Corus R8: Anand catches Topalov

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 eight

Grandmaster Group A

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Grandmaster Group B

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Grandmaster Group C

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Round Eight Report

David Navara waiting for his opponent at the start of round eight

After Ivanchuk faded it looked like Anand might run away with it. Then he ran into a suddenly inspired Kamsky and was caught up and passed by Topalov. Vishy bounced back into a share of the lead today thanks to a win with black (his third from four wins!) over France's Etienne Bacrot. Anand and Topalov have 5.5/8 with Karjakin in clear third a half-point back.

Bacrot-Anand: Etienne Bacrot gets an "A" for effort but a zero on the crosstable. He tried to play for win against Anand in an endgame only to see it turn into a loss. White's passed a-pawn didn't make any progress while Black stirred up trouble around Bacrot's king. Anand's pieces seemed to coordinate magically. A strange and difficult game. Bacrot dropped back to join Kamsky in the cellar with 2.5/8, a rare display of Franco-American unity.

Bacrot-Anand after 52...Ra4

Things have already turned sour for White after Black developed a surprising kingside initiative. Here Bacrot's natural attempt to hang on to his a-pawn 53.Nb3 was met with the annoying 54...Bg2+! 55.Kg3 (the h-pawn is attacked) 55...f4+ 56.Kh2 Bd5 and now the defense is much more difficult because the white king is boxed in and vulnerable to mate threats.

The game finished 56.Kg1 Ng2 57.h5 Nh4 58.Bd1 Ra3 (58..Re4! ends things immediately) 59.Kh2 Nf5 60.Rd3 Nd6 61.Rd4 Ne4 62.Bc2 (62.Bf3) 62...Ng5 0-1 The knight is a monster and the white king finds itself in traffic. (63.Rb4 Nf3+ 64.Kh3 Ne1 65.Bd1 Nd3)

White would have had much better drawing chances in the diagrammed position after 53.f3! Rxd4 (53...Bd5 54.Rc1 Rxd4 55.Rxe1 Ra4 56.a6; 53...e5 54.Nb5=) 54.fxe4 fxe4 55.Rc4 (55.Bc4 Rd7 56.a6 Rc7 57.Ra3 Rxc4 58.a7 Rc8 59.a8Q Rxa8 60.Rxa8 f5 61.Kg3=) 55...Rd5 56.Ra4 Nd3 57.Kg3 f5 58.a6 Rd8 59.a7 Ra8 60.Bxd3 exd3 61.Kf3 e5 62.Ke3 e4 63.Ra6=

The only other decisive game of the round in the A Group was Mamedyarov's second consecutive loss. His defensive exchange sacrifice against Aronian looked promising but he was outplayed and couldn't hold the endgame. The other games had much of the combative but steady feel we've seen much of in the past few rounds.Tense, often long, but balanced and with few fireworks. Sokolov-Kamsky was exception, sharp and short.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with two losses in a row

A sanguinary day in Group B nevertheless left the top of the standings unchanged. Almasi and Motylev joined Navara a point behind the leader Carlsen, who held Navara to a draw without adventures.

Picture gallery

Gelfand vs Topalov about to start

Veselin Topalov in his round eight game against Boris Gelfand

... looking for chances against his Israeli opponent

Etienne Bacrot in his game against Anand

Sergey Karjakin, preparing to face Sergey Tiviakov

... and facing his Dutch opponent – the game was a draw

Ivan Sokolov vs Gata Kamsky – also drawn

In an all-time slump: Kateryna Lahno, reigning European Women's champion

Playchess boadcasts

WIM Olena Boytsun helping GM Yasser Seirawan start a Playchess broadcast

The president of the Turkish Chess Federation visits the Playchess boadcast studio

Wonderboy Magnus Carlsen stops by to pick up his ChessBase goodies

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