By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

THE annual elite Corus tournament is taking place in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands from Jan. 13 to 28. The “A” group has 14 super grandmasters: reigning world champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, 2766; former FIDE champ Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria, 2783; Viswanathan Anand, India, 2779; Levon Aronian, Armenia, 2744; Teymour Radjabov, Azerbaijan, 2729; Peter Svidler, Russia, 2728; Ruslan Ponomariov, Ukraine, 2723; David Navara, Czech Republic, 2719; Alexei Shirov, Spain, 2715; Magnus Carlsen, Norway, 2690; Loek van Wely, the Netherlands, 2683; Sergey Tiviakov, the Netherlands, 2682; Sergey Karjakin, Ukraine, 2678; and Alexander Motylev, Russia, 2647.
The average rating: a formidable 2719, making this round-robin event a Category 19 tournament.
After four rounds, 19-year-old Radjabov is in the lead, winning three of his first four games. Topalov is half-point behind, while Aronian, Navara, Anand, Svidler and Kramnik share 3rd-7th places. There are still nine rounds left to play and anything can still happen so stay tuned.
Game of the week. Here is the Azeri whiz kid outplaying the 34-year-old Latvian-born GM who beat Kramnik in a 10-game match in 1998. According to chess commentator Mark Crowther, Shirov tried to improve on Radjabov’s round 1 game against van Wely, “but black seemed at least fine after the improvement which also cost [white] a pawn. Shirov then didn’t seem to be able to find a plan and was flat busted by move 30. [He later] found some complications…which almost managed to get him into some kind of playable ending after errors from his opponent. However, his badly coordinated pieces meant that he didn’t last long here.” IM Malcolm Pein annotates.
White: A. Shirov (2715)
Black: T. Radjabov (2729)
King’s Indian Defense
Wijk aan Zee, 2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.Re1 f5 11.Ng5 Nf6 12.f3 Kh8 13.Ne6 Bxe6 14.dxe6 Nh5 [14...fxe4 15.fxe4 Nc6 16.Nd5 Nxe4 17.Bf3 Nf6 18.b5 Nxd5 19.bxc6 Nb6 20.cxb7 Rb8 21.c5 e4 22.Rxe4 dxc5 23.Qxd8 Rfxd8 24.Bg5 Re8 25.Rd1 Bd4+ 26.Rexd4 cxd4 27.e7 h6 28.Bf6+ Kg8 29.Rxd4 Kf7 30.Rd8 Nd7 31.Bh4 g5 32.Rxd7 Ke6 33.Bg4+ Kf6 34.Be1 Rxb7 35.Bc3+ Kg6 36.Bf3 Rb1+ 37.Kf2 Rc1 38.Rxc7 Kf5 39.Bh5 Rc2+ 40.Kf3 1-0 L. Van Wely (2648)-T. Radjabov (2704)/Khanty Mansyisk RUS 2005] 15.g3 Bf6 16.c5 f4 17.Kg2 [17.g4 Ng7 helped black in Radjabov’s round 1 game. 18.Bc4 Nc6 19.cxd6 cxd6 20.Ne2 Rc8 21.Bd5 Nxb4 22.Rb1 Nc2 23.Rf1 b6 24.Rb2 Ne3 25.Bxe3 fxe3 26.Qb3 Bg5 27.Nc3 Rc5 28.Na4 Rc7 29.Nc3 Qc8 30.Nb5 Rc1 31.Rb1 Rxf1+ 32.Rxf1 Qc5 33.Kg2 Rc8 34.Re1 a6 35.Na3 Qd4 36.Re2 Rc3 37.Qb2 h5 38.h3 Qd1 39.Bb3 Rxb3 40.axb3 Nxe6 0-1 L. Van Wely (2683)-T. Radjabov (2729)/Wijk aan Zee NED 2007] 17...Nc6 18.cxd6 cxd6 19.Nd5 Radjabov didn’t like this move in his post match press conference. 19...Nd4 [19...Ng7 was another Radjabov suggestion.] 20.Bb2 Nxe6 21.g4 [21.Bc4 fxg3 22.hxg3 Nxg3 23.Nxf6 Nf4+ 24.Kxg3 Qxf6 is good for Black.] 21...Nhg7 22.Nxf6 Rxf6 23.Qd5 Qe7 24.Red1 Rd8 25.Qa5 To secure the c6 square. [25.Bc3!? heading for e1.] 25...b6 26.Qd5 Rff8 27.Rac1 h5! 28.gxh5 [28.h3 Qh4 wins.] 28...Qh4!? Classic KID play, recapturing on h5 was possible but Radjabov already dreams of mate. 29.Rc6 [29.Kg1 was suggested by Radjabov.] 29...g5! This move surprised Shirov according to the official site. 30.Rxd6? [30.Kh1 was safer.] 30...g4! 31.Rxe6 Shirov offers his queen. [31.Bxe5 Qh3+ 32.Kg1 g3 wins.] 31...Rxd5 32.Rh6+ Kg8 33.Bc4 gxf3+ 34.Kh1 34...Nxh5 [34...Qh3 35.Bxd5+ Rf7 36.Rg6 f2 37.Rg2 Qd3 wins but this also leads to a spectacular combination.] 35.Rg1+ Ng3+ 36.Rxg3+ fxg3 37.Rxh4 g2+ 38.Kg1 f2+ 39.Kxg2 f1Q+ 40.Bxf1 Rd2+ 41.Kg3 Rxb2 42.Bc4+ Kg7 43.Bb3 It looks like White has near material equality but in reality its an easy win for black. 43...Rb1 44.Kg2 Rc8 45.Kf3 Rc3+ 46.Kg4 Rf1 47.Kh5 Kf6 0-1.
Puzzler. Glenn Orlina has done it again. He found the correct solution to last week’s puzzler: 1.Qb2! axb2 2.a3 bxa3 3.b4+ Ka6 4. Bc8 ++ Or 3....Ka4 4. Bc2 ++ Bravo Glenn!
For this week, try this:
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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