Loek on the rise

Corus Wijk aan Zee

Round 11 (Friday, January 24, 2003)

ROUND 10: Van Wely's comet. Loek van Wely confirmed to all remaining doubters that this year is different for him in Wijk aan Zee. At the start of 2002 he had raised his rating to nearly 2700 and was threatening to enter the top ten for the first time. A few weeks later he had lost seven games at Corus without a single win. And that tournament didn't have Anand or Kramnik. A year later and van Wely is in clear third place with two rounds to go. He's a point behind Anand and a half-point back of Judit Polgar. To make things even sweeter, his Dutch rival Jan Timman is on course to lose even more games than Loek did last year!

Just in case that wasn't enough, the 30-year-old van Wely beat world champion Vladimir Kramnik today in a positional game that is usually Kramnik's cup of tea. Van Wely planted his queen on h6 and eventually engineered a pawn break and queen swap that left his queenside majority the only important thing on the board. (Left: final position 1-0) Kramnik soon ran out of moves and fell back to an even score. This isn't completely unprecedented. Van Wely beat Kramnik in Wijk aan Zee back in 1998, although Kramnik finished tied for first and van Wely next to last. In his last three visits to Wijk aan Zee Kramnik lost just one game, this year he has already lost three!

The other two decisive games were business as usual. Topalov outplayed Krasenkow in a Berlin Defense with some interesting flourishes and is now back to an even score. Timman blundered the exchange against Ponomariov to a knight fork so simple that it could be a Republican presidential candidate. Usually Timman does this once or twice in a tournament and contributes a few attractive efforts to compensate. This time it's all bad news all the time, like a chess blunder CNN. He has now lost games of 24, 21, and 22 moves. Ponomariov's second straight win brought him close to an even score.

Radjabov-Shirov was a lot more exciting if you didn't know that the first 20 moves had taken place in Piket-Shirov in Monaco last year. That game also ended in a draw after a some winning attempts by white in an opposite-colored bishops ending.

Krasenkow's -4 and Timman's -7 contribute to a bizarre crosstable with only three players under 50%. It's reminds me of Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon' where "all the children are above average." Saturday all eyes will be on Polgar-Anand. The last three times they met in classical chess were all in Wijk aan Zee. Polgar won in 98 and 99 and they drew in 2000. Both players are in excellent form this year so this will be an excellent show if they decide to go for the gusto. Van Wely is the only threat to them so we'll have to watch how he does with black against Krasenkow.

Standing after round 11

• More information: Corus web site
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