The games are underway in this annual classic. Wijk aan Zee, as usual, brings together the super-elite, the top Dutch players (just one of whom is Dutch this year), and a few intrigues. Topalov and Anand ran a dead heat in the message board poll to pick the winner. I hasten to remind that Leko won last year with +4, beating Anand in their game. (Topalov finished third.)
Kasparov favors Anand and, to preview his upcoming New In Chess column, says Topalov winning here would be even more impressive than his win in San Luis. The favorite has additional pressures.
Anand didn't win a classical event in 2005 and could be due. No doubt he would like to avoid the perverse fate of never being rated #1, being topped by Topalov just as Kasparov finally drops off the list. Is this 2005 super-Topalov really a stable version? Can Leko and Adams get back up to speed? Is Kamsky again ready for prime time?
Watching the new generation is of more interest to me than picking the winner. Do Aronian, Bacrot, Mamedyarov, and Karjakin have what it takes to swim with the sharks? Everyone is very strong, but there have to be more than a few negative scores. (With Timman not playing and van Wely playing solidly, someone putting up -7 is unlikely.)
Live games at Playchess.com, ICC, and the official site. The first two have online commentary. GM Yasser Seirawan is doing multimedia commentary at Playchess. I'll be contributing to the wrap-ups at ChessBase.com. So if you see or hear any brilliant insights into the games while watching online, post them in the daily threads here so I can steal them.
Yipee......Anand is back!!! Topalov's abt to find out what pressure of being the fav can do to you...
Karjakin replaces J Polgar, in castling long in R1 and getting mated by Anand.
just like Sam Luis...Topalov has won too..and gets W against Vishy.
Konstantin Sakaev's online commentary of Corus:
http://e3e5.com/eng/petersburg/competitions/article.html?161. There are also plans to have photographic reports as well as some written reports from the venue.
hey Mig
it's a bit late, but happy new year, and thanks again for providing such a great avenue for news from the chess world.
always an admirer of Kasparov (the G kind, not the S), i have been following his predictions of tournament results and who will be the next great. it may be that i don't read every single publication on chess, but it's quite impressive that he foresaw the rapid progress of Carlsen and Karjakin (we'll see about Nakamura). but dropping Radjabov from his list caused the latter to react, but Radjabov himself has kinda plateau'ed recently. hmmm ...
the players i will be paying close attention to during Corus are: Carlsen, Karjakin, Anand, and of course the 'Topadero' !
given how he played against Kamsky (my analysis ELO is about 0), i will brand his style of chess 'mystifying'. how the hell did Kamsky go down in flames in 26 moves ? he should have prepared better than that, shouldn't it ? does that mean Topalov 2005 is here to stay ? i hope so. he he he his declarations in the press and magazines really portray sth different from the Topalov version 1.0. or is he creating an aura like G. Kasparov did ? at any rate, Kamsky will remember the Bulgarian.
where is Leko 2.0 ?
Kramnik, Kramnik, Kramnik. you just had to give us a reason, us Kasparov-worshippers, to write you a recommendation letter to the Dean of Chess Hell. i hope you get better soon. life is more important than chess, right ? indeed, time is important when one does not have much of it.
hello to all readers ...
WorldChessNetwork also has live audio broadcast starting every day at 9:00am EST. GM Alex Finkel is scheduled for Saturday and GM Victor MIkhalevski for Sunday. www.worldchessnetwork.com
During Sakaev's comments on Aronian-Chukky, he made the following comment in passing on Anand's amazing game:
"Anand's 24...Nc7?? looks a capital blunder, the knight can be taken. Still, Black's position was very difficult even without committing such a suicide. I analyzed this line in 2004 and reached the position after 22.h4, assessing it as clearly better for White. Anand's choice of such a difficult line is very surprising.
...I sigh in admiration of Anand's computer analyses depth! After a healthy 3-minute thought the computer just REVERSED the assessment! We were wrong; it is absolutely fantastic!"
Very true!
Well, Anand's game against Karjakin was quite a hoot. It reminded me of playing against my big sister. I'm taking pieces right and left and the next thing I'm checkmated! More, more. . .
Kamsky should attend to his law career, chess has passed him by.
Good to see Chucky come out on top.
Really liked the endgame played by the tournament's lowest rated player in Group C
I love it. Kamsky loses to the "World Champion" with the black pieces, and his career is obviously over. Nevermind the many matches he won against very high level competition at the World Cup!
That's right. In fact, everyone from San Luis except Anand should quit chess immediately.
Anand's game was a deviation of Leko's match vs Francisco Vallejo-Pons at the 14th Amber Tournament: Rapid 2005. He clearly did some homework in this line and ruthlessly took apart Karjakin. Aronian is not getting much sleep tonight.
I was watching the match live and was quite startled by the dual Knight+Bishop and the final Rook sacrifice (Anand's calculative powers are quite a sight to behold by finding a way to ignore taking the Queen on move 34 to find a mate in 6).
Altogether, fine wins by Anand, Topalov (although Kamsky practically committed suicide with his Scandinavian line) and Chuky.
I was not only surprished by Kamsky's choice of the Scandinavian, but also by the variation. I would think that the more solid 2...Qd5 would suit his style of play better. Playing 2...Nf6 is giving Topolov the home court advantage. In my mind, Kamsky has always been a more "wait and see" type player.
Just want to say, kudos to the Chessbase people on the live cam in playchess, and GM Seirawan`s commentary. Especially for beginners, he`s probably the best GM commentator in the world; he has a fantastic conversational, instructive, sensible style of conveying information that even a fish like me can absorb. His books also have that same tone.
Stop trying to lure me away from ICC!
No, Anand should also quit because he lost to someone who lost to Topalov so he must be the worst of all.
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