Chess from Malcolm Pein Chess for Monday January 23rd 2006

England number one Michael Adams scored a fine victory over Vasily Ivanchuk to renew his challenge at the Corus tournament taking place at the Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee. Adams had already defeated the Fide champion Veselin Topalov’s Sicilian Defence and Ivanchuk’s fared no better after he chose a dubious plan when confronted by a clever move order from Adams.

Adams went straight on the attack and the black king was vulnerable throughout the game. Adams appeared a little unsure of himself as he offered a draw in a clearly advantageous position on move 25 but when Ivanchuk bizarrely declined Adams hit on the right plan and gave his illustrious opponent no chances. In round seven Anand comfortably defended the Ruy Lopez against Vishy Anand.

Gata Kamsky has had a tough time in his first tournament at the very highest level for many years. However flashes of the old Kamsky have been reappearing and in the sixth round he outplayed Vishy Anand to open up the race for first place yet again.

Veselin Topalov joined Anand on 4/6 after a tough game against Sergey Tiviakov, Holland’s Russian import. Topalov was sacrificing again, this time just a pawn but it gave him control of the centre and the white squares and Tiviakov was on the defensive for much of the game although he played well enough to avoid major difficulties.

Topalov then took a clear lead with an easy victory over Ivan Sokolov who, faced with the prospect of insufficient compensation for a sacrificed pawn offered another two pieces but soon had to resign. The prodigy Sergey Karjakin joined Anand in second place by defeating Shakriyar Mamedyarov who resigned in an endgame with level material as his pawns were weak and his dark squared bishop no match for a knight anchored on d5.

Round 6

Tiviakov draw Topalov
Adams 1-0 Ivanchuk
Kamsky 1-0 Anand
Mamedyarov draw
Gelfand Bacrot draw
Aronian I. Sokolov draw Leko
van Wely draw Karjakin

Round 7

Topalov 1-0 Sokolov
Anand draw Adams
Ivanchuk draw Bacrot
Karjakin 1-0 Mamedyarov
Leko 1-0 Kamsky
Gelfand draw Tiviakov
Aronian 0-1 van Wely

Scores: 1 Topalov (Bulgaria) 5/7; 2-3 Anand (India), Karjakin (Ukraine) 4.5; 4-6 Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Gelfand (Israel), Adams (England) 4; 7-8 Leko (Hungary), Van Wely (Holland) 3.5; 9-11 Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Aronian (Armenia), Tiviakov (Holland) 3; 12-13 Sokolov (Holland) , Bacrot (France) 2.5; 14 Kamsky (USA) 2;

In the B group the Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen is striking fear into the hearts of established opponents.

M Carlsen - A Beliavsky
Corus B Wijk aan Zee (5)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.d3 Bc5 8.Nc3 d6 9.a4 Na5 10.Ba2 b4 11.Ne2 Bc8?! (Black cannot afford this 11...0-0 12.Ng3 h6 13.Nf5 Bc8) 12.c3 bxc3 13.bxc3 Bb6 14.Ng3 Be6 15.d4 (With obvious moves Carlsen has secured a huge advantage) 15...Bxa2 16.Rxa2 0-0 (16...Nc6 17.Bg5 h6 18.Bxf6 Qxf6 19.a5! ) 17.Bg5! (There seems to be no defence already) 17...exd4 (17...h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.Nxg5 hxg5 20.Bxg5) 18.Nh5! dxc3 19.Nh4 (Threat Bxf6 and Qg4+ mating) 19...Kh8 20.Nf5 1-0

Beliavsky

Carlsen

Final position after 20.Nf5

Black is defenceless against Nxg7 and takes on f6.