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66th Wijk aan Zee Tournament –
Jan. 10-25 |
| Round 7 (Sunday, January 18, 2004) | ||
Akopian, Vladimir |
½-½ |
Adams, Michael |
Van Wely, Loek |
½-½ |
Leko, Peter |
Bologan, Viktor |
1-0 |
Sokolov, Ivan |
Svidler, Peter |
1-0 |
Topalov, Veselin |
Shirov, Alexei |
1-0 |
Timman, Jan |
Zhang Zhong |
0-1 |
Anand, Viswanathan |
Bareev, Evgeny |
½-½ |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Somehow
it seemed inevitable. As we crossed the halfway mark in Wijk aan Zee Vishy
Anand took over clear first place. Anand took the unofficial Asian title
as well by beating Zhang Zhong with black with more than a little help from
the 25-year-old Chinese. Kramnik and Adams were not pressed by their opponents
and got short draws with black. The other leader, Topalov, lost to Svidler when
he went looking for a win.
Anand tied for first with four others in Wijk aan Zee way back in 1989 when it was not yet the super-elite event is has become. In 96 he finished behind Ivanchuk and in 1998 he tied for first with Kramnik. From 1999-2001 Garry Kasparov stopped by to collect three clear firsts with Anand hot on his heels in all three events. In 2002 Anand didn't play but he was back last year for his first ever clear first in Wijk aan Zee.
In
round seven he made his move for a second consecutive title. Zhang Zhong
opened up lines to his own king with a lemming-like run after gaining a fine
position out of the opening. After the game Anand, in what has become a habit,
pointed out various ways with which his opponent could have gained an early
advantage. Maybe he'll start charging for these classes soon? Zhang, who qualified
by dominating the B group last year, dropped into the cellar.
Bareev and Akopian couldn't get anywhere against Kramnik and Adams, respectively. Topalov wasn't so lucky but he has only his fighting spirit to blame so we cannot criticize. He played hard for a win against Svidler but fell into a brutal back-rank mating attack. The wild tactics in this game starting on move 14 have to be seen to be believed. Every move looks like a zwischenzug!
The other wins were interesting endgames. Bologan gave Sokolov no chance while Shirov needed some time-trouble help from Timman to notch the point.
White can't mobilize his pawns quickly without giving up his h-pawn for the black f-pawn. 72...Rg1?? The rook needs to stay behind the h-pawn. It's more dangerous because it's further away from the Black king. Even worse, the black rook ends up on the 2nd rank instead of the first so Black loses several tempi for queening his c-pawn to win the white rook. Queening the c-pawn asap draws. [72...Kd3= 73.h6 (73.g4 fxg4 74.Kxg4 c2 75.Kg5 c1Q 76.Rxc1 Rxc1 77.f5 Ke4 78.f6 Ke5 79.f7 Rc8 80.Kg6 Ke6 81.Kg7 (81.h6 Rf8 82.h7 Ke7 83.Kg7 Rxf7+ 84.Kg8 Rxh7 85.Kxh7) 81...Rc7; 73...c2 74.Kxf5 Rxh6 75.g4 Rh1 76.g5 c1Q 77.Rxc1 Rxc1 78.g6 Rg1 79.Ke5 Rxg6 80.f5 Rg5 81.Ke6 Ke4 82.f6 Rf5 83.f7] 73.h6+- Rxg2+ 74.Kxf5 Rh2 75.Kg6 c2 [75...Rg2+ 76.Kf6 Kd3+-] 76.f5 Rg2+ 77.Kf7 According
to the tablebases there were various ways for Shirov to win more quickly,
but they were banging out moves by this point and continued in severe
time trouble till the end. Shirov converted a queen vs rook endgame on
move 101. |
This is where the insanity started. Of course exchange sacrifices on c3 are routine in the Sicilian but when you have a knight hanging on b6? 14...Nc4 was played here several times last year. Topalov has an improvement. Hold on to your seat. 14...Rxc3 5.Bxb6 [15.bxc3 Na4] 15...Bxg5+ 16.Kb1 Bh4 17.Rg3 [17.Bxd8 Bxf2 18.bxc3 Bxg1 19.Rxd6 Nf4] 17...Bxg3 18.hxg3 Rc7 19.Nc5 Qe7 [19...dxc5 20.Rxd8] 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Bxc7 Qxc7 Svidler has play for the pawn, but it wasn't until Topalov
went pawn grabbing much later that he got into serious trouble. Aggressive
and spectacular play from both players. |
Standings after round seven
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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