Wijk aan Zee update

Anand & Carlsen lead; Nakamura and Karjakin tied for third.

Follow the live action every morning beginning at 6:30 a.m. Central at this link!  The players have Monday the 21st and Thursday the 24th off.  (Play concludes next Sunday, January 27; on that day only, play begins at 5 a.m. Chicago time: exciting as it may be, I'll skip the beginning of that round.)

Instant classic

Wow. Today, in round four of the Corus Steel supergrandmaster event in Wijk aan Zee, Vishy Anand just played an amazing game. He beat Levon Aronian with Black in only 23 moves with one of the most bizarre sacrificial attacks I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, Chess Flash seems to be down this morning.  But you can play through this brilliancy (trust me, it's worth the trouble!) and follow the other Round 4 games live at the official website.

Here's Anand's post-game commentary (thanks to Jeremy Kane for reminding me that the interviewer is an ex-Chicagoan, IM Jan van de Mortel!), in which Vishy notes that the attacking idea was cribbed from Rubinstein's immortal win against Rotlevi:


 

Daniel King offers his praise:

Gata makes Magnus say a bad word

Kamsky plays brilliantly in the opening, and the frustrated Carlsen admits he [messed] up, using a Norwegian dialect phrase not suitable for work. Cover your ears, children.

But Magnus buckles down and holds the draw: check it out at The Week in Chess. (Postscript 1/30/2012: GM Ian Rogers hits the highlights of this game in his article for Chess Life Online.)


Nakamura beats Van Wely and moves to number six in the world. Aronian beats Gelfand with Black, and will win Wijk aan Zee tomorrow if he can draw Radjabov with the White pieces.

Game of the year?

Carlsen may be #1 on the ratings list, and Anand and Gelfand may be playing for the FIDE title, but Levon Aronian gets my vote for "People's Champion."  Yesterday's win against Anish Giri was extremely cool:

Slow start for Americans in Wijk aan Zee

 Big shoes to fill?

After four rounds of Tata Steel Chess, last year's winner Hikaru Nakamura and reigning U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky are both 1½ points behind leaders Aronian and Carlsen.  Macauley Peterson reports at Chess Life Online.  (Teenager Fabiano Caruana, who learned to play chess in Brooklyn but now represents Italy, is only half a point behind the leaders.)

Check out the action Thursday morning: play begins at 7:30 a.m. Chicago time.

Wijk aan Zee round 1

Follow the live action at Tata Steel Chess.  Kamsky and Nakamura both drew with White: several games are still in progress.

The Nakamura Express pulls away at Reggio Emilia

GMHikaru tweets "The freight train appears to be back on track!"  Hopefully the train will have enough fuel to make it through Wijk aan Zee.  Nakamura's defense of his Tata Steel title begins on January 13th.

 Photo © |http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it

In today's game, look at all the compensation Nakamura gets for the investment of a mere wing pawn.

One has to feel for Nikita Vitiugov, who's only 24 years old.  It's hard for a Russian grandmaster to get foreign invitations when the GM is not one of the elite dozen players in the world.  It's doubly hard to play in one's inaugural "2700+ only" event.  Even the teenagers Giri and Caruana are grizzled veterans,  relatively speaking.

For more coverage of today's action, check out The Week in Chess.

Both Kamsky and Nakamura in Wijk aan Zee 2012

Hikaru will defend his title against Gata and others: full lineup of the 2012 invitational at ChessVibes.

Nakamura wins! Nakamura wins!

Nakamura and Wang Hao drew in 22 moves this morning in the category 20 Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. In the final position, Wang Hao could have won an exchange with 23.Bxb4?! cxb4!, but that would have left him in a passive position and given Nakamura a very strong pair of connected passed pawns, supported by the two bishops.

World Champion Vishy Anand, who trailed by half a point going into the round, also drew, against Nepomniachtchi. Nakamura thus won the tournament outright with the impressive score of 9-4 (6 wins, 6 draws, and a loss to Carlsen). Anand was second with 8.5. Aronian can tie with Anand if he succeeds in grinding out an endgame win against Smeets. Carlsen drew against Grischuk, finishing with 8 points.

With this extremely impressive and gutsy performance, Nakamura establishes himself as a member of the world elite. The last time an American won a tournament of this caliber was Gata Kamsky's win at the 2007 World Cup. To find the last time an American other than Kamsky won a remotely comparable tournament, you'd have to go back a very long time, maybe to Yasser Seirawan's victory at Haninge 1990. Congratulations to Hikaru Nakamura on his well-deserved win of one of the strongest tournaments ever!

One round left

In the Tata Steel super-tournament, Nakamura and Kramnik drew a very dull game today. Anand, White against Giri, by his own admission played badly and was lucky to escape with a draw. Going into the final round, Nakamura leads with 8.5 points, followed by Anand (8), Aronian and Carlsen (both 7.5) (standings, cross-table). The leaders' last-round pairings are Wang Hao (5.5)-Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi (5.5)-Anand, Aronian-Smeets (4), and Grischuk (4)-Carlsen. Nakamura's performance rating thus far is about 2900.

You can follow the last-round games live tomorrow morning at the tournament website, as well as (just) Wang Hao-Nakamura live at chessgames.com. Unfortunately for us night owls, the games start at 5 a.m. Central Time. Go Naka!

"Another good day at the office...."

GMHikaru tweets:

Another good day at the office, but there are still two incredibly important rounds left!!

Today Nakamura beat another young star, Jan Nepomniachtchi of Russia.  (Jan's surname only looks unpronounceable: Alex Yermolinsky says it quite naturally on ICC.). Hikaru leads Anand by ½, Aronian (who has two Dutch GMs to play) by 1, and Carlsen and Kramnik by 1½.   This top group is in fine form, with performance ratings from Carlsen's 2795 to Nakamura's 2906.  

Details on Chess Life Online, ChessBase, and ChessVibes, among many fine sites.

Kenny Rogers warned us not to count our ELO when we're sitting at the table, but Nakamura is now #7 in the world on the live ratings list, and within one win of the #5 spot!

"Nakamura close to a career-best triumph in Wijk aan Zee"

Read GM Ian Rogers at Chess Life Online.

And don't count your chickens....!

"Carlsen shows his win against Nakamura"

Video at ChessVibes.

Nakamura is still co-leader: play resumes tomorrow!

Big win for Nakamura

© Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau

After 7 of 13 rounds, Nakamura takes the sole lead in Wijk aan Zee!  Anand is in clear second, while Kramnik and Aronian are tied for third.

GMHikaru tweets:

Another exciting win today against Smeets! Tomorrow the tournament really begins as I play the big dogs in succession!

47 minutes ago via web

More at ChessBase and ChessVibes.

Л'Ами – Накамура 6-й тур (0-1)

I think that means that Nakamura beat the Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami in Round 6!  Viswanathan Anand and Alexander Grischuk drew, so Nakamura reclaims a share of first place.


The game is here: a nice grind from absolutely nothing.


P.S.  Nakamura tweeted:

A nice win today, but I feel horrible for l'Ami after that travesty yesterday. Anyway, Smeets tomorrow!about 2 hours ago via web

The "travesty" was L'Ami's blundering against Carlsen when defending a dead drawn rook & knight vs. rook ending (no pawns).

Nakamura blogs from Wijk aan Zee

 He was tied for first with Anand until today's draw with Ponomariov: still in great shape at +2!

A tweet from Wijk (no, that doesn't rhyme)

http://twitter.com/#!/GMHikaru/status/27106381320429568

@GMHikaru Hikaru Nakamura

 

Some of the best technique I've ever shown in an endgame under pressure! Off to a great start, but it will only get more difficult!

 

2 hours ago via web

Nakamura leads Wijk aan Zee after Round 3

After three rounds, Hikaru Nakamura, America's top-rated player, is leading the super-GM field of Tata Stell Group A in Wijk aan Zee, Holland.  Nakamura has beaten Alexander Grischuk and (today) Alexei Shirov, while drawing Levon Aronian with Black yesterday.

All the major chess sites have coverage: I went to The Week in Chess.

Karsten Müller annotates Shirov-Kramnik

Shirov-Kramnik, Corus 2010

White to play

You can read and play through GM Müller's explanations at ChessBase.  Shirov may only have taken second place, but he played the most spectacular chess at Wijk aan Zee.  Don't try to understand all the moves: just enjoy the fireworks!

Oh yes, this is supposedly a Chicago chess blog....

tactics from Corus: So-Giri

15-year-old Anish Giri's mother is Russian, his father is from Nepal, so naturally he plays for the Dutch federation.  He'll be playing in the A section of Corus next year!

Anish Giri: winner of the Corus B section

Here's the crucial position from Giri's game against another prodigy, Wesley So of the Phillipines:

So-Giri, Corus 2010

White to play: what's the best move?

A) 36.Ne2  B) 36.Qxd1 C.) 36.Qxd4 D) 36.Ra2

White is up two bishops (!) for a bunch of pawns.  But getting mated would be bad.  

Hint: one move probably wins, one move probably draws, one move definitely draws, and one move definitely loses.