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Carlsen und Kasparov vereinbaren "neue Strategie der Zusammenarbeit"
Die Meldung, dass Magnus Carlsen und Garry Kasparov zusammen arbeiten, war wohl die Sensation im Herbst des letzten Jahres. Die Zusammenarbeit des besten Schachspielers aller Zeiten und des größten Talents trug unmittelbare Früchte: Carlsen gewann die Turniere in Nanjing, London und Wijk aan Zee und wurde zwischendurch Blitzweltmeister. In der Weltrangliste nimmt er nun Platz Eins ein. Im Zuge des Trainings trafen sich Carlsen und Kasparov zu mehreren Trainingssitzungen. Nun, so scheint es, wurde das enge Band wieder gelöst. In einer gemeinsamen Pressemitteilung gaben die beiden Schachgrößen bekannt, dass Magnus Carlsen nun seine Geschicke wieder voll und ganz selbst in die Hand nehmen will. Man werde aber weiter in Kontakt bleiben und Kasparov steht, wenn notwendig mit Rat zur Seite.
Presseerklärung und mehr (engl.)...
 
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10122
Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
11? Campionato Europeo: i protagonisti

Con Caruana, Godena, Brunello, Ortega, Shytaj, Dvirnyy, Piscopo… Forza Azzurri!!

Alle 15,30 bianco in moto per una gara che, come già accennato nella prima parte di questa presentazione, si annuncia con tutte le caratteristiche del grande evento. Credo che il numero di professionisti di alto livello sia  oggi molto superiore rispetto al passato e la percezione di equilibrio che emerge scorrendo il tabellone iniziale, anche arrivando ben oltre il 50° posto della griglia di partenza, sarebbe stata difficile da riscontrare in un torneo di 20 o 30 anni fa.

Una gara resa molto particolare non solo dal titolo europeo in palio ma anche dalla qualificazione alla World Cup e dall’essere un open fortissimo, con un eccellente montepremi. Il tempo di gioco è di 90 minuti per 40 mosse più 30 minuti per finire la partita con 30 secondi di incremento a partire dalla prima mossa, uno dei tempi standard validi anche per il riconoscimento delle norme. Non mi sembra di aver letto deroghe rispetto ad eventuali ritardi, quindi partita persa se non si è alla scacchiera all’inizio della partita. Sistema svizzero ad 11 turni, tutto sommato non molti per gli oltre 400 partecipanti. Si gioca sempre alle 15,30 , con giorno di riposo sabato 13 (dopo il settimo turno) e ultimo round mercoledì 17, con gli spareggi previsti per il 18.

Il moderno Zamet Center, sede di gioo

Per titolo e medaglie dell’europeo e per l’assegnazione dei 22 posti di qualificazione per la World Cup sono infatti previste partite di spareggio (prima con coppie di 15 minuti + 10 secondi per mossa, poi con blitz da 5 + 2 e eventuale “armageddon”), con metodologia da attagliare al numero di giocatori che devono disputare gli spareggi. Il sito di riferimento è http://www.eurorijeka2010.com/home , con molte scacchiere in diretta: sembra di intuire 40 dal torneo open e 15 dal femminile. Risultati su chess results e faccio nuovamente riferimento a questo link per il superlativo campo di partenza.

Difficile parlare di favoriti e una singola gara di 11 turni diventa un po’ una lotteria. I più bravi e in forma emergeranno, certo, ma a fare la differenza potrà essere una sfumatura o una coincidenza. Gara tanto difficile che francamente non saprei dire se un top player potrebbe essere tanto tranquillamente pronosticato. Se in gara ci fosse anche un Aronian, o un Carlsen, vincerebbe? Forse… Tra l’altro, 20 o 30 punti Elo di differenza dicono ben poco sui valori in campo. Verrebbe da pensare che in un torneo come questo conta di più vincere, e che quindi possano essere favoriti i giocatori che pur prendendo maggiori rischi sanno essere più incisivi, ma di fatto bisogna anche non perdere!

I precedenti dicono che a 8,5 si colloca la quota podio / primo posto, il che significa 6 vittorie e 5 patte, o 7 vittorie 3 patte e una sconfitta. Con due sconfitte diventa davvero difficile. L’esperienza dimostra che bisogna comunque saper giocare una gara solida, senza impazienza, non sempre ad un avvio “fulminante” consegue un successo. Rispetto ai super open, come l’Aeroflot o Gibilterra, sembra incidere nella tipologia di gara l’aspetto della qualificazione alla World Cup, che può portare a considerazioni ben diverse negli ultimi turni. Potrebbe aiutare in parte la “traccia” dei precedenti in competizioni analoghe, ma il mio piccolo giro d’orizzonte a ritroso, tra europei, Mosca, Aeroflot e GibTelecom, non porta facilmente a qualche conclusione. Mi limito così a qualche considerazione, necessariamente del tutto personale, su alcuni giocatori, più con “domande” che non “pronosticando”.

Le mie prime simpatie, azzurri esclusi ovviamente, vanno a due creativi come Navara e Vallejo. Non mi aspetto tuttavia una gara da podio per il 25enne campione ceco, che sembra dedicare tempi minori agli scacchi rispetto ad altri top players, mentre Paco… Il Vallejo del recente periodo è parso trovare equilibri migliori pur mantenendo un gioco molto incisivo e a Linares mi è sembrato tenere magnificamente il campo.

Paco! (foto Chessbase)

Domande su due top parzialmente usciti dal “grande giro” come Bacrot e Adams. A 27 anni Etienne potrebbe proporre una piena maturità come giocatore ma il suo percorso sembra aver deviato, un po’ per il difficile confronto con i primissimi, forse con un rapporto di odio – amore per gli scacchi (che non consiglierebbe come “carriera” a suo figlio, come ha dichiarato), con qualche digressione con il poker. Scuola e talento di primissimo livello comunque, e un Aeroflot 2009 a dire che Bacrot può esprimersi bene anche in queste gare! Adams la vetta l’ha sfiorata più volte ed è difficile dire se a 38 anni sia l’età o una certa disaffezione a incidere sul suo minor rendimento degli ultimi tempi. In ottime condizioni di forma il campione inglese sembrerebbe perfettamente adatto a vincere un torneo come questo, con buona solidità ma abbastanza incisivo, specialmente con il bianco, da accumulare parecchie vittorie.

Zoltan Almasi, n° 1 del tabellone, sembra aver raggiunto una piena maturazione come giocatore ma non sembra esprimersi al meglio nelle furenti e incerte battaglie degli open. Più navigato in questi territori Sergei Movsesian, che con tutta probabilità sarà tra i protagonisti.

Alekseev (foto Russiachess)

Trio russo tra i primi 10 con Motylev, Tomashevsky e Alekseev, giocatori che sanno di norma essere protagonisti in gare come questa. Menzione particolare per il campione in carica Tomashevsky, 23 anni, che mi sembra persino capace di raddoppiare l’impresa, cosa finora mai riuscita e molto difficile da realizzare; tuttavia, credo che troveremo Evgeny nelle posizioni di testa nella fase finale, poi starà alla “lotteria” del torneo dire la sua. Per la prima volta dal 2007 Alekseev rischia di scendere sotto quota 2700; grande solidità e grande scuola ma il 25enne russo sembra aver perso un po’ di smalto… Potrebbero essere le ultime parole famose! : - )

Mi sono accorto di essermi orientato esclusivamente (e involontariamente) sugli over 2700… Poca fantasia! D’altra parte, troppi i protagonisti. Mi aspetto un bel torneo da Inarkiev, che non solo ha dimostrato di saper eccellere in queste gare ma dà anche l’idea di una maturazione che potrebbe condurlo tra i primi trenta del mondo. Citerei anche gli ucraini Moiseenko e Korobov, considerando invece che una gara così tesa e abbastanza lunga può non favorire guerrieri navigati come Akopian o Bareev (altre ultime parole famose?).

Tanta curiosità per il torneo di Anish Giri, che ha vinto in modo così impressionante il Corus B da andare ben oltre le pur grandi attese sul suo talento. Naturalmente una gara non brillante non inficerebbe l’impresa realizzata a Wijk aan Zee, parliamo ovviamente di un giovanissimo (16 anni il prossimo giugno), mentre una gara da protagonista sarebbe ancora più impressionante… Tra gli altri giovani presenti ancora grandi potenzialità per Sanan Sjugirov, ormai diciassettenne, rendimento ancora alterno ma creatività come pochi, con un balzo in avanti che potrebbe arrivare in qualunque momento, anche se è difficile fare previsioni sul futuro del giovane russo. In lista d’attesa per quota 2700 il 20enne Ian Nepomniachtchi, specialmente se saprà trovare equilibrio tra le sue doti di attaccante e il necessario livello di gioco dei piani alti: Nepo tra i protagonisti in questo europeo? Perché no!

Anish Giri (foto Chessbase)

Parlando di giovani una piccola citazione la merita forse anche Fabiano Caruana… : - )  (rendere i cori da stadio scrivendo un articolo non è facile, ma fate conto di sentirli!!). Finora Fabiano non sempre si è espresso al meglio negli open, dove anzi ha disputato alcune delle sue gare meno positive, ma… World Cup e Corus ci hanno restituito a mio avviso un Fabiano ben più forte, maturo e consapevole della propria crescita e credo che riuscirà a portare tali qualità anche in questo Europeo! Il suo gioco, che tanto raramente si accontenta della patta, potrebbe essere adattissimo a un open durissimo come questo e penso conti anche la considerazione degli avversari, che credo lo rendano ormai un giocatore non solo rispettato ma anche temuto! Mi sembra che le ultime prove potrebbero averlo temprato anche dal punto di vista della tenuta nervosa. Insomma, Forza Fabiano!!

Ovviamente gara terribile per tutti gli altri azzurri, ma siamo presenti in forze e con giocatori comunque capaci di fare bene. Michele Godena é sempre Super Michele, in grado di tenere la scacchiera contro chiunque. Conterà l’avvio della gara, il feeling che Michele troverà con la competizione, specialmente se riuscirà a superare i primi scontri contro avversari di rango. Rinnovata vis agonistica per Lexy Ortega, già in crescita la scorsa estate e fino ad arrivare al titolo italiano, una soddisfazione meritata!

Sabino Brunello (foto Scacchierando)

Percorsi diversi per Sabino Brunello e Luca Shytaj, con la fase di “stasi” per un Sabino comunque atteso ad una piena crescita e un Luca che deve fare i conti con il notevole impegno universitario. Per entrambi l’idea di una norma GM, molto difficile da realizzare in un torneo come questo. In linea di massima la norma si trova intorno ai 6,5 punti su 11, anche se ovviamente bisognerà fare i conti in base agli avversari effettivi e può essere realizzata anche sui primi 9 o 10 turni. Spero però che il pensiero della norma non condizioni la loro gara, in cui il piacere di giocare in un contesto così importante potrebbe avere la precedenza ed essere un buon viatico. Poi, se il torneo si svilupperà in positivo, si vedrà!

Luca Shytaj (foto Scacchierando)

Nel frattempo grandissimo tifo qui dagli spalti di Scacchierando, a sostegno anche di Dvirnyy e Piscopo! Anche la loro una gara tutta da seguire, e se l’età di Daniyyl pone all’orizzonte anche il titolo di GM non va sottovalutata la creatività di Pierluigi, che ha a sua volta notevoli margini di crescita, e non è detto che con un po’ di convinzione…

In gara poi Lanzani, Bentivegna, Valsecchi… Approfittando della vicinanza diversi altri italiani si sono concessi il piacere di una cornice così speciale, capeggiati dai veterani Barlocco e Valenti. Insomma, un bel po’ di azzurro in questa avventura europea e… Bianco in moto!

 

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1750
2010-03-06T02:01:18+01:00
 
 
 
Topalov wins

Vesselin Topalov wins in Spain
Thu, Feb 25 2010 10:54 CET
by Nick Iliev

Bulgarian chess grand master and contender for the world chess championship Vesselin Topalov won the super-tournament in the Spanish town of Linares, beating Boris Gelfand of Israel in the last round, Bulgarian media reported on February 25 2010.

The Israeli conceded defeat after the 62nd move, nearly five hours into the fray. With his latest victory, Topalov accumulated a total of 6.5 out ot 10 available points and leapfrogged with half a point his main opponent, Alexander Grischuk of Russia.

The traditional Linares tournament is taking place in Andalusia, Spain, from February 13 to 24 2010. It is popularly known as the "Wimbledon of Chess", being one of the strongest annual chess tournaments alongside Wijk aan Zee Corus and the Dortmund events.

This year, the tournament has been scaled down to six contenders while a year earlier the players were eight and before that, there have been up to 14 players.

The event, sponsored by Spanish businessman Luis Rentero, was first held in 1978. At that time it was not an elite event and was won by the relatively unknown Swede, Jaan Eslon (on tie-break from the Argentine Roberto Debarnot). After the following year's event, it was held every other year until 1987 when no tournament took place

Topalov became the FIDE world chess champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005.

The Bulgarian won the 2005 Chess Oscar and was ranked number one in the world from April 2006 to January 2007, and had the second highest Elo rating of all time (2813). He regained the world number one seed ranking again in October 2008, and officially remained top of the ladder until January 2010, when he fell number two, behind Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

Source: http://www.sofiaecho.com

 
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2010/02/25/864378_vesselin-topalov-wins-in-spain
2010-02-26T01:00:00.000-06:00
 
 
 
Zherebukh (16) wins in Cappelle

Yaroslav ZherebukhYaroslav Zherebukh Saturday won the strong open in Cappelle-La-Grande. The Ukrainian grandmaster, just 16 year old, was the only player to finish on 7.5/9. Veteran GM Mihhail Gurevich was doing well, but lost the crucial round 8 game to Zherebukh.

Yaroslav Zherebukh | Photo Jean Michel Delfosse

The 26th edition of the Cappelle-La-Grande chess festival was held 13-20 February. The main event was a big 9-round Swiss.

The rate of play of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes plus 30 seconds per move to the end of the game. Draws by mutual agreement in under 20 moves were not allowed.

venue

The tournament was organized by the “L’Echiquier Cappellois” chess club and took place at the Palais des Arts in Cappelle-la-Grande, just south of Dunkerque, France.


Yet another relatively unknown Ukrainian grandmaster won in Cappelle this year. 16-year-old Yaroslav Zherebukh scored 7.5 points and only lost to the winner of last year, Yuri Vovk. As Chess Today reports, both are in fact pupils of IM Vladimir Grabinsky.

Zherebukh finished ahead of many favourites, such as Yuri Drozdovskij (2625), Murtas Khazgaleyev (2643) and Ivan Sokolov (2649). The latter probably won’t like to be reminded of the tournament, finishing 85th with 5.5/9 as the top seed. His performance rating was just at GM level: 2507. In Wijk aan Zee Sokolov told me that he’ll be tournament director of the big Bosna chess festival this year, so, well, he has more important things to do! ;-)

Cappelle-La-Grande 2010 | Final Standings

Cappelle 2010

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/underdog-zherebukh-wins-in-cappelle/
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:28:42 +0000
 
 
 
January 2010 Best Chess Games

Hello everybody!

As usual once a month IM Maxim Notkin from the Russian professional chess site www.chesspro.ru sent me the best 24 chess games of January (you can find a photo of Maxim and my younger sister Oxana here). I am one of the judges, and I need to vote for the best 10 among them and I'm happy to announce that I decided to include a very nice win by the lady from India WGM Swaminathan Soumya in the top 10.

Below you will find 3 positions from that beautiful game and a playable applet to replay the game.


Above: before the 18th move of White.


Above: before the 20th move of White.


Above: The final position of the game: checkmate!





[Event "Corus C Wijk aan Zee NED 1/16/2010"]
[Date "2010.1.27"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Soumya, Swaminathan"]
[Black "Grandelius N"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "B90"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3
b5 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9.g4 Nb6 10.a4 Nc4 11.Bxc4 bxc4 12.a5 Bb7 13.Na4
d5 14.g5 Nd7 15.O-O-O dxe4 16.fxe4 Rb8 17.Rhe1 Ba8 18.Nf5 Bc6
19.Qc3 Bxa4 20.Rxd7 Qxd7 21.Nxg7+ Bxg7 22.Qxg7 Qe7 23.Qxh8+ Qf8
24.Qe5 Qb4 25.Bd2 Qb5 26.Qh8+ Kd7 27.Qd4+ Kc8 28.Bf4 Rb7 29.Rd1
Qd7 30.Qxc4+ Qc6 31.Rd4 Bb5 32.Qb4 Qe8 33.Qc5+ Qc6 34.Qf8+ Qe8
35.Rc4+ Kd7 36.Qd6# 1-0

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
 
http://www.chessblog.com/2010/02/january-2010-best-chess-games.html
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:26:00 +0000
 
 
 
Caviar indio
Caviar indio
Blancas: S. Soumya (India, 2.323).
Negras: N. Grandelius (Suecia, 2.515).

Defensa Francesa (B80). Festival Corus (Torneo C). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 27-1-2010.

Es poco probable que el lector haya disfrutado de una partida tan impresionante com...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1628/caviar-indio.html
 
 
 
Peaceful start in Linares

Three draws in first round LinaresThe Linares tournament started peacefully today, with draws on all three boards. Topalov surprised Vallejo with a Breyer against the Spaniard’s Ruy Lopez and easily equalized. Grischuk needed a lot of time on the clock, but was also doing fine with Black against Aronian in a 4.f3 Nimzo ending. Gelfand had some advantage against Gashimov’s Benoni but just before the first time control a drawn ending was reached.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Round 1 report by Rick Goetzee

The famous Linares tournament is on its way again. It is true that the event has lost some of its aura and some say that Corus has taken over as the Wimbledon of chess, but it is still one of the greatest tournaments around. And not only because of its history. It’s quite remarkable how the organisers have kept the event alive through great adversity and without corporate sponsorship. In the last year they had to deal with the economic recession and voices in the local government challenging the decision to invest in a chess tournament. Also the plan to host the first half of the tournament in Dubai fell through. Despite all this, the Linares organizers have secured this famous event for another year.

The field once consisted of 14 players, but since 2006 (after Kasparov retired) there have been eight players, competing in a double round robin. This year, because of financial constraints, it went down to six. While this is a pity it puts it on par with the Grand Slam tournaments in Sofia and Nanjing. Only Corus still has 14 players in their A-group.

One of the consequences of a relatively small field is that the tournament is very strong. In Wijk aan Zee there were a few players (predominantly the local ones) who acted as the rabbits in the field, as GM Joel Benjamin referred to them on ICC’s Chess.FM. In Linares the only local player is Vallejo Pons but with a rating of 2705 he can hardly be called a rabbit.

stage

Although he has always been a top player, it’s been already 13 years since Boris Gelfand has last played in Linares. In the polls before the start of the tournament Aronian was the favourite, undoubtedly because Topalov will have the upcoming world championship match in the back of his mind.

The opening ceremony on Friday was short but entertaining with flamenco dancers and Spanish traditional music. The first round started on Saturday at 4pm which is quite late compared to other tournaments. It must have to do with the great Spanish tradition of ‘la siesta’.

All games were drawn in the first round. Vallejo-Topalov lasted 41 moves after a Ruy Lopez opening, Breyer variation. This solid system isn’t something Topalov regularly plays, and Vallejo was probably not well prepared for it. The Spaniard chose an old system but got nothing, and after many exchanges Topalov couldn’t play for a win either.

vallejo-topalov

Aronian-Grischuk was a Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3, the system popularized by Fritz Sämisch. White’s move 8.Qd2 led the game into a position that was popular in the 50s (!) and Grischuk used a lot of time in the opening, but he was able to solve all his problems. In fact if anyone was better it was Black, who could have tried 19…N7e5 if he’d had more time. After 26 moves the players shook hands. Aronian only used 40 minutes for the whole game.

aronian-grischuk

The most interesting game of the day was Gelfand-Gashimov. The Azerbaijan GM went for his favourite Benoni, an opening we don’t see very often in the elite tournaments. According to GM Benjamin this is a sign of the new philosophy of modern top players. Chess is becoming more of a sport than a science. A fight over the board is preferred over home preparation.

Well, in any case Gelfand was, as so often, very well prepared. The World Cup winner went for the 7.Bf4 line, and knew all ins and outs of Gashimov’s pawn sacrifice on move 9. Gashimov always seemed to have compensation, but was it enough? White’s bishops looked very strong. Eventually Black won his pawn back and the game ended after 54 moves with a repetition of moves in a knight and bishop ending.

gelfand-gashimov

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

The pairings for the 2nd round on Sunday are Topalov-Gashimov, Grischuk-Gelfand and Vallejo-Aronian.

Games round 1 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/peaceful-start-in-linares/
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:34:37 +0000
 
 
 
27mo Ciudad de Linares!

Si sono appena spente le eco del magnifico Corus ed ecco che i fari si riaccendono, come ogni anno, sul palcoscenico dei grandi scacchi. Cerimonia inaugurale oggi per il 27mo Ciudad de Linares: minor tradizione forse rispetto a Wijk aan Zee ma un evento diverso, da sempre o quasi riservato all’assoluta élite mondiale, che ha scritto alcune delle pagine più straordinarie degli scacchi moderni. Dopo 4 anni  con 8 partecipanti si torna a 6, come già avvenuto nelle edizioni 2000 e 2001.

Motivi di carattere economico hanno indotto a questa “edizione di transizione”: l’accordo con Dubai come sostituta di Morelia non è stato trovato per quest’anno ma sembra prospettarsi per l’edizione 2011, in cui Linares si è già assicurata, notizia di questi ultimi giorni, la presenza del n° 1 Magnus Carlsen. Come dire: qualche difficoltà quest’anno, ma Linares continuerà e sarà sempre grandissimo! Non possiamo che esserne contenti!

Il primo premio scende, dai 100.000 euro dell’anno scorso ai 75.000 di quest’anno, via via fino ai 15.000 euro per il sesto, che restano pur sempre poco meno del 1° premio dell’Aeroflot! Confermata la scelta di riservare tutto al montepremi, in luogo degli ingaggi, per incoraggiare la combattività, una caratteristica sempre ricercata storicamente da Luis Rentero.

Primo turno sabato 13, riposo il 17 e il 22, ultimo turno il 24. Si gioca alle 16, con un tempo di gioco, se non ho compreso male, privo di abbuoni: 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e mezz’ora per finire la partita. Zeitnot in vista! Partite online, ovviamente, sul sito ufficiale http://ajedrez.ciudaddelinares.es/  e grande copertura live anche da parte di Chessdom, che per diversi mesi è stato il primo sito a dare notizie su un Linares 2010 avvolto da qualche nebbia. Per il terzo anno consecutivo, comunque, torneo di XXIma categoria (media 2758):

Giocatore, anno di nascita, nazionalità, Elo, posizione in classifica mondiale, liverating

Veselin Topalov (1975) BUL 2805 (2 – 2805)

Levon Aronian (1982) ARM 2781 (5 – 2782.3)

Boris Gelfand (1968) ISR 2761 (6 – 2750.4)

Vugar Gashimov (1986) AZE 2751 (7 – 2740.2)

Alexander Grischuk (1983) RUS 2736 (14 – 2756.0)

Francisco Vallejo (1982) ESP 2705 (30 – 2708.0)

Una nota curiosa é che nessuno dei partecipanti al Corus é presente a Linares, fatto decisamente inconsueto.

 

Per il Corus si era annotato che difficilmente Anand si sarebbe espresso al meglio, con la necessità di preservare il suo arsenale di aperture per il prossimo match mondiale con Topalov. Non sono sicuro che lo stesso argomento sia completamente valido per Veselin: certo, il campione bulgaro terrà le carte coperte, ma la sua voglia di vittoria e il suo desiderio di sbilanciare le partite alla ricerca del punto intero potrebbero far capolino. Credo che a Topalov non dispiacerebbe presentarsi al match di Sofia con la vittoria di Linares: penso che dopo San Luis Veselin abbia acquistato la convinzione di essere il miglior giocatore del mondo e che avverta il desiderio di dimostrarlo in modo eclatante, ad esempio con una sequenza tipo Linares – Titolo Mondiale – Finale del Grande Slam! Un 2010 da leggenda, nel caso, ma il rischio è quello di strafare, di perdere qualche partita a Linares, e con essa qualche sicurezza. Vedremo un Topalov “disciplinato” e pienamente orientato sul match mondiale o fortemente motivato a vincere questo torneo? Da notare che Anand, restando imbattuto e superando Kramnik, un piccolo segnale l’ha lanciato. Per la prima parte del torneo Topalov non avrà l’apporto come secondo di Cheparinov, impegnato a Mosca, ma potrà contare su Dominguez (!!), che presumo faccia parte anche del suo team per il match mondiale.

Il ruolo del favorito potrebbe passare comunque ad Aronian, che ha sicuramente qui l’impegno più importante di questa prima parte del 2010, una gara che ha avuto pienamente il tempo di preparare. Il campione armeno si è spinto a novembre fino al suo massimo Elo, 2786, con un 2009 tutto condotto ad alto livello, dal secondo posto al Corus alle vittorie di Nalchik e di Bilbao, inserendosi a pieno titolo nella top five. La domanda, necessariamente rinviata ai match dei candidati, è se Aronian possa essere appieno un contendente per il titolo mondiale. Considerando Carlsen e Kramnik, di spazio sembra essercene poco, sta a Levon mandare qualche segnale di forza e questo Linares potrebbe essere un punto di passaggio interessante. Una vittoria potrebbe aggiungere convinzione e un piccolo vantaggio c’è: manca Ivanchuk, bestia nera del campione armeno (lo scorso anno, qui a Linares, un tremendo doppio zero contro Chuky)!

La vittoria di Grischuk a Linares 2009 è stata senz’altro una sorpresa, non tanto per il talento, indiscutibile, quanto per la sequenza di risultati relativamente anonimi cui Alexandar ci aveva abituati, con la sensazione di una non piena applicazione agli scacchi e lasciando un po’ scivolare, anno dopo anno, la percezione di un giovane che forse avrebbe potuto / potrebbe lottare fino al livello del titolo mondiale. Dopo Linares un 2009 “come al solito”, fino all’eliminazione da Jakovenko in Coppa del Mondo. Acuti recenti però con il titolo russo e un buon World Team Chess Championship, restando imbattuto in entrambe le manifestazioni. Grischuk riuscirà mai a trovare la determinazione necessaria per nutrire pienamente il suo talento? Parrebbe di no, finora, ma una certa curiosità per il suo comportamento in questo Linares è legittima. E’ forse il miglior outsider per la vittoria finale e, nel caso, il bissare Linares potrebbe porgli qualche prospettiva su cui riflettere.

Di lista in lista Boris Gelfand continua ad aggiungere qualche punticino al suo record di punteggio Elo, con un trend stupefacente per i suoi quasi 42 anni e con tanti giovani super-computerizzati che si affacciano oltre quota 2700. La conferenza stampa di qualche mese fa a Roma ci dà però delle risposte: Boris ha ancora una grande passione per gli scacchi ed è un uomo di spessore, un lottatore che si dà sempre degli obiettivi, per piccoli passi, un approccio che possiamo ritrovare nel suo stile alla scacchiera, solido e insidioso, con grandi capacità posizionali. Grande soddisfazione la vittoria nella World Cup e poi un periodo di riposo e di preparazione. Facile immaginare come Gelfand sia orientato sui match dei candidati. Nella World Cup 2005 mi colpì una sua dichiarazione in cui affermava che la sua generazione (con Anand e Ivanchuk) aveva espresso dei grandi giocatori ma che Kasparov era “imbattibile”, impedendo loro di arrivare fino al titolo mondiale. Non facile da dire per una persona volitiva come lui. Penso che Gelfand sarà uno di quei giocatori dal declino molto lento, capace di stupirci anche a 50 anni ed oltre, uno che non molla, mai!

Prima volta in un super torneo per Vugar Gashimov, il “n° 3 dell’Azerbaijan” che in questo 2009 è diventato il n° 1, scavalcando, almeno per ora, Radjabov e Mamedyarov. Un’escalation costruita a partire dalla sua vittoria a pari merito nel Gran Prix di Baku 2008 e proseguita perdendo pochissimo, senza tuttavia brillare. Decisamente insolita per lui la debacle subita nel World Team Chess Championship, con tre sconfitte in sole sette partite, ad opera di Grischuk, Sasikiran e Adly, anche se le prove a squadre possono essere psicologicamente particolari. Una World Cup all’insegna delle patte, superando faticosamente Fabiano ed uscendo con Ponomariov. Difficile pensare che Gashimov possa spingersi oltre nella sua scalata del ranking mondiale; questo Linares ci saprà dire, comunque, qualcosa in più.

Cinque partecipazioni consecutive a Linares per Vallejo, dal 2002 al 2006, fruendo del suo essere la migliore speranza spagnola, in cui “Paco” è sempre rimasto nelle posizioni di coda. Il suo talento, molto creativo, non è finora riuscito ad esprimersi fino ad uno stabile inserimento nell’elite mondiale. Nel 2009 è arrivato, finalmente, oltre quota 2700 ma anche stavolta sembra difficile che possa inserirsi nelle prime posizioni qui a Linares. Vallejo vanta anche due partecipazioni nel nostro CIS, prima nel Master 2008 con il Massimo di Palermo, condotto fin quasi allo scudetto, e poi nell’A1 2009 con il Dorico Ancona. Da queste occasioni il ritratto di un giovane simpatico e alla mano, che non si dà arie da super GM, molto disponibile ed eccellente forchetta! Per chi non avesse letto l’articolo da non perdere la sua partita, commentata per Scacchierando, giocata contro Malfagia, in cui è disponibile anche l’eccellente commento dello stesso Malfagia, una doppia rivisitazione della stessa partita di straordinario valore didattico!

 

Ciò che mi sembra accomuni quest’anno Wijk aan Zee e Linares, pur nella notevole diversità nella tipologia di gara e con partecipanti completamente diversi, è il senso di attesa rispetto ad una stagione scacchistica straordinariamente incerta e interessante. A breve il match mondiale tra due grandissimi protagonisti e all'orizzonte dei match dei candidati che si prospettano estremamente interessanti, fino alla nuova sfida mondiale del 2011. Forse Carlsen sarà il dominatore del futuro ma ancora non lo è del tutto e non è facile immaginare chi sarà il campione del mondo alla fine del 2011.

Un corridoio dell'Hotel Anibal (da Chessbase)

Poi, ovviamente, Corus e Linares sono accomunati dalle grandi storie scacchistiche che hanno scritto. Nell’Hotel Anibal, in passato sede di gioco e tutt’ora albergo di soggiorno dei giocatori, ci sono moltissime immagini dei grandi campioni che hanno partecipato al torneo, anno dopo anno.

Un 22enne Gelfand (da Chessbase)

Superba vittoria di Vassily nel 1991! (da Chessbase)

Garry 1992 (da Chessbase)

Il fantastico do di petto di Karpov 1994! (da Chessbase)

Insomma, il vento dei grandi scacchi soffia impetuoso in Andalusia!

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1716
2010-02-12T03:31:09+01:00
 
 
 
Quinceañero triunfador
Quinceañero triunfador
Blancas: W. So (Filipinas, 2.656)
Negras: A. Giri (Holanda, 2.558).

Defensa Petrov (C42). Festival Corus (Torneo B). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 29-1-2010.

Todas las opiniones recogidas por EL PAÍS en Wijk aan Zee coincidieron: Anish Gir...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1620/quinceaero-triunfador.html
 
 
 
Gran sacrificio de dama
Gran sacrificio de dama
Blancas: E. Sutovski (Israel, 2.657).
Negras: A. Naiditsch (Alemania, 2.687).
Apertura de los Cuatro Caballos (C48). Festival Corus (Grupo B). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 24-1-2010.

Emil Sutovski, siempre creativo y audaz, nos regala ...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1619/gran-sacrificio-de-dama.html
 
 
 
Luis Rentero: “I love the game”

Luis RenteroTomorrow the first round in Linares will be played. Last year Rick Goetzee spoke with the godfather of the tournament, Luis Rentero. “I owned 32 supermarkets and 4 hotels. I sold the supermarkets to a Belgian company but still have my hotels. Hotel Anibal is the only one with a chess theme, but sometimes visitors to my other hotels bring me chess memorabilia as they know I love the game.”

By Rick Goetzee | Photo: David Llada

Traveling to Linares is like a pilgrimage. Flying from Ireland, the flight is long enough to daydream about the days ahead and short enough not to get cramps from lack of leg room in the low fare airplane.

Every year the same lady at the Hertz desk tries to sell you extra insurance and every year she accepts refusal with a smile. You get stuck in rush hour traffic (at 9pm) on the highway labyrinth around Madrid, but you’re not in a hurry because the round will only start at 4pm the next day. The route planner guides you towards the A4 and you prepare yourself for the three hour journey south. At every kilometer sign you tell yourself that you are a bit closer to Linares, as KissFM plays lovesongs on the radio.

At kilometer 288 you get a new boost of adrenaline when for the first time Linares appears on the road signs. Ten minutes later you enter the town, in travel guides often described as ugly, but a chess player wholeheartedly disagrees. You follow Centro Ciudad and suddenly you recognise a roundabout. You feel as if you’ve come home when you arrive at Hotel Anibal, as it goes without saying that’s where you have booked a room. No need to make reservations months in advance, there always seems to be space. You park in the street next to the hotel, opposite the park where Leko always used to go for a walk just before the game, and you know for sure that you have arrived in the right place when you turn the corner and bump into Radjabov.

Hotel Anibal

Hotel Anibal stopped hosting the tournament several years ago but it's still a chess hotel and the place where the players and journalists stay

This year I have come to Linares on a special mission, I have arranged an interview with the great man himself: Luis Rentero Lechuga, the founder of the Linares chess tradition.

Since last year the playing venue has moved from Anibal to the Cervantes theatre in the town centre. On entering the theatre well in time for the first round I notice a beautiful display chess set in the foyer. Admiration turns into astonishment when I see that not only the King and Queen are reversed but that there is also a dark square in the bottom right hand corner. We are used to seeing this in window displays and in movies but I hadn’t expected it at the venue of the most prestigious tournament in the game. The reparation is completed just in time before the start of the round.

My appointment with Mr. Rentero is at 6pm. I can’t find him in the pressroom so ask a member of the organisation if they have seen him. ‘Yes he is sitting in the auditorium in the front row and he is snoring loudly, so please get him out of there.’ As I move into the playing area I wonder why they haven’t woken him up themselves. Rentero’s English is almost as bad as my Spanish so I have asked María José to help me with the interview. I couldn’t have a better interpreter as she was also Kasparov’s interpreter when he announced his retirement in Linares in 2005.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries I start by asking Rentero about his own chess career. He learned the game when he was 8 years old by playing with friends at home. He has always been an e4 player and loves the Kings Gambit. He didn’t play much as he describes himself as a bad loser. ‘Especially when playing against children.’ In the end he gave up playing chess as he just could not stand losing. He has a passionate love for the game and during top tournaments he always plays over the games at home. In the press room it is a nice sight to see Rentero standing close to the monitors, totally engrossed in the positions on the screens.

From an early age onward it was clear that Rentero was better suited for organising chess events than for playing in them. When he was 15 he organised a simultaneous display in Linares by IM Roman Toran, who later became a good friend. In 1978 he organised his first tournament in Linares. At that time he didn’t have the ambition to make it a regular event, let alone make it grow into what it has become today. When Rentero talks about the 1979 tournament he grabs the opportunity to talk about his favourite topic. ‘Yes, Larry Christiansen won. That’s an aggressive player. Me gusta mucho!’ I don’t have to ask any more questions for the next five minutes as Rentero climbs on his soap box. ‘I attended a tournament in Bugojno in Yugoslavia. Ten minutes after the start of the round half of the games had ended in a draw. This was a tragedy for me. I want chess players to play, to fight, that’s why I handed out penalties for not trying hard enough. Kasparov is my favourite player, he is a fighter. Chess can be very pretty, it can be a show but only if the players fight.’

Luis Rentero

Luis Rentero in 2008, at the 'living chess' festival on the last rest day

Glowing with pleasure he tells the story that he even fined Kasparov once. The world champion had just made a draw in 32 moves when Rentero informed him that he would withhold half a million pesetas from his prize money. Kasparov was beside himself with anger: ‘It’s my friend who does this to me; I will never play in Linares again!’ Rentero didn’t budge; Kasparov paid his fine and did return the following year. Rentero obviously likes the Sofia rules and acknowledges the compliment that he was 20 years ahead of his time with a firm nod of the head. He may be getting on in years and he may still feel the impact of his car accident 10 years ago but his passion and pride for what he has created are still there.

Rentero is no longer involved with the Linares tournament but sings the praises of the members of the local government who have taken over from him. ‘It’s becoming more beautiful every year. They are doing a great job. I agree with the move to Mexico for the first half, there was no choice. Also moving to Dubai next year is good for the event, it will keep it financially viable. The people in Linares love the tournament; they may not know the rules of the game but they are proud that the most famous tournament in the world takes place in their town. They love it more than football.’

In the following days I test this bold statement in the cafés of Linares. Many people want to talk to me about the Champions League match of Real Madrid against Liverpool. Very few are able to tell me anything about the chess tournament. Some don’t even know it is actually going on. But there are exceptions. One man invites me to his home and proudly shows me the autographs of Karpov and Spassky which he collected as a child.

When I tell Don Luis that I have always been surprised about the lack of publicity for the event in the town and on the internet, his reaction is quite surprising. He slams the table and says: ‘Yes I agree and I will take measures!’ Later I find out what he means by this.

I ask him about his successful business career which gave him the financial means to organise his events. ‘I started delivering groceries to several villages by motorbike. Then I bought a large storage facility and it grew from there. I owned 32 supermarkets and 4 hotels. I sold the supermarkets to a Belgian company but still have my hotels. Hotel Anibal is the only one with a chess theme, but sometimes visitors to my other hotels bring me chess memorabilia as they know I love the game. I had a lot of people working for me and I’m proud of that, as it created employment for the area. I like having people working for me. I also like people playing chess for me. (laughs)’ Did being a bad loser in chess help him in business? ‘Yes for sure, my whole life has been a fight.’

Rentero says that he wants to go and talk to the organisers so it is time for my last question. What is your proudest memory of the tournaments you organised? ‘I received the Leonardo da Vinci prize in Russia for my accomplishments in chess. During the ceremony we talked to two astronauts in a space station. One of them was a Karpov fan and the other a Kasparov fan. When asked which Spanish cities they could name they answered: Madrid, Barcelona and …. Linares.’

After the interview I follow Rentero back to the press room. He immediately approaches one of the organisers and tells him in no uncertain terms that publicity has to improve. He points at me and then moves on to the monitors to watch the games that are still in progress. The organiser is clearly not happy with me and tells me about the banners which are hanging all over town. I reply that they were only put up the day before the first round and I tell him about the Wijk aan Zee tournament which runs a website all year long. He takes me to one of the monitors to show me the website of his tournament. A very nice site indeed but when you enter ‘Linares chess’ or ‘Linares ajedrez’ in Google the link doesn’t come up. Also the site is only in Spanish. ‘Then you will have to learn Spanish’ is the final word from the organiser. Luis Rentero may have officially handed over his tournament to the local government but his presence is still felt.

I didn’t see Rentero’s face when Radjabov and Dominguez played on till bare Kings in the 12th round, but it reminded me of another thing he said: ‘I will tell you why Linares is the greatest tournament in the world. Because in Linares the players fight!’

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/luis-rentero-i-love-the-game/
Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:30:18 +0000
 
 
 
2? Parte foto dal Corus Wijk Aan Zee per Scacchierando !


72° Wijk Aan Zee: 250 Foto sulla Gallery QUI 

Pubblichiamo oggi altre 37  di una quantità industriale di bellissime foto che un lettore appassionato ci ha gentilmente inviato da Wijk Aan Zee dove si è recentemente conclusa la 72esima edizione del supertorneo  vinto dal norvegese Carlsen.

Inoltre potete  vedere tutte le 250  foto  in formato originale QUI





relax e sorrisi, Anand e Van Wely e dietro Leko e Garcia




Caruana e Nakamura con un attento Ian Rogers che prende appunti e analisi



il "corridoio" dei top players





In analisi Grandelius vs Giri, Gupta, Bok (in piedi) e dietro Robson Vs Lie




Kramnik vs Karjakin, Nisipeanu vs Sutovsky e Ivanchuk che osserva




Robson vs Grandelius, del barbiere ancora non vi è traccia...




Short e Smeets, aplomb nordico




Vocaturo vs S. Swaminathan



Vocaturo ( ITA) -  S. Swaminathan ( IND)




Van Wely vs Anand e due bellezze  indiane




Carlsen, padre e figlio




le due star del Corus 2010 : Carlsen (vincitore torneo A) e Giri ( a sinistra, vincitore del torneo B)



Vocaturo vs  Swaminathan , a fianco Yuri Garrett



Janis Nisii, per Torre e Cavallo



Bianca Muhren



un "pasciuto" Kramnik, soddisfatto per il buon torneo




Ian Rogers con Caruana, col padre di Carlsen che osserva




Il Direttore della celebre rivista olandese New in Chess, con Anish Giri



maxischermo, un altro momento importante del Corus 2010, la patta di Caruana con Carlsen



la conclusione del spettacolare attacco di Giri contro Wesley So, sul maxischermo


            TORNEI COLLATERALI



Baldazzi ( torneo collaterale)




Billio Atto ( torneo collaterale)



Marano Salvatore ( torneo collaterale)




Ori ( a destra, torneo collaterale)



Adriano Testa ( torneo collaterale)






Massimo Testa











il pubblico segue con attenzione in sala analisi





relax e analisi nei pub e locali vicino la sede di gioco











Tutte le 250 Foto di Wijk Aan Zee
sulla Gallery di Scacchierando QUI



 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1711
2010-02-10T07:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Sangre fría cubana
Sangre fría cubana
Blancas: J. Smeets (Holanda, 2.657).
Negras: L. Domínguez (Cuba, 2.712).

Defensa Siciliana (B96). Festival Corus (Torneo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 23-1-2010.

La supuesta conexión entre rasgos del carácter de culturas determ...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1616/sangre-fra-cubana.html
 
 
 
Destello de Anand
Destello de Anand
Blancas: V. Anand (India, 2.790).
Negras: V. Krámnik (Rusia, 2.788).

Defensa Petrov (C42). Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 30-1-2010.

El campeón del mundo sólo ganó dos partidas (con nueve empates), a Shírov ...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1611/destello-de-anand.html
 
 
 
1? Parte foto dal Corus Wijk Aan Zee per Scacchierando !


72° Wijk Aan Zee : centinaia di foto per Scacchierando !


Riceviamo e pubblichiamo le prime 30 di una quantità industriale di bellissime foto che un lettore appassionato ci ha gentilmente inviato da Wijk Aan Zee dove si è recentemente conclusa la 72esima edizione del supertorneo vinto dal norvegese Carlsen. Iniziamo oggi  con i primi piani e alcune fasi di gioco dei tre tornei ( A-B-C).

Domani pubblicheremo le foto dei giocatori rilassati in sala analisi, della sede di gioco e altre curiosità.
Come al solito saranno poi tutte visibili nella nostra galleria fotografica.



Anna Muzychuk




Naiditsch (GER)




Negi (India)




Wesley So (Filippine)




Li Chao  (Cina)




Grandelius (Svezia)




Maria Muzychuk (UKR)



Ray Robson (USA)




Soumya Swaminathan (IND)



Robin van Kampen (NED)



Daniele Vocaturo




Bok




Carlsen incurvato sulla scacchiera




Shirov guarda spaventato il fotografo cecchino : - )




Caruana interrogato dal Prof. d'inglese Short




Giovani star al confronto : So  VS Giri ( Olandese di origini nepalesi). Vincerà il nero con un forte attacco con doppio sacrificio !







Quanto scotta il thè indiano...




Caruana vs Nakamura (USA)



quelle bandierine non ci convincono...




ci vorrebbe un barbiere...




derby olandese nel torneo A



derby indiano nel torneo C




Anand "gufa" Carlsen arrampicato sulla sedia




Muzychuk - So




Carlsen - Caruana




Kramnik - Karjakin, sfida tra neo compagni di nazionale...





 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1710
2010-02-09T07:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Chess notes - Boston Globe

Chess notes
Boston Globe
All eyes this week were on the Corus chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, which had about everything one ...

 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boston.com%2Fae%2Fgames%2Farticles%2F2010%2F02%2F08%2Fchess_notes%2F&usg=AFQjCNGHwUrTHicvx35ZcHipRza7xMhJ7w
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:17:19 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
La 3? Finale del Grande Slam a Bilbao e Shangai !
 

GRANDE SLAM: LA FINALE DEI DUE MONDI !
A Shanghai (Cina) e Bilbao
(Spagna)

Sorpresa per il Master 2010, manifestazione giunta alla terza edizione e che vedrà in campo i vincitori dei principali tornei al Mondo ( Nanchino, Wijk Aan Zee, Linares, Sofia e forse il Kings Tournament di Bazna in Romania ) facenti parte del Grande Slam.

Per il 2010 infatti è previsto un rilancio dell'evento dopo una seconda edizione nel 2009 in tono minore che fu caratterizzata dal taglio dei premi  e che portò  lo sfidante mondiale bulgaro Topalov a declinare l'invito.

La novità sarà che la Finale del Grande Slam sarà divisa in due parti e si disputerà in due città diverse : Shanghai (Cina, dal 3 al 12 Settembre) e la tradizionale Bilbao (Spagna, dal 6 al 14 Ottobre).  Infatti ad interrompere momentaneamente la manifestazione ci saranno le Olimpiadi 2010 in Russia !

Anche San Luis (Argentina) e Londra (Inghilterra) stanno valutando se entrare a far parte del circuito. In ogni caso il Comitato organizzatore del Grande Slam ha posto una regola per i nuovi tornei, ovvero che questi diano garanzia di svolgere almeno 3 edizioni.



CALENDARIO 2010 GRANDE SLAM:

  • NANCHINO (CINA 2009) = Carlsen
  • WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA 2010) = Carlsen
  • LINARES (SPAGNA) = 12-25 Febbraio
  • SOFIA (BULGARIA)= 25 Maggio - 5 Giugno
  • BAZNA (?) (ROMANIA) = 10-22Giugno
  • FINALE MASTER = SHANGHAI ( Cina, 3-12 Settembre) & BILBAO ( Spagna, 6-14 Ottobre)

FINALISTI 2008




Aronian, Anand , Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Topalov, Radjabov

Player
games
wins
draws 
losses
points
Veselin Topalov
10
4
5
1
17
Magnus Carlsen
10
3
4
3
13
Levon Aronian
10
3
4
3
13
Vassily Ivanchuk
10
2
6
2
12
Teimur Radjabov
10
1
7
2
10
Vishy Anand
10
0
8
2
8


FINALISTI 2009



Player
wins
draws
losses
points
Levon Aronian
4
1
1
13
Alexander Grischuk 
2
2
2
8
Sergey Karjakin
1
4
1
7
Alexei Shirov
0
3
3
3





 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1712
2010-02-08T16:10:00+01:00
 
 
 
Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’?

Nakamura at the 2004 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

Hikaru Nakamura has quite a story to tell. Born in Osaka, Japan and arriving in the U.S. at the age of two, Nakamura has been gracing the pages of chess magazines since he began breaking many of Bobby Fischer’s records. One of the first indicators of chess talent is the age record for National Master.

There have been many talented players to come through the scholastic ranks, but many either quit playing after high school, or shortly after reaching National Master. When Nakamura entered Dickinson College, there were fears that America would lose yet another promising talent along the likes of Grandmasters Michael Wilder and Patrick Wolff.

Under the early tutelage of his stepfather FM Sunil Weeramantry and the mentorship of older brother Asuka Nakamura, young Hikaru shattered the record reaching the mark in 10 years, 79 days. In 2008, his record was later lowered to 9 years, 11 months by Nicholas Nip, a player who is no longer active. Five years later, he broke Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record by earning Grandmaster status in 15 years, 79 days.

Media comparisons to Fischer immediately heightened when he won the U.S. Championship at age 16. However, Nakamura reminded everyone, “I’m not Bobby Fischer.” He was intimating the point that Fischer was an unbalanced individual who only thought of chess. Of course, this was only half the story with Fischer, but certainly he was one who could not operate comfortably outside of the chess realm.

When you talk to Nakamura, he is comfortable talking about a wide range of topics including his beloved Vancouver Canucks hockey team. He also has a variety of interests including music, finance, sports and politics. Many of the existing stereotypes of Nakamura are based on history from his teen years and commentary from online chess servers.


Chief Organizer Erik Anderson (left) stands next to GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Rusudan Goletiani after both were crowned the 2004 U.S. Champions.

Chief Organizer Erik Anderson (left) stands next to GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Rusudan Goletiani after both were crowned the 2004 U.S. Champions.

Nakamura’s talent was hardly questioned on the U.S. scene as he had put together an impressive résumé of wins. At the closing ceremonies of the 2003 U.S. Championship, winner Alexander Shabalov singled out a young Nakamura and stated that he had a bright future in chess. In American tournaments, Nakamura’s brash style has become a breath of fresh air in a sport that had become stagnant with the same players competing every year in the U.S. Championships and the open tournaments. His victory the next year was definitely good for chess.

Once Nakamura joined the elite class in the U.S., he carried a reputation as being an isolationist and distrustful of his colleagues. He rankled many when he made comments about collusion among the U.S. elite. “That’s actually why I still work alone. It’s very hard to trust anybody.” However, as Nakamura begin to ascend to a world-class level, he enlisted some help. After the 2009 U.S. Championship, he mentioned that he had been working with National Master Kris Littlejohn. This choice of a second puzzled many, but has paid dividends.

Mikalevski ponders Kamsky's next move while Nakamura-Najer reaches the climatic stage of the 2009 World Open.

Viktor Mikalevski ponders Gata Kamsky’s next move while Nakamura-Najer reaches the climatic stage of the 2009 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

In U.S. chess, there had been too many “friendships” between top players which resulted in many quick draws and dispirited play. Nakamura was dismissive of these tactics and forced the issue with his ‘play-to-win’ attitude. His determination affords him psychological capital when an opponent understands that they have to fight when they are already content on drawing. This fighting spirit came into great effect when he won his first U.S. Championship at age 16. However, in an important interview in Salon magazine, there were still had doubters.

“The finish is very good but few purists will rank his play in the same league as Fischer’s — it lacks elegance,” wrote chess scribe Alan Goldsmith. Another chess writer, Bobby Ang, wondered, “When Nakamura reaches the higher echelons of the chess elite, will his style work?” Citing a benchmark of great contemporary players, Ang asked of Nakamura, “Can his brilliance overcome the tactical mastery of Alexei Shirov? Will his will-to-win be sufficient to breach the solid fortifications of Vladimir Kramnik, or Peter Leko? Is his much-touted resourcefulness of a high enough standard to battle with Rustam Kasimdzhanov? I doubt it very much.” (see link)

Nakamura’s sales pitch to Europe was more difficult, but he was beginning to pick up momentum. Tournament organizers were attracted to his brash, no-nonsense style. He has since broken through in a number of strong tournaments and is now comfortably ensconced in the top 20. Many detractors rail at the notion that Nakamura has not gotten the opportunities to face the elite level. They cite his skipping Corus “B” in 2008 for the Gibraltar Masters as a snub. Nakamura cited inadequate conditions, but made good on his trip by winning Gibraltar.

Nakamura winning the 2009 U.S. Championship. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

He added a few more accolades including the 2009 U.S. Championship, 960 World Championship and the Cap d’Agde Rapid Tournament (over Anatoly Karpov and Vassily Ivanchuk). There were still doubters who stated that he couldn’t win in a strong classical tournament. After playing poorly in the London Classic, Nakamura finally got his coveted invite to Corus “A” and made a strong showing with 7.5/13 (4th place). Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the tournament, identified Nakamura as a new rival.

On various chess blogs, the conversation of Nakamura ascendancy is a popular topic. Naysayers continue to claim Nakamura is not worthy of “elite” status for very specific reasons. After he refutes these reasons, another set will be created and standards increased. At this point, pundits state that Nakamura has to make top 10 to be considered seriously as a World Championship. Last year, it was top 20.

Of course, the candidacy of players such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin or Teimour Radjabov was recognized almost immediately. What is the difference? The theory was that the European stars were “battle-tested” and Nakamura had not faced tough competition. Many top chess journals, websites and blogs take liberties to print negative portrayals of the young American star. Even his head-to-head blitz victory over Carlsen in Norway was trivialized.

So the question…”Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’?” Does he have World Championship potential? When Vladimir Kramnik was asked this question, he seems to believe that Nakamura is a legitimate talent, but stopped short of giving a full endorsement. Most of the fans and journalists believe that Carlsen is the heir apparent to Viswanathan Anand or Veselin Topalov, but it is not certain if Carlsen will maintain his level. The performance of Anish Giri turned some heads and the Chinese and Indians deserve attention. If one looks at Nakamura, he has many things going for him.

  1. Killer Instinct – Nakamura is unparalleled in the intensity he brings to the board. While it should not be taken literally, Nakamura seems to have an assassin’s mentality when approaching his chess encounters. His play is relentless, hyper-energetic, provocative and aggressive. One of his greatest assets seems to be making opponents uncomfortable, both over the board and in his confident posture.
  2. Independence – Kris Littlejohn selection as Nakamura’s assistant was a bold step that bucks another trend… having a peer as a second. Nakamura theory seems to be based more on work chemistry than the talent of his second. In the 2008 U.S. Championship, he stated that Littlejohn helps him in many intangible ways and understands his style very well. What we now know is that Kris is a computer specialist and can use his understanding of Nakamura’s style with his chess knowledge to create powerful intelligence. “Team Nakamura” has been a rousing success thus far. This doesn’t preclude Nakamura from adding additional members to his camp.
  3. Flexibility - Chess pundits may now be convinced at Nakamura’s resilience and ability to adapt. There are still a lot of doubters who insist on viewing him based on his online persona of a “blitz god” with an arrogance far exceeding his accomplishments. One thing critics may overlook is Nakamura’s maturation over the past few years. He is willing to experiment at a high level and to reignite debates on acceptable play. One of the difficulties at top level is preparing for an opponent like Vassily Ivanchuk or Nakamura. While Nakamura doesn’t have the depth in opening knowledge of Ivanchuk, he still poses difficult problems and is comfortable in a variety of positions.
  4. Self-Critic – Nakamura is openly critical of his play. On his silver-medal performance in the World Team Championship and his Corus “A” debut, he was quick to point out improvements… even in victory. This is a good sign and is contrary to the belief that he doesn’t work hard to improve his game. His ability to be self-critical will keep him alert and hungry enough to know that he can still improve. Approaching the 2750 mark, he will continue to vault over many of the veterans as he continues his march. At some point, he may enlist the help of a world-class player to help him in specific areas.

GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2010 Corus in Wijk aan Zee. Photo by Fred Lucas.

GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2010 Corus in Wijk aan Zee.
Photo by Fred Lucas.

Will these factors mean that he has enough to win a World Championship? Time will tell. One thing that is true is that if Nakamura has his goal set and resources are not an issue, he will have more than an adequate shot at winning the World Championship. He is only 22 years old and he will continue to get better. The downside is does not have a sponsor and gets limited help from his federation which means that he does not have the luxury of focusing purely on chess development.

In a 2005 interview with the New York Times, Nakamura summed up his chances.

”If I am able to get up there and play for the actual title of the world championship, then once again, everyone will be excited,” Mr. Nakamura said, noting how chess gained wide appeal when Mr. Fischer toppled Boris Spassky, the Soviet world champion, in 1972. ”There have been plenty of great players since Fischer but none have been American players.” (see link)

Nakamura has the tenacity, the nerves and still has some areas of improvement in his game. Given Carlsen’s breach of 2800, there will be a new cadre of players to vie for the world crown. With the right combination of training, sponsorship and tournament invitations, Nakamura hopes to be one in that number.

 
http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/02/08/is-nakamura-the-real-deal/
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:38:07 +0000
 
 
 
'El Ágora de Leontxo' de Wijk aan Zee ya está disponible en diferido
El pasado día 31 de enero de 2010, Leontxo emitió su "Ágora" en directo desde Wijk aan Zee, mientras los demás se encontraban en la fiesta de despedida. Poco después de que terminase la emocionate ronda final del torneo, con Magnus Carlsen como vencedor, Leontxo nos brindó entrevistas con los protagoniastas, comentarios de partidas e información, incluyendo la referida a los torneos B y C. El archivo de audio de todo ello ya está disponible en en la sala ChessMedia -> Español -> El ágora de Leontxo. ¿Qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Dónde?
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8015
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Ajedrez de Sherlock Holmes
Surgió una secuencia muy original en este encuentro siciliano disputado en el recién terminado torneo Corus en Wijk aan Zee (Holanda). El caballo negro está siendo atacado, pero ¿a qué casilla se debería desplazar? Esta es solo una de las preguntas (A), porque también es interesante la cuestión de cuál ha sido la última (¡y mejor!) jugada de las blancas (B), ejecutada en respuesta a una anterior de las las negras (C). ¿Qué opina Ud., apreciado Watson? ¿Elemental? La solución está aquí, pero antes de mirarla le sugerimos que reflexione sobre el problema  con una versión más grande del diagrama...
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8016
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Grand Slam dates announced; Masters Final in Shanghai and Bilbao

Grand Slam DatesThis year’s Grand Slam Masters Final will be split into two parts. One will be held in Shanghai, China (just before the Olympiad) and one in Bilbao, Spain (just after). This was announced last week in Wijk aan Zee, were the board of the Grand Slam had a meeting to discuss matters. All dates for the coming year were announced.

Linares: Feb 12-25
In five days from now, the second Grand Slam tournament in 2010 will already start. Linares runs from the 12th till the 25th of February . Like last year it will be a six-player, double round-robin with rest days on February 17th and 22nd. The players are Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov, Alexander Grischuk and Francisco Vallejo.

MTel Masters: May 25-June 5
Two weeks after the Anand-Topalov match (April 23rd – May 12th), Sofia will again host the MTel Masters. This year the tournament runs May 25th – June 5th.

Bazna: June 10-22
Last year it was already terribly strong, with Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Gelfand, Kamsky and Nisipeanu. This month the Kings Tournament in Bazna will decide whether they’ll be part of the Grand Slam; the Romanian tournament runs June 10th – 22nd this year.

Masters Final: Sep 3-12 & Oct 6-14
The biggest news from the Grand Slam board is about the Masters Final, which was organized twice in Bilbao, Spain. The first year it was a 6-player double round-robin won by Topalov, and the second year Aronian won a group of 4 with Karjakin, Grischuk and Shirov. This year the event will be split into two parts: one part in Shanghai, China (September 3rd – 12th) and one part in Bilbao, Spain (October 6th-14th). In between, the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk takes place September 19th – October 4th.

Nanjing: Oct 17-29
The third edition of the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China will start already three days after the Final Masters ends. It runs October 17th till 29th.

Corus: January 14-30
The 73rd Corus Chess Tournament will take place January 14th till 30th in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.

As always, the winners of the Grand Slam tournaments will qualify for the Masters Final. Since Magnus Carlsen won two consecutive Grand Slam tournaments (and might win more), the organizers we will wait until all tournaments have finished, and then look at best performances of the runner-ups.

The above information was announced last week by Corus tournament director Jeroen van den Berg, after the Grand Slam board meeting held in Wijk aan Zee. (We have entered all super-GM tournaments in capitals in our tournament calendar. Organizers of open tournaments are invited to enter their events there.)

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/grand-slam-dates-announced-masters-final-in-shanghai-and-bilbao/
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:45:24 +0000
 
 
 
I cannot live without chess

ON CHESS
Mother Polgar back at the board
Saturday, February 6, 2010 3:14 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN

Women can face special obstacles in maintaining a professional chess career, as is vividly illustrated in the changing fortunes of 33-year-old Judit Polgar, the world's top female player.

In 2003, Polgar reached a pinnacle at the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Undefeated, she finished in second place, a point ahead of world champion Vladimir Kramnik and a half-point behind tournament winner and future world champion Viswanathan Anand.

With the birth of son Oliver in 2004 and daughter Hanna in 2006, her chess activity plummeted, as did her international rating. Today, she is ranked 48th in the world -- a far cry from 2003, when she was 11th, and earlier years, when she was among the top seven or eight grandmasters.

But she is back with renewed focus and energy. The reason is compelling:

"I cannot live without chess," she said on Chessdom.com. "It is an integral part of my life. I enjoy the game.

"When my son was born, it was clear that children are most important. So chess disappeared from my life for some period.

"But I wanted to play again . . . and become the best again. I have a lot of ambitions. (It's) just difficult to fulfill them all."

Source: http://www.dispatch.com
Posted by Picasa
 
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2010/02/06/2_CHESS0206.ART_ART_02-06-10_D2_UAGFT08.html?sid=101
2010-02-06T07:43:00.001-06:00
 
 
 
Leonard Barden on Chess

When Vishy Anand drew his first nine games at Corus Wijk aan Zee last week, opinions were divided on whether the world champion had lost his edge or was simply taking a well-paid rest before his April title defence in Sofia against Veselin Topalov. Then Anand acted as Corus king-maker, beating Alexei Shirov and Vlad Kramnik, so that the pair finished half a point behind Magnus Carlsen.

Norway's world No1 had previously won at Pearl Spring in China and the London Classic and finished second at the Tal Memorial, His fine run continued at Wijk, and the live ratings now make him the all-time No2 to Garry Kasparov. Carlsen had final-round luck in Holland, and the impression is that Anand would still beat him in a match. But their 20-year age difference means that he is Andy Murray to Anand's Roger Federer, and a clearer dominance of his peers will come.

Overall Anand's controlled play at Wijk sent a confident message to Topalov, especially in the best game of the tournament below. His 17 Qc1 novelty induced the passive 18...Bf8 (Bd6) and, when White won a pawn by 26 Bxc7, Kramnik mixed it up when 26...Bc5! gives counterplay. The Russian missed the force of the exchange sac 28 Rxc2! with the follow-up 34 Be5! (idea Bh5) and 35 Bg4! (even better than the queen swap). Anand's one slip was 39 f4 (39 Qe3) as 40...Qe4! makes the win a lot harder. Missing this trick, Kramnik was overrun by Anand's central pawn duo.

V Anand v V Kramnik

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 O-O Be7 8 c4 Nb4 9 Be2 O-O 10 Nc3 Bf5 11 a3 Nxc3 12 bxc3 Nc6 13 Re1 Re8 14 cxd5 Qxd5 15 Bf4 Rac8 16 h3 Be4 17 Qc1 Na5 18 Qe3 Bf8 19 c4 Qd8 20 Ne5 Bf5 21 Qc3 b6 22 Rad1 Qf6 23 Qg3 Nc6 24 Ng4 Qg6 25 d5 Na5 26 Bxc7 Bc2 27 Rc1 Nb3 28 Rxc2 Qxc2 29 Nh6+ Kh8 30 Nxf7+ Kg8 31 Nh6+ Kh8 32 Nf7+ Kg8 33 Nh6+ Kh8 34 Be5 Qg6 35 Bg4 Rxc4 36 Qxb3 Rxe5 37 Rxe5 Rc1+ 38 Kh2 Bd6 39 f4 Bxe5 40 fxe5 gxh6 41 Qe3 Qb1 42 d6 Rh1+ 43 Kg3 Re1 44 Qf4 Rf1 45 Bf3 1-0

3125 1 Nd2. If a5 2 Ne4 Ka3 3 Nc3 a4 4 Nb1 mate. If Ka5/a3 2 Nc4+ Ka4 3 Ka2 a5 4 Nb2 mate.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/06/chess-leonard-barden-vishy-anand
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:15:01 GMT
 
 
 
Sherlock-Holmes-Schach
Eine sehr originelle Sequenz ergab sich in dieser Sizilianisch-Begegnung beim frisch beendeten Festival in Wijk aan Zee. Der schwarze Springer ist angegriffen, aber auf welches Feld er am besten gehen soll, ist hier nur die eine Frage (A). Interessant ist nämlich auch: Was war eigentlich der letzte (und beste!) Zug von Weiß (B), als Reaktion wiederum auf welchen Zug von Schwarz (C)?

Was meinen Sie, Watson?

Auflösung...
Taktik, Eröffnungen, Endspiele und mehr bei ChessBase Magazin Online... Größeres Diagramm...
 
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10050
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Sherlock Holmes chess - Chessbase News

Chessbase News

Sherlock Holmes chess
Chessbase News
06.02.2010 – A very original sequence happened in this Sicilian encounter from the recently finished festival in Wijk aan Zee. The black knight is attacked, ...

 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chessbase.com%2Fnewsdetail.asp%3Fnewsid%3D6110&usg=AFQjCNEK3sD3jsaYRaoAUvXb8X8-_d4elw
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:26:18 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
Sherlock Holmes chess
A very original sequence happened in this Sicilian encounter from the recently finished festival in Wijk aan Zee. The black knight is attacked, but onto which square it should go now is only one question (A).
The other interesting issue is: what was actually White's last (and best!) move (B),
as a reaction in turn to which black move (C)?
What do you think, Watson?

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.
 
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6110
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
8th and 9th round of the Bundesliga

BundesligaThe 8th and 9th round of the Schachbundesliga and three matches from round 7 will take place from the 5th to the 7th of February 2010. We provide you with the pairings at the playing venues Munich, Mülheim, Berlin and Remagen. Some famous Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar participants are joining for their Baden-Baden team…

OSG Baden-Baden is the only team of the Schachbundesliga left without any loss of points. The upcoming weekend the German champion will face the two teams of Berlin and is odds-on favourite. Under the same precondition starts the only serious competitor for the title Werder Bremen. Bremen is facing the teams of München and Erfurt. Both of them are relegation candidates. Some interesting derbies are taking place in Mülheim, where the host is facing Katernberg and Wattenscheid for the “hegemony in the West”.

All line-ups of the teams in Berlin, e.g. OSG Baden-Baden, are published two days in advance. This is carried out due to the new rule, which was implemented from the beginning of this season.

Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live on the Internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via the website of the Schachbundesliga.

8th round: Saturday, 6th of February 2010, 2 pm

Playing venue Munich
Bayern München – Hamburger SK
Erfurter SK – Werder Bremen

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SV Wattenscheid
SF Katernberg – SK Turm Emsdetten

Playing venue Berlin
SK König Tegel – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim

 	SF Berlin	 	- OSG Baden-Baden
1	Jan Markos	(2565)	- Etienne Bacrot		(2709)
2	Arnd Lauber	(2517)	- Sergei Movsesian		(2711)
3	Rainer Polzin	(2491)	- Michael Adams			(2682)
4	Martin Krämer	(2482)	- Arkadij Naiditsch		(2685)
5	Ilja Schneider	(2500)	- Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	(2664)
6	Stephan Berndt	(2442)	- Fabiano Caruana		(2662)
7	Mikail Agopov	(2452)	- Jan Gustafsson		(2622)
8	Lars Thiede	(2450)	- Philipp Schlosser		(2555)

Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SC Eppingen
SG Solingen – SG Trier

9th round: Sunday, 7th of February 2010, 10 am

Playing venue Munich
Hamburger SK – Erfurter SK
Werder Bremen – Bayern München

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Wattenscheid – SF Katernberg
SK Turm Emsdetten – SV Mülheim Nord

Playing venue Berlin
OSG Baden-Baden – SK König Tegel
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – SF Berlin

Playing venue Remagen
SC Eppingen – SG Solingen
SG Trier – SC Remagen

Matches of the 7th round: Friday, 5th of February 2010

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SF Katernberg (4pm)

Playing venue Berlin
SF Berlin – SK König Tegel (4pm)

Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)

Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings

Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings

Teams

1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224


 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/8th-and-9th-round-of-the-schachbundesliga/
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:35:24 +0000
 
 
 
What Your Body’s Thinking About

Mikhail TalThere’s a picture of Mikhail Tal that has always seemed to me the ultimate chess player’s pose: Tal’s looking at the board, chin on his thumb, his other arm folded under his fist, utter determination in his eyes. But what was Tal actually thinking at the time the picture was taken?

When I was just starting out as a chess player, I noticed my opponents often shifted in their chairs as they sat thinking behind the board. I sometimes imagined I could read their thoughts as they bended over the board or leaned backwards with their hands behind their head. Now he’s thinking about e4-e5, no doubt about it. Ah, now he sees the trick I’ve planned after that … oh wait he played it anyway! I never figured out a system to make it work. But new research suggests there may yet be a thing or two to be discovered.

I suppose many chess players find the notion that the way you sit behind the board can reveal clues as to what you’re thinking of, decidedly silly. Behaviour behind the board looks completely random and decided by circumstantial factors. But when you think about it, it’s not so stupid at all. After all, we’re primates communicating not only through words, but with gestures as well. It may be an urban legend that 93% of human communication is body language and only 7% is speech-related, but the fact is that body language is vastly important in communication, and gesticulating predated language by millions of years in human evolution, as can still be seen clearly with monkeys and apes.

According to many popular science books, body language is even the best way to learn about human psychology: there are several well-known body-signals such as crossing one’s arms across the chest (putting a barrier between the speaker and listener), making eye contact (seeking positive confirmation or showing interest) or averting one’s eyes (a sign of, among other things, disbelieve, shame or fear).

This week, The New York Times featured an article about how the body takes abstract thoughts literally in surprising ways:

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to engage in a bit of mental time travel, and to recall past events or imagine future ones, participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors embedded in how we commonly conceptualized the flow of time. As they thought about years gone by, participants leaned slightly backward, while in fantasizing about the future, they listed to the fore.

In the studies described in the article, people found heavy books more important than lighter ones, and they could improve their mathematical skills by making specific gestures and rotating their hands:

Among students who have difficulty with equations like 4 + 5 + 3 = __ + 3, for example, performance improves markedly if they are taught the right gestures: grouping together the unique left-side numbers with a two-fingered V, and then pointing the index finger at the blank space on the right. To learn how to rotate an object mentally, first try a pantomime. ‘If you encourage kinds to do the rotation movement with their hands, that helps them subsequently do it in their heads’, says Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago.

What about chess? After all, mathematics, music and chess are linked in special ways – Glenn Gould showed us how music can move the body in unconscious ways – so, while not exactly arithmetics, I suppose calculating variations in chess is still somewhat similar to calculating sums. This opens up all sorts of fascinating possibilities.

Anish Giri

Anish Giri in his game against David Howell at the 2010 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee

Do you see your opponent moving his fingers in a specific way? Perhaps he’s calculating a long forced line! See him moving his head or moving his hands underneath the table? He may be thinking about some long term positional stuff like gaining space or how to improve his piece coordination! On an even more abstract level, an opponent leaning forward means he’s thinking about his next move while an opponent leaning backwards indicates he’s evaluating your last move.

Tal’s body language in the picture is less easy to read. At first, the pointed thumb would suggest calculating stuff, but then the thumb is not moving whereas we know Tal was constantly calculating sacrifices in his head! In other words, his pose was a way of confusing his opponents – and I suddenly understand how he could become world champion! Perhaps the secret all strong chess players share is not that they know chess better than the rest of us, but that they can, in a manner of speaking, read our thoughts and anticipate on it?

Wouldn’t that be a huge consolation to us patzers? It’s not our fault – our bodies give us away! In the same fashion, some people use popular psychology to excuse their behaviour – hey, I’m from Mars and you’re from Venus, so we really shouldn’t even try to understand each other. Well, we chess players know better, of course. Still, next time you’re playing a game, think about how you and your opponent are sitting behind the board for a minute.

Do you see any relation with the position on the board or the stuff you’re thinking about? Then perhaps it’s time to become a little more self-conscious. Stop thinking about the position, put your thumb under your chin, look straight in your opponent’s eyes and brilliant sacrifices will enter your head before you know it.

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/what-your-bodys-thinking-about/
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:00:18 +0000
 
 
 
Vuelve el torneo más prestigioso del mundo

linares


Linares, el torneo más prestigioso del mundo y el elegido para retirarse de las competiciones oficiales por Gary Kasparov, considerado uno de los mejores jugadores de todos los tiempos junto con el mítico Bobby Fischer, vuelve a su cita anual del 12 al 25 de febrero con una nómina que apuesta por la combatividad, el ajedrez de ataque y el espectáculo.

Uno de los referentes de todas estas virtudes es el búlgaro Veseline Topalov, excampeón del mundo y número dos en las listas que trimestralmente publica la Federación Internacional (FIDE). Alabado por su denodado espíritu de lucha, Topalov, que se enfrentará por el título mundial al indio Viswanathan Anand en Sofía (Bulgaria) el próximo mes de abril, con una bolsa en premios de tres millones de euros, ha elegido jugar el torneo andaluz en vez del Corus de Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), primera prueba del Grand Slam, que concluyó el domingo.

 
http://www.zonadeajedrez.com/noticias/noticias/827-vuelve-el-torneo-mas-prestigioso-del-mundo
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:49:42 +0000
 
 
 
Brett in Flammen
"Fire on board" ist zum Markenzeichen Alexei Shirovs geworden. Beim Turnier in Wijk aan Zee, bei dem Shirov mit fünf Siegen in Folge startete, hat der 37-jährige Schachmagier aus Riga wieder einmal bewiesen, dass dies zurecht besteht. In vielen Mittelspielstellungen verstand er es, seine Gegner durch fantasievolles Angriffsspiel unter Druck zu setzen. Und selbst im Endspiel muss man bei Shirov immer damit rechnen, dass er das Brett in Flammen setzt. So wie in der Partie aus der elften Runde gegen Vladimir Kramnik, von Karsten Müller für ChessBaseMagazin Online kommentiert.

DVD Endgame Fireworks im Shop... Analyse und größeres Diagramm...
 
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10043
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Ausklang mit Erbsensuppe
Auch in diesem Jahr war das Corus-Turnier in Wijk aan Zee wieder eines der Highlights der neuen Schachsaison. Eine Reihe von jungen Spielern nutzte die Chance, sich in Szene zu setzten. Magnus Carlsen gewann am Ende die topbesetzte A-Gruppe und fügte seinem aktuelle Elokonto noch ein paar Pünktchen hinzu. Auf der Schlussfeier erklärte er in einer kleinen Rede, wie wohl er sich in Wijk fühlt. Die B-Gruppe wurde von Anish Giri gewonnen. Der junge Niederländer könnte vielleicht recht bald in die Fußstapfen von Magnus Carlsen treten und ähnliche Erfolge feiern. Bis September war es noch nicht klar, ob es in diesem Jahr auch wieder eine C-Gruppe geben würde. Schließlich wurde diese doch noch realisierte und der Wijker "Kindergarten" sorgte einmal mehr für viele packende Schlachten. Li Chao hieß hier am am Ende der Turniersieger. Trotz allem könnte dies das letzte "Corus-"Turnier gewesen sein: Im nächsten Jahr wird das Turnier nämlich wahrscheinlich als "Tata"-Turnier ausgerichtet werden. Auf der Schlussfeier erschien übrigens ein Überraschungsgast vom Rasenschach. Fußballstar Edgar Davids hat seine Liebe zum Schach entdeckt und wollte einmal die Top-Stars dieser Szene kennenlernen. (Foto: Leontxo hat Hunger)
Video mit Jeroen van den Berg (Coruschess)... Impressionen...
 
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10044
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Gibraltar brilla mucho
Gibraltar brilla mucho
Blancas: V. Malajatko (Bélgica, 2.549).
Negras: F. Vallejo (España, 2.705).
Gambito Blumenfeld (E10). VIII Abierto Gibtelecom. Gibraltar, 1-2-2010.

Aún quedan grandes partidas de Wijk aan Zee sin publicar (lo haremos antes de que l...
 
http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1595/gibraltar-brilla-mucho.html
 
 
 
Dramatic finish leaves Carlsen the winner
There was a dramatic end to the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee as Alexey Shirov agreed a draw in a winning position and then saw world number one Magnus Carlsen save a draw from what appeared to be a hopeless endgame against Fabiano Caruana and take yet another first prize.
 
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein/dramatic-finish-leaves-carlsen-the-winner
Tue 02 Feb 2010 10:29:00 PM UTC
 
 
 
Kramnik survives against Shirov
Vladimir Kramnik had to engineer an escape from a difficult endgame as Alexey Shirov brought the former world champion to the brink of defeat at Wijk aan Zee.
 
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein/kramnik-survives-against-shirov
Mon 01 Feb 2010 10:26:00 PM UTC
 
 
 
72nd Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010
The 72nd Corus tournament took place in Wijk aan Zee 15th-31st January 2010.

Final Round 13 Carlsen saved a tricky position against Fabiano Caruana and secured first place alone as his rivals Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik both drew.

Read more for games, tables report and links >>>

 
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/72nd-corus-wijk-aan-zee-2010
Sun 31 Jan 2010 11:33:00 AM UTC
 
 
 
Kramnik beats Carlsen in great game
Vladimir Kramnik played what he described as feeling like “his greatest ever game' to defeat Magnus Carlsen in the ninth round of the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee.
 
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein/kramnik-beats-carlsen-in-great-game
Thu 28 Jan 2010 11:33:00 AM UTC
 
 
 
Another win for Shirov
Alexei Shirov took his score to 5/5 at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament.
 
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcolmpein/another-win-for-shirov
Sun 24 Jan 2010 10:35:00 PM UTC
 
 
 
Gibtelecom R7: 11 líderes con 5,5 puntos
Parecia que había llegado por fin el día de ver una victoria en la mesa uno, Michael Adams realizó un fino sacrificio de calidad ante Natalia Zhukova y obtenía una prometedora iniciativa pero la durísima ucraniana, defendiéndose con maestría. lograba mantener la maldición del primer tablero: de nuevo tablas. Tampoco se decidió la partida de la mesa dos entre el indio Chanda Sandipan y el alemán Jan Gustafsson. La cabeza se agrupa en un numeroso grupo de 5,5 puntos. Los mismos que Paco Vallejo que ha obtenido ayer en importantísima victoria con negras contra el GM Vadim Malakhatko. A falta de tres rondas, Vallejo va a ser sin duda uno de los principales protagonistas de la lucha por el triunfo final. Corre un rumor según el cual el Festival de Gibraltar va a recibir la visita del número uno del mundo y reciente vencedor del torneo Corus en Wijk aan Zee Magnus Carlsen, para saludar a la delegación noruega de jugadores en Gibraltar, entre ellos su propia hermana Ingrid (foto) que juega el 8th Gibtelecom Masters Tras 7 rondas...
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8003
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Carlsen triunfa con suerte
Carlsen triunfa con suerte
Blancas: M. Carlsen (Noruega, 2.810).
Negras: J. Smeets (Holanda, 2.657).

Defensa Semieslava (D44). Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 17-1-2010.

Carlsen triunfó de nuevo (
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8002
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Settling for a tie for 4th-5th

Wesley So settles for overall 5th in Corus chess
abs-cbnNEWS.com 02/01/2010 9:48 PM

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So settled a truce with Slovenian Woman Grandmaster and International Master Anna Muzychuk after 38 moves of a Nimzo-Indian defense using the white pieces in the 13th and final round in the 72nd Corus International Chess Championship.

So, 16, finished as 4th to 5th placers on Sunday (Manila Time) at the Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands.
Wesley tallied 7.5 points on 3 wins and 9 draws, the same output of Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami. However, after the tiebreak points were applied, Wesley landed overall fifth place.

“Binigay ni GM Wesley ang lahat ng makakaya niya para sa karangalan sa bayan. Maganda ang performance ni Wesley. Saludo ang sambayanang Pilipinas sa kanya. Besides bata pa naman si Wesley at tiyak malayo pa ang kanyang mararating sa larangan ng ajedrez (chess)” said the chess whiz kid’s first trainer, National Master (NM) Roberto Suelo, Jr.

Handling the black pieces, Dutch champion GM Anish Giri took the title with 9 points after settling a draw with Indian GM Parimarjan Negi in just 21 moves of Petroff defense.

Corus B top seed German GM Arkadij Naiditsch claimed solo 2nd place after tallying 8.5 points by beating L’Ami after 51 moves of French MacCutcheon using the white pieces.

At solo 3rd is Chinese GM Ni Hua who collected 8 points after halving the point with Dutch GM Dimitri Reinderman after 32 moves of English Opening.

National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) President/ Chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. and Filway Marketing Inc. CEO/President Hector “Chito” Tagaysay supported So’s Netherlands trip. – by Marlon Bernardino

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
Posted by Picasa
 
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/02/01/10/wesley-so-settles-overall-5th-corus-chess
2010-02-01T08:19:00.001-06:00
 
 
 
Carlsen wins Shirov's tournament
While the win by Magnus Carlsen in the 2010 Corus Tournament is yet another outstanding result for the undoubtedly future World Champion, in later years this event may be more remembered as Shirov's tournament. Not for his placing in the event (equal second with Kramnik), but for both how he started the event, and then how he finished it.
After beginning the tournament with 5/5, Shirov began to slow up before two losses allowed the other contenders to catch up. However he almost had a chance to reclaim a share of first place if he could win his final round game against Dominguez. Following the standard Shirov strategy of waiting until the opponent commits his king, and then going the hack, he almost pulled it off in game full of sacrifices. However the calculation ate up all of Shirov's time and he played it safe by agreeing to a draw. Unfortunately in the position where he halved the point, he had a winning move. This missed half point allowed Carlsen to take first place after he drew a messy game with Caruana.

Shirov - Dominguez
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (4), 19.01.2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qb6 8.Bb3 e6 9.Qd2 Be7 10.0-0-0 Nc5 11.f3 Qc7 12.Kb1 0-0 13.g4 b5 14.a3 Rb8 15.h4 Bd7 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.g5 Bd8 18.h5 a5 19.g6 Nxb3 20.Nxb3 fxg6 21.hxg6 h6 22.Nxa5 Rxf3 23.e5 Be8 24.exd6 Qxa5 25.Rxh6 gxh6 26.Qxh6 Bf6 27.d7 Bxc3 28.dxe8Q+ Rxe8 29.Qh1 Re7 30.Qxf3 Bg7 (D) 1/2-1/2

31.b4 wins on the spot, as the quuen is driven away from the defence of a8 eg 31. ... Qc7 32.Qa8+ Bf8 33.Rf1 winning.
 
http://chessexpress.blogspot.com/2010/02/carlsen-wins-shirovs-tournament.html
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:37:00 +0000
 
 
 
MS: è on-line il numero 506
E' on line il numero 506 del nostro settimanale web, Messaggero Scacchi. E' possibile leggerlo in versione html o scaricarlo in formato pdf. Il file di partite è in formato PGN zippato. In questo numero, fra l'altro: 1 - WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA): CARLSEN RE DEL CORUS, BENE CARUANA E VOCATURO 5 - ROMA: L'11ENNE RUMENO PETRESCU PRIMO NEL TORNEO DEL DLF STEINITZ 6 - PIOVE DI SACCO: IL FILIPPINO SALVADOR SU TUTTI NELL'OPEN
 
http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/?p=2034
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:05:01 +0000
 
 
 
Magnus Carlsen gana el torneo Corus 2010; Anish Giri el grupo B
Magnus Carlsen se coronó vencedor del torneo Corus en Wijk aan Zee, Holanda, tras empatar su partida contra Fabiano Caruana. Kramnik había empatado con Sergey Karjakin tras 21 movimientos. En la rueda de prensa, Carlsen comentó que la victoria le hace ilusión, pero que su motivo principal, como siempre había sido jugar bonitas partidas y opinó con modestia que aún le quedan muchas cosas que mejorar. Anish Giri empató su partida con Parimarjan Negi y se aseguró la victoria del torneo Corus B y la plaza en el grupo A para el año que viene sumando 8,5 puntos en 13 rondas. El ganador del grupo C es Li Chao con 9/13. Recordarles también que Leontxo García emitirá su ágora hoy a partir de las 22:30 horas (hora peninsular española) en la sala Retransmisiones de Playchess.com. Ronda 13...
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8001
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Corus R 12: Anand vence a Kramnik; Carlsen lidera en solitario
En la duodécima y penúltima ronda del torneo Corus, en Wijk aan Zee, Anand venció a Vladimir Kramnik. De esta manera, Magnus Carlsen, que firmó tablas con negras en su partida contra Peter Leko, ha tomado el liderato en solitario con 8/12 puntos. Kramnik y Shirov comparten el segundo lugar con 7,5 puntos y Vishy Anand va por detrás a medio punto de distancia. En el grupo B sigue en cabeza Anish Giri (8/12) y en el grupo C, Li Chao (8,5/12). Hoy se ha celebrado también la reunión del Grand Slam de Ajedrez con los representantes de Holanda, España, Bulgaria y China. Ronda 12...
 
http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=7999
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Carlsen Wins Corus 2010
After a thrilling final round, the world's #1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen (pictured) won the 72nd Corus tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.  Going into the final round, Carlsen could only be caught by Kramnik, Shirov and Anand.  Kramnik made no impres...
 
http://www.chess.com/news/carlsen-wins-corus-2010-6583
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:11:52 -0800
 
 
 
Anand gewinnt, Carlsen führt
Eine Runde vor Schluss sieht es beim Corus-Turnier in Wijk aan Zee tatsächlich so aus, als könnte Magnus Carlsen sein erstes Turnier als Nummer Eins der Welt gewinnen. Carlsen selbst spielte in Runde 12 Remis gegen Peter Leko, aber Weltmeister Vishy Anand zeigte sich gegen Vladimir Kramnik hoch motiviert und gewann eine schöne Partie. Da sich Alexei Shirov und Sergey Karjakin Remis trennten, liegt Carlsen eine Runde vor Schluss mit 8 aus 12 alleine an der Spitze, einen halben Punkt vor Kramnik und Shirov mit je 7,5. Für die zweite Gewinnpartie des Tages in Gruppe A sorgte Jan Smeets, der Loek Van Welys Najdorf-Variante in wenigen Zügen demontierte. In Gruppe B führt Anish Giri das Feld mit 8,5 Punkten mit einem Punkt Vorsprung an und braucht nur ein Remis zum Turniersieg. In Gruppe C steht der Sieger bereits sicher fest: mit 9 Punkten liegt der Chinese Li Chao mit anderthalb Punkten Vorsprung uneinholbar vor seinen Konkurrenten.
Turnierseite... Tabellen, Partien, Bilder...
 
http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10035
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
 
 
 
Carlsen wins 72nd Corus Chess Tournament

CorusMagnus Carlsen has won Corus 2010. In the last round, he drew Fabio Caruana. Anish Giri has won the B group and Li Chao takes C. We’ll bring you the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.

The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

Corus Chess Daily News

Corus Chess Newsflashes


Games round 13

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 13

13:20 CET
The board is on fire in Short-Smeets, despite the fact that it started as a Petroff. (This tournament once more confirmed that it’s not just the opening that’s boring, but more what the players are doing with it!) It’s easy enough to follow the start: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5 5.Bc4 Nxf2 6.Bxf7+ (wow!) which was in fact mentioned in one of the our ChessVibes Openings issues. Our main line was 6…Kf8; in the game 6…Kxf7 7.Qd5+ Kg6 8.Bg5 got Smeets thinking.

Carlsen takes up Caruana’s Ruy Lopez carefully, in Steinitz style while Kramnik and Karjakin are in a theoretical Queen’s Indian. Negi can still spoil Giri’s tournament, but in another Petroff the 15-year-old tournament leader looks OK after the opening.

13:44 CET
Smeets has only just made a move after 8.Bg5! Meanwhile, Shirov must be happy with the Najdorf hybrid (mixing a Bg5 and Bc4 setup) that he has on the board: it looks perfect for playing for a win today. Nakamura will be pressing Tiviakov a bit with the pair of bishops, but Black’s position looks quite solid.

15:10 CET
Things are heating up in the A group! Kramnik decided to make a draw against Karjakin, securing a good tournament, and Ivanchuk and Leko have called it a day already as well. But what about the other games? Of course all attention in the press room is focused on Short-Smeets, a true Romantic classic! After 10.Nd2, the computer supposedly prefers 10…d6 11.Ndf3+ Kg4! 12.h3+ Kg3! with completely unclear consequences. Several prominent players have already said they’re rooting for Short, not so much because they like the Englishman personally but because they like the way he’s playing the game, reminding them of Morphy and Anderssen and taking us all back to the 19th century. Time trouble will probably decide the game, however.

Shirov and Carlsen, both playing White, are still trying to win, although objectively, Dominguez doesn’t seem to have much to complain about. Carlsen-Caruana is a mess, only time will tell who’s better here. In the meantime, Anish Giri has made a draw to make sure he’s promoting to the A Group next year: a formidable achievement from the young Dutchman!

16:05 CET
With the time control coming up, the tournament can be decided any minute now. Carlsen seems to have an inferior position against Caruana, and Shirov’s attacking chances seem very realistic all of a sudden, so who knows what kind of upsets we’ll see this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Loek van Wely drew his game with Anand even though the experts claimed he was lost at some point, so this is definitely a small Dutch success. The same can be said for Jan Smeets, who managed a draw as well. His opponent Short apparently couldn’t find the win (and neither could the computer) so he decided to repeat moves with his clock ticking away. A disappointing end of a very promising game but perhaps this round will go down in history anyway if Shirov would miraculously manage to win the tournament after all! We’re sure many chess fans are rooting for him very hard right now…

Corus

16:45 CET
Well, the tournament will definitely end in dramatic fashion after Shirov accepted a draw in a completely winning position! We have exclusive video footage of the last minutes of the game and we’ll bring it to you as soon as possible, but for now we should mention Shirov’s last seconds were ticking when he accepted the draw, obviously not having seen the move 31.b4!!

Immediately after the game, Karjakin came up to him to tell him about it, but Shirov still couldn’t believe it. However, it may just be his lucky day after all, since Carlsen’s position against Caruana looks very, very bad, probably losing. This would mean Kramnik, Shirov and Carlsen will share first prize. Who would have thought?

On a more quiet note, Chao added another win to his successful tournament; the Chinese beat Peng. Robin van Kampen is best Dutchman in this group. In B, Erwin L’Ami lost his first game of the tournament against Naiditsch.

17:26 CET
It’s official: Magnus Carlsen drew his game with Caruana and has won the 72nd Corus Chess Tournament with 8,5/13. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik share 2nd place with 8 points. In a tight knight ending, Carlsen defended successfully and now has added the most prestigious chess tournament to his victory list. Carlsen and Giri will be doing the press conference and we’ll have coverage of that later on, of course.

Corus

17:55 CET
Carlsen says the knight ending against Caruana should be a draw, although both players thought that Black had great winning chances during the game. According to Carsen, his best game of the tournament was against Karjakin. He also said Shirov reacted ‘remarkably calm’ to the fact he failed to grab 1st place by playing 31.b4, and that Anish Giri played ‘great chess’ in this tournament , especially in his game against Nisipeanu.

    follow Corus on Twitter


    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


    Corus 2010 | Round 12 Standings Grandmaster Group A


    Corus 2010 | Round 12 Standings Grandmaster Group B


    Corus 2010 | Round 12 Standings Grandmaster Group C


    Links

     
    http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/r13-corus-live/
    Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:19:58 +0000
     
     
     
    Why Wijk?

    WijkChess players, perhaps insisting on their world-wide status as ’smart people’, have always seemed to me more formalistic and pedantic than your average customer at the grocery’s. But sometimes being ‘wrong’ is much more fun.

    How do you spell ‘Korchnoi’? The questions rears its ugly head from time to time on chess forums and blogs. At first, it seems a very straightforward matter: you just transcribe the letters from the cyrillic alphabet into latin letters and there you are. But of course the problems only start there, because the Russian sounds are written down differently in different languages. For instance, the ‘ch’ in Korchnoi is written ‘tsch’ in German and ‘tch’ in French. In English, it’s either ‘tch’ or ‘ch’ (depending on, if nothing else, taste) and in Dutch, it’s ‘tsj’. And this is just the ‘ch’ sound: similiar discussions can be held about the final ‘i’.

    On top of that, Korchnoi hasn’t been a Russian citizen for quite some time now, so there’s actually no need to spell his name with cyrillic letters at all anymore. Perhaps we should always spell it the ‘Swiss’ way? But Switzerland itself has many official languages, so which one should we choose? Or should we write it the way Korchnoi himself prefers to do it? These are all tricky questions, but with the rise of internet, the English version seems to have gained preference in most cases where the cyrillic alphabet is involved.

    Even so, problems remain. Even if we could agree on how to spell foreign names, we’re often unsure how to pronounce them. Korchnoi, again, is an interesting case in point. A Russian would probably pronounce his name as sounding, to us, something like ‘Kahrchnoi’, with the emphasis on the last syllabe and the kah in the first pronounced a bit like the English word ‘car’. The ‘o’ in Korchnoi’s name, not being pronounced with emphasis in Russian, sounds much more like what Western-Europeans would call ‘a’. (This in turn raises the question why we don’t write ‘Karchnoi’, too. The answer is, I’m afraid, quite unfair: convention.). Thus, a true formalist should probably insist on pronouncing ‘Kahrchnoi’. The reason, I suppose, for why almost nobody does this (except, of course, Russians) is that it sounds so obviously pedantic. And, of course, even if people could approximate the Russian sounds with any certainty, the fact would still remain that most Russians would immediately hear, from their intonation and other clues, that the speaker is in fact not Russian at all.

    Sure enough, problems occur in the other direction as well. A famous example is that Russians don’t know how to pronounce nor spell the name of the Dutch World Champion ‘Euwe’. Usually, having no good way to represent the typically Dutch diphtong sound ‘eu’ in their own system, they write it like ‘Eyve’ – and I can’t even begin to imagine how that sounds. Nor should it matter. It’s impossible to do it right, so why bother? (Of course, there are several scientific methods of dealing with spelling and phonetics, but it’s unlikely this will catch on with the general public.)

    Still, as said, with chess players you never know. The most recent issue in what Language Log linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum has called prescriptivist poppycock, is the question of how to pronounce ‘Wijk aan Zee’, the name of the Dutch village where the current Corus chess tournament is being held. Over on ChessBase, they’ve already written quite a bit about it. Is ‘wijk’ pronounced like the English ‘wake’ or ‘wike’ (like bike)? Well, as any Dutch native speaker will tell you: neither!

    (Their explanation that ‘wijk’ is derived from the Dutch word for ‘area’, by the way, is incorrect as well. There is indeed a word ‘wijk’ meaning ‘area’, but ‘wijk’ in ‘Wijk aan Zee’ – and, for that matter, several other coastal towns such as Beverwijk – is derived from another word: the old Dutch word ‘wîk’, meaning a name for water or a bend in a river or coastline. Dutch speakers will recognize the root of the verb ‘wijken’, ‘de wijk nemen’.)

    Both wake and wike, then, are at best approximations (and rather poor ones at that), for the fact is that the English sound system just doesn’t have a good way of interpreting the Dutch sound for ‘ij’, exactly like the Russians don’t have a way of interpreting ‘eu’ in Euwe. Any attempt to do so will inevitably lead to problems. Wijk is wijk and English speakers will just have to deal with it – or learn Dutch the hard way. In fact, I always find it rather sympathetic when foreigners don’t always know how to pronounce words: I think it’s cute when people pronounce foreign words in their own way – I once met a girl from Granada, Spain, who had such an irresistible way of pronouncing words in English that I couldn’t help falling in love with her. I loved how she was ‘ wrong’ all the time!

    I think people who don’t bother with trifles such as spelling and pronounciation are much nicer than those who strain themselves beyond end just to make an impression and please native speakers. (Offering me a coffee works much better to please me!) I guess chess players don’t like to be cute. They’d rather be smart.

     
    http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/why-wijk/
    Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:12:01 +0000
     
     
     
    Wesley So bows out of contention for Corus chess top spot - ABS CBN News

    GMA news.tv

    Wesley So bows out of contention for Corus chess top spot
    ABS CBN News
    The 16-year-old chess player dropped out of contention Saturday night (Manila Time) at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. ...
    So battles English GM to a draw in Corus chessGMA news.tv
    Wesley So closes Corus B campaign with a draw vs. MuzychukPhilBoxing.com
    So battles Dutch genius for Corus leadInquirer.net
    Manila Bulletin -PhilBoxing.com -ABS CBN News
    all 21 news articles »
     
    http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abs-cbnnews.com%2Fsports%2F01%2F31%2F10%2Fwesley-so-bows-out-corus-chess-top-spot&usg=AFQjCNEpxh6-oNIB7hv1h9K-bIMNe9tfjg
    Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:16:47 GMT+00:00
     
     
     
    Corus 2010: diretta del XIII ed ultimo turno

    Caruana sfiora l'impresa con Carlsen!
    • A il N° 1 del ranking mondiale soffre per portare il mezzo punto a casa 
    • Kramnik e Shirov non ne approfittano e Magnus si aggiudica il torneo
    • B Vince Anish Giri
    • C Vocaturo chiude in bellezza travolgendo la Swaminathan e arrivando 3°

    Si svolge oggi l'ultimo turno della 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen, che ha già vinto il gruppo A nel 2008 (ex-aequo con Aronian), è ad un passo dalla vittoria ma dovrà superare l'ostacolo Caruana. Kramnik e Shirov inseguono a mezzo punto, e dovranno affrontare rispettivamente Karjakin e Dominguez. Ridotte ad un lumicino le speranze di vittoria di Anand, distanziato di un punto e impegnato con van Wely. Il campione del mondo in carica, dopo un inizio di torneo anonimo (9 patte consecutive), ha  voluto ristabilire le gerarchie superando negli ultimi turni Shirov e Kramnik, che sino a quel momento erano in testa alla classifica.

    GM Carlsen, Magnus (NOR, 2810) - GM Caruana, Fabiano (ITA, 2675) [Megalovic]
    Corus Chess 2010, Gruppo A, XIII turno.   Wijk aan Zee 31.10.2010

    1. e4 e5 2. Cf3 Cc6 3. Ab5 a6 4. Aa4 Cf6 5. d3 Carlsen evita la linea principale della spagnola  (0-0) per provare a sorprendere Fabiano 5..d6 6. c3 g6 7. Cbd2 Ag7 8. Cf1 0-0 9.Ag5 d5!? in questa linea poco usuale della spagnola si gioca più spesso h6 (Golod e Khalifman). La mossa del testo la troviamo nella Gvetadze (2411) - Shen (2440) 0-1 campionato mondiale a squadre femminile, Ekaterinburg 2007 10.De2 Novità dopo la prima lunga (15')  riflessione del norvegese. La Gvetadze catturò in d5 10..Dd6 11.Axf6 Axf6 12.Ce3 Ce7! ottima mossa che difende il pd5 e da strada al pc7 che potrà così dedicarsi alla lotta per il centro 13.Ab3 c6 14.h4 Carlsen rompe gli indugi e si muove sul lato di re. Adesso Fabiano potrà reagire spingendo i pedoni sul lato di donna (a5 b5) o intensificando la lotta al centro (Ae6). La spinta d4 è meno attraente perché chiude la posizione e da più forza alla coppia dei Cavalli di Carlsen (Caruana ha mantenuto la coppia degli Alfieri) 14..Ae6 15.Cg5 momento psicologicamente critico. La mossa più logica sembra Ad7 per conservare la coppia degli alfieri, ma ci vuole sensibilità  per rigiocare un pezzo appena mosso mentre i pezzi avversari si avvicinano al tuo re 15...Ad7 sensibilità che ovviamente non manca a Caruana 16.Td1 momento posizionalmente critico. La posizione si va delinenado (Carlsen non potrà arroccare lungo) ma è notevolmente complessa, di quelle che mettono in difficoltà l'amigo inhumano. Fabiano deve però evitare di ridursi con poco tempo sull'orologio (adesso ha 30' in meno di Carlsen) per non doversi poi trovare ad affrontare momenti tatticamente complessi in zeitnot. Adesso sembra indicata una normale mossa di sviluppo come Tad8 16..Tad8 17. Df3 mossa molto aggressiva alla Carlsen, che in caso di h6 lascia il ph4 in presa 17..h6 18.Cc4!? dxc4 19.dxc4 Cd5! splendida mossa che da un'ottima casa (e7) alla donna di Caruana, e il Cg5 di Carlsen è ancora in presa.  Attenti a metterla sulla rissa con Fabiano 20.Ch3 il pedone h4 è in presa, ma ci vuole tanto tanto coraggio per prendelo 20.. h5 Caruana mira più in alto minacciando Ag4 21.Dg3 ora la donna difende il pedone h4, ma in g3 è un po' scomoda 21..Ag4 minacciando De7 in caso di f6? 22.Td2 Axh4!? forzando il cambio delle donne ed entrando in un quasi-finale  con  una struttura pedonale e una disposizione dei propri pezzi migliore 23.Dxh4 Dgf3 Dxf6 Cxf6 25.Cg5 c5! fissando il pc4 su case bianche 26.f3 Ac8 27. Aa4 Rg7 l'intenzione di Fabiano dovrebbe essere quella di cambiare il Cavallo con l'Alfiere (dopo Cg8 e f6, forzando il Cg5 ad andare in h3) 28.Txd8 Txd8 giocata per riservarsi la possibilità di andare con il Re sulla seconda traversa e spostare la torre sul lato di Donna , unico luogo della scacchiera dove il norvegese può tentare di costruirsi un controgioco che bilanci la maggioranza di Caruana sul lato di Re 29.b4?! sembra prematura, visto che permette Td3 29..Td3! 30.bxc5 Txc3 31.Rd2 Txc4 32.Ab3 Txc5 33.Cxf7 Carlsen ha preferito sacrificare un pedone pur di stravolgere il tema posizionale del finale e puntando a rifarsi sul pe5 di Fabiano. Riuscirà nel suo intento? nel frattempo Caruana ha 4' più incremento per arrivare al controllo della 40esima 33...a5 34.Tc1  Txc1 35.Rxc1 adesso l'amigo inhumano propone una linea che porta ad un finale di pedoni e Cavalli favorevole al nero, ma molto molto difficile da vedere in zeitnot  35..a4 36.Ac4 b5! 37.Cd6 bxc4 38.Cxc8 h4 l'ha giocata!! 39.Cb6 Ch5 40.Cxc4 recuperando il pedone ma ... 40.Rf6! la migliore e trovata in tremendo zeitnot. Non c'e' fretta di posizionare il Cavallo in f4 e si difende prima il pe5.  I giocatori hanno raggiunto il controllo della quarantesima e Fabiano è l'unico che può giocare per  vincere questo finale, visto che il pg2 dovrebbe cadere forzatamente 41.Rd2 Cf4 sembra incredibile, ma Ce3 non va per Rg4 seguita da Cxg2!  e il cavallo non si può catturare, pena la promozione del pedone h 42.Re3 Cxg2+ 43.Rf2 a3 45.Cc4 Cd3+ 46. Rg2 Rg5 ritenendo di non poter giocare per vincere dopo la variante Cb4 47.Cxa3 Cxa2, Caruana decide di restituire il pedone provando un'altra strada che probabilmente prevede Rf4!? 47.Ca3 Rf4!? 48.Cc2 Cb2 il finale sembra comunque patto 49. Cb4 h3+ 50. Rxh3 Rxf3 51. Rh4! Rf4 52. Cd5+ Rxe4 53. Ce7 Rf3 54. Cxg6 e4 55. Ce5+ Rf4 56. Cg4 Ca4 1/2 una partita splendida da parte di Caruana e c'e' voluto il miglior Carlsen per portare a casa il mezzo punto!



    Carlsen, al primo trionfo in solitario nel Corus A


    12° turno: Anand si appresta ad infliggere una dura lezione alla russa di Kramnik


    Corus A incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno

    L. van Wely - V. Anand  1/2
    N. Short - J. Smeets  1/2
    H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov  
    M. Carlsen - F. Caruana  1/2
    V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko  1/2
    A. Shirov - L. Dominguez  1/2
    V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin  1/2

    Classifica Finale

    1. M. Carlsen  8½
    2. A. Shirov V. Kramnik 8
    4. V. Anand
    5. S. Karjakin V. Ivanchuk 7
    7. H. Nakamura L. Dominguez P. Leko
    10. F. Caruana 5½
    11. L. van Wely N. Short 5
    13. S. Tiviakov J. Smeets

    Corus B incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno

    A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami 1-0
    W. So - A. Muzychuk ½-½
    V. Akobian - D. Howell 1-0
    P. Negi - A. Giri ½-½
    P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback ½-½
    L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky ½-½
    D. Reinderman - Ni ½-½

    Classifica Finale
    1. A. Giri 9
    2. A. Naiditsch
    3. Ni 8
    4. W. So E. l'Ami
    6. P. Negi P. Harikrishna
    8. E. Sutovsky D. Howell 6
    10. A. Muzychuk L. Nisipeanu
    12. T. Nyback D. Reinderman 5
    14. V. Akobian

    Corus C incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
    D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan 1-0
    S. Plukkel - B. Bok ½-½
    L. Chao - Z. Peng 1-0
    R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers 1-0
    K. Lie - M. Muzychuk 0-1
    N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels 0-1
    A. Gupta - R. Robson 1-0
    Classifica Finale
    1. L. Chao 10
    2. A. Gupta
    3. D. Vocaturo R. van Kampen 8
    5. R. Robson R. Swinkels
    7. B. Bok 7
    8. M. Muzychuk S. Kuipers N. Grandelius 6
    11. K. Lie
    12. Z. Peng 5
    13. S. Plukkel S. Swaminathan 3

    REGOLAMENTO

    Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.

    Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.

    In caso di arrivo a pari punti, il Corus non prevede alcun criterio di spareggio tecnico ma assegna la vittoria ex-aequo

    Foto nell'articolo tratte da Chessbase.com

    Carlsen-Caruana commentata in diretta dal MI Perunovic

    sito ufficiale

    VISORE

     
    http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1701
    2010-01-31T10:30:00+01:00
     
     
     
    Corus Chess 2010 : Carlsen - Caruana en Live à 12h30
    Carlsen victorieux de Dominguez peut-il gagner le Corus ? © Fred Lucas
    Carlsen neutralise hier Leko et joue la victoire finale! © Fred Lucas
    Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 12h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger


    Coup de théâtre hier ronde 12 : Kramnik perd face à Anand. Du coup, en annulant face à Leko, Magnus Carlsen passe en tête avant l'ultime ronde.
    Les appariement de la 13ème et dernière ronde :
    • Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
    • Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Jan Smeets NED (2657)
    • Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
    • Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
    • Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
    • Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
    • Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
    Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
    ChessVibes nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes
    Le classement après 12 rondes :
    Le classement après 12 rondes
    A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
    Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
    Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
     
    http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-carlsen-caruana-en.html
    Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:17:00 +0000
     
     
     
    R12 Corus live

    CorusRound 12 of the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.

    The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

    Corus Chess Daily News

    Corus Chess Newsflashes


    Games round 12

    Game viewer by ChessTempo

    Round 12

    15:09 CET
    We have a winner already! The leader of the C grop, Li Chao, offered a draw to Stefan Kuipers after 9 moves in a Petroff, and the young Dutchman, who already scored an IM norm yesterday, had no reason to decline. The Chinese grandmaster has thus qualified for the B group next year as he’s on 9 points out of 12 games, and Robson, Vocaturo and Van Kampen have 7 points while still playing.

    Leko and Carlsen (whose sister Ingrid, by the way, is currently playing in the amateur tournament in Gibraltar) repeated their game of the 2009 Tal Memorial until 12.0-0-0; today the Norwegian castled first before playing …Nc6. After one and a half hours of play they’ve reaced a rook ending that looks very drawish.

    Yet again Van Wely, who remains faithful to his Najdorf, seems to have fallen into some nasty 6.Bg5 preparation, this time by compatriot Jan Smeets. Against Dominguez, Ivanchuk copied Kramnik’s set-up during the World Blitz in Moscow last year: the Scandinavian with …g6. Kramnik himself uses the Petroff against Anand; not much has happened there yet.

    Shirov is in another theoretical Archangelsk Ruy Lopez against Karjakin; the two reached an ending in no time where White’s extra pawn doesn’t seem to be very relevant. Caruana-Nakamura is a Rauzer Sicilian that has some French tendencies while Short went for the rare 4…Nf6 Caro-Kann against Tiviakov.

    16:17 CET
    Two, not very surprsing draws: Leko-Carlsen – the rook ending was a draw indeed, and Karjakin-Shirov, which also remained equal. Also on the other boards it’s rather quiet so far, except for Smeets-Van Wely where White’s atack has already decided the game on move 23. “I like my Najdorf, but I don’t like my results. Apparently I mixed up something in the opening again,” Van Wely said after the game. We’ll have him and Jan in tonight’s Corus News video.

    O, and strictly speaking we’ve been cheering too early for Li Chao, who can still be caught of course if he loses tomorrow. Sorry about that.

      follow Corus on Twitter


      Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


      Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


      Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


      Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group A


      Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group B


      Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group C


      Links

       
      http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/r12-corus-live/
      Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:09:30 +0000
       
       
       
      Round 11 Corus Press Conference

      Corus Chess Round 11 Press ConferenceIt took him longer than expected, but world number 1 Magnus Carlsen finally reached the top of the standings in Wijk aan Zee, with two rounds to go. His opponent Leinier Dominguez didn’t play that badly, but blundered in timetrouble, as Carlsen explains. Enjoy!





       
      http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/round-11-corus-press-conference/
      Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:46:31 +0000
       
       
       
      Corus chess: Anand draws again, Abhijeet wins 11th round - Sify

      Telegraph.co.uk

      Corus chess: Anand draws again, Abhijeet wins 11th round
      Sify
      ... one of the only two players in the field not to have suffered a loss, played his tenth draw in 11 rounds at the Corus Grandmasters chess tournament. ...
      Anand draws with Smeets as Carlsen joins Kramnik in leadTimes of India
      Anand reverts to draw modeDeccan Herald
      Vlad Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen go toe-to-toe at Wijk aan ZeeThe Guardian
      Chessbase News -Telegraph.co.uk
      all 17 news articles »
       
      http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsify.com%2Fnews%2Fcorus-chess-anand-draws-again-abhijeet-wins-11th-round-news-international-kb4skdeegja.html&usg=AFQjCNGV1irAO3fUwg1JWZjLnOC2suoeQQ
      Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:08:14 GMT+00:00
       
       
       
      Corus 2010: diretta del XII turno

         Anand batte la russa di Kramnik!
      • Carlsen da solo in testa!
      • Shirov agguanta Kramnik al secondo posto
      • A: Caruana - Nakamura
      • C: Bok - Vocaturo
      Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri. Domani l'ultimo turno avrà inizio alle 12:30, con un'ora di anticipo sul consueto orario di inizio.

      Corus A incontri del dodicesimo turno

      V. Anand - V. Kramnik  1-0
      S. Karjakin - A. Shirov  1/2
      L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk  
      P. Leko - M. Carlsen  1/2
      F. Caruana - H. Nakamura  
      S. Tiviakov - N. Short  1/2
      J. Smeets - L. van Wely  1-0

      Classifica dopo dodci turni (provvisoria)

      1. Carlsen 8
      2. Shirov Kramnik 
      7½
      4. Anand
      7
      5. Karjakin 6½
      6. Nakamura Ivanchuk Leko 6
      9. Dominguez 
      5½
      10. Caruana  van Wely Short Tiviakov
      4½
      14. J. Smeets
      4

      Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno

      L. van Wely - V. Anand  
      N. Short - J. Smeets  
      H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov  
      M. Carlsen - F. Caruana  
      V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko  
      A. Shirov - L. Dominguez  
      V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin  

      Corus B incontri del dodicesimo turno

      E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman  
      Ni - L. Nisipeanu  
      E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna  
      T. Nyback - P. Negi  
      A. Giri - V. Akobian  
      D. Howell - W. So  
      A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch
      Classifica dopo undici turni

      1. A. Giri 8
      2. Ni E. l'Ami 7
      4. A. Naiditsch W. So
      6. P. Negi
      6
      7. D. Howell P. Harikrishna
      9. E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk 5
      11. L. Nisipeanu
      12. D. Reinderman 4
      13. T. Nyback
      14. V. Akobian 3
      Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo
      A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami  
      W. So - A. Muzychuk  
      V. Akobian - D. Howell  
      P. Negi - A. Giri  
      P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback  
      L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky  
      D. Reinderman - Ni  

      Corus C incontri del dodicesimo turno

      S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta  
      R. Robson - N. Grandelius  
      R. Swinkels - K. Lie  
      M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen  
      S. Kuipers - L. Chao  
      Z. Peng - S. Plukkel  
      B. Bok - D. Vocaturo  

      Classifica dopo undici turni

      1. L. Chao
      2. R. Robson D. Vocaturo R. van Kampen 7
      5. A. Gupta
      6. R. Swinkels 6
      7. S. Kuipers B. Bok N. Grandelius
      10. Z. Peng K. Lie 5
      12. M. Muzychuk 4
      13. S. Swaminathan 3
      14. S. Plukkel

      Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno

      D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan  
      S. Plukkel - B. Bok  
      L. Chao - Z. Peng  
      R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers  
      K. Lie - M. Muzychuk  
      N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels  
      A. Gupta - R. Robson  

      Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.

      Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.

      sito ufficiale

      VISORE

       
      http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1700
      2010-01-30T12:00:00+01:00
       
       
       
      Corus Chess 2010 : la ronde 12 en Live à 13h30
      Magnus Carlsen
      Carlsen intraitable face à Dominguez façon Kasparov © Fred Lucas
      Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 13h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

      Les appariements de l'avant-dernière ronde :
      • Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
      • Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) - Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
      • Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) - Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
      • Peter Leko HUN (2739) - Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
      • Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) - Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
      • Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)
      • Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Loek van Wely NED (2641)
      Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
      ChessVibes nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes
      Le classement après 11 rondes :
      Le classement après 11 rondes
      A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
      Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
      Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
       
      http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-la-ronde-12-en-live.html
      Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:07:00 +0000
       
       
       
      Vlad Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen go toe-to-toe at Wijk aan Zee

      Corus Wijk aan Zee, the most popular event on the chess calendar, ends tomorrow with ex-champion Vlad Kramnik and the world No1 Magnus Carlsen competing for the lead in the closing rounds. Kramnik won their individual game impressively, but the 19-year-old Norwegian has the easier finish. Carlsen is not yet dominating his peers in the style of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov at their peaks, but he is already the man to beat.

      The reigning world champion Vishy Anand has played an uncharacteristically low-key tournament, drawing his first nine games. Nigel Short, in his strongest event for years, has struggled in some games but missed a clear win against Kramnik.

      David Howell, 19, was seeded low in the B group, but the young British champion is in mid-table and scored one of the best attacks at Wijk.

      Below, White's opening system is less effective than 2 Nf3 and 3 Bb5 so Shirov soon has the initiative. White takes a hot pawn by 23 Qxh7? (23 Qh6!) missing 23...Kd7! and 24...Bxg2+! with a crushing attack (25 Rxg2 Rxg2 25 Kxg2 Rg8+ 27 Kf3 e4+! leads to mate).

      S Tiviakov v A Shirov

      1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nd4 4 Bc4 e6 5 Nge2 Nf6 6 O-O a6 7 d3 b5 8 Bb3 Nxb3 9 axb3 Bb7 10 f4 d5 11 e5 d4 12 exf6 dxc3 13 fxg7 Bxg7 14 bxc3 Rg8 15 Rf2 Bxc3 16 Nxc3 Qd4 17 Kf1 Qxc3 18 Ra2 Qd4 19 Qh5 c4 20 bxc4 bxc4 21 Ra4 Bd5 22 f5 e5 23 Qxh7? Kd7! 24 Qh6 Bxg2+! 25 Ke1 Bd5 26 Ba3 Rg1+ 27 Ke2 Qg4+ 28 Ke3 Re1+ 29 Kd2 Qd1+ 30 Kc3 Qa1+ 31 Kb4 Rb1+ 0-1

      Howell's improved results with the white pieces have coincided with his increasing readiness to ditch the insipid 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Bishop's Opening in favour of the sharp Scotch 3 d4. When Finland's No1 lost time with his knight (13...Nf6) Howell blitzed the black king with an incisive attack. Black's 20...Na5? (Qh4) allowed 21 f6! with the point Nxc4 22 Qh5! Nxe3 23 Qg5 winning.

      D Howell v T Nyback

      1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Bc4 Ne5 8 Be2 Qg6 9 O-O d6 10 Kh1 O-O 11 Nd2 Ng4 12 Bf4 Nc6 13 f3 Nge5? 14 Be3 Bb6 15 f4 Nxd4 16 cxd4 Nc6 17 f5 Qf6 18 e5! dxe5 19 Ne4 Qd8 20 Bc4 Na5? 21 f6! Bxd4 22 fxg7 Kxg7 23 Bg5! 1-0

      3124 (a)1 f8N! g6 2 Kh6 g5 3 Ng6 mate. (b) It's an illegal position! Black has no possible last move.


      guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

       
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jan/29/leonard-barden-chess-column
      Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:40:00 GMT
       
       
       
      Carlsen beats Dominguez, joins lead with Kramnik

      CorusMagnus Carlsen defeated Leinier Dominguez in round 11 of the Corus Chess Tournament to join Vladimir Kramnik in the lead. The Russian drew with Black against Alexei Shirov. In the only other decisive game of the day, Loek van Wely beat Sergei Tiviakov after 88 moves.

      The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

      Corus Chess Daily News

      Corus Chess Newsflashes


      Games round 11

      Game viewer by ChessTempo

      Round 11

      15:13 CET
      The top game of this 11th round is Shirov-Kramnik, and before anything else I’d like to mention that Ian Rogers is doing live commentary at the tournament website. In fact he’ll be doing the same tomorrow and Sunday, as a prelude to plans of the organizers for 2011 to bring live commentary throughout the event.

      Shirov is trying an exchange sacrifice similar to what often happens in the Marshall Gambit (or rather Attack) of the Ruy Lopez. The concept had been mentioned before by Anand, who didn’t think much of it, but apparently Shirov has his own ideas. Meanwhile the two have reached an ending that looks about equal.

      Smeets and Anand have already draw – they started repeating at move 13 already. Unfortunate, especially since the two had the nowadays rare Keres Attack of the Scheveningen on the board. Carlsen and Dominguez have entered a very complicated Grünfeld (Russian System), and the Dutch encounter between Van Wely and Tiviakov is a relatively quiet Queen’s Indian.

      In B, So-Giri is already extremely sharp and interesting. All in all, this year’s Corus tournament has been great and continues to be. Later more!

      16:18
      Jan (Smeets) was totally unprepared for Vishy’s Scheveningen, and didn’t have the critical lines ready. For instance he could have tried 11.Bg2, but “the truth is I didn’t mind to split the point against him”, he told me.

      Corus

      According to Nakamura, who already drew with Leko, the accurate 12…Qd7! basically “kills everything”, after which it was dead equal.

      With three pawn islands versue two, Shirov seems to be slightly worse in the ending now. Kramnik also looks more confident in fact. Short has managed to get another IQP position on the board but Caruana looks alright. Carlsen is better according to some experts in the press room, but it’s certainly not easy. Ivanchuk won a pawn but his king isn’t as safe as Karjakin’s.

      Giri sacrificed a piece against So and is now moving all his pieces to his opponent’s king. Anything can happen there. In C, Li Chao totally crushed Muzychuk and is pretty sure of qualifing for B now.

      23:44 CET
      Indeed White’s advantage wasn’t much and so Short and Caruana drew an equal endgame. Carlsen defeated Dominguez and just did the press conference, which we’ll put up as soon as possible.

      Corus

      After a tumultuous time trouble phase, former compatriots Ivanchuk and Karjakin also drew. It seems that 36.Nxa5 allows too much counterplay, but it’s not easy to think of something else. In the game 40.Qe2 b6 followed by 41…Qxb3 also looks drawish. Kramnik has just sacrificed his knight for Shirov’s passed pawns and will probably draw the endgame, according to the experts, including Magnus Carlsen. Van Wely has a nice advantage against Sergei Tiviakov and will certainly keep on pressing for a long time.

      Anish Giri had an angel on his shoulder today; his attack didn’t work out and he was basically lost against So from move 30 onwards. 35.Qe2! Nf2 36.Rf1! Nxh3+ 37.Kh2 would still have won for White, but instead the pinoy GM fell for a mating trick. Giri was the first to admit that he had been very lucky. He increased his lead to a point as all other games in B ended in a draw.

      Shirov and Kramnik drew a very interesting game where the Russian found a series of only moves to hold the balance.

      Corus

      Loek van Wely eventually won against Sergei Tiviakov. His ending with bishop and two passed pawns against rook (and two fixed pawns on the queenside) looked like a draw, but KingLoek managed to find a winning set-up in the end.

      Corus

      Tomorrow Kramnik plays Anand with Black, and in the last round the Russian has the white pieces against Karjakin. Carlsen has Black against Leko tomorrow and then White against Caruana on Sunday.

        follow Corus on Twitter


        Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


        Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


        Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


        Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group A


        Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group B


        Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group C


        Links

         
        http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/r11-corus-live/
        Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:13:46 +0000
         
         
         
        Anand gana por fin
        Anand gana por fin
        Blancas: V. Anand (India, 2.790).
        Negras: A. Shírov (España, 2.723).
        Apertura Española (C78). Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 27-1-2010.

        El campeón del mundo logró ganar tras nueve empates (

        Big Match Shirov-Kramnik Live h. 13:30
        • A: Short - Caruana
        • C: Vocaturo - Peng

        Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri.

        il GM Daniele Vocaturo, 2° nel gruppo C

        foto tratta da chessbase

        Corus A incontri dell'undicesimo turno
        J. Smeets - V. Anand  
        L. van Wely - S. Tiviakov  
        N. Short - F. Caruana  
        H. Nakamura - P. Leko  
        M. Carlsen - L. Dominguez  
        V. Ivanchuk - S. Karjakin  
        A. Shirov - V. Kramnik  

        Classifica dopo dieci turni

        1. V. Kramnik 7
        2. A. Shirov M. Carlsen
        4. S. Karjakin V. Anand L. Dominguez H. Nakamura V. Ivanchuk 5½
        9. P. Leko 5
        10. F. Caruana S. Tiviakov 4
        12. L. van Wely N. Short
        14. J. Smeets

        Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno

        V. Anand - V. Kramnik  
        S. Karjakin - A. Shirov  
        L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk  
        P. Leko - M. Carlsen  
        F. Caruana - H. Nakamura  
        S. Tiviakov - N. Short  
        J. Smeets - L. van Wely  

        Corus B incontri dell'undicesimo turno
        A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami  
        A. Naiditsch - D. Howell  
        W. So - A. Giri  
        V. Akobian - T. Nyback  
        P. Negi - E. Sutovsky  
        P. Harikrishna - Ni  
        L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman  
        Classifica dopo dieci turni

        1. A. Giri 7
        2. Ni E. l'Ami W. So
        5. A. Naiditsch 6
        6.  P. Negi
        7. P. Harikrishna D. Howell 5
        9. E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk
        11.  L. Nisipeanu 4
        12.  D. Reinderman
        13. T. Nyback 3
        14. V. Akobian

        Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno

        E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman  
        Ni - L. Nisipeanu  
        E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna  
        T. Nyback - P. Negi  
        A. Giri - V. Akobian  
        D. Howell - W. So  
        A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch

        Corus C incontri dell'undicesimo turno
        B. Bok - S. Swaminathan  
        D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng  
        S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers  
        L. Chao - M. Muzychuk  
        R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels  
        K. Lie - R. Robson  
        N. Grandelius - A. Gupta  

        Classifica dopo 10 turni

        1. L. Chao
        2. van Kampen R. Robson R. Swinkels D. Vocaturo 6
        6. N. Grandelius A. Gupta
        8. Z. Peng R. K. Lie 5
        10. S. Kuipers B. Bok
        12. M. Muzychuk 4
        13. S. Swaminathan 3
        14. S. Plukkel

        Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno

        S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta  
        R. Robson - N. Grandelius  
        R. Swinkels - K. Lie  
        M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen  
        S. Kuipers - L. Chao  
        Z. Peng - S. Plukkel  
        B. Bok - D. Vocaturo  

        Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.

        Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.

        sito ufficiale

        VISORE

         
        http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1698
        2010-01-29T12:00:00+01:00
         
         
         
        Corus Chess 2010 : la ronde 11 en Live à 13h30
        Carlsen victorieux de Karjakin peut-il gagner le Corus ? © Fred Lucas
        Carlsen victorieux de Karjakin peut-il gagner le Corus ? © Fred Lucas
        Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 13h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

        Les appariements de la ronde 11 :
        • Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
        • Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
        • Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
        • Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
        • Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
        • Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
        • Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
        Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
        ChessVibes nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes
        Le classement après 10 rondes :
        Le classement après 10 rondes
        A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
        Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
        Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
         
        http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-la-ronde-11-en-live.html
        Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:08:00 +0000
         
         
         
        Round 10 Corus Press Conference

        Corus Chess Round 10 Press ConferenceIt wasn’t the most convincing victory of his career, but still Vishy Anand was reasonably happy with it, after nine consecutive draws in Wijk aan Zee. The World Champion explains his victory against tournament leader Alexei Shirov. Enjoy!





         
        http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/round-10-corus-press-conference/
        Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:49:58 +0000
         
         
         
        El final mal elegido
        En la séptima ronda del torneo Corus en Wijk aan Zee, Nigel Short tenía la victoria frente al ex campeón el mundo al alcance de la mano. En la posición que figura en el diagrama, Nigel tuvo que elegir si prefería cambiar las damas o capturar otro peón con Dxc5. Short optó por 50.Dxc5, pero tras 50...Ae6! 51.g4 Axf5 52.Dxf5 Db2+ la actividad de la dama negra resultó ser el factor decisivo para empatar, a pesar de los dos peones de desventaja. ¿Pero cómo se debería haber valorado el juego con las piezas ligeras tras 50.Dxf6 gxf6? Serviría el peón adicional para ganar la batalla entre caballos y alfiles. Sí, eso dice el gran maestro Karsten Müller, que ha analizado la posición para ChessBase Magazine Online. El tablero en tamaño mayor...
         
        http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=7991
        Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
         
         
         
        "Rebellion der Wunderkinder"
        "Ja, ich kann die ganzen alten Gesichter am Brett auch nicht mehr sehen," scherzte Kramnik, als er in Wijk aan Zee auf die neue junge Generation von starken Spielern angesprochen wurde. "Endlich mal ein paar neue Köpfe!" In jedem Jahr werden zu den Turnieren in Wijk eine Reihe von Talenten eingeladen. In diesem Jahre treten diese besonders dominant auf. Magnus Carlsen hat durch sein starkes letztes Jahr und seinen ersten Rang in der Weltrangliste auf sich aufmerksam gemacht. Aber auch andere junge Spieler befinden sich auf dem Weg nach oben, wie Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana und Sergey Karjakin. In der B- und C-Gruppe führten mit Anish Giri und Ray Robson zwei Jugendliche. Wesley So bewies mit seinem Resultat beim World Cup, dass mit ihm ebenfalls zur rechnen ist. Hartmut Metz schildert in einem Artikel die neue Situation für die Leser der Thüringer Allgemeine.
        Rebellion der Wunderkinder...
         
        http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10026
        Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
         
         
         
        Corus R10: as internet drops, Anand beats Shirov

        CorusAlexei Shirov lost his pole position in a dramatic game against Viswanathan Anand today. The Spaniard reached a winning position against the World Champ, but as both players missed an important tactic, the game went on and Anand eventually won. Carlsen defeated Karjakin with Black in a French and Kramnik and Ivanchuk drew.

        The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

        Corus Chess Daily News

        Corus Chess Newsflashes


        Games round 10

        Game viewer by ChessTempo

        Round 10

        13:12 CET
        Another great round is ahead of us, with Anand-Shirov , Kramnik-Ivanchuk and Karjakin-Carlsen in A, Giri-Naiditsch in B and Swinkels-Li Chao as today’s main attractions.

        14:21 CET
        Ivanchuk played the Vienna against Kramnik’s 1.d4 and the two have already reached quiet unfamiliar territory after eleven moves. Kramnik’s Qe2 & Rad1 concept seems to be new, and Ivanchuk is thinking now.

        Corus

        Against Karjakin, Carlsen went for the French. A surprising choice since according to the database the Norwegian played this defence only once before, when he was 11 and rated 2214! Karjakin decided to play it safe and castled kingside.

        Corus

        Anand doesn’t want to risk too much either against Shirov and closed the queenside with 10.a5 in another Archangelsk Ruy Lopez. Dominguez and Nakamura are still in a well-known Accelarated Dragon position while Caruana and Van Wely are also looking at a familiar middlegame position – there it’s a Sicilian Scheveningen.

        Corus

        Smeets got Tiviakov thinking after11…Nxc5, which is still known however, e.g. from J.Polgar-Skembris, Moscow OL 1994. Nigel Short tried the Alekhine against Leko; an opening played by ‘people with a difficult childhood and by Short’, as I heard in the press room, but that’s how we used to describe the opening two decades ago. In the 90s Ivanchuk sometimes tried it, and these days it’s slightly more popular. Recently Carlsen defeated Topalov with Black using 1…Nf6.

        15:28 CET
        Nakamura came up with an interesting pawn sacrifice on move 14 and instead of trading on c1, 18…Bxd5 followed by 19..Ne4 was possible as well. It seems that Shirov still hasn’t equalized completely against Anand, who will probably try to get something going against the black king. Kramnik seems to be thinking in that direction too, but Ivanchuk’s manoeuvering looks solid enough. Not much excitement on the other boards so far.

        In the B group, Giri and Naiditsch already drew in a Semi-Tarrasch. The game of the round is l’Ami-Nisipeanu; a King’s Indian in which the always creative Romanian GM sacrificed a piece for two pawns and an attack. In C, Swaminathan-Grandelius is very sharp and Li Chao looks already more than fine with Black against Swinkels.

        03:52 CET
        The talk of the town was not about chess this time, but about the sudden failure of the internet connection in the venue, including the press room. The boards were not transmitted correctly to the press room, and some TV screens in the playing hall also showed wrong positions. Besides, the tournament website was down for a long time as well (at the time of writing it still is, but that’s simply because the ISP cannot be contacted before 9 AM). And so nobody exactly knew what was going on, sometimes players would suddenly finish their games and journos would ask what had happened, this time wondering not only about the course of the game, but also about the result.

        Shirov suffered a terrible loss against Anand – terrible, because for one moment he could have won. As Anand showed at the press conference (without having looked at a computer), 39.Ne6? could have been met by 39…Ng3! – a tactic he had seen before in a slightly different version, but one which both players missed in that exact position.

        Carlsen defeated Karjakin with surprising ease but left the playing hall quickly anyway, like his opponent, so the exact details of this game will have to be checked by the computer. Although he thought for about an hour in the opening phase while the position was still known, Tiviakov did beat Smeets, who basically tricked himself.

        In B, Giri kept his slim lead because both l’Ami and Ni Hua drew, while in C Li Chao is very close to tournament victory after beating one of his rivals, Robin Swinkels. The young Chinese GM leads by 1.5 point.

          follow Corus on Twitter


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


          Corus 2010 | Round 10 Standings Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Round 10 Standings Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Round 10 Standings Grandmaster Group C


          Links

           
          http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/corus-r10-live/
          Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:12:56 +0000
           
           
           
          Vota la migliore novit? del 2009!

          ?Puoi vincere un abbonamento annuale!

          La famosa Casa editrice New in chess ha bandito un concorso per?premiare la migliore novità teorica giocata nel 2009, tra quelle pubblicate sul New in chess Yearbook. Sono state selezionate 4 partite che possono essere votate entro fine gennaio. L'autore della novità teorica più votata riceverà 350 euro, mentre tra tutti coloro che avrannò indicato la novità vincitrice verrà sorteggiato un abbonamento annuale al New in chess Yearbook. Tentar non nuoce... ; - )

          Vediamo le novità in gara.

          La prima riguarda la partita So-Gupta, Wijk aan Zee 2009. In un Attacco Marshall della Partita Spagnola il giovane GM indiano?ha sacrificato un pezzo con 18..f5, ottenendo in cambio un forte attacco.


          Abhijeet Gupta gioca 18..f5!

          La seconda è tratta dalla Kramnik-Naiditsch, Dortmund 2009, dove in una Variante?di Vienna della Nimzo-indiana l'ex Campione del mondo ha giocato la raffinata 17.Dh6.


          Vladimir Kramnik gioca 17.Dh6!

          La terza riguarda la Avrukh-Hector, Helsingor 2009, una Slava variante Krause nella quale la teoria assegnava un leggero vantaggio al bianco, ma il nero ha giocato 13..Cc5, che sacrifica un pedone e sembra ottenere una ottima?posizione.


          Jonny Hector gioca 13..Cc5!

          L'ultima novità è tratta dalla Van Wely-Stellwagen, Amsterdam 2009, un attacco Bayonet nel quale la novità 24..Df3 sembra far pendere il piatto della bilancia a favore del nero.


          Daniel Stellwagen gioca 24..Df3!

          Per vedere le partite complete e partecipare al Concorso, cliccate QUI

           
          http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1699
          2010-01-28T12:38:05+01:00
           
           
           
          Corus 2010: diretta del X turno

          v


          Kramnik da solo in vetta!
          • prima vittoria per Anand contro Shirov
          • Carlsen supera Karjakin e raggiunge lo spagnolo al 2° posto
          • A Caruana - Van Wely 1/2
          • C Kuipers - Vocaturo 1-0

          Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri. Domani è previsto l'ultimo giorno di riposo.

          Corus A incontri del decimo turno

          V. Anand - A. Shirov 1-0
          V. Kramnik - V. Ivanchuk 1/2
          S. Karjakin - M. Carlsen 0-1
          L. Dominguez - H. Nakamura 1/2
          P. Leko - N. Short 1/2
          F. Caruana - L. van Wely 1/2
          S. Tiviakov - J. Smeets 1-0

          Classifica dopo dieci turni

          1. V. Kramnik 7
          2. A. Shirov M. Carlsen
          4. S. Karjakin V. Anand L. Dominguez H. Nakamura V. Ivanchuk 5½
          9. P. Leko 5
          10. F. Caruana S. Tiviakov 4
          12. L. van Wely N. Short
          14. J. Smeets

          Accoppiamenti dell'undicesimo turno

          J. Smeets - V. Anand  
          L. van Wely - S. Tiviakov  
          N. Short - F. Caruana  
          H. Nakamura - P. Leko  
          M. Carlsen - L. Dominguez  
          V. Ivanchuk - S. Karjakin  
          A. Shirov - V. Kramnik  

          Corus B incontri del decimo turno

          E. l'Ami - L. Nisipeanu 1/2
          D. Reinderman - P. Harikrishna 1-0
          Ni - P. Negi 1/2
          E. Sutovsky - V. Akobian 1/2
          T. Nyback - W. So 0-1
          A. Giri - A. Naiditsch 1/2
          D. Howell - A. Muzychuk 1/2

          Classifica dopo dieci turni

          1. A. Giri 7
          2. Ni E. l'Ami W. So
          5. A. Naiditsch 6
          6.  P. Negi
          7. P. Harikrishna D. Howell 5
          9. E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk
          11.  L. Nisipeanu 4
          12.  D. Reinderman
          13. T. Nyback 3
          14. V. Akobian

          Accoppiamenti dell'undicesmo turno

          A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami  
          A. Naiditsch - D. Howell  
          W. So - A. Giri  
          V. Akobian - T. Nyback  
          P. Negi - E. Sutovsky  
          P. Harikrishna - Ni  
          L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman  

          Corus C incontri del decimo turno

          S. Swaminathan - N. Grandelius 1-0
          A. Gupta - K. Lie 0-1
          R. Robson - R. van Kampen 0-1
          R. Swinkels - L. Chao 0-1
          M. Muzychuk - S. Plukkel 1-0
          S. Kuipers - D. Vocaturo 1-0
          Z. Peng - B. Bok 0-1

          Classifica dopo dieci turni

          1. L. Chao
          2. van Kampen R. Robson R. Swinkels D. Vocaturo 6
          6. N. Grandelius A. Gupta
          8. Z. Peng R. K. Lie 5
          10. S. Kuipers B. Bok
          12. M. Muzychuk 4
          13. S. Swaminathan 3
          14. S. Plukkel

          Accoppiamenti dell'undicesimo turno 

          B. Bok - S. Swaminathan  
          D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng  
          S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers  
          L. Chao - M. Muzychuk  
          R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels  
          K. Lie - R. Robson  
          N. Grandelius - A. Gupta  


          Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.

          Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.

          sito ufficiale

          VISORE

           
          http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1697
          2010-01-27T12:00:00+01:00
           
           
           
          Corus Chess 2010 : le point à 3 rondes de la fin
          Anand face à Shirov lors de la 10ème ronde Alexei Shirov perd hier sa position de leader dans une partie dramatique contre Viswanathan Anand. L'espagnol obtient une position gagnante contre le champion du monde, mais rate une combinaison tactique finale sur un aveuglement mutuel au 39ème coup, et finit par perdre.
          Carlsen bat Karjakin avec les Noirs dans une française et Kramnik partage le point avec Ivanchuk. A 3 rondes de la fin, Kramnik possède une demi-longueur d'avance sur Carlsen et Shirov. Nos héros se reposent aujourd'hui.
          Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live demain + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

          Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
          Les résultats de la ronde 10 :
          • Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1-0 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
          • Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1/2 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
          • Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 0-1 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
          • Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
          • Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
          • Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
          • Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1-0 Jan Smeets NED (2657)
          ChessVibes nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes
          Le classement après 10 rondes :
          Le classement après 10 rondes
          A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
          Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
          Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
           
          http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-le-point-3-rondes-de.html
          Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:46:00 +0000
           
           
           
          Corus Chess 2010 : Kramnik seul leader !
          Vladimir Kramnik - photo Fred Lucas
          Ronde 9 : Victoire noire de Kramnik face à Carlsen © Fred Lucas
          Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 13h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

          Les résultats de la ronde 10 :
          • Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1-0 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
          • Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1/2 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
          • Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 0-1 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
          • Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
          • Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
          • Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
          • Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1-0 Jan Smeets NED (2657)
          Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
          ChessVibes nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes
          Le classement après 10 rondes :
          Le classement après 10 rondes
          A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
          Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
          Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
           
          http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-la-ronde-10-en-live.html
          Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:12:00 +0000
           
           
           
          So Aims for Top Finish
          Scoring his third victory in group 'B' of Corus, Filipino GM Wesley So moves up to 6.5 points, the same score as L'Ami and Ni Hua after 10 games. Giri continues to lead the group with 7 points.

          Corus B Wijk aan Zee
          Nyback, T."
          So, W
          D11

          1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 a6 5. Nc3 b5 6. c5 g6 7. Bd3 Bg7 8. Qc2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. e4 dxe4 11. Bxe4 Nxe4 12. Qxe4 Nf6 13. Qh4 Re8 14. Re1 a5 15. Bh6 Bh8 16. Ne5 Qc7 17. Qf4 Bf5 18. Qf3 Rac8 19. Rac1 Red8 20. Ne2 a4 21. a3 Bg7 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 23. h3 Qb7 24. Rcd1 Be4 25. Qe3 Bc2 26. Rd2 Bb3 27. Nf4 b4 28. Ned3 bxa3 29. bxa3 Rd7 30. Ne5 Rdd8 31. h4 Nd5 32. Nh5+ Kg8 33. Qh6 gxh5 34. Rd3 Bc2 35. Qg5+ Kf8 36. Qxh5 e6 37. Rf3 f6 38. Rg3 Rc7 39. Qh6+ Rg7 40. Nxc6 Re8 41. Nb4 Bb3 42. Nxd5 Bxd5 43. Ree3 f5 44. h5 Ree7 45. Qf6+ Ke8 46. h6 Rg4 0-1

          I didn't notice this before, but Aussie fans should note that GM Ian Rogers is providing live commentary on the official site starting from the 11th round. Problem is, it looks like we've got to download some sort of Java applet just to see their broadcast. What's the point in that when I can go to Playchess or ICC?
           
          http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/2010/01/so-aims-for-top-finish.html
          Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:12:00 +0000
           
           
           
          The Fabulous 10s: Computer-Assisted Dragons

          Or, Maybe, Computers NOT Assisting on Dragons in Holland

          Random, bizarre move sequences appear on the board!  Or, maybe computers were NOT working – check the horrific blunder pair on moves 17 and 18!

          [Event "Corus C"]

          [Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]

          [Date "2010.01.26"]

          [Round "9"]

          [White "Li Chao2"]

          [Black "Robson,R"]

          [Result "1-0"]

          [WhiteElo "2604"]

          [BlackElo "2570"]

          [EventDate "2010.01.16"] [ECO "B77"]

          1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. h4 Ne5

          Since Robson was leading the tournament, this opening choice was a terrible idea! Why don’t American players have safety openings?

          11. Bb3 h5 12. O-O-O Rc8 13. Bg5 Rc5 14. Kb1 b5 15. g4 hxg4 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Nd5 Nf6? (??)

          Maybe my theory is out of date, but 17…Re8 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. Qh2 (as in an old Short game, Short-Mandl Germany 1986 where black botched the defense and went down in flames) is met by 19…gxf3! 20. Qxh5 Bg4! and black holds.  This happened in a game Lagumina – Magalotti, Forli 1991 and black indeed drew.  The computer shows no advantage for white.  Readers?

          The game move looks really bad; i.e. immediately losing.  Is it possible Robson was making stuff up in this, the sharpest of all opening choices?

          18. Bh6??

          A monumental blunder in return. It’s impossible to say what Chao was thinking.   The guy is rated 2604 and he misses a win that any schoolboy would play – capture, capture, and mate!  Isn’t that the entire point of the Yugoslav Attack?

          The elementary 18. Nxf6+ wins easily. If 18…Bxf6 19. Qh2! simply checkmates black. If 18…exf6 19. Bh6! forces 19…Bh8, since

          19…f5 is crushed by 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Qh6+ Kf6 22. f4 and wins. After 19…Bh8, white wins with the easy 20. Bxf8 Qxf8 21. Qh2 Qg7 22. fxg4 Bxg4 23. Rdg1 and wins.

          What was in the water in this game? (or the Dutch pea soup?)

          18…Nxd5 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Qh6+ Kf6

          Did Chao miss the king could run? Embarrassing! But look what happens!

          21. exd5 Nxf3 22. Ne2?

          22. Nxf3 keeps the balance.  Now Chao has overstepped even the bounds of an even game!

          22…e5?

          22…Bf5 consolidates and wins for black without too much trouble!

          23. dxe6 Bxe6 24. Qf4+ Rf5 25. Qxg4 Kg7 26. Bxe6 fxe6 27. Nd4 Nxd4 28. Qxd4+ e5 29. Qxa7+ R8f7 30. Qe3 Qg5 31. Qd3 Qf6
          32. a3 Rf2 33. Qh3 Qf5?

          Apparently black was down to increments.  33…Kg8! was bad  (but not losing) for him after 34. Rxd6 Rf1+ 35. Rd1! but it was forced.  But doesn’t white’s play over the last few moves look pretty random?  Maybe he was in time trouble too.

          34. Qh8+ Mate 1-0

          For the gawking observers, what the HELL was going on this opening? Will we ever know?

           
          http://nezhmet.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/the-fabulous-10s-computer-assisted-dragons/
          Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:45:57 +0000
           
           
           
          Krámnik abate a Carlsen
          Krámnik abate a Carlsen
          Blancas: M. Carlsen (Noruega, 2.810).
          Negras: V. Krámnik (Rusia, 2.788).
          Apertura Catalana (E04). Festival Corus (Torneo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 26-1-2010.

          Gran duelo, que Carlsen estropeó por la presión del reloj:...
           
          http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1580/krmnik-abate-a-carlsen.html
           
           
           
          Krámnik vapulea a Nakamura
          Krámnik vapulea a Nakamura
          Blancas: V. Krámnik (Rusia, 2.788).
          Negras: H. Nakamura (EEUU, 2.708).
          Defensa Holandesa (A88). Festival Corus (Torneo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 24-1-2010.

          En Wijk aan Zee (
           
          http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1578/krmnik-vapulea-a-nakamura.html
           
           
           
          Nakamura derriba a Shírov
          Nakamura derriba a Shírov
          Blancas: H. Nakamura (EEUU, 2.708).
          Negras: A. Shírov (España, 2.723).
          Defensa Siciliana (B33). Festival Corus (Torneo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 23-1-2010.

          Aparte del bonito remate, Nakamura, de 22 años, muestra un...
           
          http://www.pcajedrez.com/post/1574/nakamura-derriba-a-shrov.html
           
           
           
          Shírov: ¡Cinco de cinco!
          Shírov: ¡Cinco de cinco!
          Blancas: L. Van Wely (Holanda, 2.641).
          Negras: A. Shírov (España, 2.723). Apertura Inglesa (A29).

          Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 14-1-2010.

          Quinta victoria consecutiva en un gran torneo (Shírov, como una motoBlancas: A. Shírov (España, 2.723)
          Negras: Smeets (Holanda, 2.657).

          Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Defensa Petrov (C42). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 19-1-2010.

          El español, que lleva cuatro de cuatro (

          Zee News

          Corus chess: So faces Israeli GM
          Inquirer.net
          WIJK AAN ZEE, NETHERLANDS— Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So tackles dangerous Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky in the ninth round of the 72nd Corus chess tournament ...
          Anand to meet Tiviakov at Corus ChessTimes of India
          So resumes title hunt vs Israeli GMPhilippine Star
          Hikaru beats leader at Corus Chess TournamentLos Angeles Times (blog)
          ABS CBN News -The Hindu
          all 65 news articles »
           
          http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsports.inquirer.net%2Fsportsevents%2Fsportsevents%2Fview%2F20100127-249660%2FCorus-chess-So-faces-Israeli-GM&usg=AFQjCNFnRh8N--d5eGE6fjqu3NHzsFejpw
          Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:30:21 GMT+00:00
             
            Corus 2010: diretta del IX turno



           turno: Live h. 13:30 Big Match Carlsen - Kramnik

          Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri.

          Corus A incontri del nono turno

          S. Tiviakov - V. Anand  
          J. Smeets - F. Caruana  
          L. van Wely - P. Leko  
          N. Short - L. Dominguez  
          H. Nakamura - S. Karjakin  
          M. Carlsen - V. Kramnik  
          V. Ivanchuk - A. Shirov  1/2

          Classifica dopo otto turni

          1. A. Shirov 6
          2. M. Carlsen V. Kramnik
          4. H. Nakamura 5
          5. S. Karjakin L. Dominguez P. Leko V. Ivanchuk
          9. V. Anand 4
          10. F. Caruana
          11. S. Tiviakov N. Short
          13. L. van Wely 2
          14. J. Smeets

          Accoppiamenti del decimo turno

          V. Anand - A. Shirov  
          V. Kramnik - V. Ivanchuk  
          S. Karjakin - M. Carlsen  
          L. Dominguez - H. Nakamura  
          P. Leko - N. Short  
          F. Caruana - L. van Wely  
          S. Tiviakov - J. Smeets  

          Corus B incontri del nono turno

          D. Howell - E. l'Ami  
          A. Muzychuk - A. Giri  
          A. Naiditsch - T. Nyback  
          W. So - E. Sutovsky  
          V. Akobian - Ni  
          P. Negi - D. Reinderman  
          P. Harikrishna - L. Nisipeanu  

          Classifica dopo otto turni


          1. A. Giri
          2. Ni W. So E. l'Ami 5
          5. D. Howell A. Naiditsch P. Harikrishna
          8. P. Negi 4
          9. E. Sutovsky
          10. T. Nyback A. Muzychuk L. Nisipeanu 3
          13. D. Reinderman
          14. V. Akobian 2

          Accoppiamenti del decimo turno

          E. l'Ami - L. Nisipeanu  
          D. Reinderman - P. Harikrishna  
          Ni - P. Negi  
          E. Sutovsky - V. Akobian  
          T. Nyback - W. So  
          A. Giri - A. Naiditsch  
          D. Howell - A. Muzychuk  

          Corus C incontri del nono turno

          Z. Peng - S. Swaminathan  
          B. Bok - S. Kuipers  
          D. Vocaturo - M. Muzychuk  
          S. Plukkel - R. Swinkels  
          L. Chao - R. Robson  
          R. van Kampen - A. Gupta  
          K. Lie - N. Grandelius  

          Classifica dopo 8 turni

          1. R. Robson 6
          2. L. Chao A. Gupta
          4. R. Swinkels D. Vocaturo 5
          6. Z. Peng N. Grandelius
          8. R. van Kampen K. Lie 4
          10. S. Kuipers
          11. M. Muzychuk 3
          12. B. Bok
          13. S. Plukkel S. Swaminathan

          Accoppiamenti del decimo turno

          S. Swaminathan - N. Grandelius  
          A. Gupta - K. Lie  
          R. Robson - R. van Kampen  
          R. Swinkels - L. Chao  
          M. Muzychuk - S. Plukkel  
          S. Kuipers - D. Vocaturo  
          Z. Peng - B. Bok  


          Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.

          Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.

          sito ufficiale

          VISORE

           
          http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1696
          2010-01-26T12:00:00+01:00
             
            Corus Chess 2010 : le choc Carlsen - Kramnik en Live Vladimir Kramnik
          Ronde 8 : superbe victoire de Kramnik face à Nakamura © Fred Lucas
          Le Direct Live Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 13h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

          Les appariements de la ronde 9 :
          Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
          Bianca Muhren nous offre un résumé quotidien du tournoi © ChessVibes

          Ronde 7 : Magnus Carlsen exploite une gaffe de Vassily Ivanchuk au 15ème coup © Fred Lucas
          Ronde 7 : Magnus Carlsen exploite une gaffe d'Ivanchuk © Fred Lucas
          Hikaru Nakamura face à Shirov
          Ronde 7 : Hikaru Nakamura remporte son duel face au leader Shirov © Fred Lucas
          Le classement après 8 rondes :
          Le classement après 8 rondes
          A votre avis, qui va gagner le Corus 2010 ?
          Magnus Carlsen Vishy Anand Vladimir Kramnik Un autre joueur
          Pour en savoir plus : Le site officiel - Le classement - Les appariements
          2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés
           
          http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/01/corus-chess-2010-le-choc-carlsen.html
          Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:22:00 +0000
             
            Corus R9 live

          CorusRound 9 of the Corus Chess Tournament with regular updates. Ivanchuk and Shirov already drew in an Archangelsk Ruy Lopez.

          The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

          Corus Chess Daily News

          Corus Chess Newsflashes


          Games round 8

          Game viewer by ChessTempo

          Round 9

          Before the round I went for a stroll over the beach and took a few pictures.

          Corus

          It's pretty cold again in Wijk aan Zee after a warmer period last week...

          Corus

          ...and yes, it snowed again!

          Corus

          Ice and snow dancing together

          Corus

          Snow-covered beach I

          Corus

          Snow-covered beach II

          Corus

          Snow-covered beach III

          Corus

          Closer to the water the sand takes over

          Corus

          Snow and sea water mixed and turned into ice again

          15:51 CET
          After the second rest day, the tournament continues today with the 9th round, and a very theoretical round it is. Ivanchuk and Shirov already drew in an Archangelsk Ruy Lopez which they also had on the board, with the same colours, in another game 13 years ago in Belgrade. It was also very similar to Leko-Caruana of round 6.

          Tiviakov is trying his Alapin Sicilian against the World Champ and there 11.Qe3 seems to be new but not very dangerous. In a Hedgehog, Van Wely has compromised his pawn structure but has more space against Leko. Nakamura just repeated moves against Karjakin but then continued playing in a Nimzo that might get sharp. Carlsen, who was pondering for a while before making his first move, chose 1.d4 against Kramnik and just made an interesting pawn sac. Smeets and Caruana left theory quickly in a Taimanov Sicilian that’s relatively quiet so far.

          16:04
          Right after his game against Shirov, Ivanchuk came into the press room and showed Cora, a longtime member of the Corus press team and who likes chess problems, a mate-in-three problem. You can join Cora and try to solve it too:

          Cora
          Cora

          follow Corus on Twitter


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group C


          Links

           
          http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/corus-r9-live/
          Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:51:29 +0000
             
            MS: è on-line il numero 505 E' on line il numero 505 del nostro settimanale web, Messaggero Scacchi. E' possibile leggerlo in versione html o scaricarlo in formato pdf. Il file di partite è in formato PGN zippato. In questo numero, fra l'altro: 1 - WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA): SHIROV IN VETTA DOPO 8 TURNI, BENE GLI AZZURRI 2 - NIZZA (FRANCIA): MELODY AMBER CON CARLSEN; KRAMNIK E ARONIAN 3 - SIVIGLIA (SPAGNA): VAZQUEZ IZARGA VINCE IN CASA, BENE LANZANI 7 - MIRANDOLA: IL BOLOGNESE MALFAGIA DOMINA IL TROFEO "GIOVANNI PICO"  
          http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/?p=1977
          Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:11 +0000
             
            Wijk aan Zee (8): commento Ancora una giornata positiva per gli azzurri a Wijk aan Zee. Nell'8° turno Caruana ha ottenuto con caparbietà il suo primo successo, ai danni di Sergei Tiviakov, mentre Vocaturo ha pareggiato col Nero con Robin Swinkels, che continua ad affiancarlo in quarta posizione...  
          http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/?p=1973
          Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:25:13 +0000
             
            Cuban Chess GM Remains Undefeated in Wijk aan Zee
          Cuban Chess GM Remains Undefeated in Wijk aan Zee
          HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 25 (acn)

          Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez drew his match against host Loek van Wely, thus remaining undefeated along other four players at the Grand Slam underway in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee.

          The Cuban now has 4.5 points, resulting from 7 draws and a win, wich places him tied in the 6-8 position. This last game he agreed to the draw after 45 moves of a Sicilian Defense, Najdorf variant, according to www.chesscenter.com Spaniard Alexei Shirov leads the tournament after tying with Norweigian Magnus Carlsen after only 30 moves of a Sicilian Defense, and now accumulates 6 points, more than any of the other 13 GMs participating in this Grand Slam.

          It is precisely the Wonderboy Carlsen his closest rival with 5.5 units, along Russian Vladimir Krammik who defeated American Hikaru Nakamura.

          Meanwhile, defending champ Russian Sergey Karjakin beat English Nigel Short after 61 moves of a Spaniard Opening, while Hungarian Peter Leko added another point thanks to his victory over Dutch jan Smeets in 45 moves of a Petroff Defense.

          The standing positions have Shirov in the top place followed by Carlsen and Krammik. After them Nakamura has 5 points and has a half unit advantage over the group made of Karjakin-Leinier-Leko-Ivanchuk, all of them with 4.5.World champion Anand accumulates 4 points for the ninth position, ahead of Caruana (3,5), Tiviakov and Short (2,5), Van Wely (2) and Smeets (1,5).

          Source: http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu
          Posted by Picasa
          Chess news from Susan Polgar
           
          http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/2010/0125leinier.htm
          2010-01-26T00:20:00.000-06:00
             
            Corus R8: Kramnik beats Nakamura, now shared 2nd with Carlsen

          CorusVladimir Kramnik moved to shared second place in the standings of the Corus Chess Tournament. In round 8 the Russian defeated Hikaru Nakamura, who again went for the Leningrad Dutch. Alexei Shirov and Magnus Carlsen drew in a sharp variation of the Sveshnikov – the same as in their game in Sofia last year.

          The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

          Corus Chess Daily News

          Corus Chess Newsflashes


          Games round 8

          Game viewer by ChessTempo

          Round 8

          14:48 CET
          It’s a very exciting round so far, with very interesting games in both Shirov-Carlsen and Kramnik-Nakamura, the numbers 1-4 in the standings. A good day for Mihail Marin, who’s doing live commentary on our live page. Shirov and Carlsen repeat their hyper-sharp Svesh from the last round of MTel last year, while Nakamura again went for the Dutch Defence against Kramnik.

          Corus

          Meanwhile, Giri seems close to winning already against Howell which would strengthen his lead even further in the B group.

          22:13 CET
          It took a bit longer than necessary, but Giri did win that game and so he’s now leading firmly with a score of 6.5/8. Shared second, with 1.5 points less, are Ni Hua, So and l’Ami, who had a narrow escape against Harikrishna. A blunder on move 26 cost him the exchange, but his opponent from India didn’t handle the ending very well. “I only saw one clear win for him during the game,” l’Ami said afterwards. “69…Rg3 followed by 70…Re5 and 71…Rf5 seemed winning. He repeated moves, but of course I didn’t.”

          Back to the A group, where Kramnik won smoothly against Nakamura. He told the reporters that he until three o’clock last night, he didn’t have a good answer to Nakamura’s 7…c6 Leningrad Dutch, but that he found the 9.Qc2 and 11.Rd1 set-up during a late-night shower! He thought Black to be lost at move 26. “The position is about equal, but I’m two pawns up.”

          Shirov and Carlsen repeated their Sveshnikov of Sofia last year, and like then, it was the Norwegian who came with a novelty. Shirov reacted well, and might still be slightly better in the position where the two repeated moves. GM Mihail Marin’s in-depth analysis of these two games, together with some notes to Giri-Howell, can still be replayed at the live page.

          Leko managed to break down Smeets’ Petroff. Right from the opening the Hungarian got pressure, and the Dutchman’s pawn sacrifice didn’t help. Karjakin-Short saw some very complicated tactics after move 30 where Short could probably have drawn with 35…R1e2! and White has to check on f6 at some point and give perpetual. The Englishman played for a win but the queen turned out to be stronger than the rooks. After his succesful first attempt with 1.d4, Dominguez switched back to 1.e4 against Van Wely but couldn’t get a tangible advantage. Ivanchuk equalized even easier against Anand.

          Caruana got his first win in the tournament against Tiviakov. White’s bishop pair didn’t seem to be a decisive factor, but when the black-squared bishops went off the board, White’s light-squared bishop was much stronger than Black’s knight. An excellent game by Caruana.

          Reinderman got his first win as well, against Akobian, who is now on last place in the B group. In C, last seeded Plukkel held tournament leader Robson to a draw with Black in a Rauzer. Gupta and Li Chao were the last to finish, but eventually drew as well.

          Monday is the second of three rest days, on which we’ll post the press conferences of the last few rounds. Due to some internet connection problems we couldn’t do that earlier.

          follow Corus on Twitter


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group C


          Links

           
          http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/corus-r8-live-with-gm-mihail-marin/
          Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:23:28 +0000
             
            A stunning exchange sacrifice... ...in the Marshall Attack was unleashed by Peter Leko in the 4th round in Wijk aan Zee versus Lenier Dominguez. Playing black, here he was facing the question of whether it would be advisable to immediately occupy the long diagonal with 23...Bc6 despite the riposte 24.d5, blocking it with tempo. What do you think?
          A) this wins for White;
          B) Black prevails;
          C) the position eventually remains balanced.
          The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.  
          http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6080
          Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
             
            Corus: Shirov verliert gegen Nakamura Zur Halbzeit ist in Gruppe A des Corus-Turniers in Wijk aan Zee wieder alles offen. Alexei Shirov, mit 5,5 aus 6 ins Turnier gestartet, verlor in Runde 7 gegen Hikaru Nakamura und hat damit nur noch einen halben Punkt Vorsprung auf Nakamura und Magnus Carlsen, der gegen Vassily Ivanchuk zu einem leichten Sieg kam. Alle anderen Partien des A-Turniers endeten Remis. Jan Smeets und Leinier Dominguez sorgten dabei für ein taktisches Feuerwerk, während Vladimir Kramnik gegen Nigel Short ein Damenendspiel mit zwei Minusbauern Remis halten konnte. In Gruppe B liegt Anish Giri nach einem Remis gegen Erwin L'Ami mit einem Punkt in Führung und in Gruppe C führt Ray Robson trotz seiner Niederlage gegen Daniele Vocaturo mit einem halben Punkt Vorsprung die Tabelle an.
          Turnierseite... Tabellen, Partien, Impressionen...  
          http://chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=10015
          Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT
             
            Shirov loses to Nakamura, maintains slim lead in Wijk aan Zee

          CorusAlexei Shirov lost his first game in Wijk aan Zee today. He was beaten by Hikaru Nakamura, who is now just half a point behind the tournament leader. So is Magnus Carlsen, who right after the opening won a piece against Vassily Ivanchuk.

          The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

          Corus Chess Daily News

          Corus Chess Newsflashes


          Games round 7

          Game viewer by ChessTempo

          Round 7

          15:09 CET
          Another very quick draw today in Van Wely-Karjakin. The explanation? The Russian is not feeling very well, and it’s not really the Dutchman’s tournament… The other games are relatively quiet, except for Smeets-Dominguez. Second Sipke Ernst expected a repetition of moves here, but Smeets just bravely continued playing.

          17:31 CET
          Smeets and Dominguez eventually drew anyway, but after some very interesting complications. The two analyzed their game with pleasure and after that got some comments from both players for the daily journal. At first sight they thought there was not win for White.

          Corus

          Ivanchuk completely missed Carlsen’s Rd1+Bb1 idea and could have resigned much earlier. Caruana-Anand and Tiviakov-Leko were uneventful draws and it seems to be Beating the Petroff in Short-Kramnik.

          Corus

          Tournament leader Giri is defending a rook ending a pawn down against compatriot l’Ami. Howell already won and will probably get to shared second place again because Ni Hua won’t win against Naiditsch.

          And then… the blow of the round. Nakamura defeated Shirov in an irregular Sveshnikov. He’s explaining the game in the press conference which we’re taping right now. A first interesting comment was that the American thought the Sicilian wasn’t the best choice for his opponent, since now it was easier for him to play for a win than compared to e.g. 1…e5.

          18:39 CET
          Some upsets in group C, where leader Robson loses to Vocaturo – who played a very nice game – but keeps his lead since his closest rival Li Chao goes down too, against Grandelius. Short is completely winning in a queen ending against Kramnik.

          21:49 CET
          It seemed safe to call it “completely winning” as GM Sipke Ernst described it that way, but in the end Kramnik managed to safe the half point. Incredible. As forest pointed out, Kramnik could have even forced the stalemate one move earlier (do you see how?) Tomorrow is a big day with Shirov-Carlsen, Kramnik-Nakamura and Anand-Ivanchuk. We’ll have GM Mihail Marin doing live commentary from 13:30 CET.

          follow Corus on Twitter


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


          Corus 2010 | Round 7 Standings Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Round 7 Standings Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Round 7 Standings Grandmaster Group C


          Links

           
          http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/corus-r7-live/
          Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:09:44 +0000
             
            Tomorrow: Corus live commentary with GM Mihail Marin

          Mihail MarinA small announcement: the top game of tomorrow’s 8th round in Wijk aan Zee is Shirov-Carlsen and we will have acclaimed chess author GM Mihail Marin from Romania providing live commentary, focusing on that game and light comments to other games.

          Mihail Marin, who is the second of Daniele Vocaturo during this year’s Corus Chess Tournament, will provide commentary from the press room in Wijk aan Zee. Marin is the author of best-sellers like Secrets of Chess Defence, Learn from the Legends, A Spanish Repertoire for Black and Beating the Open Games.

           
          http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/tomorrow-corus-live-commentary-with-gm-mihail-marin/
          Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:30:43 +0000
             
            Corus R6: Shirov draws, Dominguez, Leko, Kramnik win

          CorusAlexei Shirov was held to a draw easily by Nigel Short in round 6 of the Corus Chess Tournament. Besides a few quick draws, Leko beat Caruana, Dominguez beat Tiviakov and Kramnik beat Van Wely.

          The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

          Corus Chess Daily News

          Corus Chess Newsflashes


          Games round 6

          Game viewer by ChessTempo

          Round 6

          15:10 CET Despite the “friendly request” from the organizers to avoid short draws, Ivanchuk and Nakamura repeated moves in a Slav after 14 moves and then shook hands. Nakamura’s explanation after the game: “The thing is that oddly enough I had prepared this variation, looked at everything except 13.a5. I looked at about four other lines and then I overlooked this 13.a5 line and after this 13.a5 I more or less have to force a draw I think, because otherwise I am significantly worse. If I had the choice between playing a worse position with Black againt Ivanchuk or taking a draw obviously I’m gonna take a draw in that situation.

          Not long after that, Anand and Carlsen also split the point. Carlsen left the venue quickly but Anand was happy to give some explanation: “I wanted to try. He surprised me with this opening; I’ve been checking lots of other stuff but exactly this Dragon I didn’t expect from him. (…) It seems that I just have to force the draw with 19.Qh4. He goes 19…e5, takes, bishop takes, swap everything down, Qe7, Qe5 and it seems to be a draw. (…) My problem is that if I don’t force the draw where I did, on the 19th move, then it takes very little for me to be worse. Either his e-pawn comes to e5 and if I don’t force the draw I’m just worse because my bishop is really bad now. It’s only good if I can keep this pawn on e7. I must have missed something in the opening.”

          Corus

          The main other attraction, of course, is Shirov-Short. The Latvian seems to have real chances of improving his position slowly; might become a tough afternoon for Short! Leko-Caruano is a sharp, interesting fight in a theoretical Arkhangelsk Ruy Lopez. The current evaluation is anyone’s guess and the clocks also don’t give hints in this case. The same can be said of Kramnik-Van Wely (a difficult KID) and Karjakin-Smeets, It’s clear the two Dutchmen will have to work hard for their points but so far they seem to have avoided yesterday’s disasters. Their compatriot Tiviakov has a solid position against Dominguez. For not-so-mysterious reasons, we bet on a draw in this game.

          in Group B, Anish Giri faces Tommy Nyback – we’ll come back to the game in a later stage – and in C, Ray Robson will surely try to increase his lead against Bok. Look out for the endgames Reinderman and L’ Ami are playing – potential instructiveness is in the air.

          17:03 CET
          As far as the A group is concerned, this 6th round is not too exciting so far. Short quite easily held Shirov to a draw, and received a “Congratulations!” whisper from Vladimir Kramnik on stage, to which the Englishman answered: “Thank you, it’s one of the best achievements in my career!” Soon afterwards Smeets and Karjakin also drew their game.

          Much more fun are the B and C groups. Giri’s move 21…Kd6! was praised by the journos in the press room and one of them was reminded by the games of ex-World Champion Tigran Petrosian. Nyback might well become Giri’s next victim today.

          Corus

          Ni Hua-Muzychuk is a good one as well, where the Chinese GM gave a bishop, knight and rook to win the opponent’s queen and three pawns. As a result a highly rare material imbalance is left on the board. Howell and Sutovsky are in for a long game today and in C, Gupta-Vocaturo has gotten quite sharp. Bok seems to have more than enough compensation for the exchange he lost to tournament leader Robson.

          17:20 CET
          Just after that last update, Bok missed a trick by Robson, who is now leading C with an amazing 5.5/6. Giri also won again and will do the press conference also today. Who doesn’t want to hear Anish’ own thoughts about his 21st move?

          19:56 CET
          It turned out to be another bad day for the Dutchies in the A group. Tiviakov did win a pawn against Dominguez but his position remained very passive. The Cuban managed to keep his opponent’s queenside locked and in the ending his better pieces and passed pawn decided the game immediately. Kramnik played the – these days popular – Gligoric System against Van Wely’s KID, and had a good answer to Black’s g5-g4: a strong white-squared bishop and control over the b-file in the ending. The ex-World Champion kept on playing strongly and eventually forced resignation in a knight ending. Leko scored his first win of the tournament against Caruana after winning a piece for two pawns in a complicated Archangelsk middlegame.

          In B, Giri’s win meant that the Dutchman increased his lead because Howell is defending a most probably lost queen ending. Ni Hua keeps chances for promotion as well after winning that umbalanced middlegame against Muzychuk. In C, Li Chao is only half a point behind Robson thanks to a black victory against Lie.

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          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


          Corus 2010 | Round 6 Standings Grandmaster Group A


          Corus 2010 | Round 6 Standings Grandmaster Group B


          Corus 2010 | Round 6 Standings Grandmaster Group C