Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 10, Harika & Ramaswamy won!

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 10

Harika Dronavalli won! (2455), with Black, on Tofte Sondre Waage (2108)
What looked like impressive play by her opponent, who sacrificed her Knight on Move 13 to win 3 pawns, and cashed on the Harika's weakened King's safety.
With an accurate play by Harika, it shud have been a draw, but the opponent had some not best moves, and resigned.
Here is the game!


Easy win for Ramaswamy Aarthie (2322) against Hansen Pal Andreas (2108), in 18 moves.
Looked like the opponent's pawn structure is teribble, and when the Rook lift was done by Aarthie, opponent resigned, as Aarthie would soon crash into opponent's territory.
Classic example of what happens when King is not castled.
Here is the game!


Impressive strategy by Narayanan Srinath (2210) by sacrificing! light squared bishop on Move 24, for getting some good counterplay.
In the end game, he could draw his game, with Black, on a higher rated player Goldsztejn Gildas (2380).

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, update 2

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

Intense action in Harika Dronavalli (2455) 's game against Zuse Klaus-peter (2274)
She struggled to take opponent's pawn on B file for a long time, which eventually she let her became Queen.
Looked like, her 72th move, shud have been Bd1, instead of taking the Bishop which eased her opponent for promting pawn to Queen
But, after 76th move, both players had Queened their pawns. Then Queen & pawn for both sides!
After a lot of fight of 41 moves, Harika won!
Here is the game!


Ranking after round 9:
1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi 7.5 CHN 2691
2 GM Efimenko, Zahar 7.5 UKR 2638
3 GM Ni, Hua 7.0 CHN 2680
4 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 7.0 USA 2670
5 GM Bologan, Viktor 7.0 MDA 2663
6 GM Gopal, G.N. 7.0 IND 2528

Indians are with the below points
Sandipan, Chanda 6.0
Gopal, G.N. 6.0
Harika, Dronavalli 4.5
Narayanan, Srinath 4.5
Ramaswamy, Aarthie 4.0
Nadig, Kruttika 4.0

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, update

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

Ramaswamy Aarthie (2322), Almond Richard J (2107)Looked like Aarthie's Knight was out of play completely.With her Move 48, her Rook got trapped in. After 2 more moves, she lost it for an Bishop.That started her downfall, the lower rated opponent played like a master!Opponent's pawn would march to become Queen! & with a most obvious check to her King. Check came! she resigned.
Here is the game!

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 9, Gopal G.N won!!

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Master category
Round 9

First loss to Bu Xiangzhi in the tournament, with Black, against Efimenko Zahar!

Gopal G.N. (2528) won! on a Grand Master Socko Bartosz (2635) who did a blundered lost the game!
Move 34 looked wrongly calculated which ignored the incoming check
In the pressure, Move 37, he gave the rook (?) and resigned.
Here is the game!

Narayanan Srinath (2210) held a higher rated player Hammer Jon Ludvig (2441) to a draw!

Sandipan Chanda (2593), with black, lost to a higher rated opponent Bologan Viktor (2663)

Looked like, he miscalculated on move 32 & lost his Knight & game, in a pretty equal position.
Here is the game!


Nadig Kruttika (2208), with black, lost to a higher rated player Berczes David (2429)

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 8, Sandipan Chanda & Gopal G.N won!

Gibtelecom Masters 2008, under Master category

In Round 8

Good win by Sandipan, Chanda against Wang, Yu A.

Here is the game!

Also, GM Gopal G.N won!

Ranking after round 8:

Rank Name                      Score Fed.
1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi          7.5      CHN
2 GM Efimenko, Zahar  6.5      UKR

There are alot tie on 6 score!

An extraordinary tournament for Bu Xiangzhi 7 wins, 1 draw & no loss!

He has 2nd highest 2691 rating in the tournament after Wang Yue whose has 2698 ELO.

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Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 8, Narayanan Srinath won!

In round 8:

Narayanan Srinath won!

A nice game from him, he promoted his only pawn to Queen, and opponent resigned!

Harika Dronavalli, with black, was content with draw

Ramaswamy Aarthie's game looked fine until, she became busy grabbing a opponent's pawn, and found that she had no next move (?), she resigned the game.

Her opponent, Butnorius Algimantas, is higher rated than her, by 110+ ELO points.

Here is the game!

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Gibtelecom Masters 2008, Round 7

After the exciting Corus 2008 tournament, I am watching

Gibtelecom Masters 2008

Under the "Masters" category

After 7 rounds,  here are the leaders:

1 GM Bu, Xiangzhi 6.5 CHN
2 GM Bologan, Viktor 6.0 MDA
3 GM Efimenko, Zahar 6.0 UKR

Indians are with the below points

Sandipan, Chanda 5.0
Gopal, G.N. 5.0
Harika, Dronavalli 4.0
Ramaswamy, Aarthie 4.0
Narayanan, Srinath 3.5
Nadig, Kruttika 3.5

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Corus Chess 2008 - Interesting stats!

Corus Chess 2008 - Summary!

Interesting stats!

Group A

Undefeated - V. Ivanchuk
Most draws - 12 (only 1 result) - V. Ivanchuk
Most results - 7 - M. Carlsen, V. Topalov & P. Eljanov
Most wins - 5 - M. Carlsen
Most losses - 5 - P. Eljanov


Group B

Undefeated - S. Movsesian & E. Bacrot
Most draws - 9 - H. Koneru, P. Harikrishna & E. Bacrot
Most results - 11 (2 draws) - W. Spoelman
Most wins - 6 - S. Movsesian
Most losses - 8 - W. Spoelman


Group C

Undefeated - n/a
Most draws - 8 - D. Reinderman
Most results - 12 (just 1 draw!!!) - A. Ushenina
Most wins - 9 - F. Caruana

Most losses - 9 - D. Ruijgrok

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Aronian! & Carlsen!!, Corus Chess 2008 winners

Great last round action.

Aronian! & Carlsen!! won the Corus chess tournament 2008!

In the last round, both winners had a hard fought draw against their opponents had a draw, and remained at 1st place!

Kramnik held Anand to a draw, so Anand's dreams to win this Corus tournament again in 2008 remained unfullfilled. With the result he had to content with 2nd place along with Rajbadov! who defeated him in the 1st round.

Here is the game!

Group A standings
1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 8
3. T. Radjabov, V. Anand 7½

Group B standings
1. S. Movsesian 9½
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 8½
4. P. Harikrishna 7½

Group C standings
1. F. Caruana 10
2. P. Negi, D. Reinderman 8
(In the last round, the young Indian prodigy Negi, with Black, lost to Caruana!)

In all, Corus 2008 had been an excellent show, with a lot of great game action!!!

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Corus Chess 2008, Round 13, Leko, Gelfand won!

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13

With Leko & Gelfand won! on Mamedyarov & Eljanov respectively.

Here are the games!

All others, except Anand & Kramnik, have drawn.

This means, Carlsen & Aronian are joint winners already!

If the Anand wins on Kramnik, then he will join the winners! Looks he has better position & more time left on clock, so lets wish Anand to win!

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Corus Chess 2008, Round 13, LIVE

Corus Chess 2008, Round 13

Now LIVE at below URL (remove SPACES between):

           coruschess . com / livegames . php

This is the last round!

I can't believe what I saw just now, Kramnik has burnt more than 30 minutes for his move 32.

If Anand can play faster (& accurately) now, the time pressure will crush Kramnik in the end game. Also, Kramnik's Queen has become out of play, as it is at the corner!

Quite an exciting game!

Carlsen has to catch up with Aronian, so he has to win! against Radjabov

LIVE commentary at below URL (remove SPACES between):

           chessdom . com / corus-chess-2008 / carlsen-radjabov-live

In the Group C, Negi is fighting for win with the leader

if he can win!, he will be the join lead!

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Corus Chess 2008, Just 1 round to go, who will win?

1 Round to go!

Current A group standings:

1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 7½

3. T. Radjabov, V. Anand 7
5. V. Ivanchuk 6½

Only one of these can win! Who?

Anand, with white!, will play Kramnik, if Anand can force a win, that will be great! (otherwise also this will be most watched game, as Anand would wish to win the tournament yet again)

If Anand wins, also Radjabov wins, then with tie breaker score, I guess Anand cant win the tournament. So, Anand chances depends on his own win, and Carlsen & Radjabov's draw, and may Aronian should lose (is it ok if Aronian draws? then Anand & Aronian will be tie, who will win then?)

Almost same are the chances for Radjabov, a little better than Anand, if tied with Anand at 1st place.

If Aronian or Carlsen wins, no more calculations required, one of these will be winner. (I guess Carlsen wins, as he has most wins, is it?)

Ivanchuk shud pray god, as one best case, if all other four lose, then he will tie with Aronian & Carlsen, then who will be the winner? (Again Carlsen wins? as he has most wins)

BTW, i am unsure if Tiebreak will be used at all, and there can be multiple winners this time, possible?

Other groups, calculation looks simple!

Group B
1. S. Movsesian 9
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 8

Group C
1. F. Caruana 9
2. P. Negi 8

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Corus Chess 2008, Round 12, Carlsen won! on Kramnik (?)

Corus Chess 2008, Round 12

The game of the day was Carlsen's win!!!!!, with black!!!!!!!!, over Kramnik (?)

Carlsen slowly saved 2 pawns for the endgame, and one of them was a passed pawn, which could not be stopped by Kramnik pawns, this pawn gave a lot of trouble to Kramnik and in the end Kramnik resigned.

Kramnik's luck isn't good in this tournament, he already had 2 losses now, previously he lost to Topalov! In general Kramnik is much better player, I guess it was long time since he lost 2 times in one tournament, not to forget he is FIDE number 1 now, along with Anand, both of these will be playing a match of the year at the end of 2008.

Anyway, here is the game!

Polgar showed end game power

Though she had exactly same material, the opponent Adams had to move his king, as all other pawns are blocked, and hence he will loose his pawn, creating a passed pawn for Polgar, Adams resigned! His 1st loss in this tournament.

Here is the game!

Anand, with black, had to content with a only draw, against van Wely.

Knight sacrifice on move 14th costed Topalov the game, Eljanov won!

Topalov is known to be comming to form at the end of the tournament, I guess he tried to do here too! He lost, but it was brave!

Here is the game!

Negi! won again!!

What a great win by GM Negi, the young Indian prodigy, just see how he gives away all the material, to win opponent's Queen! It was a very long trap!

Here is the game!

Koneru, with Black, lost to Spoelman!! the one who had most losses in Group B

Harikrishna, with white, could only split a point, with his opponent Krasenkow!

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Corus Chess 2008 - Interesting statistics ( Till Round 11 )

Group A
Undefeated still - Adams & Ivanchuk
Most draws - 10 - Adams & Ivanchuk
Most wins - 4 - Carlsen & Aronian
Most losses - 4 - Gelfand, Eljanov & van Wely
Most results - (only 5 draws) - Topalov, Carlsen & van Wely

Group B
Undefeated still - Movsesian & Bacrot
Most draws - 8 - Koneru
Most wins - 5 - Movsesian & Short
Most losses - 7 - Spoelman
Most results - (only 2 draws) - Krasenkow & Spoelman

Group C
Undefeated still - N/A
Most draws - 6 - Peng, Reinderman, van der Wiel
Most wins - 7 - Caruana
Most losses - 8 - Ruijgrok (teribble nightmare tounament)

Most results - (only1 draw) - Ushenina

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Corus Chess 2008 - 2 Rounds to go, Who wins?

Just 2 rounds to go, who will win?

Group A:

Aronian only needs 1 win and 1 draw to win the Corus Chess Tournament 2008 title!
In next 2 rounds, if none of Radjabov, Carlsen & Anand had a win,
then Aronian needs only a win & draw to get atleast joint 1st place

To be on the safe side, Radjabov, Carlsen & Anand had to win the last 2 rounds

For Anand, in the last round, it looks difficult to win as he has to play against Kramnik, the ultimate solid draw game player, assuming Anand wins one of the most erratic van Wely (now in the last position, along with Eljanov, who surprised Polar in 11th round, his only win!)

For Carlsen, the chances are very weak, as the has to play the most motivated Rajbadov, and the Kramnik.

For Radjabov he has to force a win against Carlsen which is that easy too, else his chances at winning on Leko, the most solid chess player, is very mere!

Lets not hope all (or most) these will loose one game, some one from the 3rd position will come to 2nd/ 1st place! Quite possbile!

Anand shud win this tournament to prove, again, he is Master! of Corus Chess! too!

Group B:

Looks most probably one of these will win:
1. S. Movsesian 8
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 7½

4. P. Harikrishna, I. Nepomniachtchi 6½

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Corus Chess 2008, Round 11, Anand won!

Anand won!

Carlsen Vs Anand played a complicated game!
Ofcourse, complicated game for us and Carlsen, not for Anand!
Anand was played like breeze.

Carlsen gave all the pawns and other material for Queening a pawn his only hope, just to find it not possible, so he resigned!

33rd move of Carlsen is critised as a move which weakened his chances of a draw

Great fight though by Carlsen!
Anand won! with Black!

So, Anand got 1 more point, and Carlsen at the same points.

What a climbing! - Recall that Anand was the bottom!, now at the 2 place!

Here is the game!

Aronian easily won on Van Wely!
Aronian gave Knight (step 26) for FREE!, can't believe Van Wely took it, as in 2 more steps, Van Wely had to pay the price giving his Queen
15 more moves were played just like that!

Aronian won! and got the Sole lead position!

Here is the game!

Gelfand was busy picking up pawns (35th move), just to find that he was force-checkmated by Rajbadov! in 3 steps (??). Guess, Gelfand shud be more attentive!

Rajbadov's had easy win!

Here is the game!

Hence,

Aronian, previously 2nd, now became 1st position!

Rajbadov, Anand & Carlsen tie at 2nd position! (half point behind the leader)

As Kramnik could only draw his game, he will be at the 3rd position only

The winner of Ivanchuk Vs Adams drew joined at 3rd position!

Also, good tactic win by Eljanov on Polgar.

Topalov could only draw on Mamedyarov, with white.

---------

In group B standings

1. S. Movsesian 8
2. E. Bacrot, N. Short 7½
4. P. Harikrishna, I. Nepomniachtchi 6½

Harikrishna won on, recently more in the news, the handshake one, I. Cheparinov

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Corus Chess 2008, 24th Jan, rest day!

Corus Chess 2008

24th Jan, is rest day so Round 11 will resume tomorrow.

Wish you a great day ahead!

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Good Chess Lessons 2

"Attacking" or "Check"ing the opponent's king is not the goal of Chess, Checkmate is!

Corus Chess 2008, round 10

Negi won! on Ruijgrok
Here furious attack by opponent, but the kool mind young Indian prodigy Negi won! on his opponent
Watch the opponent sacrified the Queen too, in the attacking combination, like Topalov yesterday (previous posts), but it was not "completely analysed" attack, so had to pay for it!

Here is the game!

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Corus Chess 2008, round 10

Carlsen strikes back! winning on Van Wely - went into sole lead!
I felt 35 & 36 moves of Van Wely are somewhat suspicious.

Later there was a fatal attack by Carlsen! and Van Wely resigned.

Here is the game!

Good win by Ivanchuk, his first win in this tournament.
Also he is undeafted till now!

All others drew in A group

Negi won! on Ruijgrok
Furious attack by opponent, but the kool mind young Indian prodigy Negi won! on his opponent.

Here is the game!

Also lots of wins in other groups in this round.

Group A standings:
1. M. Carlsen 6½
2. L. Aronian 6
3. V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams, V. Ivanchuk, V. Anand 5½
8. S. Mamedyarov, V. Topalov, P. Leko 5
11. J. Polgar 4½
12. L. van Wely 4
13. B. Gelfand 3½

14. P. Eljanov 3

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Corus chess - Topalov won on Kramnik - A possible continuation

Corus chess 2008, Round 9

We know Topalov won on Kramnik (given in the earlier posts).

What would have happened, if Kramik played till he got checkmated?

Here is the game!

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Good Chess Lessons

Good chess lessons - Corus chess 2008, Round 9

Chess Lesson 1:

Denying the King Castling of the opponent (even if by sacrificing the Material, or even if Queen) to get a very very strong attacking on Enemy King => Opponent is in severe pressure => You are winning! (even if the opponent is World Number 1!)

Mr. Topalov, The ultimate entertainer along with Anand

Here is the game!

Chess Lesson 2:

Winning material is not the ultimate goal!, Checkmate is! 

The game between Grivas & Li illustrates this lesson. Li won the game. 

Opponent was grabbing all the stuff, Li was creating the mating net!

Check the end game, last 10 steps. 

Here is the game!

Chess Lesson 3:

Pinning the peices to King, will immobilize the development => you are losing the game! 

Cheparinov pinned the opponent's Knight & pawn to King, making them not to move at all! 

Opponent can't move peices, if he does, he looses the peices and the game. Opponent resigned! Cheparinov won!

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Corus chess 2008, Round 9, Leko won on Carlsen!

After the Topalov, the Ultimate entertainer along with Anand, won on Kramnik (earlier post, before this post), there are some other good games.

Utimately,
Leko (considered as the most solid chess player) defeated the young prodigy, Carlsen! (who was undefeated till now, round 9!)
In the end game, with a peice less, and opponent Queening his pawn Carlsen resigned. Leko won!

Here is the game!

Adams won! on Van Wely.

Koneru Humpy Vs Harikrishna  game ended in draw.
Negi could draw with black!

Group A, standings after round 9:

1  - L. Aronian, M. Carlsen - 5½
3  - V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams, V. Anand  - 5
7  - S. Mamedyarov, V. Ivanchuk, V. Topalov, P. Leko - 4½
11 - J. Polgar, L. van Wely  - 4
13 - P. Eljanov, B. Gelfand  - 3

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Corus chess 2008, Round 9, Topalov won(!!!) on Kramnik(?)

WoW!!!

Corus chess 2008, Round 9

Topalov won!!! on Kramnik

Fearless Topalov sacrified his Knight, against the most solid draw player, Kramnik.
Looked like Kramnik has chances to win for his Knight up, if he can hold his position.
On the other side of coin, Topalov denied Kramnik's castling when he sacrified his Knight & got a better position for attacking Kramnik's king side.

Topalov's attacking was fatal. Kramnik's greediness to take Knight costed him the game.

After being defeated by Anand in the last round, great comback again by Topalov! to win on Kramnik.

With this new win, suddenly Topalov is also in the race! to the Top spot.

Here is the game!

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Corus Chess 2008 - Round 8 continuation - Short won!

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 8 continuation

Yesterday, Game  between Short & Cheparinov was completed in 1 move each. This was due to Cheparinov not giving handshake to Short for 2 times. After losing the game, Cheparinov sited earlier reasons on what Short commented.

Today, due to clear rules, the game continued on a rest-day.

At 43 step, Cheparinov gave up his Rook for Short's Bishop, just after that, after the exchange of Queens, the end game looked as Short better, as his Rook dominates Cheparinov's Knight. Otherwise equal with 2 pawns & a black-square Bishop each.

Good play by Short, removed one pawn each of the board, then forced oppnent's King to the side off the board, pinned the Bishop to King with his Rook.

After all the peices are traded each left with a pawn, Cheparinov resigned, as his King can be driven away, and Short can win by Queening his pawn after taking off opponent's pawn!

Here is the game:

(Good to notice that, according to Short, both shook hands before & after this game!)

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Corus Chess round 8 - Anand Vs Topalov - Possible continuation of game

Corus chess tournament 2008, in Round 8, As we know Anand won on Topalov

(Game is given, in the "earlier post", you may see it below this post).

We are not Anand/Topalov, so what would have happened if it was continued?

Here is a possible continuation (along with full game):

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Corus Chess round 8 - Anand! won on Topalov

Anand! won on Topalov. As expected Anand is climbing up, with successive wins.

In the last game, Anand won against Judit Polgar.

With the new win, Anand is just 1 point behind the leader of Group A Carlsen, and 1/2 point behind Kramnik & Aronian.

Here is the Anand's game!

Other Group A games ended in draws (?)

Harikrishna could only settle for draw with White against L'Ami, although a pawn ahead.

Koneru Humpy had a long fight with Black against Bacrot.
This is really cool game, Bacrot wants to win on Koneru Humpy, and both were moving only kings, away and near, repeatatively.
According to a chess software, I think, this was a rule about the distance between both Kings, i.e; the number of squares, to make a draw.
Also here the problem is Black King can't go too far, or the white may sacrifice a pawn and win.
Very long game with 123 moves, and Koneru Humpy with Black peices could draw!

Here is the game!

Negi! won on Peng, impressive progress by Negi, steadily climbing to the top.

Here is the game!

Leader of C group, Caruana got a nice win against Braun & maintains the lead in round 8 too!
After good Queen exchange, that was really a good placement of Rook by Caruana, in the endgame, which won a peice and game!

Here is the game!

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Corus Chess 2008 - Round 7 - Anand, Koneru Humpy, Negi & Aronian won!; Harikrishna draw!

Corus Chess 2008 Tournament - Round 7

Anand!! won! on Judit Polgar 
After 30 moves, Polgar had an ambitious attacking game against Anand, she gave up her Queen for 2 Rooks of Anand. 
And, after 20 more moves, the board was all clear! Polgar can't stop Anand's pawns queening, and her Rook & Knight became spectators 
However, great attacking loss to Polgar, and definitely great win to The Mr. Kool! Anand!

This is the 1st win for Anand!!! (after 1 loss then 5 draws). 
Yes, it is right time to start correct things, as half tounament is already over (Round 7 of total 13), and Anand is 1&1/2 points behind the leader. 

Here is the great attacking game!



Aronian! won on Radjabov, this was excellent game! 
In the end game, Radjabov gave up the Knight to Queen a pawn which can "never" become a Queen. Why? Due to threat on King!, the mate in one after exchanging of Rooks. 
Could be time trouble, for this kind of overlooking by Radjabov, as he had a great tournament till now! 

Here is the great game!


Kramnik & Ivanchuk, Topalov & Carlsen, Gelfand & Leko, Eljanov & Van Wely, Adams & Mamedyarov all draw. 

Koneru Humpy won! on Krasenkow. 
Got a better endgame in her favour with 2 Bishops versus opponent's 2 Knights, besides 6 pawns eachside. 
Ofcourse, opponent had a passed pawn on d file. 
But, it was excellent play by Koneru, got a win! 

Here is the game!


Negi, with white, crushed Krush. After Negi took his Queen all the way into Krush's king & Krush resigned. 
Negi is now just 1 point behind the leader! 

Here is the game!


Harikrishna gave up a Rook for the opponent's Knight, to get a Kind side attack! 
The endgame got 2 pawns more for Hari, besides his lesser Bishop to opponent's Rook 
Then, it came to 2 pawns for Hari, besides his lesser Bishop to opponent's Rook 
It was quite interesting. 
Then, it came to totally, Rook & Bishop of Harikrishna Vs Rook of opponent 
Harikrishna could only draw with Black!, and is 1 behind the leaders


Group A
Carlsen 5
Kramnik & Aronian 4½
Anand 3½

Group B
Movsesian & Bacrot 5
Harikrishna, Stellwagen, Smeets & Short 4
Koneru Humpy 3

Group C
Caruana & Braun 5
Nijboer, Reinderman, Grivas 4 1/2
Negi 4

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Corus Chess 2008 - Round 6 - Calrsen!!, Topalov & Kramnik won!; Anand & koneru draw!; Negi & Harikrishna(?) lost

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 6

Calrsen, child prodigy, won his game on Judit, the strongest female player ever!
Calrsen is up with 2 pawns in the endgame with Polgar, with a Bishop & Horse!
Excellent tactics by Calrsen!

Here is the game

Kramnik won! on Aronian
Topalov! won on Leko, with Black!
Great end game by both!

Anand's & Ivanchuk had a quick draw (25 moves).
So are Radjabov & Adams (18 moves).
And, so are Van Wely & Gelfand (shortest game with 16 moves).

Harikrishna (with White) & Negi went down to their opponents

Humpy Koneru held Cheparinov to draw with Black peices!

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Corus Chess 2008 - Round 5 - Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Topalov, Negi, Bacrot win and Anand, Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy draw

Corus Chess 2008 - Round 5

Radjabov gave a shocking defeat to Eljanov, almost, came to a position with mate in 1!!!!, against Eljanov, in the end game. To hold on for some more moves, Eljanov has to give his Queen for Radjabov’s Knight. That was indeed great play by Radjabov!

(There are too good games of Radjabov in this tournament, including defeating of Anand, in the very 1st round, and a long draw with Van Wely that made the retired Kasparov to talk about chess gain!)

Here is the game:

Even a bigger shocking defeat to Smeets, in the game with Bacrot. Here is he got a “complete checkmate!”, i.e; King is checked and there is no move!, I think, this is very rare in the highlevel chess, here it looked like Smeets is planning a good for the next move, but for him there is no next move!

Bacrot won!, and now leading the B group! ½ point ahead of Harikrishna

Here is the game:

Mamedyarov pawn went all the way to Van Wely's home to become a Queen, so Van gave up a Rook to stop it!
Then Van tried to make his own additional Queen, and overlooked a check which will also lose the would-be-Queen pawn! With a Rook less and mate near, Van gave up to Mamedyarov

Here is the game:

The Mr. Dynamic, Topalov got a full point due to Gelfand slight casual play!

Gelfand took a pawn, and got into trouble, and gave away Queen & game too.

(This is really cool! to watch, a pawn challenges to eat the Queen, and it has no safe square to move, Gelfand played very good tournament in World chess championship, where Anand won!, but in this tournament, he is without luck with many losses)

Here is the game:

Aronian-Anand and Adams-Kramnik shared a single point!

Harikrishna managed a draw with Black on Movsesian!

Less in material (2 Bishops against opponent’s Rook & Knight), but has 2 healthy passed pawns on A and B file, but Koneru Humpy could not convert it to a win with White, on Sargissian, and spilt a single point

Negi played cool today with Ushenina, got to a position where moving the pawn will threaten the Rook. By moving Rook away and with a good play, the opponent will be left with only a Knight against the Two Bishops and a Rook for the Negi, as though this isn’t enough, on B file Negi also has a passed pawn (which can not be stopped by opponent's pawns!). The Game was clearly over! Negi won!

Here is the game:

After Round 5
Group A - Radjabov joined Aronian & Carlsen as 1st (Anand last 2nd)
Group B - Bacrot 1st - Harikrishna 2nd (Koneru last 2nd)

Group C - Braun 1st - Caruana 2nd (Negi 4th)

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Corus Chess - Round 5 Pairings - Tomorrow

Corus chess tournament

Round 5 pairings which is Tomorrow, on Thursday 17th

Group A
S. Mamedyarov - L. van Wely  
P. Eljanov - T. Radjabov  
M. Adams - V. Kramnik  
L. Aronian - V. Anand  
V. Ivanchuk - M. Carlsen  
J. Polgar - P. Leko  
V. Topalov - B. Gelfand

Group B
D. Stellwagen - N. Short  
W. Spoelman - Y. Hou  
S. Movsesian - P. Harikrishna  
J. Smeets - E. Bacrot  
I. Nepomniachtchi - M. Krasenkow  
E. L’Ami - I. Cheparinov  
H. Koneru - G. Sargissian

Group C
F. Nijboer - I. Krush  
P. Negi - A. Ushenina  
Z. Peng - S. Li  
M. van der Werf - J. van der Wiel  
D. Ruijgrok - A. Braun  
D. Reinderman - P. Carlsson  
E. Grivas - F. Caruana



Results after 4 rounds: 

Group A 
L. Aronian & M. Carlsen, are leading with 3 points 
Anand is at 1 & 1/2 

Group B 
P. Harikrishna, J. Smeets & E. Bacrot, are leading with 3 points 
H. Koneru is at 1 

Group C 
A. Braun is leading with perfect score of 4 points 

P. Negi is at 2

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CCT - Round 4 - Polgar, Van Wely, Kramik, Harikrishna (now leader in B group!) & Negi win! Anand & Koneru draw!

Round 4 - Corus Chess Tournament

Excellent game by Adams! with Black peices, held Anand to a draw

Harikrishna now became a leader in Group B, after also winning on Spoelman (who had all losses to date!)
Here is the game!


Koneru Humpy could hold on! with Black, drawn the game with Short!

Negi won! on Li
He capitalised 2 mistakes of the Opponent Li, in the end game, and won all the pawns
Li's 1st mistake looked like was placing the Knight before his Rook, that closed its own rook's file, and that also it pinned itself!, by Negi's next move!
Later Li, due to pin pressure, gave away Rook and accepted Negi's sacrifice of Knight and Pawn for
Thats all the end the story of Li. Negi won!
Here is the game!
Negi winning on the ferocious fighter Li!


Polgar's great win! on Gelfand.
Gelfand, to win a Polgar's peice!, compromised his King's safety, which costed him the game!
Here is the game!


Van Wely & Kramik won too!

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CCT - Round 3 - Great fight by Radjabov! Koneru loses again

Round 3 - Corus Chess Tournament 

What a fight for saving the game, draw in 93! moves, by Radjabov! on Van Wely

I felt Van Wely could have taken the Radjabov's king just one more step away before sacrificing his Rook for the opponent's Bishop & Pawn, to promote his pawn to Queen!. Looked like he lost patience, at the end, just when he is a step away from Victory!

Here is the game!

Anand drew. Hard fought draw by Harikrishna, with Black. Humpy loses again.

In Group A, Anand is at the bottom? Difficult to believe. Lets wish he will come back!

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CCT - Round 2 - Great games!

2nd round of the Corus Chess Tournament

Excellent draw by Radjabov with Black, on Kramnik! - 79!! moves

Here is the game!

Great work from Carlsen & Aronian! - 2 wins in 2 rounds - 2/2 score!

Anand & Koneru Humpy only got a draw with white peices. Hari won!! (Good job!)

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CCT - Round 1 - Sensational win by Radjabov, on Anand!

1st Round of the Corus Chess Tournament 
Anand lost to Radjabov 

Here Anand played with Black 
Anand in the 1st half wanted to surprise (as mentioned in the Chess Championship in 2007 where he did surprise many and won!) the opponent with the bold attack with just 2 pawns and Queen!, Radjabov was cool enough at that movement, exchanged Queens and gained those 2 pawns too! & equalized Anand's attack (Anand could not surprise, so looked like a considerable mistake, the attack should have been when there was enough developement of other peices too). In the end game the Radjabov was up due to Anand had a Bishop against Radjabov’s Rook, as Radjabov did an excellent exchange of his Bishop!! to a Anand's Rook. Then, Radjabov slowly entered Anand’s king territory and Anand left his own! (Looked like there was a problem here too!, or is he forced to leave?, atleast Anand shud have tried for a draw here with his vast experience). End was enviable when Radjabov triple attacked with his King! & both Rooks on the weak pawn, & Anand gave up!. Radjabov is said to be highly motivated. A well known website said Radjabov may do only chess in the home too!? (For a young boy, that is what is required in the youth, indeed!) 
Let’s wish Anand to come back, in grand style, & win the tournament.  

Here is the game!

In the other games, Koneru Humpy also lost with black pieces. Hari made a draw.

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