Report of round 9 - CCT 2006

PM Visits, Anand and Topalov increase lead

Today Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende honored the tournament with his presence. Visiting the event’s main sponsor, the Corus metal company, he stopped by Wijk aan Zee to visit the tournament. He was given a tour of the venue, and spoke briefly with the FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov.

The games:

Mamedyarov played aggressively against Ivanchuk, creating a crisis with his 13…f5!? Pawn sacrifice. After the game the players were mostly analyzing 17…d5 for Black, but both in this case and the actual game, White was never in danger. Chuky’s weakened kingside always provided enough compensation, even when he took a second pawn. The game ended with a repetition of moves with Black attacking the h2 pawn, and in turn the White Queen that came to defend it.

The theoretical discussion in the Sveshnikov between Anand and Van Wely ended in the Indian’s favor. White’s exchange sacrifice gave him a “risk free position” to quote Anand, and Black’s try to exchange Queens left him with an unpleasant position. It is practically impossible to stop the winning plan of pushing the passed b pawn to the seventh rank, activating the Rook and engaging the Knight. In the post game analysis, Anand suggested playing the immediate 22. h4!? And as long as White doesn’t take on f5, allowing …e4 and …Re5, he is on top. (see diagram 1) The point is that taking on h4 allows Rc1, and not capturing forces the Bishop away from e7 (the white Knight wants to hop Ne7+ and Nc6 in many lines). 29…Red8 was analyzed as a substitute to the game’s 29…g5, where Vishy suggested 30.Rxe4 Rd7 31. Rb4, preventing any sacrifices on b7, and bringing the Knight to c6. Anand was praising his game continuation 30. Re2!, planning Rc2 with penetration, and 31. Nb4! prevented 31…Rd7, as after 32. Nc6 Rbxd7 33. Bxb7 Rxb7 white has 34. Nd8 + forking. The last nuance was the delicate 34. h5! keeping an important pawn for some endgames where Black’s h pawn will become vulnerable – like the one in the game. One fine performance by the joint leader.

In another Sveshnikov duel Topalov dispatched of Karjakin in grand style. The two were following a long line of theory, which the champ believed was very ok for Black. He liked his 22… Rc8, with the idea of placing it on c5 in an opportune moment, as well as 24…h6, which he called a “good waiting move”. In the position where White played 25.Qg3 it was “not easy for White to accomplish anything” – Topalov as if: 25. Rad2 a4! 26. bxa4 Qg5 and White doesn’t have 27. Qg3 as Bc4 is hanging. On move 29.h3?! “I don’t like this move”—Topalov, it seems as if Sergey could have tried to repeat moves, but Veselin hinted he would not have allowed this, but would have avoided the draw. White blundered with (see diagram 2) 31.Bb1?, simply overlooking 31…Rxc3!. Now (and even more so on the following move!) the lesser evil would have been 32. Qxf5 Nxf5 33. Nxc3, although here also Black is well on top, among other things getting his Knight to d4. Matters looked good for the Bulgarian, but on move 35 he chose the least convincing of his many choices (he claimed he had 5 of these!), overlooking that 37.Nxf4 he cannot go 37…exf4 since b7 is hanging and there is no mate. “I was lucky to have 40..Kg8! which is the only move to win here”, he said. After the precise 41…h4! Karjakin was soon forced to resign.

Ivan Sokolov achieved a fine position against Gelfand, and may have been better in the middle game. It would have been interesting had Black played 18…Bxg3!? and after 19. hxg3 Ndf6 with a slight edge. Sokolov opted for a line where he picked up two Queenside pawns, then gave up his Ng4 for another pawn (as retreating it to f6 would have been met with the crushing 28.Rxf6!). White was better, as the piece was more valuable than the three pawns, but the game ended abruptly when Ivan blundered with the horrible (see diagram 3) 30…Ng6??, allowing 31.Qa1!

In Leko – Bacrot, the Frenchman added some color to the Queenless endgame that came out of the usually boring Petroff. He gave up a pawn, but his piece activity, coupled with the weak pawn on d4, more than made up for it. Eventually Black’s pressure was enough to win the isolani, and with the consequent exchanges a completely drawn Rook and Pawn ending ensued. After a few more moves the TV monitor showed the expected ½ : ½ result.

Gata Kamsky’s tough times continued today against Adams. His 10.b3?! was practically refuted by the very strong (see diagram 4) 10…Nc6! and Black is already better, for example: 11.cxd5 Nd4 with 12…b4 coming, or if 11. cxb5 Nd4 and 12…Ne4 are all good for Black. After the game, Mickey said he also expected 13. Qd1!?in place of the game’s 13. Qb1, and criticized 15. Qf5?!, thinking that 15.Na3 was a better try. On move 18, Gata had to try 18. Bd2, holding back 18…Qa5 because of 19.Nc2. Adams further said that 20…Be5! Would have been even stronger than 20…Rad8, completely paralyzing the White position. Anyways, the Brit’s initiative grew and grew and after 24…d3 it looked like curtains for White. The only thing to avoid was to get mated on g7, which wasn’t very difficult.. Had Kamsky tried 32. Qg4, Black would have chosen 31…. g6 32. Qg5 Ne2+ 33.Rxe2 dxe2 34. Qh6 d1=Q+ 35. Kg2 Qe4+ and Black strikes first.

Aronian – Tiviakov showed White having a slight advantage for a long time. He traded his center pawn for Black’s h7 pawn, and despite the many exchanges he was better due to his control of the only open file. Perhaps 25. Qd2 would have been better than advancing his kingside pawns, as now Black’s 26…Qf4! gave him enough counter play. With the departure of the Queens and Rooks, the almost symmetrical Bishop versus Knight ending was agreed drawn without much further play.

In group B Carlsen maintains his lead with 7/9, with Motylev ½ a point behind him. The big news in group C is not Atalik’s win, which is part of the routine, but rather IM Jan Werle’s victory that gave him his final GM norm!