dwelled upon theory that might end with a quick draw. Not so! After the mandatory 16 moves of ‘nothing new’ Topalov decided on a positional exchange sacrifice in the spirit of the late world champion Tigran Petrosjan. Many in the pressroom were starting to worry about black’s position, and on ICC some were encoring this sentiment, including GM Svidler. Topalov clearly misplayed his hand (he could have accepted the repetition on move 28 and also after 33…d3 34.Ng5! is much better than the game) and when the Q’s went off Vishy was cruising happily. The ending might not have been trivial but in a firm hand like Anand’s it was but a question of time and accuracy before a very disappointed Topalov extended his hand in resignation. Chess is a cruel game, didn't you know?!

GM Topalov - GM Anand

Van Wely - Polgar: In another QID with lotsa theory (after all the flexible QID has many variations and sub variations) although the plan of 15… Bxg2 isn't that common. In all the games I have seen black went 15… a6. Soon a wholesale of trades occurred and a double rook ending emerged. White seemed to have a slight pull. He tried to expand and did manage to penetrate with his rooks deep in his opponent’s territory but it was not enough. Black generated just enough counter play by making the outside passer g pawn. At the end a delicate race was on the board, with the Rooks exchanged and the passed pawns (white had a passed c pawn by then) queening. White had an extra pawn but it meant nothing, a draw ended this epic fight!

GM Van Wely - GM Polgar

Karpov - Shirov: Anatoly played a structure he has played many many times before, with the B pair in return for an isolated center d pawn. While an imbalance structure, typical to the spirit of Shirov, Karpov has been taming opponents in similar lines before Alexey was born! Today was no exception. He was calling all the shots throughout; Shirov was defending with all his might and was certainly going through some serious times, but as we all know rook endings are notoriously hard to win and after an exhausting effort Karpov had to concede the draw. One can't stop thinking that in the ‘old days’ that would have been more than a half a point.

Ivanchuk - Krasenkov: In this Open Ruy Lopez white chose a somewhat unusual plan of 11.Qe2 and 12.Bc2 where normally white places his R on e1 and saves a tempo when black trades on c2. It is fair to say that white still got a slight initiative and a pleasant control of the dark squares in the center. Michal kept things under control, and after some very cautious tries Chuky proposed a draw which was accepted. Clearly not the highlight of the day!

Photos by Jan van de Mortel, courtesy Corus Tournament Organization.

ICC Coverage of Corus 2003 Copyright © Internet Chess Club 2003