Statistics after ten rounds
Before we get to the slumming here are some interesting statistics compiled
with the help of ChessBase
10.
Draw average
The graphical presentation of draws, wins and losses shows quite vividly the
difference between the three groups. Apparently the stronger the event the more
draws we are likely to encounter. And the smallest number of black wins. In
weaker groups there are considerably more decided games, and more end in a victory
for Black.
GM Group A |
GM Group B |
GM Group C |
 |
1-0: 17 games = 24%
1/2: 47 games = 67%
0-1: 06 games = 09% |
1-0: 21 games = 30%
1/2: 35games = 50%
0-1: 14 games = 20% |
1-0: 30 games = 43%
1/2: 21games = 30%
0-1: 19 games = 27% |
Group A: The draw average in the top group is rather high,
with 14 games drawn in 24 moves or less. The shortest draws were Radjabov-Dominguez
in 14, Radjabov-Aronian in 15 and Adams-Radjabov in 15. There ere only six black
wins, with Ivanchuk losing three and Wang Yue two with the white pieces. Karjakin
scored the greatest number of white wins, three, followed by Aronian, Dominguez,
Morozevich and Movsesian with two white wins each.
Group B: There were only three games in less than 25 moves,
one of them a win by Short aganist l'Ami in 19 moves. Reinderman, Sasikiran,
Vallejo and Werle lost two games each with the white pieces. Caruana won four
white games, which was more than Hou Yifan, l'Ami, Navara, Short, Vallejo and
Volokitin, who won two white games each.
Group C: The shortest draw in this tournament was a 12-mover
between Holzke and Bitalzadeh in round seven. There were only two more games
drawn in less than 25 moves. Oleg Romanishin lost three white games, Gupta,
Howell, Iturrizaga, Nijboer and Pruijssers lost two white games each. Hillarp
Persson won four white games, followed by Leon Hoyos, Iturriziga, Howell, Gupta
and Bosboom with three white wins each.
Length of games

In the above graphs, generated by ChessBase 10, you can see the number of games
(y-axis, 0-5) that were played in 12-99 moves. The longest game in Wijk aan
Zee so far was played in Group C: Anish Giri, the youngest player overall, defeated
Oleg Romanishin, the oldest player, with the black pieces in a bishop and pawn
ending in 99 moves.
Top Performance, wins and losses of rating points (after ten rounds)
The performance takes into account the average rating of the opponents and
the score of the player. Levon Aronian's 2826 means that against the opposition
he has faced so far one would expect a player with that rating to score as well
as he did.
GM Group A |
Elo |
Perf. |
Levon Aronian |
2750 |
2826 |
Sergey Karjakin |
2706 |
2786 |
Teimour Radjabov |
2761 |
2752 |
Sergei Movsesian |
2751 |
2751 |
Magnus Carlsen |
2776 |
2749 |
GM Group B |
Elo |
Perf |
Nigel Short |
2663 |
2741 |
R. Kasimdzhinov |
2687 |
2715 |
David Navara |
2638 |
2714 |
Fabiano Caruana |
2646 |
2711 |
Alexander Motylev |
2676 |
2708 |
GM Group C |
Elo |
Perf |
Tiger Hillarp |
2586 |
2717 |
Wesley So |
2627 |
2651 |
Anish Giri |
2469 |
2598 |
Harika Dronavalli |
2473 |
2560 |
Frank Holzke |
2524 |
2540 |
|
Performance above nominal
rating |
Manuel Bosboom |
+138 |
Jan Smeets |
+127 |
Tiger Hillarp |
+131 |
Anish Giri |
+129 |
Loek van Wely |
+96 |
Harika Dronavalli |
+87 |
Sergey Karjakin |
+80 |
Nigel Short |
+78 |
Levon Aronian |
+76 |
David Navara |
+76 |
Performance below nominal
rating |
Jan Werle |
–100 |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
–109 |
Friso Nijboer |
–133 |
Olek Romanishin |
–157 |
Alexander Morozevich |
–183 |
Krishnan Sasikiran |
–226 |
|
Standings after ten rounds
GM Group A

GM Group B

GM Group C

Slumming it (part three)
Round nine report by Steve Giddins
With the Wijk aan Zee tournament having its final rest day today, we once again
turn our attention to the B and C Groups. Only two rounds have been played since
our last report, and the leading situation in the B Group has not changed that
much. Draws with Mecking and Motylev have left Nigel Short half a point clear,
with a group of five players now hard on his heels: Caruana, Kazimdzhanov, Motylev,
Navara and Volokitin. As reported two days ago, David Navara had already won
one of the daily Ivan Sokolov Expert's prizes, for the best game played in each
round. In the ninth round, he added another, with a very nice demolition of
a sadly out of form Sasikiran.
Navara,D (2638) - Sasikiran,K (2711) [B25]
Corus B Wijk aan Zee NED (9), 27.01.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 g6 5.d3 Bg7 6.f4 Rb8 7.Nf3 b5 8.a3 e6 9.Be3
Nge7. 9...Nd4 is more usual in such positions, preventing the advance d3-d4.
10.d4 b4 11.axb4 Rxb4 12.dxc5 d5?! 12...Rxb2 looks a better try, with
a murky position after 13.e5. 13.exd5 exd5
14.Ne5! Nxe5 15.fxe5 d4. If he does not take the piece, Black is clearly
worse, so Sasikiran decides that he may as well have some material to suffer
for. However, the position after taking the piece proves to be hopeless. 16.Bg5!
dxc3 17.Qxd8+ Kxd8 18.bxc3 Rg4 19.0–0–0+ Ke8 20.Bf6! Bxf6. The text loses
simply, but after 20...Rg8 21.Rd6 Black is tied hand and foot. Against the threat
of Rhd1, the only attempt to defend is 21...Ra4 22.Kb2 Ra6 but then simply 23.Rxa6
Bxa6 24.Ra1 is overwhelming. 21.exf6 Ra4 22.c6! Better than taking back
the piece on e7, since the latter is not going anywhere. 22...Bg4 22...Nf5
23.Rhe1+ Be6 24.c7 mates. 23.Rd2 h5 24.c7 Bd7
25.Bc6! A most elegant final blow. 1–0. 25...Nxc6 26.Re1+ Kf8
27.Rxd7 forces mate in 15 (!), as Fritz 11 politely points out. [Click
to replay]
For Sasikiran, the top seed on rating, the tournament has turned into an absolute
nightmare. After losing to Efimenko with white the following day, he is now
rooted to the bottom of the table, with just 3/10, and is losing Elo by the
hatful. The other 2700-rated player in the group, Vallejo, is also failing to
shine, having just +1 at this stage. In round ten he was instructively outplayed
by Kazimdzhanov, who gave a textbook lesson on the subject of weak pawns.
Kasimdzhanov,R (2687) - Vallejo Pons,F (2702) [D80]
Corus B Wijk aan Zee NED (10), 28.01.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Rb1
b6 9.Nf3 c6 10.a4 Bg7 11.Nd2 0–0 12.Be2 a6 13.Nxc4 Nd7 14.Nd2 b5 15.c4 bxc4
16.Bxc4 Bxc4 17.Nxc4 Bf6 18.Bxf6 Nxf6 19.0–0 Qc7 20.Ne5 Nd7 21.Nxd7 Qxd7 22.Qc2
Rab8 23.Qc4 a5 24.Qc5 Qc7
25.Rb5 Ra8 26.Qc3 Rfc8 27.Rc5 e6 28.Rc1 Ra6 29.h4 h5 30.Rb1 Raa8 31.g3 Ra6
32.Kg2 Qa7
33.Rbb5! Kh7 34.Rxa5 Rxa5 35.Rxa5 Qb7 36.Rc5 Qb1 37.Qc2 Qxc2 38.Rxc2 Ra8
39.Ra2 Kg7 40.a5 Ra6 41.Kf3 Kf6 42.Kf4 Ke7 43.Kg5 e5 44.dxe5 c5 45.Kf4 c4 46.Ke4
1–0. [Click to replay]
The final three rounds of the tournament should be great, thanks to the luck
of the draw. In tomorrow's 11th round, Short faces Navara with black, and he
has black against Caruana in the final round on Sunday. Other key match-ups
in the final few rounds include Motylev-Volokitin tomorrow, Volokitin-Navara
on Saturday, and Motylev-Kazimdzhanov on Sunday!
In Group C, the lead remains in the hands of Tiger Hillarp Persson, who is
half a point ahead of the young Filipino, Wesley So. The latter's challenge
has been strengthened by back-to-back wins with the black pieces, in rounds
nine and ten. At the other end of the table, it is very sad to see veteran Oleg
Romanishin propping up the field, with just 3/10. Despite falling back after
his good start, Manuel Bosboom remains the source of much of the most entertaining
chess played in the event. Sadly, he lost the ninth round game against Holzke,
which he needed to win for a GM norm, but he bounced back in typical fashion
the next day, to smash Bitalzadeh.
Bosboom,M (2418) - Bitalzadeh,A (2400) [B57]
Corus C Wijk aan Zee NED (10), 28.01.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 Bd7 7.Bb3 g6 8.Nf3
Bg7 9.h3 0–0 10.0–0 b5 11.Re1 b4 12.Nd5 a5 13.a4 Rc8 14.Bg5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Ne5
16.Nxe5 Bxe5
17.Rxe5! dxe5 18.d6 Re8 19.Qf3 Bf5 20.g4 Qxd6? 21.gxf5 gxf5 22.Kh1 h6
23.Qh5! hxg5 24.Qxf7+ Kh8 25.Qh5+ Kg7 26.Rg1 g4 27.Qxf5 Qf6 28.Rxg4+ Kh6
29.Qe4 e6 30.Qe3+ Kh7 31.Qg3 1–0. [Click
to replay]
The draw for this group has also thrown up a potentially decisive clash in
the closing rounds, as Hillarp Persson and So meet in the penultimate round,
on Saturday. Today being my birthday, I am now off to celebrate – if that
is the word – the expiry of yet another of the Biblical threescore and
ten, but I will be back again tomorrow evening, with a report on round 11 of
the A Group.
Links
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
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