Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010 (10)
Anand hands Kramnik the lead
IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 29th January 2010
Vishy Anand may have taken Vladimir Kramnik's world title but he did him a favour in tenth round at Corus tournament when he broke his run of nine draws and defeated the co-leader Alexey Shirov.
Anand defeated Shirov in Round 10. Photo © Mark Crowther | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
Vishy Anand may have taken Vladimir Kramnik's world title but he did him a favour in tenth round at Corus tournament when he broke his run of nine draws and defeated the co-leader Alexey Shirov. It was Shirov's first defeat and Kramnik's nervy draw with Vassily Ivanchuk gave him the sole lead on 7/10 with three to play but as well as Shirov he has world number one Magnus Carlsen in hot pursuit.
Carlsen defeated Sergey Karjakin in what your correspondent found a mystifying game in which Karjakin, playing white seemed to have the initiative and better placed pieces but was soon worse. So the tournament is set up perfectly for the last three rounds.
Scores:
Scores with three to play: 1 Kramnik 7/10; 2-3 Shirov, Carlsen 6.5; 4-8 Anand, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Dominguez, Nakamura 5.5; 9 Leko 5; 11-12 Caruana, Tiviakov 4; 12-13 Short, Van Wely 3.5; 14 Smeets 2.5;
The critical moment. Anand has just played 39.Ne6!? a very tricky but unsound move and Shirov had only 30 seconds to work out the ramifications.
39...Rxe6?
(Black wins after 39...Ng3! 40.Nxg5 Rxe1!; 39...Ng3 40.Rxb4! Rc8! 41.Qd2 Bxe6 42.Rxe6 Rxe6 43.dxe6 Qc5+ also wins for Black)
40.dxe6 Re5 41.Rxb4 Qd8
(41...Ng3 42.Rb8+ Kh7 43.Qxd6 wins)
42.Qd4
(42.Rb6! and if 42...Ng3 43.Rxd6)
42...f3! 43.gxf3 Ng5 44.Rxe5 Nxf3+ 45.Kf2 Nxe5 46.Rb6
(Shirov has created some play but it is insufficient. Black is rook for knight down)
46...Bxe6 47.Be2 Qf6+ 48.Ke3! Qg5+ 49.Qf4 Qg1+ 50.Kd2 Qa1 51.Rxd6 Qxa5+ 52.Kd1 g5
(52...Qa1+ 53.Qc1 forces the exchange of queens into a won endgame)
53.Qd4 Kf7 54.Rd5! Bxd5 55.Qxe5 1-0
Alexei Shirov
 | | | | | |  | |
| | | |  | | | |
 | | | |  | | | |
 | | | | |  |  | |
 | | | |  | | | |
| | |  | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | |  |  | |
Viswanathan Anand
Position after 39.Ne6
The lowest rated player in group C showed he must not be taken lightly
N Grandelius - B Bok
English Opening
1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Rb1 Nc6 8.h4 h6 9.Qa4 0-0 10.h5 g5 11.f4 e5 12.Ba3 Re8 13.f5 e4 14.Bxe4 Nd4 15.Bg2 Bxf5 16.Rxb7 Nc2+ 17.Kf2 Qxd2 18.Bf3 Qe1+ 19.Kg2 Ne3+ 20.Kh2 Qf2+ 21.Bg2 Qxg2# 0-1
B Bok
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
N Grandelius
Final position after 21...Qxg2#
