Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:24PM Not the rock, but the annual tournament. It's an open Swiss of surprising strength, led this year by Peter Svidler, Shahkriyar Mamedyarov and Judit Polgar, along with quite a few other very big names. The official site is here.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:35PM In the last two rounds of the A-group tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the neck-and-neck battle between the world's top players, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, has turned into a breakaway for the Armenian GM. In round 9 he defeated Fabiano Caruana with some very deep preparation, beating the anti-English line Alexander Grischuk used to torture all his opponents in last year's Candidates' matches. By his own admission Aronian got a bit sloppy late in the game, but with a very difficult position and almost no time on his clock Caruana was unable to save the game.
Meanwhile, Carlsen was doing his usual thing, getting little from the opening but pressing as hard as possible. This strategy has paid Carlsen huge dividends the past couple of years, but over the last few rounds as often as not it has gotten him into trouble. This time he went too far, and Sergey Karjakin defeated him in convincing fashion. For Karjakin, it was his first ever win over Carlsen at a classical time control, and also continued his pattern of losing two and then winning two. (Granted, there was the interruption in round 8 when he drew with Hikaru Nakamura. On the other hand, he promptly continued the pattern by losing to Gata Kamsky in round 10!)
Round 10 saw Aronian extend his lead with a complicated win over Anish Giri, punctuated by an attractive, sacrificial mating combination at the end. Carlsen drew comfortably with Black against Nakamura, but that leaves him a point and a half behind with three rounds to play.
That cleared the way for the volatile Vassily Ivanchuk to leap into second. He has come to life, defeating Giri in round 9 and David Navara in round 10. In the first game, Ivanchuk's tricky 34.Ne6 gave him some advantage in a rook ending that Giri was unable to hold. In the second game, Ivanchuk played the Modern Benoni, and when Navara completely abandoned his kingside Black was able to break through on that flank, winning material and the game.
The other round 9 games were drawn, but in today's round 10 Caruana won with Black in a Paulsen against Veselin Topalov, whose score is a most uncharacteristic -2 =8, with no wins. Only two other players are winless so far - Navara, who is having an awful tournament and in dead last, and Loek van Wely, who is having a very good tournament, ratings-wise. Van Wely is the lowest seed in the event at 2692, but he has drawn all ten games!
Standings After Round 10 (of 13):
1. Aronian 7.5
2. Ivanchuk 6.5
3-4. Carlsen, Radjabov 6
5-6. Caruana, Nakamura 5.5
7-8. van Wely, Kamsky 5
9. Karjakin 4.5
10-13. Topalov, Giri, Gelfand, Gashimov (the 3G network?) 4
14. Navara 2.5
Round 11 Pairings (on Friday; Thursday is a rest day):
In the B-group, Pentala Harikrishna is looking unstoppable. In round 9 he defeated Ilya Nyzhnyk, and today he outplayed Daniele Vocaturo in the tactics to win again. He has 8/10, good for a one point lead over Alexander Motylev (and Erwin L'Ami, in case he wins his game).
In Group C, then co-leaders Maxim Turov and Hans Tikkanen both won their games to remain tied, but in round 10 Tikkanen lost to the low-rated Pieter Hopman (a great name for a basketball player!), so Turov's draw with Elisabeth Paehtz gives him a half-point lead over Tikkanen with 8/10. And good news for Matthew Sadler fans: after eight consecutive draws, he finally won again in round 10. He's tied for 4th-6th with 6 points.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:59AM There were many draws in the A-group during round 8 of Wijk aan Zee, but it doesn't mean that the games were either dull or bloodless.
Teimour Radjabov entered the round half a point behind Magnus Carlsen - his opponent - and Levon Aronian. It would have been great for him to win, obviously, but despite having the black pieces Carlsen obtained an enduring, nearly serious pull in a minor piece ending. It was enough to be better and to push, but not enough to win. Like Carlsen, Aronian too had Black, but against Veselin Topalov it was enough to equalize and quickly draw a Queen's Gambit Declined.
Much more spectacular was the draw between Fabiano Caruana and Vassily Ivanchuk. There Caruana went for some sacrifices, but they were only enough in the end to force a perpetual. Another game that was spectacular for a while was the Najdorf battle between Anish Giri and Vugar Gashimov, but Giri always seemed to have the worst of it and lost the day's only decisive game.
Boris Gelfand was very close to joining Giri in the losers' circle, but was bailed out when Gata Kamsky missed a couple of non-trivial winning lines during the time trouble phase of a major piece ending. Finally, Karjakin-Nakamura and Navara-van Wely were drawn as well, giving rise to these standings going into the tournament's second rest day:
Standings After Round 8 (of 13):
1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 5.5
3. Radjabov 5
4-6. Ivanchuk, Caruana, Nakamura 4.5
7-8. Giri, van Wely 4
9-11. Topalov, Karjakin, Kamsky 3.5
12-13. Gashimov, Gelfand 3
14. Navara 2
Round 9 Pairings (on Tuesday):
Carlsen - Karjakin
Aronian - Caruana
Kamsky - Radjabov
Ivanchuk - Giri
Nakamura - Topalov
van Wely - Gelfand
Gashimov - Navara
In the B-group, Harikrishna drew and maintained his lead over Motylev, but it was cut to half a point after the latter won. Harikrishna has 6/8.
In the C-group, Turov drew with Schlechter Sadler, and was caught by Tikkanen in first as both players have 6.5 points.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12:55AM Some friends of Ukranian GM and 2002 FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov have made a nice video commemorating the 10th anniversary of that fine accomplishment, and features comments and well-wishes from various notables, including Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. The whole thing speaks quite well of Ponomariov as a person - and it's great for him to have such fans and friends!
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 2:06AM This week we continue our series on the Ruy Lopez, and we're close to wrapping up the section on the Open Ruy. Having finished with 9.Qe2, 9.Be3 and 9.Nbd2 it's time for 9.c3, and this time around I take a look at the very sharp lines with 9...Bc5. This is some very entertaining theory, so even those of you who wouldn't touch either side of the Open Ruy with a proverbial 10-foot pole might still find the show enjoyable.
Have a look here and see for yourself. The show is free, as always (free one-time only registration required), and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 9:36PM It's a two-man race at Wijk aan Zee - or at least that's how it seems. In fact, while Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian have been taking turns leading (both alone and with each other), Teimour Radjabov is and has been only half a point behind most of the way.
Today was Carlsen's day. He didn't have much with White against Boris Gelfand, who played very well for the first 30 moves. As often happens against Carlsen's opponents, however, Gelfand burned a little too much time trying to keep everything under control, and once time trouble started looming he really fell apart. Carlsen does deserve some credit, obviously, but Gelfand is playing pretty poorly in this tournament.
Levon Aronian had been alone in first, and remains tied there after a pretty easy draw with Black in a Catalan against Vassily Ivanchuk. Not a bad result! As for Radjabov, he also drew comfortably and quickly with the black pieces; in his case against Hikaru Nakamura in a Sveshnikov Sicilian.
The other four games may have been less significant to the race for first - though it's really a bit too early to tell, with six rounds left - but they were all hard-fought. The longest game was the 99-move marathon between Sergey Karjakin and Veselin Topalov, which was not just a battle between players but a battle of streaks as well. Karjakin had only decisive results (two losses, then two wins, then two more losses) while Topalov, uncharacteristically, came in having drawn all six games. For a good chunk of the game it looked like both streaks would come to an end, but from around move 30 on Topalov went from winning to better to equal to worse to lost. Thus Karjakin not only kept his streak alive but kept the 2-2-2 pattern alive as well. (I'm sure he'd like it to continue in round 8 but change afterwards.)
Loek van Wely also came into the round having drawn all his games, but his streak continued. Like Topalov, he had very good winning chances - in his case, against Anish Giri - but a late lapse enabled his young countryman to find an ingenious escape.
Gata Kamsky won a very nice game on the white side of a Berlin against David Navara, while Vugar Gashimov and Fabiano Caruana drew in a different line of the Ruy.
Standings After Round 7 (of 13):
1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 5
3. Radjabov 4.5
4-7. Caruana, Giri, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 4
8. van Wely 3.5
9-11. Topalov, Karjakin, Kamsky 3
12. Gelfand 2.5
13. Gashimov 2
14. Navara 1.5
Round 8 Pairings:
In the B-group, Pentala Harikrishna drew, but is still a point ahead of Alexander Motylev. (They have 5.5 and 4.5 points, respectively.) Timman lost again and dropped to a -1 score.
In Group C, Maxim Turov drew with Hans Tikkanen, his closest pursuer, and thus they maintain their relative positions. Turov leads with 6 points, Tikkanen is in clear second with 5.5. Meanwhile, Matthew Sadler drew yet again - that's six in a row! - and is in a tie for 4th-6th on 4 points.
I've analyzed several group A games, which you can find here.
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 11:58AM From Hikaru Nakamura on ICC, kibitzing the Wijk aan Zee games after drawing against Teimour Radjabov:
CapilanoBridge(GM) kibitzes: None of us tell the truth about how much we study ;)
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:57PM Levon Aronian is simply on fire, and maybe by year's end he too will threaten or surpass Garry Kasparov's all-time rating record of 2851. (Of course it's pretty likely that Magnus Carlsen will pass it first, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Aronian follow suit.) Except for his round 3 loss to Carlsen, he is just about rolling the field and leads the A-group at Wijk aan Zee with a fine score of 4.5/6.
Aronian took the lead by defeating Vugar Gashimov on the white side of a Modern Benoni. Gashimov's queenside pawns got overextended, and when he lost the c-pawn White's extra pawn and bishop pair helped him to grind out the point.
Carlsen started the round tied with Aronian for the lead, and while he didn't win today it wasn't for want of effort. Carlsen equalized with Black against David Navara early on, and the game could very reasonably have been drawn after about 25 moves. Carlsen played and played (and played), but the only result was that he almost got into trouble later on in the game, and had to be a little accurate to save it. Finally, after 81 moves, the players split the point.
Teimour Radjabov caught up to Carlsen, half a point behind Aronian, by defeating Sergey Karjakin. Radjabov was pushing for a long time, but it was only when Karjakin fell into a neat trick near the end that White finally won. After 60.b6! Rxa4 61.b7 Rb4 62.Rc4+! it was time to resign, as 62...Bxc4 63.Nc2+ is followed by 64.Nxb4 and 65.b8Q. It was a nice tactic, but nothing an in-form Karjakin would have missed. His tournament has been quite odd thus far: two losses, two wins, and now two more losses.
Anish Giri beat Gata Kamsky in a long game, but it could have been much shorter had he played 24.Nxg4. Instead, he had to work hard in a superior but probably drawn ending, waiting for a mistake. Eventually that mistake came and the youngster won in 86 moves.
Another case of young guy beats older guy was the game Boris Gelfand-Hikaru Nakamura. Gelfand was fine in the opening, a Leningrad Dutch, but when he tried too hard - and took too long on the clock - looking for an advantage, he was ripe for the picking. Nakamura sharpened the game, and won when Gelfand blundered in time pressure.
Caruana-van Wely and Topalov-Ivanchuk were both drawn, though in both cases White had excellent winning chances.
Standings After Round 6 (of 13):
1. Aronian 4.5
2-3. Carlsen, Radjabov 4
4-7. Caruana, Giri, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 3.5
8-9. van Wely, Topalov 3
10. Gelfand 2.5
11-12. Kamsky, Karjakin 2.5
13-14. Navara, Gashimov 1.5
Round 7 Pairings:
In Group B, Pentala Harikrishna reasserted himself after a couple of draws, defeating the previously resurgent Jan Timman. Harikrishna has 5/6, good for a one-point lead over Alexander Motylev.
In the C-group Maxim Turov was finally held to a draw (admittedly, it's only his second game so far against a titled opponent). Swedish GM Hans Tikkanen did the job, and they remain a point apart atop the leaderboard: Turov has 5.5/6, Tikkanen 4.5. Matthew Sadler remained stuck in his drawing rut, failing today to beat even the 2279-rated FM Etienne Goudriaan, and with the white pieces. (Admittedly, FMs sometimes have their days!) It was a really spectacular game though, and I wholeheartedly recommend my readers find it and even spend some time analyzing it. Sadler is tied for 4th-6th with 3.5 points.
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 12:47AM More about this here.
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 12:07AM Round 4 of Wijk aan Zee was on Tuesday, and by defeating Gata Kamsky in an impressive technical display Levon Aronian bounced back into a shared first place in the A Group with Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen drew with Fabiano Caruana in a Berlin, and not easily, either. As no less a kibitzer (and Berlin expert!) than Vladimir Kramnik noted, 30.f5, not fearing a rook incursion, would have given Black some serious worries.
The day's other winner was Sergey Karjakin, who continued bouncing back from his 0-2 start with a second straight win. This too was a Berlin, and this time around Black was fine. Karjakin was happy to repeat from moves 22-25, but on move 26 David Navara felt obliged to try for more with White. His fighting spirit was not rewarded, at least not on this occasion, and he went on to lose the ending. Fans of king and pawn endings will want to check out the play from move 50 on, as Karjakin had everything calculated perfectly. In the final position, Navara resigned not because he'll lose a long queen ending, but because the queens will come off and Black will have a two pawns-to-nothing advantage. After 61.Kxa1 f1Q+ 62.Kb2 Qe2+ 63.Ka3 Qd3+ 64.Kb2 Qb3+ followed by 65...Qc3+ swaps the ladies. Or 63.Kc1 Qe3+ 64.Kc2 Qd3+ 65.Kb2 (else 65...Qc3+ trades queens) 65...Qb3+ and again 66...Qc3+ is the winning sequel.
Wednesday was a rest day (for all three groups), and then round 5 occurred on Thursday. Both leaders drew, and while no one else caught them the immediate chase pack grew a bit larger. Fabiano Caruana and Teimour Rajdabov stayed half a point behind, and they were joined by Vassily Ivanchuk at 3/5, behind Carlsen's and Aronian's total of 3.5 points.
Carlsen drew, but again only with effort. Giri pressed hard with Black, and if anything missed some opportunities to make life harder for the world's top-rated player. Aronian too had an easy life with Black, as van Wely played a well worked-out line of the Queen's Gambit and got nothing.
There were three wins today. Hikaru Nakamura got back to 50%, as did Boris Gelfand, by defeating Navara and Karjakin, respectively. Navara is in pretty poor form so far (dead last with 1/5), and although Nakamura denied that the game was an easy one he made it look that way. Navara didn't seem to understand very well the particular line of the English Nakamura chose, and he was lost before move 20. As for Gelfand, it was nice to see his old Najdorf-playing self come out for a change. His diligence and bravery were rewarded, as he won the theoretical dispute against Karjakin in a 6.Be3 Ng4 Najdorf. Finally, the third win saw Ivanchuk defeat Vugar Gashimov with Black in an odd Pirc. Gashimov's plan of 12.Ne1 followed by 13.g4 was too ambitious - foolhardy, even - and his attacking hopes never materialized or even came close. Like Nakamura, Ivanchuk was probably winning by move 20.
In the day's other action, Radjabov's game with Veselin Topalov was a short and bloodless draw while Gata Kamsky had to hang on grimly for a long time against Caruana before he could save his half a point.
Standings After Round 5 (of 13):
1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 3.5
3-5. Caruana, Ivanchuk, Radjabov 3
6-10. Giri, van Wely, Topalov, Nakamura, Gelfand 2.5
11-12. Kamsky, Karjakin 2
13. Gashimov 1.5
14. Navara 1
Round 6 Pairings:
In the B Group, Pentala Harikrishna drew his last two games but still enjoys the clear lead with 4/5; Alexander Motylev is in clear second with 3.5 points. Erwin L'Ami and Jan Timman are tied for third-fourth with 3 points apiece.
In Group C, Maxim Turov is trying his best to run away with the event. After five rounds he has five points, but four of his five opponents have been significantly lower rated while the fifth has been in very bad form so far. Thus it's a bit early to crown him the champion, but so far, so good. His most obvious competition, judging by ratings, is Matthew Sadler, but he is in a drawing rut. After four straight draws he has just three points overall. It's still early, though, and far too soon to write him off from the battle for first.