Corus R6: Shock defeat of Anand by Kamsky

The Corus Chess Tournament 2006 is being held from 13-29 January 2006 in Wijk aan Zee, Holland. The venue is the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon. Commentary is available in the Corus Chess Pavilion, on the Village Green in Wijk aan Zee.

Round six

Grandmaster Group A

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group B
All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group C

All games in PGN

Round Six Report

Crowds of kids gathered to watch the tournament

The start of the games, with Sokolov-Leko and Mamedyarov-Gelfand

Kamsky-Anand: Of course we have to begin with the most stunning result of the tournament so far, Gata Kamsky's remarkably smooth demolition of tournament leader Viswanathan Anand. The American was in last place and coming off of three consecutive losses, and Anand was in ripping form, leading with 4/5. The players smelled blood – or rust – in the water, and it seemed obvious Anand would play to win even with the black pieces.

But he never got a chance. Kamsky dominated the board from the beginning, and Black was reduced to damage control after just a dozen moves. Anand's famous slipperiness was only enough to reach an opposite-colored bishop endgame down a pawn, soon to be two pawns. With the pawns on d5 and e5 it was only a matter of time. Kamsky converted the win confidently, his second in a row against Anand. The last one was June 1, 1996 in Dos Hermanas!

As in times gone by: Anand faces Gata Kamsky

Garry Kasparov called thie surprise result a blackout by the Indian, comparing it to Anand's loss to Kasimdzhanov in San Luis last year. "This game says little about Kamsky but a lot about Anand. These things happen to Vishy sometimes."

Adams-Ivanchuk: Adams notched a nice win against Ivanchuk, who slipped into a passive position after coming out of an opening experiment in okay shape. Black played Nfd7 preemptively, inviting a white pawn storm. Adams obliged. After exchanges Adams got to work his magic with a slight space advantage and Ivanchuk cracked with 34..b4 and an unfortunate rook incursion. White infiltrated with his queen and the game ended quickly after that.

The other A Group games were drawn and were characterized by steady equality, although they were as fighting as a balanced game allows.

Tiviakov-Topalov: Veselin Topalov moved into a share of the lead thanks to Anand's loss and his draw against Sergey Tiviakov. It seems that the FIDE world champion feels obliged to sacrifice material in every game. He gave up a pawn for a mighty bishop on d5. Opening lines on the queenside led to exchanges and an endgame was accurately played by both sides until the board was bare.

Van Wely-Karjakin: Loek van Wely tried to keep young Sergey Karjakin up past his bedtime in a 50-move endgame grind with an extra pawn, but didn't have anything to show for it in the end.

Group B

There was a lot more action in the B Group, where the co-leaders met. Akardij Naiditsch looked well on his way to a victory with white over Magnus Carlsen when things went horribly wrong.

Naiditsch,A (2657) - Carlsen,M (2625) [B33]
Corus B Wijk aan Zee NED (6), 20.01.2006
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.Nd5 Be7 10.Nxe7 Nxe7 11.Bd3 Nd7 12.0-0 Nc5 13.b4 Nxd3 14.Qxd3 f6 15.Be3 d5 16.Bc5 dxe4 17.Qxe4 Qd5 18.Qe2 Bb7 19.f3 Ng6 20.Rfd1 Nf4 21.Qf1 Qe6 22.c4 Kf7 23.Rd6 Qf5 24.cxb5 axb5 25.Nxb5 Kg6 26.Rd2 Rhd8 27.Rxd8 Rxd8 28.Nd6 Rxd6 29.Bxd6 Qg5 30.Kh1 h5 31.Bc5 e4

White has the advantage but has allowed the Norwegian to develop uncomfortable pressure against his king. Kasparov pointed out that things have already become tricky for White and recommended the plan a4 followed by Ra3. Instead Naditsch went down in heap with 32.Be3?? exf3 33.gxf3 Qg4! 0-1. Carlsen now leads by a full point ahead of a pack of four.

Kasparov drew our attention to the fine win by Jobava over Cheparinov. After he knocked out Ivanchuk in the World Cup, Topalov's young second received a lot of attention, but here he has already lost three games. This one had a wild material imbalance out of the opening, two pieces and three pawns for the queen. Jobava methodically advanced the lady and Black was unable to establish a defensive setup.

Zoltan Almasi faced veteran Alexander Beliavski

Dutch game: GM John van der Wiel faces WIM Mariles Bensdorp

Schedule, results and reports

When and how to watch The games of the Corus Chess Tournament start at 13:30h Central European Time, which is GMT + 1h, or 7:30 a.m. New York and 15:30 Moscow (you can check for other locations here). There is live coverage on the official web site (links at the bottom of the page) and on Playchess.com, where audio and video commentary will be provided by GM Yasser Seiravan, live from Wijk aan Zee. Don't miss it!

Here is where you can find and replay the video commentary from the Playchess archives. Click on "English" and then select the report in the Games window. Replaying archive files costs you a Ducat or two.

Links

• Tournament web site
• Corus web site
• All ChessBase reports so far
• Where is Wijk aan Zee?
• Wijk aan Zee 2004 reports
• Wijk aan Zee 2005 reports