Wijk R9: Anand beats van Wely, leaders draw

Round 9

Anand,V (2779) - Van Wely,L (2683) [B97]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (9), 23.01.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 h6 11.Bh4 dxe5 12.fxe5 Nfd7 13.Ne4 Qxa2 14.Rd1 Qd5 15.Qe3 Qxe5 16.Be2 Bc5 17.Bg3 Bxd4 18.Rxd4 Qa5+ 19.Rd2 0-0 20.Bd6

In the game Anand-Motylev in round two we praised Vishy Anand for employing the novelty 14…Qd5! recommended by Kasparov in the latest New in Chess magazine 2006/8 and proving that the Great Player was right in his assessment. That game continues 20...Rd8 21.Qg3 Qf5 22.Be5 Qg6 23.Qh4 Nc6 24.0-0 f5 25.Bh5 Qh7 26.Bb2 fxe4 27.Rf7 Rf8 28.Qf2 Rxf7 29.Qxf7+ Kh8 30.Rf2 e5 31.Qd5 Nf6 0-1. In this round nine game Anand was White and allowed Motylev to play his line from round two all the way up to move 20, where Loek van Wely deviated. Note that Black is currently three pawns up.

20...Nc6. Sacrificing the exchange. One wonders what Anand had in store if Black had continued as in the round two game. You can listen to him analysing the game in the videos below. 21.Bxf8 Nxf8 22.0-0 Bd7 23.Nd6 Ne5 24.Nxb7 Qc7 25.Nd6 f6 26.c4 Bc6 27.Ra1 Nfd7 28.Qd4 a5 29.Nb5

20...Qb6? After the game Anand said that he had considered repeating the position if his opponent had played 29..Qb7. 30.Qxb6 Nxb6 31.Rd6! Probably missed by Loek. Nbd7 32.Nd4 Be4 33.Nxe6 a4 34.Nc7 Ra5 35.Ra6 Rxa6 36.Nxa6 Bc6 37.c5 Bb7 38.Rc1 Nc6 39.Nc7 Nd4 40.Bc4+ Kf8 41.Rd1 1-0. Nicely played, nice wins on both sides of a super-sharp line.

Videos by ChessVibes

Anand analysing with van Wely after the game (8:33 min)

Part two of the postgame analysis (8:31 min)

Anand analysing his victory in the press centre (9:09 min)

Navara,D (2719) - Shirov,A (2715) [A07]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (9), 23.01.2007
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c6 4.0-0 Bg4 5.d3 Nbd7 6.Nbd2 e5 7.e4 dxe4 8.dxe4 Bc5 9.h3 Bh5 10.Qe1 0-0 11.a4 Ne8 12.Nh4 a5 13.Nb3 Bb6 14.Be3 Bxe3 15.Qxe3 Nc7 16.Nf5 Ne6 17.h4 Qc7 18.Bh3 Rfd8 19.Kh2 Nf6 20.f3 c5 21.Qc3 b6 22.Rad1??

White's last move overlooks a simple tactic: 22...Rxd1 23.Rxd1 Nxe4 and the game lasted just ten more moves. 24.Qe3 Nf6 25.Re1 Rd8 26.g4 c4 27.Nxa5 e4+ 28.Kh1 Bg6 29.Ne7+ Qxe7 30.Nc6 Qc7 31.Nxd8 Qxd8 32.h5 Nd5 33.Qf2 e3 34.Qh2 Bxc2 0-1. This was Alexei Shirov's first win in Wijk aan Zee 2007.

All results

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Standings after nine rounds

Other sections

In Group B young French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrav, 16, is leading by a full point, ahead of Bu Xiangzhi, Bologan and Eljanov. Maxime's performance is an astounding 2773, and we can expect to welcome him in the 2600+ club soon. The negative sensation is Turkish GM Suat Atalik, who is giving a 2419 performance and is to be found at the tail end of the cross table.

Standings in Group B

In Group C it is 16-year-old Ian Nepomniachtchi who is in the lead, by a point and a half no less, and a performance of 2835. He is still an IM, but will get his GM title in no time at all. 12-year-old Hou Yifan is in fourth place with plus two and a solid 2573 performance so far. She, too, can expect a (male) GM title in the near future. India's (and the world's) youngest grandmaster Parimarjan Negi has won four games and lost three (just two draws for the lad) with a 2523 performance.

Standings in Group C

Statistics

In round nine there were three decisive games in Group A, three in Group B and five in Group C – four of them with the black pieces. Here are the statistics after 63 games in each group:

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