Corus R11: Karjakin, Leko, Kamsky win, Carlsen loses

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 eleven

Grandmaster Group A

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group B

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group C

All games in PGN

Round Eleven Report

Bringing it on against Topalov: Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk

For the first time in the entire tournament, both Anand and Topalov drew their games, leaving the top of the crosstable unchanged. Topalov kept his half-point lead after an adventurous game with Ivanchuk. He was better, then worse, then played very well to draw a rook endgame. The world's top-rated spectator, Garry Kasparov, said he was impressed with how quickly Topalov played the key drawing line.

Close to victory, close to defeat: Veselin Topalov

Anand was held rather easily by Tiviakov, who performed the admirable task of surprising the Indian star in the opening. The stage is set for a showdown tomorrow when Topalov takes the white pieces against Anand. It will be interesting to see how they go about it. Topalov will likely be happy with a draw since they both have tough pairings in the final round. Topalov has black against Leko and Anand white against Gelfand, who is in good form.

Anand vs Tiviakov in round 11

Sergey Karjakin refuses to tire. The 16-year-old Ukrainian beat Sokolov to pick up his fourth win measured against two losses to Topalov and Anand. This moved him back into the +2 pack with Adams and Gelfand, who both drew for the second day in a row.

Peter Leko bounced back up to an even score by winning against Mamedyarov. The young Azerbaijani threw away the exchange for no visible compensation. It came in a position with a series of fascinating continuations, however, so it was something of a loss to chess as well.

Victory against Mamedyarov: to GM Peter Leko

Leko,P (2740) - Mamedyarov,S (2709) [C72]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (11), 27.01.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.0-0 Bd7 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 b5 8.Nxc6 Bxc6 9.Bb3 Nf6 10.Nc3 Be7 11.Re1 0-0 12.a4 b4 13.Nd5 Bxd5 14.exd5 Nd7 15.a5 Nc5 16.Ba4 Rb8 17.Bc6 Bf6 18.Qe2 Bd4 19.Rb1 Qf6 20.Rd1 h6 21.Qd2

In the diagram Black played 21...Rfe8?? and Leko duly captured the rook and went on to win. Despite his poor tournament, sacrificing material against Leko remains a very good way to lose a game. Instead, Black had the witty move 21...Bc3! and if 22.bxc3? Bxc3 23.Bb2 Rxb2 24.Qe2 Qf5 25.Rdc1 Rfb8 26.Qe1 Rxb1 27.Rxb1 Rb2 and Black's domination wins. Another fun line is 22.Qf4 b3! and 23.bxc3?? bxc2 wins for Black. 23.cxb3 Rxb3 (23...Qg6 24.Be3) 24.Qxf6 Bxf6 and Black is for choice. The best for White might be 22.Qe2 and Black can put the bishop right back on d4. After 22...Bd4 White can play calmly with g3 or h3, or he can take Fritz's suggestion with 23.Bxh6!? Bxf2+ (23...gxh6 24.Qg4+ or 23...Qxh6 24.Rxd4 recovers the piece. 23...Qxf2+ is reasonable) 24.Qxf2 Qxh6 25.Rd4. A pity all this stayed in the notes.

The game ended after 21...Rfe8?? 22.Bxe8 Rxe8 23.Qf4 b3 24.c3 Qe7 25.Bd2 Be5 26.Qg4 Ne4 27.Be3 g6 28.g3 Bg7 29.Re1 h5 30.Qe2 h4 31.Qxa6 f5 32.Qb5 Be5 33.a6 hxg3 34.fxg3 Kf7 35.a7 Rh8 36.Qb8 Rxh2 37.a8Q 1-0. [Click to replay]

Gata Kamsky might not have many fond memories of this tournament, but at least he's given some bad memories to a few others along the way. Van Wely was in control after an ambitious piece sacrifice and could play for a win without much risk with his bishops and rook against Kamsky's queen and bishop. Without risk, that is, until a slip allowed the alert Kamsky to destroy the coordination of the black pieces and go on the attack.

Kamsky,G (2686) - Van Wely,L (2647) [B85]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (11), 27.01.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 a6 7.0-0 Be7 8.a4 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.f4 Qc7 11.Kh1 Re8 12.Qe1 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 e5 14.Be3 exf4 15.Bxf4 Be6 16.a5 Nd7 17.Qg3 Ne5 18.Be3 Bf8 19.Bb6 Qc6 20.Bd3 g6 21.Ne2 Bg7 22.Nd4 Qd7 23.Rad1 Rac8 24.b3 Bg4 25.Rd2 Nxd3 26.Qxd3 d5 27.h3 dxe4 28.Qe3 Be6 29.c4 h5 30.Nb5 axb5 31.Rxd7 Bxd7 32.Qf4 Be6 33.cxb5 Bxb3 34.Be3 Bc4 35.Rc1 Bxb5 36.Rxc8 Rxc8 37.Qxe4 Bc6 38.Qc2 Re8 39.Bf2 Re6 40.Kg1 Be5 41.Qb3 Bf4 42.h4 Re4 43.Qb6 Be5 44.Qc5

Here Black played 44...Bc7?? when 44...Bd7 was required to prevent penetration and keep the balance. Black's position was shattered by 45.a6! Ra4. This looks good for Black because of the threat of ...Ra1+ but 46.Bd4 creates too many threats and the a-pawn must still be dealt with. 46...Rxa6 47.Qe7 Ba5? Now it's a forced mate. (47.Ra4 was the only hope.) 48.Qe5 Kf8 49.Qd6+ Ke8 50.Bf6 Bb6+ 51.Kh2 1-0. [Click to replay]

Winning ways: American GM Gata Kamsky

Kamsky is still in the cellar with Sokolov, but you can be sure that despite his seven losses, many of them horrible, he's feeling better than Sokolov or Mamedyarov, both of whom are without a win. (Tiviakov is also winless, but he's lost only one.) Meanwhile, the blatantly rusty Kamsky has three victories; only Topalov, Anand, and Karjakin have more!

The key game in Group B: Motylev vs Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen picked an odd time to try out an offbeat line of the Najdorf. His experiment with 6...Nbd7 instead of the usual 6...e5 or 6...Ng4 came against the man chasing him for the lead, Alexander Motylev. Without pausing to thank his opponent, Motylev totally destroyed the black position and is new leader of the B Group with 8/11.

Working hard: Alexander Beliavsky (against Jan Smeets)

Two groups side by side: Topalov and Humpy

In focus: India's top female player Koneru Humpy

Women's European Champion Katya Lahno (16)

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 Seirawan, 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