By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

THE elite Corus tournament ended on Sunday in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, in a three-way tie for first place — Levon Aronian of Armenia, Teimur Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria scored 8 1/2 points in 13 games. World champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia was half a point behind and was followed by Vishy Anand of India, 7 1/2 points; Peter Svidler, Russia, 7; David Navara, Czech Republic, and Sergei Karjakin, Ukraine, 6 1/2; Ruslan Ponomariov, Ukraine, 6; Alexander Motylev, Russia, and two Dutchmen Loek Van Wely and Sergei Tiviakov, 5; Alexei Shirov, Spain and Magnus Carlsen, Norway, 4 1/2 points.
Topalov could have finished solo first, but in the 11th round he lost a winnable game as black to Svidler. Radjabov, for his part, won four games with the black pieces in the King’s Indian Defense! Aronian and Kramnik were the only undefeated players.
The most anticipated game of the tournament — Topalov vs. Kramnik — was played in the penultimate round. According to ChessBase, it “started with a frosty non-handshake. Thereafter, it was a typical Kramnik game as black — an early queen exchange, an inferior ending, and tenacious defense, that prevented the position ever deteriorating beyond worse but tenable.” The result: a draw after 49 moves.
Game of the week. Here is the rising chess star from Armenia in the last round game that allowed him to catch up with Topalov and Radjabov. Mark Crowther annotates.
White: L. Aronian (2744)
Black: S. Tiviakov (2667)
Closed Catalan
Corus A, Wijk aan Zee 2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 c6 Tiviakov’s pet line. 7.Nc3 d5 8.Nd2 0-0 [8...Na6] 9.e4 dxc4 10.Nxc4 Ba6 11.b3 b5 12.Ne3 b4 13.Ne2 Bxe2 14.Qxe2 Qxd4 Aronian thinks that white should be close to a big advantage with precise play. 15.Bb2 Qb6 16.Nc4 Qb5 [16...Qc5 17.Bxf6 Bxf6 18.e5 Be7 19.Rad1 a5 20.Rd2 a4 1/2-1/2 Kappler (2240)-Abravanel (2270)/Epinal 1986] 17.Bxf6 Bxf6 [17...gxf6! 1/2-1/2 Smyslov-Guimard/Groningen 1946] 18.e5 Be7 19.Rad1 [19.Rfd1 a5 20.Rd2 Ra7 21.Rad1 Rc7 22.Rd4 Na6 23.Be4 Nc5 24.Bc2 f5 25.exf6 Bxf6 26.Qh5 Nd3 27.Qxb5 cxb5 28.R4xd3 bxc4 29.bxc4 Rxc4 30.Bb3 Re4 31.Rd6 Re8 32.Ra6 Bc3 1/2-1/2 Nika (2035)-Maric (2345)/Thessaloniki 1988; 19.Be4] 19...a5 20.Be4 Ra7 21.h4 [21.f4; 21.Qf3 Qc5] 21...Nd7 22.h5!? Aronian just blundered the pawn on e5 but the sacrifice turns out fine. 22...Nxe5 23.Qe3 Ng4?! A brave rook sacrifice, which is probably unsound. [23...Bc5 24.Bxh7+ Kxh7 25.Qe4+ Kg8 26.Nxe5 Be7 27.Kg2] 24.Qxa7 Qxh5 25.Kg2 Bc5 26.Qxa5 Qh2+ 27.Kf3 Bxf2 [27...Nxf2 28.Qxc5 Nxd1 29.Rxd1 f5] 28.Rd8 [28.Bxh7+ is great also for white.] 28...Qxg3+ 29.Ke2 Bc5 30.Rxf8+ Bxf8 31.Qa7 Qh2+ 32.Kd1 f6 Objectively black is just losing. 33.Qd7 Nf2+ 34.Ke1 Nxe4 35.Qxe6+ Kh8 36.Qxe4 Qxa2 37.Qe8 Kg8 38.Rf3 [38.Ne5? was nearly played by Aronian.] 38...Qb1+ 39.Kf2 c5 40.Qe6+ Kh8 41.Ne5 h6 42.Nd7 Qc2+ 43.Qe2 1-0
Puzzler.
White — pawns on g3, h4; Nb4, Qb8, Nf6, Kf7, Bg1
Black — pawns c3, c4, d7, e5, g6; Na5, Rc5; Bd1, Kf5; Nf8
White to play and mate in four moves.
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