Corus Round 3: The calm after the calm

Corus Wijk aan Zee 2004 – Round 3

66th Wijk aan Zee Tournament – Jan. 10-25 Category 19 (avg. Elo 2702)

After three rounds and only five decisive games we're wondering whether or not having all these superstars is such a good idea. Where's the hunger the outsiders usually bring to the board in Wijk aan Zee? Has Elo-itis infected everyone? Only Akopian has played three exciting games and only two players, Akopian again and Kramnik, have played more than one decisive game. Six players have drawn all three of their games.

Peter Svidler joined leaders Anand and Leko after beating Bareev in just 17 moves. That's ugly, but not really a shocker considering how many miniatures Bareev has lost over the years, including a loss to Khalifman in 20 in the same opening in Wijk aan Zee in 2002. That's life with the French Defense. Shirov beat Bareev in 15 in 1994 and he lost in just 13 with white back in 1988.

Getting back to today in Wijk aan Zee, it's an incredibly tight field with just one point separating all the players. Another day of this and we're changing channels to cover the B and C groups where we've seen a lot more action! For the record, Fressinet is leading the B group with 3/3. Ernst and Gagunashvili have perfect scores in the C group. Several of the world's top juniors are in action and we'll be taking a closer look tomorrow.

Even today's single win in the A group didn't give us much to savor, but you can't blame Peter Svidler. His opponent, 2002 Corus winner Evgeny Bareev, played a dubious line of the French and resigned three moves after leaving known analysis. In the MegaBase 2004, GM Alex Finkel rates the position +/= after 14.Nc6, but it quickly went to :-( for Bareev.

Mig Greengard

Standings after round three

All the games in PGN (no notes) GM group A • GM group B • GM group C