Chess notes
All eyes this week were on the Corus chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, which had about everything one could hope for: drama, contention, star players, and great chess. The event’s sponsor, Corus, is a steel manufacturing and construction company, which was recently acquired by Tate Steel, India’s second largest privately held company. This corporation is a sponsor of many athletic and cultural events throughout Europe and hopefully will continue this great event in future years.
The “Corus Line’’ in this tourney included, among its 14 contestants, nearly all of the world’s leading Grandmasters, except for Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Levon Aronian of Armenia. But it featured the world champion, Viswanathan Anand; the former world champ, Vladimir Kramnik; the highest rated player in the world, 19-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen; and America’s hope, Hikaru Nakamura, the current US champ and famous blitz player. The field also included, among the promising young players, Sergey Karjakin, a 20-year-old Ukrainian now living and playing for Russia, and Fabiano Caruana, a 17-year-old Italian-American.
A dark horse of the tourney turned out to be veteran Alexei Shirov, a Latvian Grandmaster now living in Spain. He started with a host of victories against the tourney’s lesser rating players, taking the lead by the sixth round with a very strong score of 5.5-.5. He was well ahead of Carlsen, Nakamura, Ivanchuk of the Ukraine, and Kramnik, all with 4-2. But Nakamura set Shirov back in the seventh round, thus narrowing the gap.
By round 11, Kramnik and Carlsen were tied for first with 7.5 and Shirov (who had lost to Anand) was now third with 7, but Carlsen had the more favorable schedule, facing Peter Leko and the young Caruana. On the other hand, Kramnik needed to get by Anand and Karjakin. Thus the current world champion and the player he beat to get the crown faced each other in Round 11. After a hard but uneven struggle, Anand won, sending Kramnik back to second place when Carlsen drew Leko.
The exciting last round decided the tournament. Carlsen managed to hold on vs. Caruana and drew. Shirov drew but in terrible time trouble missed a win versus Cuban Leinier Dominguez that would have put him in a tie for first place with the Norwegian. All the other games were drawn.
Carlsen was the sensational winner of the tournament with 8.5, ahead of Shirov and Kramnik with 8 points. Nakamura scored a victory in the last round and tied for fourth with Anand at 7.5. Anish Giri, a 15-year-old Dutch phenom, won the Group “B’’ tournament with 8.5-4.5. Li Chao of China won the “C’’ group with 10-3.
Brevity: Smeets vs. Landerghem (Dublin, 2000): 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bd2 c6 8.Qe2 Bb4 9.0--0--0 0--0 10.a3 Bxc3 11.Bxc3 Qc7 12.Ne5 Nd5 13.g4 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Qe7? 15.gxf5 Qxa3+ 16.Kd2 Qd6 17.f6. 1-0 (Black has lost a piece and White’s king is safe.)
Winners: Boylston BCF Swiss - 1st, Teddy Coleman, 3.5-.5; 2d-4th Lawyer Times, Paul Mishkin, and Sean Ingham, 3-1. Worcester Delectable December Open - 1st, John Curdo, 5-0; 2d, Muharrem Brahimaj, 4-1.
Coming Events: Feb. 13, Tornado #101, Feb. 14, BCF Scholastics - both at Boylston CC, 240B Elm St., Somerville, www.BoylstonChessClub.org. Feb.13, Salem High Scholastic, 44 Geremonty Drive, Salem, N.H., contact mike@talestoldtall.com
