Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010 (7)
Kramnik holds on against Short
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 26th January 2010
Nigel Short was incredibly unlucky not to score his first win. Short outplayed Vladimir Kramnik, reached a won endgame but the former world champion resisted tenaciously before Short tired and allowed a stalemate trick.
Kramnik held on against Short in Round 7. Photo © Michiel Ablen. | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
The Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee has passed the halfway mark and Alexei Shirov, formerly the runaway leader is feeling the pressure. Shirov won five in a row before Nigel Short halted his run with solid play as Black in a Ruy Lopez and Hikaru Nakamura, playing for the first time at Wijk aan Zee outplayed him in a Sicilian Sveshnikov. Shirov still leads but only by half a point from Nakamura and world number one Magnus Carlsen who took the pawn Vassily Ivanchuk sacrificed and the bishop he blundered. Nigel Short was incredibly unlucky not to score his first win. Short outplayed Vladimir Kramnik, reached a won endgame but the former world champion resisted tenaciously before Short tired and allowed a stalemate trick.
Here is the denouement.
Vladimir Kramnik
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Nigel Short
Position after 60.Kg5
Short was two pawns up but had to jettison one on h3 to avoid perpetual check. Now imagine the position without a black queen or g7 pawn, it's stalemate and so the game ended
60...Qh6+ 61.Kf5 g6+ 62.Ke5 Qg5+ 63.fxg5 draw
61...Qxf4+ 62.Kxf4 g5+ is a flashier way of doing it.
M Carlsen - V Ivanchuk
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Qc2 g6 6.Bd3 Be6 7.b3 Bg7 8.Nge2 c5 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nxd5 Bxd5 11.e4 Be6 12.Qxc5 Nc6 13.Be3 Rc8 14.Qa3 0-0 15.Rd1 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 Bxd4 17.Bb1 Bc5 18.b4 Qxd1+!?
(18...Bxf2+ 19.Kxf2 Qb6+ 20.Qe3 Qxb4 21.Rd2 is also insufficient)
19.Kxd1 Bxf2 20.Nf4 Bc4 21.Bd3 Rfd8 22.Ke2 Bxd3+ 23.Kxf2 Rc2+ 24.Kf3 Bc4 25.Rc1 Rxa2 26.Qc3 b5 27.Ra1 Rdd2 28.Rxa2 Rxa2 29.h4 h5 30.g4 hxg4+ 31.Kxg4 f6 32.e5 Kf7 33.exf6 exf6 34.Qe3 Rc2 35.Qa7+ 1-0
Scores:
Scores: 1 Shirov 5.5/7; 2-3 Nakamura, Carlsen, 5; 4-Kramnik 4.5; 5-6 Ivanchuk, Dominguez 4; 7-9 Karjakin, Anand (7 draws each), Leko 3.5; 10-11 Tiviakov, Short Caruana 2.5; 13-14 Van Wely, Smeets 1.5;
David Howell lost to Emil Sutovsky the sixth round of Group B but then got back into contention with this smashing victory.
D Howell - T Nyback
Scotch Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3 Nge7 7.Bc4 Ne5 8.Be2 Qg6 9.0-0 d6 10.Kh1 0-0 11.Nd2 Ng4 12.Bf4 Nc6 13.f3 Nge5
(13...Nf6 14.N2b3 Bb6 15.a4 with an edge)
14.Be3 Bb6 15.f4 Nxd4 16.cxd4 Nc6 17.f5 Qf6 18.e5 dxe5 19.Ne4 Qd8 20.Bc4 Na5
(20...Bxd4 21.Bg5 Qd7 22.Nf6+ gxf6 23.Bxf6 wins)
21.f6 Bxd4 22.fxg7 Kxg7 23.Bg5 1-0
Qh5 followed by Bf6+ Rxf7+ or Ng5 is overwhelming.
