Corus R12: Lead unchanged, Kamsky wins again

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 twelve

Grandmaster Group A

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group B

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group C

All games in PGN

Round Twelve Report

The start of round twelve in Wijk aan Zee

It seems a strange time for peace to break out in the A Group, but that's what happened in today's penultimate round. There was only once decisive game and it took place at the bottom of the crosstable. The big game was a meeting between the world's #1 and #2, who are also running first and second in the tournament. Topalov-Anand was on the brink of being an exciting (if short) game when the Indian offered a full piece right out of the opening.

Topalov and Anand face off for a potentially decisive game

Topalov,V (2801) - Anand,V (2792) [C78]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (12), 28.01.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 0-0 9.d4 Bb6 10.axb5 axb5 11.dxe5 Ng4 12.Na3 Ncxe5 13.h3 d6

With speed born of preparation, Anand banged out this last move (the remarkable 13...d6), just leaving his knight to be captured on g4. We saw the previous moves a few days ago in Topalov-Sokolov, and this was the Anand team's quick improvement. If White accepts the sacrifice it looks like Black can force a quick repetition draw. 14.hxg4 Bxg4 15.Nc2 Bxf3 16.gxf3 Qf6! Now if 17.Ne1. White can avoid the repetition only by walking his king up to h4. 17.Kh2 Rbe8! and White has to worry about the rook lifting to e5. Topalov looked at these lines, looked at the crosstable, and decided he really didn't want an extra knight. Declining the sacrifice didn't leave much for White to look for. 14.Qe2 Nxf3+ 15.Qxf3 Ne5 16.Qg3 Be6 17.Bxe6 fxe6 18.Nxb5 Rxf2 19.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 20.Qxf2 Rxb5 21.Qe2 Rb8 22.Bf4 Qf6 23.Rf1 ½-½.

World champion Topalov facing the photographers

In the final round Topalov needs a draw with black against Leko to be guaranteed a share of first place. Anand has white against Gelfand. The Ukrainian duel between Ivanchuk and Karjakin should be another one to watch.

Sergey Karjakin, just 16 years old and so very, very strong

That top billed was just one of four draws that ended before move 30. Tiviakov continued to make Gandhi look like Ghengis Khan. He got little against Leko and now has 12 draws and a loss. Karjakin was content to hold his spot and offered a short draw to Aronian with 30 pieces still on the board. Sokolov-Bacrot had a few tactical flashes that couldn't change the drawn result.

Van Wely is having a better tournament than his –1 score indicates. You could make the same case for his opponent in round 12, Mickey Adams. Van Wely got a dangerous passed a-pawn and spent 30 moves trying to get it home, but Adams defended well and held the draw. It looks to us like 33.a5 wins the black bishop, although White would have slim drawing chances.

Loek van Wely during his game against Adams

Gelfand-Ivanchuk was a full-bodied fight. White was forced to give up a piece for a central pawn mass and it turned out to be just enough to secure an endgame draw after a wild time scramble ended the first control.

Ivanchuk before his heart-rending game against Gelfand

Gelfand,B (2723) - Ivanchuk,V (2729) [E15]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (12), 28.01.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.0-0 d5 9.Qc2 Nbd7 10.Rd1 0-0 11.Bf4 Rc8 12.Nc3 Nh5 13.Bc1 Nhf6 14.Bf4 Nh5 15.Bc1 Nhf6 16.Bf4 Re8 17.e4 dxc4 18.bxc4 Bxc4 19.Nd2 Ba6 20.Qa4 Bd3 21.Ndb1 b5 22.Qxa7 e5 23.Rxd3 exf4 24.Rd1 b4 25.e5 bxc3 26.Nxc3 Bb4 27.Rdc1 Bxc3 28.Rxc3 Nd5 29.Rc2 Ra8 30.Qb7 Rb8 31.Qa7 Re7 32.Qa3 Re6 33.Rac1 Nf8 34.Rxc6 Rxc6 35.Rxc6 Rb1+ 36.Bf1 h5 37.Rd6 Qc8 38.Qd3 Nc3 39.Kg2 Ne6 40.Qc4.

40...Qxc4. Had Ivanchuk had more than a few seconds for move 40 he might have found 40...f3+!, winning instantly. Fritz takes a few seconds to announce a checkmate in 21 (!) moves, although it's clearly over long before that. 41.Kxf3 Ng5+ 42.Ke3 Qf5 is kaput. Later that night Ivanchuk could be heard wailing in anguish over this lost opportunity. 41.Bxc4 Ne4 42.Bd3 Re1 43.Rb6 g6 44.Bxe4 Rxe4 45.d5 Nf8 46.gxf4 Rxf4 47.Rb8 Rd4 48.e6 fxe6 49.dxe6 Re4 50.Re8 Kg7 51.f3 Re5 52.Re7+ Kh6 53.f4 Re2+ 54.Kf3 Rxa2 55.Re8 Nh7 56.e7 Ra3+ 57.Kf2 Ra7 58.h4 Nf6 59.Rh8+ Kg7 60.e8Q Nxe8 61.Rxe8 ½-½.

Boris Gelfand, lucky to get away with a draw

The only decisive game of the day was Gata Kamsky's second win in a row, this one at the expense of Mamedyarov. The American coolly rebuffed White's pawn sacrifice, nabbed another foot soldier, and left White no chances at all.

Shako Mamedyarov vs Gata Kamsky in round twelve

Kamsky is now out of the cellar and has an impressive four wins, as many as Sokolov, Mamedyarov, Tiviakov, Aronian, and Leko combined! Of course, seven losses are tough to overcome...

Ivan Cheparinov vs Magnus Carlsen in Group B

The leadership of the B Group has turned into a revolving door. Yesterday Carlsen fell to Motylev. Today Motylev fell to Almasi, the new leader. Turkey's Suat Atalik wrapped up an impressive C Group victory with a round to spare.

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