1/19/2011 – Shockingly, Nepomniachtchi blundered in ten moves against Aronian, but fortunately attention was drawn away to Anand's lovely positional piece sacrifice against Wang Hao. Anish Giri gave leader Nakamura no end of trouble, but was unable to win. Our report has analysis by GM Karsten Müller plus video commentary by GMs Daniel King and Sergey Shipov, and photos by Fred Lucas.
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This event is taking place from January 14th to 30th, 2011 in the traditional
De Moriaan Center in Wijk aan Zee. There are three Grandmaster Groups, with
14 players each and each competitor playing against every other. The rate of
play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15
minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting
with the first move of the game.Games begin at 13:30h local
time (CET), except for the last round on January 30th, which begins at 12:00h.
There are three rest days, on January 19th, 24th, and 27th.
A rocky day for the "A" group, with Nepomniachtchi following Carlsen's
example: dumping a rook after ten moves. It is hard to know what to make of
it. Either the ladies there are astonishingly lovely, or there is something
odd being placed in their food.
Ian Nepomniachtchi, who suffered a disaster in round four [photo Fred
Lucas]
9...Qb6 "Another bold move," said Nepomniachtchi's
erstwhile trainer Sergey Shipov in his live
commentary. "Going against the mould, Black is happy to exchange queens.
After all it won’t be easy for White in the endgame. The a8-rook will
enter play dramatically, and the centre will come under pressure from Black…
True, I’m a little worried by the capture on a8. Will Black manage to
trap the white queen there? In the line played by Volodya Belov – without
an exchange on d4 – it’s done with Nb8-d7. But here…"
10.Qxa8. Shipov continued: "By the way, about that rook!
What can you play here? Unfortunately, after 10…Nbd7 there’s the
terrifyingly strong reply 11.c5!… What’s going on, my friends??
Has Ian really gone banally wrong by including the exchange? Unfortunately the
queen can’t be caught now – coconuts won’t grow! [Translator's
note: from the song "The Island of Misfortune" in the cult Soviet
comedy, "The Diamond Arm" - "crocodiles can't be caught, coconuts
won't grow".] I won’t go back and add question marks in hindsight,
but 8…cxd4? deserves one. That was a note from a different opera. Our
young champion mixed everything up. After the exchange on d4 things were already
bad. On 9…Nbd7, saving the rook, 10. c5! is extremely unpleasant. I’m
in shock…"
Right he was, the game ended quickly in Aronian's favour: 10...Nh5
11.c5 Qxb2 12.Bd2 Bxd4 13.Nf3 Nd7 14.Qxf8+ Kxf8 15.Nxd4 Nxc5 16.Rb1 Qa3 17.Be2
Nf4 18.0-0 Nxe2+ 19.Ncxe2 Nd7 20.Rb7 Qa6 21.Nxe6+ Qxe6 22.Nd4 Qg4 23.Rc1 f6
24.Be3 Nb6 25.h3 Qe4 26.Rcc7 1-0.
In his video round-up of the day’s games Shipov revealed that Nepomniachtchi
had decided to “improve” on the previous move 8…Qb6, by playing
8…cxd4?? (Shipov’s question marks). His idea was that after 10.Qxa8
Nbd7 11.c5 he could play 11…Qxb2, and both the queen and the c1-rook would
be under attack. Alas, the fly in the ointment was that the exchange of pawns
also meant the c1-rook is now protected by the f4-bishop – and Black’s
completely lost.
Nepomniachtchi said he came up with the novelty at the board, which Shipov
called a “methodological mistake” (especially in an opening as sharp
as the Grunfeld!). The video below should start at the point where Shipov is
demonstrating 11…Qxb2, but obviously you can also watch all 41 minutes
of analysis. The only proviso is that Shipov is, of course, speaking Russian!:
Thanks to Colin McGourty for the above translation on his site Chess
in Translation, and of course to Sergey Shipov for his candid take on the
game. You can read his commentary in full here.
Anish Giri (photo above by Fred Lucas)
played a rare line of the Nimzo-Indian against Nakamura in which he allowed
his queenside pawn structure to be destroyed, in exchange for some gaping holes
for his pieces. Hikaru had a tough time of it, and eventually swapped down to
a rook endgame a pawn down. Giri pressed on for 20 moves but was unable to swing
the balance in his favor and a draw was eventually concluded. GM Karsten Müller
has annotated the endgame in his trademark didactic style.
Giri,Anish (2686) - Nakamura,Hikaru (2751) [E00]
73rd Tata Steel GMA Wijk aan Zee NED (4), 18.01.2011 [Mueller,Karsten]
Rook endings are always drawn. When the winning potential is very reduced
this tendency is usually very strong: 38.Rb5!? White prevents his opponent
from adopting the standard configuration f7-g6-h5. 38...f6. 38...g6
can be met by 39.g4. 39.h4 Re8 40.Kf1 g6 41.g4 Re4 42.f3 Ra4 43.Rb8+ Kg7
44.Rb7+ Kg8
At first sight the black setup looks dubious, but he manages to get relief
just in time. 45.Kf2. 45.g5 Rxh4 46.gxf6 Rf4=. 45...Ra5 46.Kg3 h6
47.Rd7 h5!
Reducing the winning potential is important as purely passive defense usually
leads to disaster in rook endings. 48.gxh5. 48.e4 hxg4 49.fxg4 g5 50.hxg5
(50.h5 Ra3+) 50...Rxg5 51.Rd5 Rg6 52.Kf4 Kf7 should be tenable as well
in both cases. 48...Rxh5 49.e4 g5 50.hxg5 Rxg5+ 51.Kf4 Ra5 52.Rc7 Kf8 53.Rd7
Kg8 54.Rd5 Ra3! 55.Kg4 Re3!
Paralyzes the white pawns. 56.Rd7 Kf8 57.Ra7 Kg8 58.f4. White can not
make progess by normal means so Giri allows the exchange of a pair of pawns.
58...Rxe4 59.Kf5 Re8
60.Kg6. White's activity is also insufficient after 60.Kxf6
Rf8+ 61.Kg5 (61.Kg6 Rxf4 62.Ra8+ Rf8=) 61...Rb8 62.f5 Rb6 leads to the
well known Philidor position.
Analysis diagram
After 63.f6 Rb1= White's king can find no shelter.
66...Rf7. Even 66...Rg7+?! is playable as 67.Kf6 can be met by 67...Kh8!!
68.Rxg7 stalemate. 67.Kh6+. After 67.f5 Black can exchange rooks: 67...Rg7+
68.Kf6 Rxg5 69.Kxg5 Kg7
Analysis diagram
as his king defends the key squares: 70.f6+ Kf7 71.Kf5 Kf8!=
Alexei Shirov's confidence has been shot after his untimely defeats, and it
showed in his game against Vachier-Lagrave. He set himself up to go for maximum
threats and activity, but chose the wrong direction (precisely what one would
not expect of him) and his position quickly degraded beyond repair.
Two World Champions: Vladimir Kramnik kibitzes Vishy Anand's round three
game
in this wonderfully captured photo by Fred Lucas
The best game of the round was Anand's very fine victory over Wang Hao. Anand
played an extremely strong positional piece sacrifice which was also a novelty,
and though it is perfectly possible this was the result of home preparation,
the line is almost unheard of in GM practice, so it is also quite possible the
move was one of brilliant inspiration. Either way, a great and convincing game,
that brought him to parity with Nakamura for the lead.
Outclassed by Vishy Anand: Chinese GM Wang Hao [photo Fred
Lucas]
In case you missed it on Playchess here
is GM Daniel King giving us a run-down of the game Vishy Anand vs Wang Hao in
round four.
Current standings after four rounds
Grandmaster "A" tournament
In the "B" tournament, McShane finally dropped a half-point before
the rest day tomorrow, though he continues to lead by a full point, and in the
"C" tournament, GM Vocaturo is also leading with 3.5/4.
Grandmaster "B" tournament
Grandmaster "C" tournament
Watching the games
It goes without saying that the options to watch the games live are wide and
varied. You can watch them at no cost on Playchess,
enjoying the software's new options to display multiple boards at the same time,
and if you are a Premium
member, live grandmaster commentary will be provided on Playchess for every
round by GM Daniel King, author of the best-selling Power
Play series, and GM Lubomir
Ftacnik.
If you miss the live games, you can always watch the commentary after the fact,
or get an abridged tale via the Daily Roundup show also hosted on Playchess.
Again, if you miss the show, it remains available on the server at your disposal.
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
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