1/24/2007 – The top of the table in Wijk aan Zee remains unchanged, with the leaders drawing their games in 21 to 28 moves. Only Anand played a super-sharp line against van Wely, one that gives three pawns for the attack. Anand had successfully defended this line against Motylev with black and now beat van Wely with white. Full report with games, statistics and videos.
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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.
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.
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:
Group A
Group B
Group C
White wins
24%
38%
30%
Draws
59%
46%
33%
Black wins
17%
16%
37%
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The new Komodo Dragon 3 engine has gained 100 Elo points in playing strength over its predecessor when using a processor core in blitz. That's a huge improvement for a program that already reached at
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It's a great idea to take Grunfeld and King’s Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start! Let’s go 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 first and now play 3.h4!?
Videos: Nico Zwirs tests the dynamic 5...b5 in the Vienna Variation of the Queen's Gambit. Ivan Sokolov introduces 6.g3 as a surprise weapon in the Sicilian Four Knights Variation. "Lucky bag": 60 analyses by Anish Giri, David Navara and many more.
The best way to improve at chess is to carefully study master games, stop at certain positions and think about candidate moves. Doing this on your own can be difficult and tiresome, but on this viddeo course, you will be guided by worldrenowned trainers!
Throughout this video course, we will study how to master sacrifices and the initiative in several aspects: opposite-coloured bishops, the bishop pair, the exchange sacrifice, launching an attack, and the good moment to sacrifice will be covered.
Throughout this video course, we will study how to master sacrifices and the initiative in several aspects: opposite-coloured bishops, the bishop pair, the exchange sacrifice, launching an attack, and the good moment to sacrifice will be covered.
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