Corus R4: Shirov on 4/4
19 January 2010, 15.04 CET | Last modified: 11:55 | By Arne Moll | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Although not too convincingly, Alexei Shirov also won his 4th game in Wijk aan Zee, against Jan Smeets. Going into the first rest day, the Spaniard from Latvia leads with 4/4, a full point ahead of Carlsen, Nakamura and Ivanchuk, who defeated Loek van Wely.
The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 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.
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Games round 4
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Round 4
15:04 CET
It promises to be another very interesting round at Corus! All eyes are on Alexei Shirov, who can increase his lead even further if he manages to beat Dutchman Jan Smeets. However, Smeets’ second GM Spike Ernst just told us he is reasonably happy in the theoretical Petroff they’re playing so far. A razor-sharp 6.Bg5 Najdorf can be seen in Ivanchuk-Van Wely. Chucky played the underestimated line with 8.Qe2 against Van Wely’s 7…Nbd7 and looks in excellent shape already.
Hikaru Nakamura bravely played the Dutch Defence against Vishy Anand and Nigel Short is no less adventurous with his Portugese variation of the Scandinavian.
More conventional theory can be seen by Dominguez and Leko, grinding out one of the main lines of the Marshall Ruy Lopez. Finally, more subtle manoeuvring can be expected in Kramnik-Tiviakov and Karjakin-Caruana (which, by the way, might well end in a draw any minute).
In the B-group, Akobian is trying out another Tarrasch Defence against Erwin L’Ami which we’ll be following closely, and we would also like to draw your attention to two games in the C-Group: Van Kampen-Plukken is a very interesting ‘ Shirov gambit’ against the Philidor while Swinkels-Muzychuk started rather funny as well. Enjoy!
16:15 CET
As expected, Van Wely quickly lost against Ivanchuk. There was some amazement in the press room when Ivanchuk didn’t go for 24.Qc8+ and 25.Rd7+, winning the queen (as also pointed out in the comments), but in fact the line he played wins even quicker.
Anand and Nakamura drew their game. In the post-mortem Nakamura made a strong impression. Perhaps White had an edge but Nakamura defended without much problems.
Meanwhile, Shirov is still pressing against Smeets. Leko and Dominguez are having fun it seems and Kramnik-Tiviakov seems to be a model IQP game. Will Tivi be able to hold? We expected a quick draw with Karjakin and Caruana, but they’re still playing. Looks like Karjakin is trying hard to win the game. PD: Well, after all he has the classical Ruy Lopez Exchange pawn majority…
In the B Group, let’s just note Dimitri Reinderman looks fine against Howell. In Group C, two games have finished already: Benjamin Bok crushed Niels Grandelius and Van Kampen’s Shirov Gambit proved successful against Sjoerd Plukkel.
18:00 CET
We just witnessed Shirov’s press conference about his win against Smeets: he was quite lucky, as he admitted his ‘ attack’ was just a bluff, though the audience surely didn’t mind. The computer indicated that 33.Kh1 would have been better, but Shirov said he felt both king moves had their disadvantages and it was just impossible to evaluate which was the right one. In any case, Smeets’ 33…Rcd8? ended the game immediately, where 33…Rce8 would have at least kept the balance in Black’s favour. Asked about his ambitions for the rest of the tournament, Shirov said he mainly wanted to avoid missing moves like 27…Bh7. The entire press conference will be up later, of course.
The other games in Group A ended in a draw, although especially Tiviakov won’t be happy with the result. In the press room, around move 25 a win for Black was predicted. Kramnik miraculously held the position.
In Group B, Harikrishna scored a win with the King’s Indian Attack over Naiditsch. Reinderman is still suffering a bit against Howell; all other games ended in a draw as well. In Group C, the boys were separated from the men – in fact, there are no ‘ mercy draws’ at all yet, although Muzychuk is still hanging in there. But then, after all, she is a lady.
01:27 CET
Reinderman eventually lost the endgame against Howell and is on a terrible 0.5/4 now. Compatriots l’Ami (2.5) and Giri (3) started their Corus better. In C, with 3.5/4 Robson and Li Chao are a full point ahead of a pack of five players. Wednesday is the first of three rest days.
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C
Corus 2010 | Round 4 Standings Grandmaster Group A
Corus 2010 | Round 4 Standings Grandmaster Group B
Corus 2010 | Round 4 Standings Grandmaster Group C
Links
- Official website
- Games in PGN via TWIC: Group A | Group B | Group C
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24 Qc8+ Ke7 25 Rd7+ 1-0 for ivanchuk?no?
Wrong crosstables – should be Round 4 not Round 3.
Hmm… After Shirovs impressive performance so far, one has to wonder if Carlsen can finish second even with a similar performance to what he managed in Nanjing(3000+).
Can anyone tell me if that`s ever happened before? Finishing second with a performance like that??
Shirov looks unstoppable at the moment. Really impressive…..
damn Shirov has got the best schedule .. he is facing next Van Wely and then Short … I will not be surprised to see two more wins. Wonder how he will do against the big guns though
All girls in the “Corus Chess Newsflashes” are simply fantastischen.
Yes, Shirov is going to be +6(!!) after blasting VW and Short, leaving Carlsen, Nakamura, and crew in the dust.
@pete: why “damn”? I don’t expect a problem till round 7, Nakamura-Shirov.
Come on! Shirov beat the weakest 3 + Leko, who has been in his worst condition ever in the past 6 months. And he will play white against Carlsen and Kramnik…very lucky, Ivanchuck can be a problem for him as he plays black against him. Anand might not be too strong now. So he has tons of luck, but plays well too…
Bende, in this level there is no luck (at least not 4 rounds in a row). And maybe it´s easier sometimes not to lose against a +2600 for a +2700, but winning is certainly not easy. It´s funny how people sometimes cross out +2600 players as if they were total patzers!
Yeah, Alexey is lucky man. He may lose at least 1 point (against Leko or Smeets) from his 4.
I hope this means that Shirov will be invited to Linares
linares is in spain right? Shirov is “spanish” so i think it is a given…
@ jazzkoo nope. Field already published and its a pretty sad one. No anand. No kramnik. No Carlsen. No Ivanchuk. No Shirov. No Nakamura. Its basically saying it doesn’t want the attention corus is getting.
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/linares-information-2010
where are the press conferences? Why are not been published so far ? It was very joyfull watching players commenting their own games. Can anyone tell how can I get the press conferences?
As Tal repeated over and over again: “Hours of analysis at home are not the same thing as minutes of analysis during the game”. And I would add: minutes without rybka.
What’s wrong with the Linares field? Taking the players one by one:
Topalov – no questions asked (though his upcoming WCh match may be a handicap for him, same may be the case for Anand at Corus)
Aronian – no questions asked (actually people were missing him at Corus)
Grischuk – one reason to invite him (not the only one) is that he’s defending champion
Gelfand – also has the right to play in supertournaments
Gashimov – high-level invitations are overdue for him (IMO more than for Nakamura). He was invited before his poor result at the World Team Championship, but it would be very odd to un-invite him now
Vallejo Pons – well, Shirov would be a more logical wildcard, but maybe they want to vary and/or give preference to a native Spaniard
The only valid question would be: why only six players? But that’s the format they chose.
In general, I would recommend enjoying those who are there rather than complaining about those who are absent.
Agreed to Thomas.
The 6-player format does have the pro that it’s cheaper and you get to play double round-robin.
Agreed to Thomas and Martin. Nevertheless, despite the fact we can have a “revenge” match due to the double round-robin, I prefer a tournament with more players to enjoy more creativity, especially in the openings and to reduce the importance of specific players preparations.
Did anyone understood what shirov said in the extract of the press conference of round 4?(I didn’t get a word!)
he said, his ambition is not to blunder like in the game with jan smeets. I think he mentioned Bh7 or something like that
yes but what did he say before that where everyone was laughing?
After three rounds (and 3/3) Shirov had said it’s just the beginning of the tournament. After four rounds (and 4/4) he mumbled “now we are approaching the middle …”
ohh yes you r right!! hahaha nice one..