Corus Wijk aan Zee
Round 5 (Thursday, January 16, 2003)
Round 5 (Thursday, January 16, 2003) |
Grischuk, Alexander
|
½-½
|
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
Polgar, Judit
|
½-½
|
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
Topalov, Veselin
|
0-1
|
Van Wely, Loek |
Shirov, Alexei
|
1-0
|
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Radjabov, Teimour
|
1-0
|
Timman, Jan H |
Krasenkow, Michal
|
½-½
|
Bareev, Evgeny |
Anand, Viswanathan
|
1-0
|
Karpov, Anatoly |
|
ROUND 5: Not the Kramnik we used to know.
In four days in Wijk aan Zee world champion Vladimir Kramnik has lost more games,
two, than he used to lose in two years. Today it was his old nemesis Alexei
Shirov doing the damage. This put Shirov in a tie for first and dropped Kramnik
to an even score. It looked like Kramnik had weathered the storm in yet another
sharp Sveshnikov Sicilian. But Shirov showed that Black's light-squares and
king were too weak and with 36.Qd3 (diagram) he picked off the
critical d-pawn.
Joining Shirov and Polgar at the top with 3.5/5 was
Vishy Anand. Their rivalry goes back to their candidates match in
1991 and includes a FIDE world championship match in 1998, both won narrowly
by Karpov. But overall Anand has a big plus score against Karpov, particularly
in classical chess. Karpov trotted out his Caro-Kann again but the mind-bendingly
complicated piece sac variation they entered could not have been what he was
hoping for. Anand steadily whittled down the black pawns to join the leaders
and send Karpov to a minus score.
We're not used to seeing Kramnik lose, and we're no
used to seeing Loek van Wely do anything else in Wijk aan Zee. But
Loek has been training hard to reverse this trend and after four tough draws
he went into the plus column with a win with black over Topalov. The Dutchman
was shedding pawns on the queenside and it wasn't looking good. But he built
up on the kingside and said a little prayer. This was answered when Topalov
underestimated Black's attack for a few moves too long and fell into a mate.
Teimour Radjabov picked up his first win and knocked
Jan Timman into the cellar at the same time. Youth was triumphant
in this matchup between the oldest and youngest players in the tournament. It
looked like Timman was getting the better of things until he embarked on a Timmanesque
piece sac/blunder on move 35 instead of simply taking a hanging pawn. Radjabov's
technique was more than sufficient to bring home the point. (37% picked Timman
to finish in last place in a ChessNinja pre-event poll.)
Grischuk-Ponomariov was a long Berlin Defense that
well illustrated various plans in this defense for both sides. Grischuk
gave up material on the white side but kept enough activity to force a repetition
draw. Polgar-Ivanchuk was yet another short draw by the Ukrainian. Krasenkow-Bareev
had a few twists and turns but never looked like more than a solid draw. Grischuk
and Ivanchuk have drawn all their games so far. Kramnik, the Rock of Tuapse,
has the most decisive games in the tournament with two wins and two losses!
Standing after round 5

More information: Corus
web site
Previous rounds
Round 4 (Wednesday, January 15, 2003) |
Van Wely, Loek
|
½-½
|
Radjabov, Teimour |
Timman, Jan H
|
½-½
|
Anand, Viswanathan |
Bareev, Evgeny
|
½-½
|
Topalov, Veselin |
Ivanchuk, Vassily
|
½-½
|
Grischuk, Alexander |
Karpov, Anatoly
|
0-1
|
Polgar, Judit |
Ponomariov, Ruslan
|
0-1
|
Shirov, Alexei |
Kramnik, Vladimir
|
1-0
|
Krasenkow, Michal |
|
Round 3 (Tuesday, January 14, 2003) |
Anand, Viswanathan
|
½-½
|
Van Wely, Loek |
Shirov, Alexei
|
½-½
|
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
Polgar, Judit
|
1-0
|
Timman, Jan H |
Grischuk, Alexander
|
½-½
|
Karpov, Anatoly |
Kramnik, Vladimir
|
1-0
|
Bareev, Evgeny |
Krasenkow, Michal
|
½-½
|
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
Radjabov, Teimour
|
0-1
|
Topalov, Veselin |
|
Round 2 (Sunday, January 12, 2003) |
Bareev, Evgeny
|
1-0
|
Radjabov, Teimour |
Topalov, Veselin
|
0-1
|
Anand, Viswanathan |
Van Wely, Loek
|
½-½
|
Polgar, Judit |
Timman, Jan H
|
½-½
|
Grischuk, Alexander |
Karpov, Anatoly
|
½-½
|
Shirov, Alexei |
Ivanchuk, Vassily
|
½-½
|
Krasenkow, Michal |
Ponomariov, Ruslan
|
1-0
|
Kramnik, Vladimir |
|
Round 1 (Saturday, January 11,
2003)
|
Ponomariov, Ruslan
|
0-1
|
Bareev, Evgeny |
Kramnik, Vladimir
|
½-½
|
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
Krasenkow, Michal
|
0-1
|
Karpov, Anatoly |
Shirov, Alexei
|
½-½
|
Timman, Jan H |
Grischuk, Alexander
|
½-½
|
Van Wely, Loek |
Anand, Viswanathan
|
½-½
|
Radjabov, Teimour |
Polgar, Judit
|
½-½
|
Topalov, Veselin |
|