Fine performance by Karpov in Wijk

by ChessBase
1/12/2003 – The first round of the 65th Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee didn't lack fighting spirit. But with most players rated so closely together, victories are not easy to achieve. Only two managed to score a win. Last year's winner Evgeny Bareev defeated FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, and Anatoly Karpov won the public prize by beating Michal Krasenkow in a lovely tactical battle. Games and results are available here.

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Corus Wijk aan Zee

Round 1 (January 11, 2003)
Ponomariov, Ruslan
0-1
Bareev, Evgeny
Kramnik, Vladimir
1/2
Ivanchuk, Vassily
Krasenkow, Michal
0-1
Karpov, Anatoly
Shirov, Alexei
1/2
Timman, Jan H
Grischuk, Alexander
1/2
Van Wely, Loek
Anand, Viswanathan
1/2
Radjabov, Teimour
Polgar, Judit
1/2
Topalov, Veselin


Anatoly Karpov

Karpov's win against Michal Krasenkow came from a Queens Indian, with the ex world champion giving us a very nice tactical display on the black side of this opening. Playing through the game we have to once again concede that Anatoly Karpov is certainly not a spent force in today's chess world. He is very popular in the Netherlands and turned up in Wijk looking, we are told, hungry for chess.

Evgeny Bareev, who won last year's Corus tournament, took home the full point after FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov sacrificed an exchange on move ten but was unable to deliver on the promising attack.

The other games were all drawn, but none of them were short or boring. Youngster Teimour Radjabov played well to hole second seed Vishy Anand, while Vassily Ivanchuk miraculously escaped in a pawn-down ending against top seed Vladimir Kramnik. The two Dutch players were happy with black draws against Shirov and Gischuk – acutally Loek van Wely ended trying to win against the latter.

More information: Corus web site


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