Rising Stars lead Experienced team by 24.5:10.5

The NH tournament, a confrontation between a team of five young ‘Rising Stars’ and a team of five ‘Experienced’ grandmasters, is taking place in the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in the centre of the Dutch city of Amsterdam, from August 20th to 30th, 2008. The event is a ‘Scheveningen’ tournament, which means that each player of one team plays against each of the players of the other team. They do so twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces.

Round six: Wang Yue hits them for six
The first round of the second half of the tournament – for the first time the five games ended in a level score and the Experience team reached this result with the black pieces. The amazing Viktor Kortchnoi is rapidly rising in the individual standings of the Experience team. The Swiss grandmaster won his second game in a row and remains the only member of his team who has managed to beat a Rising Star. Wang Yue remains the proud leader in the race for the ticket to the Amber Rapid and Blindfold Tournament. The Chinese youngster also won his sixth game. After he had defeated Ljubojevic his mood got a further boost when he was approached by Jeroen van den Berg of the Corus Chess Tournament, who invited him to play in the top group coming January. Wang Yue didn’t have to think long and accepted immediately! – Full report.

Viktor Korchnoi struck a second blow for the Experienced team, with a win in 74 moves

Round seven: Rising Stars lucky to win 3-2 – Wang 'Yue-man' after all
The Rising Stars further increased their lead over the Experience team thanks to a lucky 3-2 win. Particularly Viktor Kortchnoi had good reason to be unhappy when he lost on time in a winning position. The overall standings after seven rounds are: Rising Stars-Experience 24½-10½. Wang Yue, who won all his games so far, made his first draw. In the race for the ticket to the Amber Rapid and Blindfold Tournament in Nice the Chinese grandmaster remains one point ahead of Ivan Cheparinov, who also made a draw. – Full report.

Korchnoi,V (2602) - Caruana,F (2630) [D43]
3rd NH Amsterdam NED (7), 27.08.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.Qc2 dxc4 8.e3 b5 9.a4 Bb7 10.axb5 cxb5 11.Nxb5 Bb4+ 12.Nc3 0-0 13.Be2 Nd7 14.0-0 Rfc8 15.Nd2 Nb6 16.Bf3 Qe7 17.Bxb7 Qxb7 18.e4 a5 19.Nf3 Nd7 20.Rfd1 Nf6 21.Nd2 Rab8 22.Ra2 Rc7 23.h3 Rd8 24.Ndb1 Rcd7 25.e5 Nd5 26.Ne2 Ne7 27.Na3 Bxa3 28.Rxa3 Nc6 29.Qxc4 Qxb2 30.Qa2 Qb6 31.Ra4 Rd5 32.Rb1 Qa6 33.Kh2 Qa7 34.Rc1 Qb6 35.Qb1 Nb4 36.Qe4 Nc6 37.Rcc4 Qb5 38.Nc3

Here, with the game in desperate time trouble, Rising Star Fabiano Caruana played 38...Qb7? That is a losing move because White has 39.Qf3! (not 39.Nxd5 exd5 forking queen and rook) and now the rook cannot be extracted because of the double-attack on the black knight on c6. Black should have played 38...Qb6! after which 39.Qf3 doesn't work, due to 39...Nxd4!, a move that doesn't work with the black queen on b7 because of 40.Rxd4 and the black rook on d5 is pinned against the unprotected queen. So Korchnoi simply needed to find 39.Qf3, but before the great man could his clock ran out and he lost on time. 0-1.

Russian GM Evgeny Bareev scored a grace point for Experienced with a win over Stellwagen

Norwegian GM Simen Agdestein took a first half-point off Wang Yue in round seven

How does he do it? Wang Yue, with 6.5/7, watch by Ivan Cheparinov, who has 5.5/7

This is what the cross table looks like after seven rounds. There are now three wins on the Experienced side. Wang Yue performance is 3034, Ivan Cheparinov's is 2818.

The score after seven rounds of the tournament is:

Links

• Tournament web site
• All games in PGN
• First ChessBase report: Carlsen, Karjakin, ... Who’s next?
• Second ChessBase report – Experience team without a chance