Reports | January 29, 2010 22:13

Carlsen beats Dominguez, joins lead with Kramnik

CorusMagnus Carlsen defeated Leinier Dominguez in round 11 of the Corus Chess Tournament to join Vladimir Kramnik in the lead. The Russian drew with Black against Alexei Shirov. In the only other decisive game of the day, Loek van Wely beat Sergei Tiviakov after 88 moves.

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 11

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Round 11

15:13 CET
The top game of this 11th round is Shirov-Kramnik, and before anything else I'd like to mention that Ian Rogers is doing live commentary at the tournament website. In fact he'll be doing the same tomorrow and Sunday, as a prelude to plans of the organizers for 2011 to bring live commentary throughout the event.

Shirov is trying an exchange sacrifice similar to what often happens in the Marshall Gambit (or rather Attack) of the Ruy Lopez. The concept had been mentioned before by Anand, who didn't think much of it, but apparently Shirov has his own ideas. Meanwhile the two have reached an ending that looks about equal.

Smeets and Anand have already draw - they started repeating at move 13 already. Unfortunate, especially since the two had the nowadays rare Keres Attack of the Scheveningen on the board. Carlsen and Dominguez have entered a very complicated Grünfeld (Russian System), and the Dutch encounter between Van Wely and Tiviakov is a relatively quiet Queen's Indian.

In B, So-Giri is already extremely sharp and interesting. All in all, this year's Corus tournament has been great and continues to be. Later more!

16:18
Jan (Smeets) was totally unprepared for Vishy's Scheveningen, and didn't have the critical lines ready. For instance he could have tried 11.Bg2, but "the truth is I didn't mind to split the point against him", he told me.

Corus

According to Nakamura, who already drew with Leko, the accurate 12...Qd7! basically "kills everything", after which it was dead equal.

With three pawn islands versue two, Shirov seems to be slightly worse in the ending now. Kramnik also looks more confident in fact. Short has managed to get another IQP position on the board but Caruana looks alright. Carlsen is better according to some experts in the press room, but it's certainly not easy. Ivanchuk won a pawn but his king isn't as safe as Karjakin's.

Giri sacrificed a piece against So and is now moving all his pieces to his opponent's king. Anything can happen there. In C, Li Chao totally crushed Muzychuk and is pretty sure of qualifing for B now.

23:44 CET
Indeed White's advantage wasn't much and so Short and Caruana drew an equal endgame. Carlsen defeated Dominguez and just did the press conference, which we'll put up as soon as possible.

Corus

After a tumultuous time trouble phase, former compatriots Ivanchuk and Karjakin also drew. It seems that 36.Nxa5 allows too much counterplay, but it's not easy to think of something else. In the game 40.Qe2 b6 followed by 41...Qxb3 also looks drawish. Kramnik has just sacrificed his knight for Shirov's passed pawns and will probably draw the endgame, according to the experts, including Magnus Carlsen. Van Wely has a nice advantage against Sergei Tiviakov and will certainly keep on pressing for a long time.

Anish Giri had an angel on his shoulder today; his attack didn't work out and he was basically lost against So from move 30 onwards. 35.Qe2! Nf2 36.Rf1! Nxh3+ 37.Kh2 would still have won for White, but instead the pinoy GM fell for a mating trick. Giri was the first to admit that he had been very lucky. He increased his lead to a point as all other games in B ended in a draw.

Shirov and Kramnik drew a very interesting game where the Russian found a series of only moves to hold the balance.

Corus

Loek van Wely eventually won against Sergei Tiviakov. His ending with bishop and two passed pawns against rook (and two fixed pawns on the queenside) looked like a draw, but KingLoek managed to find a winning set-up in the end.

Corus

Tomorrow Kramnik plays Anand with Black, and in the last round the Russian has the white pieces against Karjakin. Carlsen has Black against Leko tomorrow and then White against Caruana on Sunday.

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    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group A


    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group B


    Corus 2010 | Schedule & results Grandmaster Group C


    Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group A


    Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group B


    Corus 2010 | Round 11 Standings Grandmaster Group C


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    Peter Doggers's picture
    Author: Peter Doggers

    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.

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    Comments

    Bert de Bruut's picture

    In Shirov-Kramnik my vote is for 44 Nc4+ Ke7 45 a4! with one idea being 45... b5 46 Nb6!?!

    Bert de Bruut's picture

    45 a5 b5 46 Nb6 that is of course

    Bert de Bruut's picture

    And another idea 45 ... N something 46 Nxb6!

    Bert de Bruut's picture

    But apparently that is not working, since Shirov just played the meek 44 kh2

    Bert de Bruut's picture

    Well Shirov should have done it on an earlier move, else it would have been a threefold repetition. But sacrificing knights is the way to go in this ending, for Kramnik just got rid of his and now allows Shirov another try with 51Nxb5, :-) but no, he just took the immediate draw.

    mike's picture

    Am I crazy, or missed something, or Shirov just had spoiled an easy win after 51 ..axb5 ...axb5 52..Nxb5..??

    Luis's picture

    Yes u are crazy :)

    Rothschild's picture

    Seems like Kramnik and Carlsen never play a bad tournament anymore. This will be the most exciting finish of a Corus tournament since.... 07 maybe? Maybe even better. Still, I would love it if they put on a tourney with the world's top ten players (all of them) playing two rounds against each opponent. Maybe Microsoft could put something like that on and make a competitive chess software to go with it? Or even better: apple?

    mike's picture

    @ Luis: Yes, I'm crazy...;) And at least a couple of moves earlier, with 49..Nc7+ and 50..Nb5, white could try a win...

    chess's picture

    Bravo Carlsen, he won today. Is he now leader? Kramnik played only draw.

    mike's picture

    @ Rothschild: I would prefer Linux...

    Labelled's picture

    @Rotschild

    I second that! Kramnik and Carlsen are class.... pure class and the ones to beat in top chess nowadays...

    jan van der marel's picture

    Can anyone please film Sergej Tiviakov when he leaves the playing hall angry and quickly after having lost against Van Wely. And his mother watching in the background... Yes, thats great television!!!

    Rini Luyks's picture

    It seems people don´t like Tiviakov anymore....
    Did he throw the draw away today? (I suppose 78...Kg5 was bad).

    Jarvis's picture

    Jesus Christ - Giri is really something!

    Mauricio Valdes's picture

    Kramnik and Carsen.
    Iceman and Wonderboy leading with two rounds left to play!!
    Just one question:
    What would be tiebrake situation in case these two Chess Titans end up sharing first place?

    Jost's picture

    their individual game (C-K) ended in Kramnik's favour, so it's quite clear i think......

    Labelled's picture

    @Jost

    Stating that it`s clear that Kramnik will win is just redicilous! If you had watched the press conference you would have heard Kramnik himself saying that the game against Carlsen was one of his best games EVER.

    Not long ago Carlsen beat Kramnik in London.... So if the situation comes along I am afraid that you might have to eat your words:)

    We`ll see son....

    Jost's picture

    Labelled,

    my note was a reaction on the previous note. I meant that if Carlsen and Kramnik were to finish sharing first, I would suspect Kramnik to be proclaimed winner of Corus 2010, because of the result in their individual game. (but I'm not sure about this).
    That's not too difficult to understand is it, son....

    ebutaljib's picture

    There are no artificial tie-breaks in Corus. Never were, and hopefully never will be. Players with the same amount of points simply share their places. 1st place is no exception to this rule.

    Thomas's picture

    While first place and prize money will be shared in case of a tie at the top, don't they still need to come up with an "artifical tie-break" to determine who qualifies for Bilbao? Last year @ Linares, Grischuk (more wins) was picked over Ivanchuk (better Sonneborn-Berger).

    To my knowledge, Corus uses Sonneborn-Berger, which indeed should favor Kramnik over Carlsen (their direct result) as well as Shirov (very efficient against the lower half of the field, but two losses against the upper half).

    Of course Carlsen already qualified by winning Nanjing - if he also wins Corus it would make more sense to pick whoever is second in Wijk (not far behind) than Topalov who was second in Nanjing, 2.5 points behind Carlsen. And all this assumes that Bilbao 2010 will actually take place, in Bilbao or maybe in another city. Any news on this? I find it a bit puzzling that "Grand Slam" and/or "Bilbao" wasn't even mentioned yet .... .

    Thomas's picture

    BTW, nice to see the picture of what seems a friendly and animated post-mortem between Shirov and Kramnik! Hard to imagine this between Kramnik and Topalov ... . And Shirov and Kramnik weren't exactly friends some years ago (I won't discuss reasons which should be widely known ...), I remember watching live at the venue in 2001 when they didn't shake hands with each other.

    But what exactly are they discussing about the position on the board - after move 9, well within established theory?

    ebutaljib's picture

    "Last year @ Linares, Grischuk (more wins) was picked over Ivanchuk (better Sonneborn-Berger)."

    That's different - Linares does have tiebreak criteria. Last years it was:
    a) head to head (Grischuk and Ivanchuk drawn both their games)
    b) number of wins (Grischuk had 3 wins compared to Ivanchuk's 2)
    c) score against opponents who scored 50% or more

    In Corus there has never been a tiebreak criteria.

    But you do have a point: If two or more share 1st place, who qualifies for Grand Slam final (assuming there will be one)?

    Thomas's picture

    At Linares, does this also affect prize money - or only who gets the trophy and (more recently) the Bilbao invitation? Many years ago in Linares, Kasparov and Kramnik were tied for first, with all tiebreaks being equal. Rapid and/or blitz playoffs weren't common yet, apparently there were discussions (or jokes) about a coin throw, but then Kasparov decided that Kramnik could have the trophy because he already had several ones in his collection.

    But Corus actually has tiebreaks, which were needed in 2006 in both the A and B groups - from the tournament report ( http://www.coruschess.com/report.php?year=2006&report=13 ):
    "In an amazing photo finish, Vishy Anand managed to win today, and catch up with Topalov, share first place and take the trophy on tie breaks." [both scored 9/13 1.5 points clear of the field]
    "Group B’s finish was also dramatic, when Almasi [leader before the final round] lost to Cheparinov, while both Motylev and Carlsen won, with Motylev taking first place on tie breaks."
    Motylev got the "automatic" invitation to the A group in 2007, but Carlsen was also invited - a logical and, certainly in hindsight, "right" decision by the organizers.

    ebutaljib's picture

    It seems to be a moot point, because everywhere you look you will find both Anand and Topalov listed as the winners for 2006. (also for other years when more players shared 1st place)
    For example: http://www.coruschess.com/standings.php?year=2006&group=1
    It isn't even indicated that Anand was in some way ahead of Topalov, since Topalov is listed first.

    Obviously since there is only one winner throphy, they can't give it to both, so it looks like this is the only thing for which tie-break criteria are used. But they still both won the tournament. Which is not the case in Linares and most other tournaments where they use tiebreaks. There is only one winner the one with the best tiebreakers , others are 2nd, 3rd, etc.!
    Linares 2000 was a special case, since Kasparov and Kramnik were equal on all official tiebreaks criteria. When they tried to add either a blitz playoff or a coin flip Kasparov and Kramnik refused. Kasparov then ceeded the throphy to Kramnik, but not the tournament win! They were both winners! Here is the extensive report:
    http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/event/linares2000/linares10.html

    merlin's picture

    when are we going to have carlsen's press conference?

    suneet's picture

    Anand is meditating for the world championship.

    Rothschild's picture

    Anand himself said he is not saving his best game for the Topalov match, but that his game just wasnt optimal the last few days.

    Rini Luyks's picture

    Well, Anand showed something today against Kramnik, I would say. Wow!

    Zeblakov's picture

    A very dubious move from Van Welly: 10. ..Be7?! he can only survive if he has prepared this move at home till move 25 like in the other Bg5 sicilian lines.

    However, 10 ...b4 is interesting, and probaly he was afraid of the sac 11.Nd5.
    Again one has to admit that only a home-Fritz preparation can defend against 11.Nd5.

    This ends teh story that Bg5 line of the najdorf is a dead draw.

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