Experience still waiting for first win

Chess journalists are having a hard time trying to write originally about the NH Chess Tournament. Also in the third round, the Rising Stars showed no mercy and defeated their Experienced colleagues, without losing a game. But with a score of only 3?Ǭ?-1?Ǭ?, the legends are improving.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the two eldest players of the tournament are the ones who have lost all of their games thus far. But rules like this normally don't count in chess, and especially not for the indefatigable Viktor Korchnoi. Still, he's not performing well ("I'm playing badly so I don't want to answer questions", he said yesterday). Perhaps it's the age difference that's finally demoralizing him: every single round, his opponents are more than half a century younger than him - it as never been that bad!

The way he lost yesterday, must have disappointed even his biggest fans. His opponent Cheparinov played the King's Indian, an opening Korchnoi always loved to prove unplayable. But instead of a fine positional battle, revealing decades of experience, one incomprehensible move (18.Bxa6) gave Black the advantage, and with a few logical attacking moves Cheparinov turned it into a winning advantage. Instead of resigning, Korchnoi lost on time on move 25.

Perhaps even more disappointing was Jussupow's loss, since the German grandmaster had a very promising position out of the opening. Perhaps he should have prevented Black's ...b5-break with 26.a4 (as suggested in the press room by GM Hans Ree) but clearly wrong was 36.Rc3? allowing Black to play a winning positional queen sacrifice.

Erwin L'Ami drew all of his games so far, but yesterday he was actually in trouble, against Agdestein. But the Norwegian GM couldn't convert an ending with an extra pawn. The other Dutch Rising Star, Stellwagen, had a few nervous moments as well, after he had "stupidly" lost a pawn, but then Ljubojevic didn't make the most of his chances. By then Bareev-Caruana had ended long ago and, well, this game wasn't too exciting.

Here are the games of the third round:






For all chess fans who happen to be in the neighbourhood: today and tomorrow, GM Loek van Wely will give commentary to the games in Hotel Krasnapolsky (admission is free).

Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN