Corus round 11

The moment of truth has come. Three more Corus rounds to go, and today's the first. A long weekend of top chess! (video added)

We've put the pairings of the last three days below, so it's easy to see who's playing whom from now. Leader Carlsen has the toughest future: Anand, Kramnik and Radjabov. Today it will be clear to what extend Corus is a priority for world champion Anand - will he try to win against the young Norwegian? Another question is: how quickly will today's (Petroff-opened) game Leko-Kramnik end in a draw?

Update 15:28h

In Topalov-Mamedyarov, the Petrosian Variation of the King's Indian has been played - the last top player who used that line on a regular basis was Kramnik in the nineties. Radjabov too is still faithful to the KI, this time with 7?¢‚Ǩ¬¶Nbd7 against Gelfand. With White against Van Wely, Aronian is playing the same Slav line with which he beat Gelfand earlier in the tournament (deviating with 15.Rb1).

Anand indeed seems to be trying for some more than a draw today, considering his opening choice (a Scheveningen). Carlsen's 15.g4 is somewhat wat unusual (normally first Nd4-b4 is played) but he has a nice, active position now. Leko-Kramnik partly went according to our predictions: it was a Petroff indeed, but Black suddenlt gave a bishop for three pawns and an attack. Ivanchuk-Adams looks like a Catalan but the software tells us Queen's Gambit Declined; in any case Black already seems to have reached equality. Eljanov too looks pretty comfortable against Polgar in a Ruy Lopez.

In B, Nepomniachtchi tries to do something against Movsesian's almost certain tournament victory and in C, the top game is Reinderman-Negi (both shared first, behind Caruana.

An interesting little sidestory is about smoking. Bacrot is one of the few players who smokes cigarettes during the game, but according to new Dutch law, this is only allowed outsite the venue. For this, an arbiter always accompanies the Frenchman.

Some day ago, Dutch IM Rob Hartoch, whily smoking in a little tent right next to the playing hall, especially created for the true addicts, complained: "Why is it that we can't smoke anymore, while the Corus chimneys produce smoke all over Wijk aan Zee!"

Update 16:27

Three games have finished. Leko-Kramnik was a quick draw after all, when Black's "attack" soon resulted in perpetual. The way Kramnik rushed away, revealed some disappointment. "Perhaps he's mad at Loek, that he made a mistake in his analysis," said Jan van de Mortel. In B, Bacrot outplayed Krasenkow completely with Black. In the diagram position, the nice execution was 30... Ne2+ 31. Kh1 Rb1! 32. h3 Nxf2+ 33. Kh2 Rxf1 34. Bxf1 Nc3 and White resigned. Braun & Van der Wiel drew their game already in C.

Update 17:34h

Just a quick update on the many developments and results. Carlsen has lost after he had missed 33.Rxf5, and when Anand told him after the game, Magnus just said "ouch". Probably Anand will do the press conference, so then we will know more. Aronian beat Van Wely in a very complicated game - Black seemed close to a fortress but after 37.Qg8 it suddenly was over already. Radjabov won a fine game Gelfand en Ivanchuk-Adams was indeed equal all the time.

Update 19:07

Here Aronian's reaction after his win against Van Wely:

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Update 20:08h

Topalov-Mamedyarov ended in a sudden perpetual somewhere in the middlegame; the position was dynamically balanced. The last A game we haven't mentioned yet is Polgar-Eljanov and in this one, the B-promovendus actually gained his first win, with which he climbed to third last place. What Polgar was doing didn't look very well

In B, Erwin l'Ami fell into a neat trap against Wouter Spoelman. In the diagram position Black punished White's pawn march e3-e4 with 33...Rf8 34.Rf1 (34.f4 doesn't help because of 34...Nxf4! and 34.Qc2 fails to 34...Qf3! 35.exd5 Rf6 and White gets mated) 34. ...Rxb1 35.Qxb1 Ne3! 36.Nb3 (36.fxe3 c2!) 36...Nxf1 37.Qxf1 Qf3 resigns.

Just like Bacrot, Short won again as well and so Movsesian, clear first on half a point, has to be careful. Cheparinov lost again and must be very unhappy right now. In C, Caruana beat Ushenina and thus increased his gap with Negi and Reinderman, who drew their game.

The Honorary Four is actually big fun, with much more decisive games than expected. Ljubojevic beat Korchnoi and Portisch defeated Timman, and so Ljubo and Viktor lead with 3 out of 5.

All games from today:

Photos by forest:

Round 11 - Friday the 25th L. Aronian - L. van Wely 1-0 V. Ivanchuk - M. Adams ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? J. Polgar - P. Eljanov 0-1 V. Topalov - S. Mamedyarov ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? B. Gelfand - T. Radjabov 0-1 P. Leko - V. Kramnik ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? M. Carlsen - V. Anand 0-1	Round 11 - Friday the 25th J. Smeets - N. Short 0-1 I. Nepomniachtchi - S. Movsesian ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? E. L'Ami - W. Spoelman 0-1 H. Koneru - D. Stellwagen ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? G. Sargissian - Y. Hou 0-1 I. Cheparinov - P. Harikrishna 0-1 M. Krasenkow - E. Bacrot 0-1	Round 11 - Friday the 25th M. van der Werf - I. Krush D. Ruijgrok - Z. Peng 0-1 D. Reinderman - P. Negi ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? E. Grivas - F. Nijboer ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? F. Caruana - A. Ushenina 1-0 P. Carlsson - S. Li ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? A. Braun - J. van der Wiel ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Round 12 - Saturday the 26th L. van Wely - V. Anand V. Kramnik - M. Carlsen T. Radjabov - P. Leko S. Mamedyarov - B. Gelfand P. Eljanov - V. Topalov M. Adams - J. Polgar L. Aronian - V. Ivanchuk	Round 12 - Saturday the 26th N. Short - E. Bacrot P. Harikrishna - M. Krasenkow Y. Hou - I. Cheparinov D. Stellwagen - G. Sargissian W. Spoelman - H. Koneru S. Movsesian - E. L'Ami J. Smeets - I. Nepomniachtchi	Round 12 - Saturday the 26th I. Krush - J. van der Wiel S. Li - A. Braun A. Ushenina - P. Carlsson F. Nijboer - F. Caruana P. Negi - E. Grivas Z. Peng - D. Reinderman M. van der Werf - D. Ruijgrok
Round 13 - Sunday the 27th L. Aronian - L. van Wely V. Ivanchuk - M. Adams J. Polgar - P. Eljanov V. Topalov - S. Mamedyarov B. Gelfand - T. Radjabov P. Leko - V. Kramnik M. Carlsen - V. Anand	Round 13 - Sunday the 27th J. Smeets - N. Short I. Nepomniachtchi - S. Movsesian E. L'Ami - W. Spoelman H. Koneru - D. Stellwagen G. Sargissian - Y. Hou I. Cheparinov - P. Harikrishna M. Krasenkow - E. Bacrot	Round 13 - Sunday the 27th M. van der Werf - I. Krush D. Ruijgrok - Z. Peng D. Reinderman - P. Negi E. Grivas - F. Nijboer F. Caruana - A. Ushenina P. Carlsson - S. Li A. Braun - J. van der Wiel

Schedule/results Honorary Four:

Round 1 - Saturday the 19th L. Ljubojevic - J. Timman 0-1 V. Kortchnoi - L. Portisch 1-0	Round 2 - Sunday the 20th V. Kortchnoi - J. Timman ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? L. Portisch - L. Ljubojevic ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?	Round 3 - Tuesday the 22nd J. Timman - L. Portisch ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? L. Ljubojevic - V. Kortchnoi ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Round 4 - Wednesday the 23rd J. Timman - L. Ljubojevic 0-1 L. Portisch - V. Kortchnoi 0-1	Round 5 - Friday the 25th L. Portisch - J. Timman 1-0 V. Kortchnoi - L. Ljubojevic 0-1	Round 6 - Saturday the 26th J. Timman - V. Kortchnoi L. Ljubojevic - L. Portisch

Complete schedule + results »


External links:

• Tournament website
• Macauley's videos
• Live web commentary (Chessdom)
• Web commentary Chesspro (Russian)
• Photos by the official tournament photographer Fred Lucas
• Photos by Frits Agterdenbos (ChessVista)
• PGN A group, B group & C group