Anand and Van Wely on winning streak

Corus Wijk aan Zee

Round 7 (Sunday, January 19, 2003)

ROUND 7: Dutch courage. Just in case it wasn't sweet enough for Loek van Wely to win his third game in a row in front of the home crowd, he did it against Dutch arch-rival Jan Timman in just 24 moves! It also kept him in a tie for first with Vishy Anand, who beat a reeling Ruslan Ponomariov.

Right behind them with 4.5/7 are Alexei Shirov, who bounced back with a win over Bareev, and Judit Polgar, who drew her third in a row. It was no small draw, however, as it came against Vladimir Kramnik, usually a nightmare opponent for Polgar. He was performing his usual torture act, but she held on until finding a remarkable pawn sacrifice to save the day. In the diagram she played 77.g4, luring the white pawns forward where they were vulnerable to attack.

The game continued 77...Bxf4+ 78.Ke2 hxg4 79.h5 gxh5 80.Bxf5 Kb4 81.Bg6 h4 82.Bf5 g3 83.Kf3 Kc4 84.Bh3 Be5 85.Ke4 Bf6 86.Bf1+ Kc3 87.Bg2 Kc4 88.Bf1+ Kc5 89.Bg2 Be7 90.Bf1 Bd8 91.Bg2 Kc4 92.Bf1+ Kc3 93.Bg2 Kd2 94.Kf3 Kd3 95.Kg4 Ke3 96.Kh3 Bf6 97.Bh1 ½-½

Bareev's loss to Shirov was a brutal affair in what we can call the poisoned-pawn variation of the French. Bareev came under a withering attack after grabbing two queenside pawns. This was waving red flags at a bull who usually doesn't need to see any flags to charge. A very attractive execution by Shirov. After winning his first two games Bareev has scored 1/5.

We had yet more reports from the front lines of the B32-B33 Sveshnikov Sicilian line that has been all the rage since Leko used his improvements on the Black side to win the 2002 Dortmund qualifier. The news today, however, reported victories for the white forces. Anand and Grischuk beat Ponomariov and Krasenkow, respectively. This kept Vishy in a tie for first with van Wely and gave Grischuk his first decisive game.

Standing after round 7

More information: Corus web site

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