Corus 01: Judit Polgar, Topalov win first round games

by ChessBase
1/15/2005 – The world's strongest female player, who took a 15-month maternity leave, returned to the tournament scene today with a bang, defeating Russian GM Peter Svidler in 30 moves. Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov outplayed former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Anand and Kramnik drew pragmatically with black, Peter Leko fought hard but failed to win. Updated report.

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Corus Chess Tournament
Wijk aan Zee 14 – 30 January 2005

Official web site Live coverage – ChessBase reports

The event is being held from January 14 to 30 (first and last rounds) at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, Holland. There are three main tournaments, all 14-player round robins, starting at 13.30 Central European Time. The rest days are on Jan. 19, 24 and 27. The rate of play is 40/2, 20/1 and 30 minutes to finish the game (group C 40/2 plus 1 hour for the rest). The games can be watched on the official live coverage site or watched and discussed with other chess fans on the Playchess.com server.

Round one: Judit Polgar, Veselin Topalov win


Today's big winner: Judit Polgar defeated Peter Svidler

Judit Polgar returned to the tournament scene with a crashing victory against Peter Svidler, fearlessly taking up the challenge to play against the Marshall Gambit and winning when her opponent committed a Bxa2 blunder on move 26. For this effort Judit was rewarded with the 250 Euro public prize.


Anand coolly preparing for the game against Grischuk


The talented young Grischuk suffering in his game against Anand

Anand and Kramnik used the opening round to score pragmatic draws with the black pieces against Grischuk and Bruzon. Anand in fact replayed, move for move, a rapid game he had played last summer against Shirov in Mainz. The world's number two required only five minutes of his clock time to execute all his moves.


Vladimir Kramnik at the start of his game against Bruzon

Peter Leko fought hard for a full point against Ivan Sokolov, but the N+2P vs N+P ending could not be transformed into a win.


Peter Leko and Ivan Sokolov in the postmortem after their game

The 'Brits', Nigel Short and Michael Adams played a 23-move gentleman-like draw with just one pawn each coming off the board. "We chickened out," said Nigel at the end of their Ruy Lopez Chigorin encounter.

Morozevich vs van Wely was tense and hard-fought, but ended in a draw, while Veselin Topalov proved his class with a fine 64-move victory over ex world champion Ruslan Ponomariov.


The battling Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who beat Ruslan Ponomariov

Round one – Sat. 15.01.2005
Alexander Grischuk
½-½ Viswanathan Anand C80 Open Ruy Lopez
Nigel Short
½-½ Michael Adams C99 Ruy Lopez Chigorin
Alexander Morozevich
½-½ Loek van Wely A17 English Opening
Lazaro Bruzon
½-½ Vladimir Kramnik E14 Queens Indian
Veselin Topalov
1-0 Ruslan Ponomariov B48 Sicilian Paulsen
Judit Polgar
1-0 Peter Svidler C89 Ruy Lopez Marshall
Ivan Sokolov
½-½ Peter Leko D47 Queens Gambit Meran

Replay and download games


Young Ukrainian star Sergey Karjakin in winning form

In Group B 15-year-old Sergey Karjakin was the first to win, in 34 moves against a French Defence by Sipke Ernst. Daniel Stellwagen, 17, followed suit on the black side of a Modern Benoni, where he simply outplayed top seed Predrag Nikolic.

20-year-old GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan came out the winner on the black side of a Sicilian Najdorf against Dutch GM Friso Nijboer. It was a seesaw game. At move 26 Mamedyarov, who had been worse for some time, missed a clear draw (26...Nxb2!), after which Friso Nijboer repayed the favour with a terrible blunder (29.Qf4) and was mated on move 35 (he resigned one move earlier).

Women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova (above) got into a lot of trouble in her Slav Defence game against the very strong Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen. But incredibly she survived a double rook endgame two pawns down to draw in 64 moves.

"Did I make a mistake?" Peter Heine Nielsen ponders the position after 44.Bd3. With his previous move, 43.Rb6 he relinquished his winning chances.

The longest game of the day was played by Alexandra Kosteniuk, whose glamour and modelling activities sometimes make us forget what a strong player and tough fighter she is. Alexandra was women's vice champion of the world, recently won the European Women's Championship and is the tenth female in chess history to gain a male GM title.

In her game against top US grandmaster Alexander Onischuk Alexandra was clearly winning at move 69 when an inaccuracy – 70.g6 instead of 70.Rf7?? – spoilt the position to a draw. At move 75 a theoretically drawn endgame of rook and bishop vs rook was on the board, and a lesser spirit might have offered a dejected draw. But this lady simply fought on and after pressing for 36 more moves she had generated a position where her opponent had to find an only move (111.Rb3). Onischuk didn't and in four more moves the game was over – with a victory for Kosteniuk.

Group B Round one – Sat. 15.01.2005
Predrag Nikolic
0-1 D. Stellwagen
Jan Smeets
½-½ Ivan Cheparinov
Friso Nijboer
0-1 S. Mamedyarov
Alejandro Ramirez
½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Alexandra Kosteniuk
1-0 Alexander Onischuk
Peter .H. Nielsen
½-½ Antoaneta Stefanova
Sergey Karjakin
1-0 Sipke Ernst
Group C Round one – Sat. 15.01.2005
Wouter Spoelman
½-½ Leon Pliester
Joost Wempe
0-1 Alexey Korotylev
Harmen Jonkman
½-½ Zeinab Mamedjarova
Natalia Zhukova
1-0 Bianca Muhren
Vladimir Georgiev
1-0 Manuel Bosboom
Evgeny Alekseev
1-0 Parimarjan Negi
Tea Lanchava
0-1 Erwin L’Ami

Report by Frederic Friedel, pictures by Jeroen van den Belt


All results and schedule

Round one – Sat. 15.01.2005
Alexander Grischuk
½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Nigel Short
½-½ Michael Adams
Alexander Morozevich
½-½ Loek van Wely
Lazaro Bruzon
½-½ Vladimir Kramnik
Veselin Topalov
1-0 Ruslan Ponomariov
Judit Polgar
1-0 Peter Svidler
Ivan Sokolov
½-½ Peter Leko
Games
Report
Round two – Sun. 16.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Peter Leko
Peter Svidler
Ivan Sokolov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Judit Polgar
Vladimir Kramnik
Veselin Topalov
Loek van Wely
Lazaro Bruzon
Michael Adams
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Grischuk
Nigel Short
Games
Report
Round three – Mon. 17.01.2005
Nigel Short
Viswanathan Anand
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Grischuk
Lazaro Bruzon
Michael Adams
Veselin Topalov
Loek van Wely
Judit Polgar
Vladimir Kramnik
Ivan Sokolov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Peter Leko
Peter Svidler
Games
Report
Round four – Tues. 18.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Peter Svidler
Ruslan Ponomariov
Peter Leko
Vladimir Kramnik
Ivan Sokolov
Loek van Wely
Judit Polgar
Michael Adams
Veselin Topalov
Alexander Grischuk
Lazaro Bruzon
Nigel Short
Alexander Morozevich
Games
Report
Round five – Thurs. 20.01.2005
Alexander Morozevich
Viswanathan Anand
Lazaro Bruzon
Nigel Short
Veselin Topalov
Alexander Grischuk
Judit Polgar
Michael Adams
Ivan Sokolov
Loek van Wely
Peter Leko
Vladimir Kramnik
Peter Svidler
Ruslan Ponomariov
Games
Report
Round six – Fri. 21.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Ruslan Ponomariov
Vladimir Kramnik
Peter Svidler
Loek van Wely
Peter Leko
Michael Adams
Ivan Sokolov
Alexander Grischuk
Judit Polgar
Nigel Short
Veselin Topalov
Alexander Morozevich
Lazaro Bruzon
Games
Report
Round seven – Sat. 22.01.2005
Lazaro Bruzon
Viswanathan Anand
Veselin Topalov
Alexander Morozevich
Judit Polgar
Nigel Short
Ivan Sokolov
Alexander Grischuk
Peter Leko
Michael Adams
Peter Svidler
Loek van Wely
Ruslan Ponomariov
Vladimir Kramnik
Games
Report
Round eight – Sun. 23.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir Kramnik
Loek van Wely
Ruslan Ponomariov
Michael Adams
Peter Svidler
Alexander Grischuk
Peter Leko
Nigel Short
Ivan Sokolov
Alexander Morozevich
Judit Polgar
Lazaro Bruzon
Veselin Topalov
Games
Report
Round nine – Tues. 25.01.2005
Veselin Topalov
Viswanathan Anand
Judit Polgar
Lazaro Bruzon
Ivan Sokolov
Alexander Morozevich
Peter Leko
Nigel Short
Peter Svidler
Alexander Grischuk
Ruslan Ponomariov
Michael Adams
Vladimir Kramnik
Loek van Wely
Games
Report
Round ten – Wed 26.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Loek van Wely
Michael Adams
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Grischuk
Ruslan Ponomariov
Nigel Short
Peter Svidler
Alexander Morozevich
Peter Leko
Lazaro Bruzon
Ivan Sokolov
Veselin Topalov
Judit Polgar
Games
Report
Round eleven – Fri. 28.01.2005
Judit Polgar
Viswanathan Anand
Ivan Sokolov
Veselin Topalov
Peter Leko
Lazaro Bruzon
Peter Svidler
Alexander Morozevich
Ruslan Ponomariov
Nigel Short
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Grischuk
Loek van Wely
Michael Adams
Games
Report
Round twelve – Sat. 29.01.2005
Viswanathan Anand
Michael Adams
Alexander Grischuk
Loek van Wely
Nigel Short
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Morozevich
Ruslan Ponomariov
Lazaro Bruzon
Peter Svidler
Veselin Topalov
Peter Leko
Judit Polgar
Ivan Sokolov
Games
Report
Round thirteen – Sun. 30.01.2005
Ivan Sokolov
Viswanathan Anand
Peter Leko
Judit Polgar
Peter Svidler
Veselin Topalov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Lazaro Bruzon
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Morozevich
Loek van Wely
Nigel Short
Michael Adams
Alexander Grischuk
Games
Report

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