Kramnik Beats Nakamura At Corus
Round eight at Corus 2010 matched up the leading players against one another in crucial encounters.
Vladimir Kramnik (pictured) had to play accurately in the early stages against Nakamura's Dutch defence, but he emerged unscathed and fought back for a memorable and deserved win.
The other major clash of the day was between leader Alexei Shirov and Magnus Carlsen. Both players were out for blood, but could not avoid an eventual repetition of moves to share the points.
On an eventful day, Peter Leko won for the second time. Jan Smeets was his victim, as he has been for many others, and remains rooted at the bottom of the table.
Fabiano Caruana recovered some ground from two previous losses by overcoming Sergei Tiviakov's Centre Counter defence.
The other Sergey - Karjakin, ended his string of seven draws by beating Nigel Short to leave world champion Vishy Anand as the only player who has yet to win or lose a game.
In the 'B' Group, the two winners from yesterday clashed today and Anish Giri defeated David Howell to extend his lead to a comfortable one and a half points once again. At the other end of the table, Dmitri Reinderman beat Varuzhan Akobian to leapfrog past him out of last place.
Group 'B' also delivered the longest game of the day, with Pental Harikrishna making Erwin L'Ami sweat until finally agreeing a draw on move 127.
Monday is a rest day, so round 9 is on Tuesday.
The full results in round 8:
| Group A | ||
| Shirov, Alexei | ½-½ | Carlsen, Magnus |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 1-0 | Nakamura, Hikaru |
| Leko, Peter | 1-0 | Smeets, Jan |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | ½-½ | Van Wely, Loek |
| Karjakin, Sergey | 1-0 | Short, Nigel D |
| Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | Ivanchuk, Vassily |
| Caruana, Fabiano | 1-0 | Tiviakov, Sergei |
| Group B | ||
| Giri, Anish | 1-0 | Howell, David W L |
| Ni Hua | ½-½ | So, Wesley |
| L'Ami, Erwin | ½-½ | Harikrishna, P |
| Sutovsky, Emil | ½-½ | Naiditsch, Arkadij |
| Nyback, Tomi | ½-½ | Muzychuk, Anna |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ½-½ | Negi, Parimarjan |
| Reinderman, Dimitri | 1-0 | Akobian, Varuzhan |
| Group C | ||
| Robson, Ray | ½-½ | Plukkel, Sjoerd |
| Gupta, Abhijeet | ½-½ | Li Chao |
| Swinkels, Robin | ½-½ | Vocaturo, Daniele |
| Grandelius, Nils | 1-0 | Van Kampen, Robin |
| Kuipers, Stefan | 0-1 | Peng Zhaoqin |
| Muzychuk, Mariya | ½-½ | Bok, Benjamin |
| Soumya, Swaminathan | ½-½ | Lie, Kjetil A |
The standings after round 8:
| Group A | ||||
| 1 | Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2723 | 6 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2810 | 5½ |
| 3 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2788 | 5½ |
| 4 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2708 | 5 |
| 5 | Leko, Peter | HUN | 2739 | 4½ |
| 6 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2712 | 4½ |
| 7 | Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 2720 | 4½ |
| 8 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2749 | 4½ |
| 9 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2790 | 4 |
| 10 | Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2675 | 3½ |
| 11 | Short, Nigel D | ENG | 2696 | 2½ |
| 12 | Tiviakov, Sergei | NED | 2662 | 2½ |
| 13 | Van Wely, Loek | NED | 2641 | 2 |
| 14 | Smeets, Jan | NED | 2657 | 1½ |
| Group B | ||||
| 1 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2588 | 6½ |
| 2 | Ni Hua | CHN | 2657 | 5 |
| 3 | L'Ami, Erwin | NED | 2615 | 5 |
| 4 | So, Wesley | PHI | 2656 | 5 |
| 5 | Harikrishna, P | IND | 2672 | 4½ |
| 6 | Howell, David W L | ENG | 2606 | 4½ |
| 7 | Naiditsch, Arkadij | GER | 2687 | 4½ |
| 8 | Negi, Parimarjan | IND | 2621 | 4 |
| 9 | Sutovsky, Emil | ISR | 2657 | 3½ |
| 10 | Nyback, Tomi | FIN | 2643 | 3 |
| 11 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2681 | 3 |
| 12 | Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | 2523 | 3 |
| 13 | Reinderman, Dimitri | NED | 2573 | 2½ |
| 14 | Akobian, Varuzhan | USA | 2628 | 2 |
| Group C | ||||
| 1 | Robson, Ray | USA | 2570 | 6 |
| 2 | Gupta, Abhijeet | IND | 2577 | 5½ |
| 3 | Li Chao | CHN | 2604 | 5½ |
| 4 | Vocaturo, Daniele | ITA | 2495 | 5 |
| 5 | Swinkels, Robin | NED | 2495 | 5 |
| 6 | Peng Zhaoqin | NED | 2402 | 4½ |
| 7 | Grandelius, Nils | SWE | 2515 | 4½ |
| 8 | Lie, Kjetil A | NOR | 2547 | 4 |
| 9 | Van Kampen, Robin | NED | 2456 | 4 |
| 10 | Kuipers, Stefan | NED | 2340 | 3½ |
| 11 | Muzychuk, Mariya | UKR | 2447 | 3 |
| 12 | Bok, Benjamin | NED | 2322 | 2½ |
| 13 | Plukkel, Sjoerd | NED | 2279 | 1½ |
| 14 | Soumya, Swaminathan | IND | 2323 | 1½ |
Selected games from the round:
