Shirov and Van Wely start with wins in Wijk aan Zee
In the first round of the Corus Chess Tournament Peter Leko had a very promising position against Alexei Shirov but eventually lost the game. Local hero Loek van Wely, for the 19th consecutive time in Grandmaster Group A, defeated Nigel Short, winner in Wijk aan Zee in 1986 and 1987. The other five games ended in a draw.
Round 1
In the small coastal town of Wijk aan Zee, where last week's snow was melting in the morning, but new snow came from the sky at night, the annual festival has begun! It's very quiet here during the rest of the winter, but as always the last two weeks of January the town is packed with chess players - hundreds of amateurs and a few dozen top GMs.
For those of you who haven't visited the Corus website yet, I can tell you that it's quite different from previous years. Well, at least the homepage is. Videos have become an important way to bring the news, and I'm honoured and thankful to play such an important role for this great event. Besides the daily news bulletins and 'newsflashes' at coruschess.com you will be able to watch the press conference videos here at ChessVibes. Today we had Loek van Wely which I'll post as soon as possible.
In the A group quite a lot of games ended in a draw, but the great thing about Corus is that with these three groups, there's never a dull moment. Anand was under pressure with Black against last year's winner Karjakin, but managed to hold it. Today he tweeted: 'A draw ...and a sigh of relief ! Oh God ! I have to play much better than this. Must find my form quickly too many rough edges to my game.'
For at least one round Van Wely is a true KingLoek again, with a fine victory over Nigel Short. At the press conference Hans Böhm asked if it would have made a difference it Short had tried ...g5 and ...h5 at some point. Van Wely thought the result would have been the same, but Short would at least have had more fun in the game!
A tired and disappointed Peter Leko showed up in the press room after a very long game against Alexei Shirov. The Hungarian had come up with a good novelty but then spoilt his advantage. "I miraculously escaped before the first time control, but at the second I collapsed." A fortunate but good start for Shirov, who won the 500 Euro daily prize for fighting his way back in the game.
Giri, Nisipeanu and Sutovsky started with good wins in the B group and of these games, the 250 Euro best game prize went to 15-year-old Dutch champion Giri. Against So, Naiditsch couldn't win an ending that's suddenly showing up quite often: R vs black-squared B and fixed h-pawns on h3 and h4.
In the C group, Grandelius, Li Chao, Vocaturo and Robson won their games to grab the lead. The 100 Euro prize was awarded to Li Chao for his victory over Benjamin Bok.
Games round 1
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C
Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.
Comments
T. Goto
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
An exiting round! This is indeed a colossal undertaking. Providing videos for the official website while maintaining ChessVibes must be very demanding. Thank you for your dedication, Peter and ChessVibes!
As usual, Kramnik started quietly. Anand's comment was interesting as well. We don't have Aronian this year, but plenty of great players. It will be interesting to see when and how the favorites start to heat their engines. For Leko, this must be devastating. I hope he can keep the moral up. It's a long tournament. For Shirov, on the other hand, was a great boost!
B & C groups are very interesting too. Great choice was made for picking players!
VladimirOo
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Hi Peter, could just precise in you report what is Leko's novelty ? Indeed, I am not as specialist as GM about the Ruy Lopez, so I wish I could understand more of Shirov's fantastic defense !
Peter Doggers
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour and then 15 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment from move 61.
sporty
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
wasnt there a chessibes live for this event?! I cannot find it.
Just
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Maitreya gave his first interview!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The return of.......................................
Arne Moll
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Wow, impressive victory by Van Wely. He makes it loek so easy to play the Queen's Gambit with white!
jan van der marel
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Why did Tiviakov accept the draw against Carlsen? He had a position that was clearly better for him and that he could never lose! Is he going for the 'draw-with-white-loss-with-black-strategy' again?
ebutaljib
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
What are the time controls:
120'/40 | 60'/20 | (15'+30")
or
(100'+30")/40 | (50'+30")/20 | (15'+30")
or something else?
Peter Doggers
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
No, there is not. We decided not to continue that service.
sporty
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
It would have been nice... but what about people that signed up? (I am not one of them)
Wim
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
What a game he played, Giri. And my favorite Loek, well done. This is the year of the Dutch players!
ceann
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
@Doggers
ha! ...you hardly decided to not cover the event live...
It was just no one with half a brain wanted to stump up 25 euros for poor and slow commentaries...
Chessvibes reports and articles were always better than many other sites and you should never have believed you could offer this commentary service (especially charging for it)....I did mention this to you a long time ago though!
Thomas
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
A hopefully more constructive comment to Peter: I think you are wrong about the time control, this year there is (for the first time) an increment from move 1 - from watching live earlier today it seems like 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.
See the video interview with Jan Smeets at the tournament webpage - in Dutch, I will try to translate bits and pieces:
"Do you hope to improve on last year's score?"
"Well, I found out they changed the rules - we are now playing with increments and that's bad news ("dat is een domper"). Last year I scored 1.5 points because my opponent's flag fell [this includes the Radjabov controversy]"
He added that it was a joke (grapje), that he would be happy with 6/13 as last year but is aiming for 50%.
Furthermore (earlier in the video)
"You didn't play much last year, what's up?"
"Well, I am also studying a bit, university is a spoiler ("gooit roet in het eten"). But I have hardly been there the last few months, since September I am focussing on chess and preparation for Corus and Amber."
Peter Doggers
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Thanks Thomas, I was wrong indeed, but you too, as it turned out. It's 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
ebutaljib
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
That is a good change then. This is how it should always be in my opinion. The total duration of the game is the same as in "classical" time controls, only that this way a player always has at least 30 seconds to make a move. That eliminates severe time scramles where otherwise a brilliant game unecessarly gets butchered to pieces by huge blunders.
There should always be an increment.
Thomas
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
I was roughly guessing - don't remember when exactly I tuned in (but less than 30 minutes after the start of the round) and clock times were like 1:28 vs. 1:34.
Yes, this avoids extreme time trouble and related controversies as Radjabov-Smeets last year. But we will no longer get videos such as Iturrizaga against [don't remember whom] - he had something like 25 seconds for the last 25 moves and somehow managed to make the time control (but not to save the game). I was there watching the game and Peter filming it ... .
Jens Kristiansen
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
PLEASE help me! I am a VERY experienced chess player and -journalist. But I seem to be completely wrong about what I tell my (quite small but loyal) audience here and there about the time limits in Corus. My recent atempt to sort it out via the official Corus-site failed.
Peter, I believe you, you must be right on this. But PLEASE put it up on your site with CAPITAL letters!
Corus is, after all, one of the few SERIOUS tournaments around these days.
Jens Kristiansen
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Ok, I was today commenting on the games at the Danish Chess Federations Chess server. I was, apparently, completely wrong about the zeitnot-situations. Tomorrow I give it another try, hopefully more qualified.
ron
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
What an utter rubbish here, Chessvibes is declining.
test
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
@ron Maybe it's because there are so many trolls on the internet these days.
jan van der marel
2 years 3 weeks ago
Permalink
Too bad there arent any webcams to follow the players live, like two years ago in the NH Chess Tournament. Too expensive?
Your comment
Speak your mind
By posting a comment you are agreeing to abide our Terms & Conditions