Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010 (5)
Another win for Shirov
IM Malcolm Pein - Sunday 24th January 2010
Alexei Shirov took his score to 5/5 at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament.
Alexei Shirov. Photo © Frits Agterdenbos | http://www.chessvista.com
The fifth round at Wijk aan Zee was rather like the first four, plenty of interesting chess, Alexey Shirov won again and the Dutch, in the main, were tonked. Shirov has beaten the three Dutchmen in successive rounds but he looked significantly worse for much of his game against Loek Van Wely. 'King Loek' sacrificed rook for bishop and had decent compensation but seemed determined to win at all costs, eschewing a few drawing lines before being forced into a lost endgame. Shirov has an enormous lead, 1.5 points, but he is yet to play any of the favourites. Magnus Carlsen was pressed hard by Hikaru Nakamura but held the draw with black.
Nigel Short pressed Vasily Ivanchuk but the Ukrainian's defences just held, indeed he had to display some ingenuity to secure the half point while Vladimir Kramnik moved up the field with his first win. I was delighted to see 4...a6 as I play it myself and it's rarely ventured at the top level. Smeets' rather meek 5.Be2 is exactly the move one would want to see playing black as it is not an attempt at refutation. Playing a move like a6 early involves some risk. The bishop on f1 should either stay at home for the moment or go to d3 as after b7-b5 the e4 pawn is threatened. 5.f3 is a sensible plan to cover e4 and go for g2-g4 also 5.Nf3 and 6.Qd2 is sound, playing the '150 Attack'. As played White is ill-prepared for e4-e5 and he is soon worse. A canny opening choice from Kramnik that surprised and wrong footed his opponent.
J Smeets - V Kramnik
Pirc Defence
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 a6 5.Be2 Bg7 6.Qd2 b5 7.Bh6 0-0 8.e5
(8.a3 Bb7 9.f3 c5)
8...dxe5 9.Bxg7 Kxg7 10.Bf3 c6 11.dxe5 Qxd2+ 12.Kxd2 Rd8+ 13.Ke3 Ng4+ 14.Bxg4 Bxg4 15.h3
(15.Nge2 c5 16.Rhd1 Nc6 17.f4 Nb4 18.Rxd8 Rxd8 19.Rc1 Bf5)
15...Bf5 16.g4 Bxc2 17.Rc1 b4 18.Rxc2 bxc3 19.Nf3
(19.Rxc3 Rd1 looks very annoying)
19...cxb2 20.Rb1 Rd5 21.e6 c5 22.exf7 Nc6 23.Rbxb2 Rad8 24.Ke4 Kxf7
(Kramnik is a pawn up but converting it is not easy)
25.Rc3 Nd4 26.Ne5+ Ke8 27.Rb6 Nb5 28.Rc2 R5d6! 29.Nc4 Rd3 30.Ne3
(30.Rxa6 R8d4+ 31.Ke5 Kf7 Intending Nc3 and Re2 mate)
30...Ra3 31.Rb2
(31.Rxc5 Nd6+ 32.Kf3 Rxa2)
31...c4 32.Ke5?! c3 33.Rc2 Rd2 34.Rc1 Rxf2 35.Nd5 c2 36.Nb4 Re3+ 37.Kd5 Rd2+ 38.Kc6 Rc3+ 39.Kb7 Nd6+ 40.Ka8 a5 0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
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Jan Smeets
Final position after 40...a5
Scores:
Scores: 1 Shirov 5/5; 2-4 Nakamura, Carlsen, Ivanchuk 3.5; 5 Kramnik 3; 6-8 Karjakin, Dominguez, Anand (5 draws each) 2.5; 9-11 Caruana, Leko, Tiviakov 2; 12 Short 1.5; 13 Van Wely 1; 14 Smeets 0.5;
In group B David Howell scored a fine win over Ni Hua who he also defeated at the London Chess Classic and is now half a point behind the 15 year old Dutch champion Anish Guri who outplayed Emil Sutovsky in a Gruenfeld Defence endgame to reach 4/5. Black is soon bound to the defence of b7.
A Giri- E Sutovsky
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.Rb1 a6 11.Rc1 cxd4 12.cxd4 Qxd2+ 13.Kxd2 f5 14.e5 Be6 15.Bc4 Bxc4 16.Rxc4 0-0 17.Ke2 Rad8
(17...e6 18.Rb1 Rf7)
18.Rb1 Rd5
(18...Rd7 19.Ng5? f4! So 19.a4)
19.a4 Rfd8 20.g3 h6 21.h4
(21.Rxb7? Na5)
21...Na5
(21...Kf7 22.Rb6 R8d7)
22.Rc7 R5d7 23.Rc5! Rd5 24.Rxd5 Rxd5 25.Rb6 Kf7
(25...Rd7 26.Rxg6)
26.Bd2 Bf8
(26...Nc6 27.Bc3 Nd8)
27.Bc3 e6 28.Ne1!
(No hurry)
28...Be7 29.Nc2 Bd8 30.Bxa5 Rxa5 31.Rxb7+ Ke8 32.Rb4 Rd5 33.Rc4 Rd7 34.Rc6 Kf7 35.Rxa6 Rb7 36.a5 Rb2 37.Kd3 Ra2 38.Ra7+ 1-0
