Report of round 1 - CCT 2004

"It's the first round, no one knows what's going on"

Thus commented Peter Svidler to his game and other games in the first round of the 66th Corus Chess Tournament. The 2003 Russian Champion was hinting at his risky 22nd move (see diagram 1): Kh2, where 22.Bxd5 Bxd5 23.Qxd5 Nf6 24.Qxg5 Qd4 25.Kh2 Rd8 26.Qe3 would have drawn much more easily than the game continuation. (see picture 1).

Svidler was undoubtedly also referring to the stunning loss of the number one seed Vladimir Kramnik at the hands of Vladimir Akopian (see picture 2). After a very theoretical battle in the Najdorf Sicilian, Kramnik used a lot of time as Black to keep the balance. He never really equalized, but instead outright walked into a mating maze after 24...Rfd8 and especially 28...Rc7?? (see diagram 2), completely missing Akopian's reply. After 29.Rh7! Black no longer has a defence. For example 29...Kxh7 30.Nxe7 Kh6 31.Rh1 Bh5 32.g4. Kramnik resigned after 29...Qxb2 30.Qxb2 Nxb2 31.Rxg7 Kf8 32.Rh1!. (see picture 3)

Last year's winner Viswanathan Anand started the tournament with a draw as Black against Peter Leko. Although they were the first to finish their game, it was very complex and Anand was looking forward to what "Fritzy" would have to say about it. The crucial position arose after 16...Qc7 (see diagram 3). The players didn't come to a definite conclusion in the post mortem (see picture 4), but 17.Qb4 would have put Black to a serious test. For example, 17...dxe4 18.Bc4! b6 19.Bxe6 fxe6 20.Nc4 Nd5 21.Nd6 Ke7!? 22.Rxd5 exd5 23.Nf5 Kf6 24.fxe4 Qc5! 25.e5! and White draws at the very least.

The game between Ivan Sokolov, with 2706 the highest rated Dutchman, and Jan Timman - good friends off the board - was very exciting. When approaching the first time control, Sokolov opened the attack on Timman's king. This might have been premature according to Timman; in the resulting position Sokolov couldn't make use of the half-open b-file and the game ended in a draw at move 55.

Loek van Wely, the reigning Dutch Champion, had been especially well prepared for Evgeny Bareev - the winner in 2002. However, his good position and hope for more didn't materialize as Bareev defended cunningly. (see picture 5)
The two debutants in Corus A, Viorel Bologan (see picture 6) and Zhang Zhong (qualifying through last year's B-group) got a dynamically balanced position after a short central skirmish. Neither player could launch a decisive attack on the enemy kings posted on opposite wings.