Corus 06: The sands are red in Wijk aan Zee

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

Wijk aan Zee

It is pronounced "Whyke aahn Zay", if you please, to rhyme with Night and Day. A beach where Holland's best racehorses are trained, where you can encounter deep-sea divers and skinny-dippers.

Wijk, with an electric tram system, at the end of the 19th century

The beach, with its rolling dunes

A walk on the beach on a sunny winter's morning

A sunbather or a casualty from the violent chess tournament in Wijk?

Players with their own agenda

Round six

Friends and rivals: Peter Svidler, Vladimir Kramnik

Last year there was a cry of anguish from Peter Svidler, who resigned in his game against Vladimir Kramnik in a drawn position (he hadn't seen the save). This year Svidler, who is a close friend of the classical chess world champion and assisted him last October during his match against Peter Leko, was holding on well enough against his opponent's home preparation in a Sicilian Paulsen, when fate struck again, this time in the form of a blunder.

Kramnik,V (2754) - Svidler,P (2735) [B41]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (6), 21.01.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 d6 10.0-0 Ne5 11.f4 Nxd3 12.Qxd3 e5 13.fxe5 dxe5 14.Bg5 h6 15.Bh4 exd4 16.e5 dxc3 17.Qxd8+ Kxd8 18.exf6 g5 19.Bg3 Be6 20.Rac1

Here 20...Kd7 or even 20...b5 should be enough to hold the draw. But Peter Svidler carelessly played 20...Bxc4? Now he comes under deadly fire by the white rooks: 21.Rfe1 Kd7 22.Re7+ Kc6 23.Rc7+ Kd5 24.Rd1+ Ke6 25.Rxc4 Rac8 26.Bc7 Kxf6 27.Rxc3 Rhe8 28.Rf3+ 1-0.

Vishy Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov (above) played a complicated Najdorf in which there was no telling how it would end. Until Anand struck out after a weak move by his opponent.

Anand,V (2786) - Ponomariov,R (2700) [B90]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (6), 21.01.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 Qb6 7.Nb3 e6 8.Bf4 Nbd7 9.g4 Be7 10.Qe2 h6 11.h4 Qc7 12.0-0-0 b5 13.a3 Rb8 14.Qg2 Nc5 15.g5 Nh5 16.Be3 Na4 17.Rd3 g6 18.Kb1 Bb7 19.Be2 e5 20.Qf2

20...Bc6? The position was already quite dubious, but this moves sealed Black's fate. 21.gxh6 Nb6 22.f4! Nf6 23.fxe5 dxe5 24.Rf1 0-0 25.Nc5 Bb7 26.Ne6 fxe6 27.Bxb6 Qc6 28.Qg1 Kh7 29.Rdf3 and the black position is in shambles, although the resiliant Ponomariov hung on until move 62 before resigning.

Anand is getting back to his world class form and has now won two in a row. Nigel Short, on the other hand, is stumbling badly after a good start in this tournament. Today he lost badly with the white pieces to Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov. But his lot was nothing compared to that of Alexander Morozevich, who is close to a negative record in the tournament circuit. Against Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon he fought well and was on the road to victory when once again disaster struck.

In this almost certainly winning position Morozevich commits a fatal inaccuracy: 56.Qxh4?? Qe3 (threatening 57...Qg1#). White needs to play h4 (and 57.Bd6 Qg1+ 58.Kg3 Bf2+ simply loses the queen). But he has no check with which to extract his queen from the h4 square.

The correct strategy was 56.Qc7+! Kg8 57.Qd8+ Kg7 58.Qe7+ Kg8 and now White can take the pawn: 59.Qxh4 because 59...Qe3 no longer works: 60.Qd8+ (White has this check) 60...Kf7 and now White must avoid the pitfall 61.h4? Qg1+ 62.Kh3 Qh1+ 63.Bh2 (63.Kg4 Qd1+ 64.Kh3 (64.Kg5 Be3+ 65.Bf4 Qh5#; 64.Kf4 Be5+ 65.Kxe5 Qxd8) 64...Qh1+; 63...Be5 threatening 64...Qxh2+ 65.Kg4 Qxg2#., so that White must save himself with permanent check and the game is a draw. The correct continuation is 61.Qd7+ Kg8 62.h4 Qg1+ 63.Kh3 Qh1+ 64.Bh2 and now Black doesn't have 64...Be5 because of 65.Qe8+ Kh7 66.Qxe5. You can replay these lines on our animated JavaScript board.

After the text move the game continued 57.Bf2 Qxf2 58.Qxf2 Bxf2 59.g3 Kf6 60.Kg2 Ba7 61.Kf3 Ke5 62.Ke2 Ke4 63.h4 Bb6 64.g4 Kf4 65.h5 gxh5 66.gxh5 Kg5 67.Kd3 Kxh5 68.Ke4 c5 69.Kd5 Ba7 0-1.

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Groups B and C

In Group B Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Dutch IM Sipke Ernst in a complicated Slav. Since his main rivals Daniel Stellwagen and Ivan Cheparinov both lost their games, Mamedyarov now has a commanding one-point lead in the field. His main rival is 15-year-old Sergey Karjakin.

Standings Group B and Group C

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Groups B + C