GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2810
GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2790
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2788
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2749
GM Peter Leko HUN 2739
GM Alexei Shirov SPA 2723
GM Sergey Karjakin RUS 2720
GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2712
GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2708
GM Nigel Short ENG 2696
GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2675
GM Sergey Tiviakov NED 2662
GM Jan Smeets NED 2657
GM Loek van Wely NED 2641
The average rating is 2719, making this tourney a Category 19 event.
Fans are expecting a lot from young Carlsen, but so far, it is one of the veterans, Latvian Alexei Shirov, who now plays for Spain, who is on a roll — scoring four wins in as many rounds! The 37-year-old GM, known for his attacking style a la Tal, has scalped Leko, Caruana, Tiviakov and Smeets. There are, however, nine more rounds to go so stay tuned.
Game of the week. Mark Crowther, who annotates this partie, says Tiviakov “played 3.Bb5 against the Sicilian which can have drawish tendencies. He got sacrificed a pawn in a known line but started to introduce new problems with 14…Rg8 which seems to be new. White’s position was already the harder to play and after 24…Qh6? Shirov brought home the full point very quickly.”
White: S. Tiviakov (2662)
Black: A. Shirov (2723)
Closed Sicilian
Corus A, Wijk aan Zee 2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 There are very few lines that make Bb5 look interesting. 4.Bc4 e6 5.Nge2 Nf6 6.0-0 a6 7.d3 b5 8.Bb3 Nxb3 9.axb3 Bb7 10.f4 d5 11.e5 d4 12.exf6 dxc3 13.fxg7 Bxg7 Black has got the mess he needs against Tiviakov although he was still in preparation here. 14.bxc3 Rg8 [14…Qd7 15.f5 Qc6 16.Nf4 Bxc3 17.fxe6 0-0-0 18.exf7 Bxa1 19.Qg4+ Qd7 20.Ne6 Bd4+ 21.Kh1 Bd5 22.Re1 Rhf8 23.c4 Bxe6 24.Rxe6 Rxf7 0-1 Jotic,V (2277)-Ermenkov,E (2460)/Subotica YUG 2002] 15.Rf2 Bxc3 16.Nxc3 Qd4 17.Kf1 Qxc3 18.Ra2 Black already looks better here but Shirov thought that he was still battling for equality if his attack failed. 18…Qd4 19.Qh5 c4 20.bxc4 bxc4 21.Ra4 [21.Qe5 looks best.] 21…Bd5 22.f5 e5 23.Qxh7? [23.Qh6 Kd7] 23….Kd7 24.Qh6? I’m not sure what move works for white here. Black’s pieces are perfect, white’s less so but this move allows black a decisive breakthrough. White actually thought for a long time here, the trouble is obviously quite big. 24.h3 Bxg2+ 25.Rxg2; 24.f6 with the idea of playing Qh3+ is surely better. 24…Bxg2+ 25.Ke1 Bd5 26.Ba3 [26.Rf1 Rg1 is still losing.] 26…Rg1+ 27.Ke2 Qg4+ 28.Ke3 Re1+ 29.Kd2 Qd1+ 30.Kc3 Qa1+ 31.Kb4 Rb1+ and 0-1.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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