Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 2011 (12)
Nakamura retains the lead with a round to play
IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 31st January 2011
Hikaru Nakamura retains the lead of the A-Group in Wijk aan Zee after a short draw in Round 12 against Vladimir Kramnik. Malcolm Pein also takes a look at Magnus Carlsen's defeat of Wang Hao.
Carlsen defeats Wang Hao. Photo © Frits Agterdenbos. | http://www.chessvista.com/
The US number one Hikaru Nakamura led the Tata Steel tournament at Wijk aan Zee with one to play. In round 11 Nakamura defeated Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi as Vishy Anand was held by Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and looked to be under pressure for most of the game. The world champion was actually lost in the twelth and penultimate round with white against the 16 year old prodigy Anish Giri but survived and trails the American by half a point.
Magnus Carlsen played a beautiful endgame to defeat Vladimir Kramnik in round eleven and then crushed Wang Hao to reach 7.5/12, half a point behind Anand and a point behind Nakamura.
M Carlsen - Wang Hao
Caro Kann
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Be3 e6 5.Nd2 Nd7 6.Ngf3 Bg6 7.Be2 Ne7 8.Nh4
(Carlsen secures the bishop pair. As he has a passive knight on d2 and a well placed one on f3, he exchanges one)
8...c5 9.c3 Nc6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Nf3
(White's centre is secure, Black's doubled 'g' pawns would be weak if he tried f7-f6)
11...Rc8
(11...c4!? retaining the option of 0-0-0)
12.0-0 a6 13.g3 Be7 14.h4 b5 15.a4 Qb6 16.axb5 axb5 17.Kg2 c4 18.Ng5
(Intending h4-h5)
18...Qd8 19.Bg4 Bxg5
(19...b4 20.Bxe6 fxe6 21.Nxe6 Qb6 22.Qg4 with a winning attack)
20.Bxg5 Qc7 21.Rh1 Nb6
(21...Ne7 22.h5 gxh5 23.Bxh5 Nf5 24.Bg4 Nh6 25.Qd2)
22.h5 gxh5 23.Bxh5 Na4
Wang Hao
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Magnus Carlsen
Position after 23...Na4
24.Bxf7+!! Kxf7
(24...Qxf7 25.Rxh8+)
25.Qf3+ Kg8 26.Rxh8+ Kxh8 27.Rh1+ Kg8 28.Qh5 Rf8
How did Carlsen force resignation?
Wang Hao
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Magnus Carlsen
Position after 28...Rf8
Answer to puzzle: 29.Bf6! 1-0
In view of 29.Bf6 Rf7 30.Qh8#; 29.Bf6 Qd7 30.Rh4; 29.Bf6gxf6 30.Qh8+ Kf7 31.Qh7+ Ke8 32.Qxc7. Also29.Qh7+ Kf7 30.Rh6 wins.
In Group B Luke McShane is joint leader going into the last round after defeating former world junior champion Wesley So. The tournament is set up perfectly as he faces co-leader David Navara in the final game. McShane's rating performance is 2779.
Leaders with one to play at Wijk aan Zee
Scores: 1 Nakamura (USA) 8.5/12; 2 Anand (India) 8; 3-4 Aronian (Armenia), Carlsen (Norway 7.5; 5-6 Kramnik (Russia), Vachier-Lagrave (France) 7;
At the Tradewise Chess Festival in Gibraltar, Nigel Short shares the lead with Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia on 4/4.
D Fridman - F De Cresce El Debs
Slav Defence
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qb3 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bg4 6.Nc3 Nbd7 7.e4 Bxf3 8.gxf3 e5 9.Be3 exd4 10.Bxd4 Bd6 11.0-0-0 Qc7 12.Ne2 0-0 13.Qc2 Nh5 14.Kb1 Rad8 15.Be3 Rfe8 16.Qc1 Nf8 17.Ng3 Nf6 18.Nf5 Ne6 19.Bc4 Be5 20.Rxd8 Rxd8 21.Rg1 g6 22.Nh6+ Kf8 23.Bxe6 fxe6 24.f4 1-0
