Corus R8: Kramnik beats Nakamura, now shared 2nd with Carlsen
24 January 2010, 13.23 CET | Last modified: 1:27 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Vladimir Kramnik moved to shared second place in the standings of the Corus Chess Tournament. In round 8 the Russian defeated Hikaru Nakamura, who again went for the Leningrad Dutch. Alexei Shirov and Magnus Carlsen drew in a sharp variation of the Sveshnikov – the same as in their game in Sofia last year.
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 8
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Round 8
14:48 CET
It’s a very exciting round so far, with very interesting games in both Shirov-Carlsen and Kramnik-Nakamura, the numbers 1-4 in the standings. A good day for Mihail Marin, who’s doing live commentary on our live page. Shirov and Carlsen repeat their hyper-sharp Svesh from the last round of MTel last year, while Nakamura again went for the Dutch Defence against Kramnik.
Meanwhile, Giri seems close to winning already against Howell which would strengthen his lead even further in the B group.
22:13 CET
It took a bit longer than necessary, but Giri did win that game and so he’s now leading firmly with a score of 6.5/8. Shared second, with 1.5 points less, are Ni Hua, So and l’Ami, who had a narrow escape against Harikrishna. A blunder on move 26 cost him the exchange, but his opponent from India didn’t handle the ending very well. “I only saw one clear win for him during the game,” l’Ami said afterwards. “69…Rg3 followed by 70…Re5 and 71…Rf5 seemed winning. He repeated moves, but of course I didn’t.”
Back to the A group, where Kramnik won smoothly against Nakamura. He told the reporters that he until three o’clock last night, he didn’t have a good answer to Nakamura’s 7…c6 Leningrad Dutch, but that he found the 9.Qc2 and 11.Rd1 set-up during a late-night shower! He thought Black to be lost at move 26. “The position is about equal, but I’m two pawns up.”
Shirov and Carlsen repeated their Sveshnikov of Sofia last year, and like then, it was the Norwegian who came with a novelty. Shirov reacted well, and might still be slightly better in the position where the two repeated moves. GM Mihail Marin’s in-depth analysis of these two games, together with some notes to Giri-Howell, can still be replayed at the live page.
Leko managed to break down Smeets’ Petroff. Right from the opening the Hungarian got pressure, and the Dutchman’s pawn sacrifice didn’t help. Karjakin-Short saw some very complicated tactics after move 30 where Short could probably have drawn with 35…R1e2! and White has to check on f6 at some point and give perpetual. The Englishman played for a win but the queen turned out to be stronger than the rooks. After his succesful first attempt with 1.d4, Dominguez switched back to 1.e4 against Van Wely but couldn’t get a tangible advantage. Ivanchuk equalized even easier against Anand.
Caruana got his first win in the tournament against Tiviakov. White’s bishop pair didn’t seem to be a decisive factor, but when the black-squared bishops went off the board, White’s light-squared bishop was much stronger than Black’s knight. An excellent game by Caruana.
Reinderman got his first win as well, against Akobian, who is now on last place in the B group. In C, last seeded Plukkel held tournament leader Robson to a draw with Black in a Rauzer. Gupta and Li Chao were the last to finish, but eventually drew as well.
Monday is the second of three rest days, on which we’ll post the press conferences of the last few rounds. Due to some internet connection problems we couldn’t do that earlier.
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B
Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C
Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group A
Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group B
Corus 2010 | Round 8 Standings Grandmaster Group C
Links
- Official website
- Games in PGN via TWIC: Group A | Group B | Group C
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Giri won in a Grunfeld.
Amazing (chess) progress by Anish Giri!
What a mistake by Nakamura: 1… f5?? He only needed a draw, so he should have played 1…d5!
Nakamura made a mistake before his first move – he showed up in the playing hall
Finally there’s a player who plays for a win every single game at top level and there are still guys whining.
Whining? Ask Nakamura who was whining after his win over Shirov, Ruben.
Another draw for Anand. Hardly the the kind of dominating performance one expects from a world champion. The Indian could only begrudgingly compliment Shirov’s play in his interview with Bianca Muhren, suggesting that the tournament leader plays a good game from time to time. There was an unmistakeable arrogance evident in that interview. Disappointing.
Its great to see how Naka wasa crushed by Kramnik. It must be frustrating for Big Vlad how everyone talks about Nakamura and other coming players while he is so much stronger but only gets comments when he draws with the Petroff.
I think Nakamura was too much arrogant, saying that Shirov shouldn’t play 1….c5 against him…And he think that he can play 1…f5 against Kramnik…It seems Nakamura’s play is based in speed and tactical gambling, because even a strong club player would see that his “attack” against Kramnik was too much optimistic and anti-positional.
when will the press conferences be updated? or where can i find rounds 6 – 8?
Uploading Giri round 6 at this very moment. Nakamura R7 and Kramnik R8 will probably be tomorrow.
@Ron
“Its great to see how Naka wasa crushed by Kramnik. It must be frustrating for Big Vlad how everyone talks about Nakamura and other coming players while he is so much stronger but only gets comments when he draws with the Petroff.”
No, everyone’s been talking about Kramnik 2.0 after his recent string of successes. So far at Corus, though, he’s not been playing all that well – see his games against Tiviakov and Short.
The performance of Shirov and Giri are (about) equal!!
I know it’s Netherlands, but Dutch again… Please, Naka…
@Meppie: So are the performances of Smeets and Reinderman
.
Who wouldn’t laugh, if the highest performance rating was achieved by Giri?
Kramnik should say it went wrong from first move for naka as naka said about shirov.quite arrogantly.and naka thinks he is the future world champ he has lang lang way to go and he is not Giri or MC .by the how old is Giri?
by the way
I know it’s off topic here, but I wanted to say I enjoyed Jeroen Van Den Berg interviewing ***in Italian*** the owner of Tarantella Restaurant!
While I’m here, did I hear it wrong or Bianca referred at Caruana as ‘the American?
And while I’m here again I wanted to congratulatee CV for this great coverage!
More frustating than reading bad coments when Kramnik draws with petroff is that nobody else invites russian players anymore.
It is incredible how very strong an young russians, like Vitiugov and Tomashevsky do not get an invitation to play in wijk aan zee,etc. They could certainly fight for the best places…in group A!! And Grischuk, when in good form, is not inferior to anyone in the world!!!
How sad it is to see 5,6 players in Wijk , possible the most prestigious tournament in the world, that would not have any chances to participate in russian championship.
MIke,
He was merely saying that 1… e5 was a better choice and not that Shirov should be afraid to play 1…c5. You don’t seem to understand much about chess. You say his style is based on speed and tactical gambling. How do you make 2730 with that style? However, the Dutch was not a good choice not because it is bad (he got a good game with Anand with it), but because he had already played it. In fact he got a good game this time by mixed up his move order and blunder two pawns. That’s chess. Next round he gets Karjakin.
Afghan,
True, Nakamura is not Giri… he’s stronger. Whether he gets to the World Championship depends on how serious he wants to get with his chess. He has something that few elite players have. The will to win every game and the heart of a lion.
Janis Nisii,
Caruana was born in the U.S. and raised there. He holds dual citizenship. However, she should use the nationality that he is representing.
Enjoyable tourney to follow so far. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the results, and some of the opening choices. Not an endless diet of Slavs and Najdorfs…Curious about the Dutch players struggling in the A group, but Giri is making up for that in the B grade…Before the start I was expecting a Carlsen/Kramnik contest. Not so obvious around the half way mark…Nakamura is amusingly confident in his public statements. In the end points on the board speak louder. There have been some wild and perplexing games in the C Grade..Is this what happens when children absorb huge quantities of data with subtle gaps along the way? Look forward to the rest of the games.
where are the press conferences 6 to 8 ??
Suggesting that Shirov should not play with fire, and get content with a draw with black when he is at +5, may not be arrogant but it is certainly odd given that Nakamura himself wouldn’t adhere to such a principle. That said, it is easy to fly off the handle about statements made by the winner of a game. They’re bound to sound arrogant.
OMG, didn’t Kramnik just implied he could beat Nakamura while taking a shower!?
@Guillaume,
In my opinion you all did not understand Nakamura at all. He said that – given his own must-win situation – Shirov should have gone for e5, which makes playing for the win harder. This doesnt mean he should play for a draw, just wait on a overstretching move of Naka. Playing sharkstyle… but I dont know if that would be really suitable for Shirov.
@Daaim Shabazz
Even an expert like Kramnik seems to think Giri will have 2700 soon. So, we’ll see if Nakamura is really stronger. Not much that you could say about that now, since Naka is seven years older!
Bianca has a nice accent, I like how she says “Fishy Anand”
Or: Pieter Leekeuuu… hehe nice!
An amazing performance by Giri! I think So (by the way also a talented player) is the only one that can keep him from winning the B group (they meet in round 11, Giri has black).
@An Afghan: Giri is 15 years old.
As part of the discussion was on whether Kramnik gets enough credit, what about the round 8 report on the tournament homepage:
“Vladimir Kramnik climbed one spot in the standings to share second place with Carlsen on the strength of a 44-move victory with white from a Dutch Defence against Hikaru Nakamura. It was the American, however, who did most of the attacking, opting for an aggressive line of the Leningrad. “Courageous,” one expert said, “and, mind you, hardly anyone at this level risks playing the Dutch to begin with.” Unfortunately, Nakamura fumbled, allowing white to win two pawns with a simple combination at his 24th. Kramnik had no trouble converting the advantage into a win. ”
Sounds like Kramnik didn’t do anything special, didn’t show any ambition and merely benefitted from Naka’s blunder (whether his combination was THAT simple is also a matter of taste). IMO, a more accurate summary of the game would be “Nakamura tried in vain to create tactical shots, but Kramnik’s long-term strategic advantages prevailed”.
My rating is around 1950, who wrote the Corus round report?
Anand is no longer the dominant player he used to be…maybe because he is 40.
Magnus Carlsen will be the world champion in 2 years time..no doubt about it.
Please do check the white games of Giri and then compare the Dutch with the Grunfeld…
wow 15 years 7 years younger then naka we will see in 2years from now who is better and strong player.iam sure giri has more opening knoledge then naka and giri doesnot think after one or two win that he is the chess god like naka does.(if i play like this i can beat anybody) naka,s words after beaten Nigel Short i mean this is the way naka reacts .I don,t think siniors player ever say that chess and arrogant never go toghter.Anand is great player but ploitness is his biggest achievment.anka have won any mager event how he passibley can say that SHIROV didn,t have to play c4against me only Ficher and Kasparow had right to say so
@Thomas, that report clearly underestimates Kramnik’s performance. I talked to a few strong players during the round yesterday, and they were all very much impressed by Kramnik’s play in this tournament and his game against Nakamura. I myself thought it was an outstanding performance, as well as a fantastic press-conference afterwards, making me very happy, and this was clearly thanks to Kramnik, not Nakamura.
@Martin: No, I think you’re wrong. He didn’t say anything about over-stretching (which is what Nakamura did against Kramnik, by the way) or playing shark-style, but he did say that for Shirov “a draw would have been a great result”.
A lot of opinions on Nakamura. Great player, but he clearly is too cocky in his comments and easily gets carried away with his own ego. Maybe he will learn, but it is very transparent when he seems to explain his own losses due to “blundering”, while others are always methodically crushed when they lose to him. It’s a very narcissistic way of making oneself believe one is the greatest no matter what the outcome of a game or development in rating.
@Peter Doggers
When we’re going to see Giri R6, Nakamura R7 and Kramnik R8 press conferences?
One interesting fact about Nakamura:
Regarding his game statistics, he doesn’t care playing black or white! Winning 58% of his black games, 57% of his white games, and drawing 30% with bot black or white…
That is, by the way, a lot of wins!
These statistics are from the FIDE site, btw…
@Hortensius: Yes, but did you also look at the list of the opponents he faced? It contains a lot of “no-names” and “medium-names”. I will pick GM Robert Fontaine as an example for the second category – not an offense to him, but his name is reasonably well-known … mostly because he is also (primarily?) a journalist, maybe also because he married Kateryna Lahno recently.
So these statistics also reflect the type of events Nakamura played in the recent past – many opens where you have to beat weaker opponents with either color to remain in the race for tournament victory.
If Giri is 15 he may win the B group at an even younger age than Karjakin (2005)and Carlsen (who finished 2nd on tiebreak in 2006)-and so far in grand style with that. Bravo!
Does anyone know whether the press conferences are on youtube and if so could you please post the link?