Corus 02: Shocker in Wijk – top seeds in trouble

Corus Chess Tournament Wijk aan Zee 14 – 30 January 2005 Official web site – Live coverage – ChessBase reports

Round two

The young Azerbaijani GM Teimour Radjabov, watching the games in some disbelief, speculated that it must have something to do with the massive storms that are currently raging on the surface of the sun. How could both Vishy Anand (top seed, number two in the world) and Vladimir Kramnik (number four) get into such a lot of trouble, especially when they had the white pieces? Maybe it was the sunspot activity, but more likely the fact that they were facing number five and number three in the world, respectively.

The first to go was Vladimir Kramnik, who was faced with a Sicilian Najdorf and a novelty on move 11 against Veselin Topalov.

Vladimir Kramnik, classical chess world champion

Kramnik,V (2754) - Topalov,V (2757) [B90]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (2), 16.01.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.g4 h6 9.Qd2 b4 10.Na4 Nbd7 11.0-0-0 Ne5

Most experts believed that Topalov's pawn offer should not have been accepted and that Kramnik's 12.Qxb4 was a fatal mistake. But the game really went downhill after 12...Bd7 13.Nb3 and a disheartened Kramnik resigned after 13...Rb8 14.Qa3 Nxf3 15.h3 Nxe4 16.Be2 Ne5 17.Rhe1 Qc7 18.Bd4 Nc6 19.Bc3 d5 20.Nbc5 Qa7 0-1. The last time something like this happened, as far as we know, was when an 18-year-old Kramnik lost rapid chess game with white against Elizbar Ubilava (Anand's second) 1992 in Oviedo.

Veselin Topalov showing his 20-move win in the press room after the game

The next to bite the cold sand of Wijk aan Zee was Vishy Anand, who was confronted with a novelty by Peter Leko on move 21.

Anand,V (2786) - Leko,P (2749) [B33]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (2), 16.01.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 Bg7 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Nc2 0-0 14.Nce3 Be6 15.Bd3 f5 16.0-0 Ra7 17.a4 Ne7 18.Nxe7+ Rxe7 19.axb5 axb5 20.Bxb5 d5 21.Ra6 f4

Instead of sacrificing the exchange with 22.Rxe6 (22...Rxe6 23.Qxd5 Qxd5 24.Nxd5), Anand played passively: 22.Nc2 Bc8 23.Ra8 Qd6 24.Nb4 Bb7 25.Ra7 d4 26.Ba6? This is where the real problems begin. 26...Bxg2. Could Anand have overlooked this move? 27.Bc4+ Kh8 28.Ra6 Qc5 29.Kxg2 f3+ and from there on it was all downhill. Although Anand hung on for another 28 moves the game ended in a dejected resignation after move 57.

Peter Leko, who scored a very important win against the top seed

Alexander Grischuk vs Nigel Short was a well-fought game. The former British chess prodigy, now pushing 40 and the oldest player in the field, had a definite advantage with the black pieces, but his youthful Russian opponent was able to save the game to a 34-move draw.

Nigel Short, fighting back at 39

The game Michael Adams vs Alexander Morozevich saw the mercurial GM from Moscow go down after losing a pawn on move 28.

Morozevich has just played 28...g7-g5, possibly overlooking White's petite combinaison. After 29.Nxg5+ fxg5 30.Rf3 Black cannot defend the pinned knight on f5, since the second rook can be brought into play on e5. Michael Adams did not let the chance pass and ground his opponent down with ruthless efficiency to win in 49 moves.

Judit Polgar, flushed from her comeback victory in round one, was doing fine with the black pieces against Ruslan Ponomariov until around move 37. Then the strongest women player in the world played some hyper-aggressive moves to ruin her position.

Black has just played 39...Qf2xPh4. White's reply 40.Qxd6 threatens 41.Ne7+ and 42.Qf6 mate, so 40...Bd8 is forced. 41.Nf6+ Bxf6 42.gxf6 Ra8+ 43.Kb2. The threat of course is 44.Qd8+ and 45.Rxd8 mate. 43...h5 44.Qe7 Qf2 45.Rd8+ Rxd8 46.Qxd8+ Kh7 After this the ex knockout world champion from Ukraine had no problems converting the position to a full point. 47.Qe7 Qd4+ 48.Ka2 Kh6 49.Qxf7 Qc5 50.Qg7+ Kg5 51.Qe7 Qxc2+ 52.Ka3 Qc1+ 53.Kb4 Qd2+ 54.Kb5 Qd3+ 55.Ka5 Qc3+ 56.b4. The perpetual she is seeking is not there, so the end is: 1-0.

An action picture from Wijk, showing the game after White's 43rd move. Ponomariov, standing on the left, knows he is winning, Judit Polgar looks for the proverbial last resort.

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Groups B and C

In Group B 14-year-old Magnus Carlsen struck out with a convincing victory over European Women's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, while colleague Sergey Karjakin, who had won in round one, drew with the black pieces against the reigning Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Both Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Daniel Stellwagen won for a second time to take the lead in the Group.

Antoaneta Stefanova and Sergey Karjakin analyse their game; Nigel Short and Grischuk (watched by Nigel's second Suat Atalik) are in the background.

Daniel Stellwagen and Sipke Ernst at a very tense moment in their game (Vishy Anand in the background is trying to see what is going on).

Black has just played 23...Ke7xPf6. Now, as Garry Kasparov spotted during the game, White has an instant win: 24.Bg7+ Kxg7 25.Rg3+ Kf6 26.Rg6+ Kf7 27.Rg5+ Ke7 28.Rxd5. But young Daniel played 24.Re5 Qxe5 25.Bg7+ Kxg7. This is the position in the picture above. Fortunately for the Dutch talent his continuation was still enough to win, which he did with 26.Qxe5+ Kf7 27.Rh3 Nf5 28.g4 Rg8 29.Rh7+ Ng7 30.h4 Kg6 31.Rxg7+ Rxg7 32.Qe4+ Kf7 33.Qxa8 Rxg4+ 34.Kf1 1-0.

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  Group A – Group B – Group C

Pictures by Olena Boytsun, Jeroen van den Belt and Fred Lucas

All results and schedule

Groups B + C