Report of round 10 - CCT 2004

Anand: Close to Victory - Lanchava: IM-norm

In round 10 of the Corus Chess Tournament Viswanathan Anand (see picture 1), in first, was not threatened by either Michael Adams and or Peter Leko who remain in second place, one point behind the leader. Playing Black against Adams, Anand had no trouble as his opponent offered a draw after a mere 18 moves. Leko was not able to close the gap in his game against Alexey Shirov. In a theoretical line of the Petroff Defence Shirov easily held his own reaching a balanced position. The game was drawn after 25 moves.

Two Dutchmen quickly finished their game. After an eventful draw against Anand in the previous round, Vladimir Kramnik might still have had some hope of catching up by winning against Jan Timman (see picture 2). However, the Dutchman had a tiny advantage throughout the game. In a position with equal material both players agreed to a draw. Fast, but not good, was Loek van Wely's game. His win against Adams in the 9th round was virtually cancelled out by a quick loss with White against Viorel Bologan. With (see diagram 1) 20.Rd6? Van Wely dug himself a hole where Bologan was ready to push him in: 20...Nc6 21.Qxc5 Na5!! and White is lost in all variations. White resigned after 22.Qb4 Nxc4! 23.Qxb7 Qxd6 24.Qxa8 Ke7 25.Qb7 Rb8

As if both B's knew what was in store (see picture 3!), Evgeny Bareev also had a successful day. The Moscovite, winner in 2002 and 3rd in 2003, was in last place and ready for some good news, which meant bad news for Veselin Topalov. His pawn sacrifice on move 10 simply didn't pay off. When queens were traded and a black rook entered the white position, Topalov got into insurmountable trouble and lost.

The third Dutchman, Ivan Sokolov, made an effort to leave the bottom of the standings and switch places with Zhang Zhong (see picture 4). After a short tactical exchange an endgame materialized with two rooks and two passed pawns for Sokolov, but a rook, knight and bishop for Zhong. Hence, the pawns couldn't make it across, but at the same time couldn't be conquered; this resulted in a dynamical draw. A tactical skirmish also appeared in Vladimir Akopian versus Peter Svidler (see picture 5). The Russian Champion, number-three seed, is not playing his best tournament. His opponent, Armenian Akopian, again showed that dynamical chess is his strong suit. When Akopian started to slowly surrender a weak pawn, Svidler decided to set the board on fire. With a couple of pointed moves Akopian extinguished the flames and converted his advantage.

Like in GM-A, the end is drawing near and the leader has a comfortable lead. Laurent Fressinet (see picture 6) made optimal use of Lenier Dominguez' draw against Arkadij Naiditsch. The Frenchman again increased his lead to a full point by beating Zhu Chen in a knight endgame. Dominguez will have one last chance in round 12 when he'll be Black against Fressinet. Fighting for his final GM-norm, Daniel Stellwagen was forced to cease his attempts. In a spectacular way he was beaten by Antoaneta Stefanova (see picture 7), for which effort the grandmaster from Bulgaria received the daily spectators' prize. In the meantime, the successes in Grandmaster Group C keep coming. After GM-norms in three successive rounds, this time Tea Lanchava achieved her first IM-norm. She showed no mercy with Ruud Janssen: (see diagram 2) 12.Bxf6 The onslaught begins. 12...gxf6 13.Nxc6 Bxc6 14.d5 Bxc3 15.Qg4! Kh8 16.dxc6 Bxb2 17.Rad1 Qc7? The decisive mistake. Black should have played 17...f5! 18.Bxe6! Rg8 18...fxe6 19.Rd7 wins 19.Qh3 Raf8 20.Bf5 Rg7 21.Qf3 Be5 22.g3 With his weak king, Black is not able to stop the c-pawn. 22...b5 23.Rd7 Qb6 24.Rc1 Bc7 25.Qe3! Rg5 26.Qxb6 Bxb6 27.g4 Rc8 28.c7 Rxf5 29.gxf5 Kg7 30.Rc6 b4 31.Kf1! The White king will take care of the black pawns on the queenside. Black resigned. After losing the lead to Sipke Ernst last round, Magnus Carlsen managed to get back into first place again. The youngest participant (13) had no problem beating the senior, Maarten Etmans (64) (see picture 8). Meanwhile Sipke Ernst played a solid draw with Black against another rising star, 14-year-old Kateryna Lahno. With three rounds to go Carlsen and Ernst share the lead; in round 12 they will have to play against each other.