Corus Wijk aan Zee 2010 (Teenagers)
Teenagers excel at Wijk
IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 10th February 2010
Teenagers have dominated the recent Wijk aan Zee tournaments.
Karjakin and Carlsen won Wijk aan Zee in 2009 and 2010. Photo © Mark Crowther | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
Last year's Wijk aan Zee was a teenage rampage as Group A was won by Sergey Karjakin the of Ukraine and now of Russia, Group B by the Italian prodigy Fabiano Caruana and Group C by Wesley So of the Philippines. Caruana and So were promoted to groups A and B respectively. This year was not a lot different although the Chinese player Li Chao, a relative veteran at twenty, won group C. See the table of birthdates below.
2010
Magnus Carlsen 1990.11.30 19 years old
Anish Giri 1994.06.28 15 years old
Li Chao 1989.04.21 20 years old
2009
Sergey Karjakin 1990.01.12 19 years old
Fabiano Caruana 1992.07.30 16 years old
Wesley So 1993.10.09 15 years old
Li Chao had a slice of good fortune against American prodigy Ray Robson.
Li Chao - R Robson
Sicilian Dragon Yugoslav Attack
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.h4 Ne5 11.Bb3 h5 12.0-0-0 Rc8 13.Bg5 Rc5 14.Kb1 b5 15.g4 hxg4 16.h5 Nxh5 17.Nd5 Nf6
(17...Re8 is possible because 18.Rxh5 gxh5 19.Bh6 e6 wins)
18.Bh6 Nxd5 19.Bxg7 Kxg7 20.Qh6+ Kf6 21.exd5
(It looks more natural to play 21.Bxd5 and if Nxf3 22.Nxf3 gxf3 23.Rdf1)
21...Nxf3 22.Ne2
(22.Nxf3 gxf3 23.Rd3 e5! Preparing Ke7)
22...e5 23.dxe6 Bxe6 24.Qf4+ Rf5 25.Qxg4 Kg7
(25...Ke7)
26.Bxe6 fxe6 27.Nd4 Nxd4 28.Qxd4+ e5 29.Qxa7+ R8f7 30.Qe3
(Black's weak king is certainly enough for the pawn but a draw would have been a fair result however there was time trouble to contend with
30...Qg5 31.Qd3 Qf6 32.a3 Rf2 33.Qh3 Qf5?? 34.Qh8#
In the last round at Wijk Nigel Short entertained the crowd briefly with a sacrificial counter to Jan Smeets' Petroff Defence but had to force perpetual check and ended the event without a win. Short's performance was similar to the London Chess Classic, He played some good games but could not convert his advantages.
My Computer suggests that 10...d6 11.Ndf3+ Kg4 12.h3+ Kg3 may be winning for Black but in practice no human would consider playing this.
N Short - J Smeets
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5 5.Bc4 Nxf2 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Qd5+ Kg6 8.Bg5 Qe8 9.Nh4+ Kxg5 10.Nd2 Kh6 11.Nf5+ Kg6 12.Nh4+ Kh6 13.Nf5+ Kg6 14.Nh4+ draw
Jan Smeets
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Nigel Short
Final position after 14.Nh4+
