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66th Wijk aan Zee Tournament –
Jan. 10-25 |
| Round 3 (Tuesday, January 13, 2004) | ||
Sokolov, Ivan |
½-½ |
Adams, Michael |
Leko, Peter |
½-½ |
Topalov, Veselin |
Akopian, Vladimir |
½-½ |
Timman, Jan |
Van Wely, Loek |
½-½ |
Anand, Viswanathan |
Bologan, Viktor |
½-½ |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Svidler, Peter |
1-0 |
Bareev, Evgeny |
Shirov, Alexei |
½-½ |
Zhang Zhong |
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.
Although it seems unlikely that a player as strong as Bareev wouldn't be aware of this line in his favorite defense it is even harder to believe he would play into this position intentionally. Bareev tried development with 14...e5 15.Nxe7 Qxe7 16.f4. Black is now basically stuck with a miserable endgame or worse. Bareev went for worse with 16...exf4?? [16...0-0 17.f5± (17.Qd6 Qxd6 18.Rxd6 exf4 19.Rxf4 Be6 20.Bxb7 Rab8 21.Rb4 a5 22.Rbb6 Bxa2 23.b3 Bb1 24.c4) 17...Qb4 (17...f6 18.Rf3 Rb8 19.Qb3+ (19.Rg3 b5) 19...Kh8 20.Qb6; 18.f6 Bg4 19.Rde1 16...Bg4 17.Rde1 0-0 18.fxe5] |
Ending things instantly by clearing the e-file for a deadly pin. The black queen can't abandon control of d8. [17.Bxb7 0-0 (17...Bxb7 18.Rfe1) 18.Bxa8 Qa7+ 19.Qd4 Qxa8 20.Rxf4+-] |
Standings after round three
All the games in PGN (no notes) GM group A • GM group B • GM group C
Schedule – (Rest days 12, 16, 21)
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