2010 Corus Chess (Wijk ann Zee, Netherlands)
The annual Corus Chess tournament is currently taking place in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. This years promises to be an exciting event with a variety of players from around the globe. This tournament will be bolstered by a number of young stars who have born in the past few years. Below are the participants of the Group “A”.
| Title | Player | Country | Flag |
Rating
|
rank
|
born
|
| GM | Magnus Carlsen | NOR |  |
2810
|
1
|
1990
|
| GM | Viswanathan Anand | IND |  |
2790
|
3
|
1969
|
| GM | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS |  |
2788
|
4
|
1975
|
| GM | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR |  |
2749
|
8
|
1969
|
| GM | Peter Leko | HUN |  |
2739
|
12
|
1979
|
| GM | Alexei Shirov | SPA |  |
2723
|
20
|
1972
|
| GM | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | |
2720
|
21
|
1990
|
| GM | Leinier Dominguez | CUB |  |
2712
|
25
|
1983
|
| GM | Hikaru Nakamura | USA |  |
2708
|
28
|
1987
|
| GM | Nigel Short | ENG |  |
2696
|
38
|
1965
|
| GM | Fabiano Caruana | ITA |  |
2675
|
51
|
1992
|
| GM | Sergey Tiviakov | NED |  |
2662
|
62
|
1973
|
| GM | Jan Smeets | NED | |
2657
|
73
|
1985
|
| GM | Loek van Wely | NED | |
2641
|
104
|
1972
|
Main Site: https://www.coruschess.com/
Naka beats Shirov in a Sicilian Pelican! Woot! Don’t sleep! Congrads!
Daaim, I just look at Naka vs Shirov game. Naka, gave Shirov first move a question mark… 1…c5. I agree, and then Shirov goes on to play a questionable line in the Sicilian. Shirov played super aggressive against Naka, not a good choice. Also, I don’t understand Shirov playing f5 and f4, he really wanted to win. Why not just march his king over to g8, (Kf8 – g8). Shirov set himself back in this game. He played Naka like he was playing a 2400 player.
The Sveshnikov is an exciting opening. I had some very games from the White side; Black gives up his queenside pawns for play in the center and the kingside. I still don’t trust this opening for Black, I think it’s a surprise weapon. You won’t see this opening in a World Champion match. Not today.
Daaim,
If you like the Sveshnikov, you should still play it. Bxb5 is not recommended today. The problem, I think with the Sveshnikov is the line Nd5, follow by Bxf6 for White (Black captures back on f6 with his bishop). White enjoys a solid positional advantage with out entering into the wild complicated lines of an early Bxf6 (when Black captures with his g, pawn). I think below grandmaster level the Sveshnikov will bring Black victories. .
In my humble opinion, some websites focus on Carlsen,Anand and Kramnik so much. Nakamura was always going to blossom. He just needs to be in supert tournaments regularly.Tiviakov is not racking up great scores like Shirov. However Tiviakov is punching way above his rating. Giri and So need to be discussed more no matter what their results are.They have shown great confidence.
Wesley So is a player who desreves a lot of sponsorship and support.
Concentrating on the A group is relevant to journalists looking for a story on the “titans”. However club players and amateurs do not, in my experience , take a lot from those games of group A.
The conversion technique is instructive but club players over here at least , do not play the Petroff. Its better to have a more balanced type of coverage. Additionally, the focus of some websites like chessbase.com look to rating performance and results.
However other features like theoretical trends, blunders, reasons for blunders are not looked at deeply enough. Carlsen’s timetrouble against Kramnik shows that the strongest players can be uncomfortable in unfamiliar openings. However thats one example of breaking down blunders. Anand’s trend in drawing games could raise a lot of debate.Ivanchuk’s creativity in the Najdorf could get some treatment under the microscope. These are just a few of the issues I have but there are interesting moments for every taste Iam sure.
Oops Daaim! I did not rave about Robson.Great conversion technique. Precocious talent. Its more interesting to watch him than say Leko.
Anand seems to have a habit of performing poorly before a world championship match. Before Kmeeting Kramnik he had the Bilbao disaster, here the many draws. I wouldn’t read too mch into this. Obviously he can’t reveal too much openings wise.
The difference between Kramnik and the rest is his consistency and his conversion technique. One turning point was the win against Smeets.He showed where the difference in strength lay:not in the opening but in realisation technique-witness the activity of his rooks.
Against Carlsen, he was truly inspired and played as actively as possible. In the tournament there were no long reports of Kramnik being in a terrible position out of the opening.His Petroff is a great argument against 1.e4
Nakamura is clearly World Top 5 material. He is only going to get better. But Carlsen is World championship material. He deservedly won Wijk.
Giri looks like the next guy to barnstorm into the Super GM club…
Oh thanks for the short-smeet reference they are quite humorous actually, this video with vishy doesnt really clarify what Sophia’s rule is? Does anyone know?
Well, Carlsen is young and is still improving…that’s what makes it so scary! You are the World No.1 and still improving! I also don’t think he will become World Champion in the next cycle. Kramnik is not yet done and Topalov and Anand are nowhere near retiring. These three guys are still better than Carlsen in my opinion. But the gap is narrowing very fast.
Nakamura was always underestimated. I think the ‘europeans’ were looking at Nakamura in a theoretical manner. His games have many errors. But they fail to see that over the board Nakamura can pose very difficult problems for his opponents. He may make a dubious move but it comes about in a situation that is for the human very difficult to evaluate. It’s like what Tal used to do. Plus another factor they completely overlook is Nakamura’s intense desire to win. Ivanchuk may play better chess then Kramnik or Anand but he lacks this one quality that Nakamura has. Otherwise Ivanchuk should have been world champ by now.
Daaim,
Do you understand the requirements for FM title? I search of FIDE website but its unclear to me. They say you need a published rating of 2300, what is a published rating? Is it a performance rating? Is it a rating published on their website? I’ve performed over 2300 in a number of tournaments, so can I applied for a FM title? I know this is off your subject here, but just wanted some help on this issue.
Daaim,
I got this information off FIDE website (confusing web site) in the introduction section. “A title is officially valid from the date all the requirements are met. In order for a title to be confirmed where it is based on an application, it must be published on the FIDE website and in other relevant FIDE documents for at least 60 days.” I guess that helps clear up the situation.