Corus 09: Striking with the Albin Counter Gambit

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

Round nine

Vishy Anand, who has not done too well against Veselin Topalov lately, and who had the black pieces in this round to boot, played a very solid Petroff, harassing White's queen until it was exchanged and the game drawn. Kramnik vs van Wely was a Sveshnikov in which White won a pawn, but allowed Black enough activity to win in back and draw in 47 moves. Ponomariov-Adams saw the top Brit outplay the Ukrainian ex knockout world champion in a sharp Petroff. The critical moment was when Ponomariov played 23.f3.

Ponomariov,R (2700) - Adams,Mi (2741) [C42]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (9), 25.01.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c3 f5 10.Qb3 0-0 11.Nbd2 Na5 12.Qc2 Nc6 13.b4 a6 14.a4 Bd6 15.Ba3 Kh8 16.b5 axb5 17.Bxd6 cxd6 18.axb5 Na5 19.h3 Bh5 20.Nh2 Rc8 21.Ra3 b6 22.Ndf1 f4 23.f3

Ponomariov said he saw the continuation after his last move, but only after he had played it did he realise that he was in deep trouble: 23...Qh4 24.Re2 Ng3 25.Nxg3 fxg3 26.Nf1 Bxf3 27.gxf3 Rxf3 28.Nd2 Rf2 29.Rxf2 gxf2+ 30.Kg2 Qg5+ 31.Kxf2 Rf8+ 32.Nf3 Qf4 33.Qe2 Qh2+ 34.Ke1 Qg3+ 35.Qf2 Rxf3 36.Qxg3 Rxg3 37.Bf1 h5 38.Kd2

Black is clearly winning, and can go two pawns up with 38...Rxh3 39.Bxh3 Nc4+ 40.Kd3 Nxa3. But Adams was in deep time trouble and decided, as people often do in such situations, to repeat moves to get to the time control: 38...Rf3 39.Ke2 Rg3 40.Kd2 Rf3 41.Ke2 Rg3 and to his horror the game was a draw, since Ponomariov can play 42.Ke2 to get the above position for a third time.

Judit Polgar was faced with the Berlin Defence in the Ruy Lopez against Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon, just as Nigel Short had done in the previous round against Ivan Sokolov. But while Nigel dealt with the situation with aplomb, Judit committed some minor inaccuracies around move 17, and suddenly it was Black who was attacking. However the toughest female player on the planet defended well and drew the game in 55 moves.

Let us turn to the three wins of the day. Nigel Short was unreserved in his praise for Peter Leko, who beat him in 37 moves in a Ruy Lopez Breyer. "I was completely outplayed," he told us. "The guy is pretty strong. He prepared better than I did, his understanding was superior and his tactics were better than mine – well, what can I say?" The final combination was also quite ironic: "I saw it two moves earlier, but then I stumbled into the position anyway, because I had completely forgotten about it." Still Nigel was in good spirits. "My expected score is minus two, would you believe it? So I still have half a point to play around with. I could be doing better, but I could be doing a lot worse. I think I have settled down to realizing that I am just a great supporting player. And that is not a bad thing to be. I mean there are important Oscars being given for the best supporting actors."

The "historian" amongst the top GMs: Alexander Morozevich

Turning to Morozevich-Sokolov, Nigel told us about the dilemma people face when playing against the mercurial GM from Moscow. "Yesterday evening I was talking to Ivan (Sokolov), and he said: 'Okay, if I play 1.d4 against Morozevich, he'll play 1...d5, and then if I play 2.c4 he'll play the Albin Counter Gambit.' I said 'Come on Ivan, that is nothing to worry about. But let us suppose you are really concerned about this gambit, which absolutely nobody in the world plays, then you can play Nf3 on move two.' But Ivan said 'Then he can play the Chigorin!' So he was almost in zugzwang on move two. He did not know whether to allow the Albin Counter Gambit or the Chigorin. So when you are playing Morozevich you have to do deep historical research!"

For the uninitiated: Adolf Albin (picture, 1848-1920) was an Austrian master who used the opening 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5!? 3.dxe5 d4 quite successfully in the latter 19th century. today it is considered quite dubious, as Black does not gain full value for the pawn he is sacrificing. In a Playchess.com lecture GM Boris Alterman said: "The Albin's Counter Gambit is the very popular opening on the beginners' level, but it still has proponents among master strength players. GM Alexander Morozevich has successfully included this aggressive weapon into his repertoire. Like all the gambit openings, it embodies a plan of rapid development, while White struggles with that thorn on d4, Black pieces flood easily into the game."

In the game Morozevich deviated early from theory, and Sokolov got a good position. But he missed a very promising continuation on move 13 (g4!), and by move 21 he was floundering, playing 21.e3? instead of the more solid 21.0-0-0. This allowed the black pieces to penetrate the White position "like unwanted vermin," the official round report says. Eventually he was gunned down by a ferocious black attack.

Sokolov,I (2685) - Morozevich,A (2741) [D08]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (9), 25.01.2005
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Nge7 6.Nb3 Nf5 7.a3 Be7 8.g3 a5 9.Qd3 a4 10.Nbd2 h5 11.Bh3 g6 12.Ne4 h4 13.Bf4 hxg3 14.hxg3 Ng7 15.Bg2 Rxh1+ 16.Bxh1 Bf5 17.Nfg5 Na5 18.Qf3 Ne6 19.Nh7 Bxe4 20.Qxe4 c6 21.e3?

21...Nb3 22.Rd1 Qa5+ 23.Ke2 Nec5 24.Qg2 Qa6 25.Kf1 Qxc4+ 26.Kg1 Qc2 27.Qf3 d3 28.Bg5 Ne4 29.Bxe7 Nxf2 30.Qxf2 Qxd1+ 31.Kg2 Qc2 32.Bd6 0-0-0 33.Kg1

The final move on the official site is given as 33...Rd8-h8 1-0, with the comment "Sokolov resigned with only 2 seconds left on his clock". We are not sure of the notation, since after this move White can immediately draw with 34.Qxf7, since the mate threat Qc7# can only be parried by a perpetual: 34...Qd1+ 35.Kg2 Qe2+ 36.Kg1 Qd1+. Possibly the more logical sequence 33...Qxf2+ 34.Kxf2 Rh8 35.Bf3 Rxh7 was meant, when White can indeed resign in an utterly hopeless position. This game won Morozevich the public prize for the day.

Peter Svidler, who had a terrible start this year in Wijk, won a very pretty game against Alexander Grischuk. For the record, it was a Sicilian Rossolimo, which was first seen in top-level chess in 1851, when Bird and Williams played it in the London Tournament. But it was made popular by Grandmaster Nicolas Rossolimo (1910-75), who was born in Kiev but lived in Paris, working as a taxi-driver. Svidler handled the position very well, pushing in the center and netting two pawns – and after 57 moves the full point in this game.

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Groups B and C

In Group B the boy wonder from the Ukraine, Sergey Karjakin, has moved to within striking distance of the leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The four leading players are aged 20, 15, 18 and 14, for an average of 16.75. Note that one game is still missing from the database for round nine.

In Group C there is a three-way tie for first. The drawing average here is a truly remarkable 28.6%, with 36.5% white and 34.9% black wins. When's the last time we saw a tournament go this way? The other sections conform more closely to the average: Group A has 58.7% draws, and Group B.

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The CORUS Steel Making Plant

The sponsor of this exciting chess event is a steel manufacturer, one of the biggest in the world. Corus has about 10,000 workers in three shifts, 24 hours a day. Of the 800 inhabitants of Wijk aan Zee about 10% work for Corus. The output of the company is seven million tons a year, which makes up about 0.7 percent of the world production.

During the tournament the grandmasters were invited to visit the factory and see the steel mills in action. Unfortunately only a very few accepted the invitation. One of them was Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has a nice report of the visit on her web site.

A chess grandmaster in the steel mill

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Groups B + C