Corus Round 8
Chess finally hit the media headlines again today.
Unfortunately the main topic was not the hard fought 8th round of Corus but rather the Cheparinov-Short handshake indecent.
Cheparinov, seeking revenge for Short comments in media regarding San Luis, arriving a bit late for the game he avoided Short's extended hand after which Short demonstratively demanded a handshake a second time. Being turn down again he asked the arbiter to forfeit Cheparinov. The arbiter did, despite Cheparinovs willingness to shake hands upon the urging of the arbiter. Later last night the wise appeals committee ordered the players back to the table today after an official apology by the Bulgarian.
Today Short playing white finished off the Bulgarian in a nice game to reclaim the point he won and later had to let go yesterday.
Outside providing (negative) publicity for chess, neither player has any reason to be proud of this incident.
The Corus A group can be pretty satisfied delivering another day of mainly hard fought games despite only one being decided.
Anand spent much time in the Najdorf opening as white against a well prepared Topalov but obviously found a good continuation and outplayed Topalov in style in the late middle game.
Seemingly Anand is back in form just in time to join the fight for the tournament win.
As white against Gelfand, Magnus followed a line prepared earlier and got a small advantage in the opening. Magnus felt comfortable as he could press without any real downside. The computers supposedly saw the position as equal for instance after Magnus playing 25.Bf1.
However, Magnus correctly anticipated that Gelfand would avoid the risky but probably good 25...Nd5, and after 25....h5 white is better.
After trading most pieces Gelfand gave up the b pawn to enter a rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with a pin against the knight on c3 and the pawn on b2, so that Magnus in the end had to give up the b-pawn and take the h-pawn instead. The position looked drawish when Magnus found a nice trick with g4! fxg4 Ng5! after which black is forced to exchange the bishop for the knight and is left with his pawn on g4 and king on h4 against white's pawn on f2 and e3.
The problem was that this is a theoretical draw with the correct defence.
Magnus tried for some 15 moves and Gelfand defended accurately. Draw.
Kramnik was a pawn up in the rook ending against Polgar but had to concede a draw in the end as well.
Aronian drew Mamedyarov to leave the lead unchanged with Magnus on +3. Kramnik and Aronian at +2 and Anand joining Radjabov at +1.
The other games were drawn between move 20 and 28.
In Corus B Movsesian beat Spoelman with the black pieces to claim the lead with 6/8 ahead of Bacrot at 5.5 and Short at 5. (I hope I haven't made the mistake of counting his win against Cheparinov twice....)
In Corus C, Caruana beat co-leader Braun to take the sole lead also at 6/8 ahead of Reinderman at 5.5 and Braun, Negi (after two initial losses!) and Van der Wiel at 5.
Magnus played some squash on the free day and is looking forward to round 9 as black against P.Leko tomorrow.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 21th, 2008
Unfortunately the main topic was not the hard fought 8th round of Corus but rather the Cheparinov-Short handshake indecent.
Cheparinov, seeking revenge for Short comments in media regarding San Luis, arriving a bit late for the game he avoided Short's extended hand after which Short demonstratively demanded a handshake a second time. Being turn down again he asked the arbiter to forfeit Cheparinov. The arbiter did, despite Cheparinovs willingness to shake hands upon the urging of the arbiter. Later last night the wise appeals committee ordered the players back to the table today after an official apology by the Bulgarian.
Today Short playing white finished off the Bulgarian in a nice game to reclaim the point he won and later had to let go yesterday.
Outside providing (negative) publicity for chess, neither player has any reason to be proud of this incident.
The Corus A group can be pretty satisfied delivering another day of mainly hard fought games despite only one being decided.
Anand spent much time in the Najdorf opening as white against a well prepared Topalov but obviously found a good continuation and outplayed Topalov in style in the late middle game.
Seemingly Anand is back in form just in time to join the fight for the tournament win.
As white against Gelfand, Magnus followed a line prepared earlier and got a small advantage in the opening. Magnus felt comfortable as he could press without any real downside. The computers supposedly saw the position as equal for instance after Magnus playing 25.Bf1.
However, Magnus correctly anticipated that Gelfand would avoid the risky but probably good 25...Nd5, and after 25....h5 white is better.
After trading most pieces Gelfand gave up the b pawn to enter a rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with a pin against the knight on c3 and the pawn on b2, so that Magnus in the end had to give up the b-pawn and take the h-pawn instead. The position looked drawish when Magnus found a nice trick with g4! fxg4 Ng5! after which black is forced to exchange the bishop for the knight and is left with his pawn on g4 and king on h4 against white's pawn on f2 and e3.
The problem was that this is a theoretical draw with the correct defence.
Magnus tried for some 15 moves and Gelfand defended accurately. Draw.
Kramnik was a pawn up in the rook ending against Polgar but had to concede a draw in the end as well.
Aronian drew Mamedyarov to leave the lead unchanged with Magnus on +3. Kramnik and Aronian at +2 and Anand joining Radjabov at +1.
The other games were drawn between move 20 and 28.
In Corus B Movsesian beat Spoelman with the black pieces to claim the lead with 6/8 ahead of Bacrot at 5.5 and Short at 5. (I hope I haven't made the mistake of counting his win against Cheparinov twice....)
In Corus C, Caruana beat co-leader Braun to take the sole lead also at 6/8 ahead of Reinderman at 5.5 and Braun, Negi (after two initial losses!) and Van der Wiel at 5.
Magnus played some squash on the free day and is looking forward to round 9 as black against P.Leko tomorrow.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 21th, 2008
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