'The Kid' strikes with the KID

Perhaps it was the combination of the storm that was hitting the Dutch coast with 10 bft and the fact that there were no amateur games, that made it awfully quiet yesterday at the Corus Chess Tournament. The visitors who made the trip to Wijk aan Zee were paid for their efforts as there were some interesting games again. Of course there was the first victory of Loek van Wely and the third win with Black for 'The Kid' Teimour Radjabov. As I think this is quite unique I would like to pay some attention to this game.

All the games with Black of Radjabov so far were King's Indians and he won them all. This famous opening came a bit under a cloud after Kasparov quit playing it. Especially the (now perhaps not so) fearsome Bayonet Attack made the Black case hard to defend. The funny thing is that I know three repertoire books for White (Starting Out 1.d4! by John Cox, Play 1.d4! by Richard Pallister and Beating the Indian Defences by Graham Burgess & Steffen Pedersen) which all recommend the Bayonet (9.b4).

In game 1 and 3 Radjabov defeated respectively Loek van Wely and Alexei Shirov in this very variation. The former must have tasted especially sweet as last year Van Wely beat him convincingly in Khanty Mansiysk. But it seems that Radjabov has unconditional faith in the variation and perhaps there are more super-GMs to follow. Who would disagree with the tournament leader (4,5 out of 5)? Back to today's game. Radjabov played David Navara who did not go for the Bayonet but the more quiet variation with 5.Bg5. After a bold pawn sac by Black, White got the better position and it seemed that Radjabov was in danger. Navara - who made quite an impression to me with his draw against Kramnik - failed to exploit his advantage and after several major inaccuracies he allowed Radjabov to perform a pretty finish.



>> open in a new window "^Reports^"Books, Opening theory"^^1169221722^1314786230^Oak "A game from the C group"^"Wednesday was a rest day so in the three main groups there was no chess in Wijk aan Zee. A nice opportunity for some chess players for sightseeing at the seaside resort, shopping, visiting coffee-houses or even exploring the nightlife. Surely this does not apply to GM Harmen Jonkman, who is living in the neighbourhood and must have seen the idyllic of the little town by now. No, certainly he and his seconds have been preparing the next match against the leader of group C, Ian Nepomniachtchi (photo). Below a brief analysis of yesterday's match.

"^Reports^^^1169227488^1314786230^jerrel "Live reporting: round 6"^"Last update: 18.47 CET

Well, we're in the mood and we start again with the live reporting of what's already the sixth round. And we see some great play bills today. What to think of Kramnik-Anand (a Catalan - today Genna Sosonko is here too so at least he's having a nice day) or the clash between the national Dutch champs of 2005 and 2006, Van Wely-Tiviakov. Again KingLoek plays the English Opening, just like in June this year (when he lost) and Tiviakov is the first to deviate, with his 12...Nd4 instead of 12...a5. And Magnus Carlsen plays a sharp line against Motylev's Spanish Four Knights.

Motylev-Carlsen Corus 2007

The piece sac 8...c6!? is known to be correct, and after 9.0-0 Ne8 a recent game went 10.Ne4 d5 11.Ng3 Qh4 (Baramidze-Babujian, Yerevan 2006). Instead, here they played 10.Ne2 when 10...Qh4 seems new. Svidler and Aronian have a Marshall Declined on the board, Radja & Pono are looking at a hybrid of Queen's and Bogo Indian, Topalov (who will win easily today according to Mark Crowther) has a nice, active position against Navara after a Symmetrical English and against Karjakin, Shirov tries to turn the tide with a side line (12...Ne7) of the Sveshnikov.

Update 16.04 CET: two games are drawn. First Loek-Tivi: not much happened there but we cannot really blame the White player because he wasn't feeling very well today. The leader Radja consolidated with a quick draw against Pono. Winning is something for the black pieces. Soon some footage of the post-mortem, by the way. Anand is having a hard time against Kramnik (Sosonko can be proud of the world champion) and will probably loose. Not much can be said about Motylev-Carlsen, and the ending Svidler-Aronian looks drawish, according the not strongest Ian anymore, Rogers (quiz question: who is?), and the Australian also thought that Navara manoeuvred himself nicely to an equal position. Shirov again has problems, and should at least win White's a-pawn to draw the game.

Update 16.29 CET: here some footage of Radjabov and Ponomariov analysing:



Update 17.14 CET: It's gonna sound boring by now, but Shirov lost again, and again something went wrong with his preparation (if there was any). Karjakin got a strong passed pawn on a5 that was already decisive. Mating with 26...Rf5 doesn't work because of 27.g3, 28.Qe4 and 29.Qg2. Svidler-Aronian was well-predicted and I was to pessimistic about Anand's chances, although White is still better. In a rook ending with a pawn down, Navara has good chances to draw Topalov in a similar way he drew Kramnik.

Update 18.47 CET: Perhaps the evaluation of Kramnik-Anand (1-0) was accurate after all. We just taped the press conference by Kramnik in the press room, so don't go away, because we'll have the world champ teaching you, after the break! Motylev-Carlsen continued quite funny, with all sorts of tactical tricks. The sort of draw that's fun to replay. And after his weak show of yesterday, Navara was the old solid chap again whom Topalov couldn't beat either. About the rook ending, Peter Svidler remarked: 'F and h is a draw anyway, so this one should be too.'