Corus 2011

[Swaminathan]

I'm delighted to know that Corus has been taken over and sponsored by Tata steel, the Indian company.

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6948

Nice list of participants.

Since it's a 13 round tournament - there's a lot of rounds left, only 2 rounds has been finished. So - Who do you think will win the Corus, and who do you think qualifies as dark horse?

For me, it's likely either Carlsen, Vishy or Aronian. Dark horse is reserved for Nakamura ofcourse.

[lmader]

I don't have a dark horse favorite, but my money is on Carlsen to win this year (again).
Lar

[Ted Summers]

I don't have a dark horse favorite, but my money is on Carlsen to win this year (again).
Lar

But 1st he must stop playing like this ....

[Event "73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee/The Netherlands"]
[Date "2011.01.17"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Carlsen"]
[Black "Giri"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D76"]
[Annotator "Robot 4"]
[PlyCount "44"]
[EventDate "2011.??.??"]
[TimeControl "40/6000+30:20/3000+30:900+30"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nb6 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. e3
O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Re1 a5 11. Qd2 e5 12. d5 Nb4 13. e4 c6 14. a3 cxd5 15. axb4
axb4 16. Rxa8 bxc3 17. bxc3 Nxa8 18. exd5 Nb6 19. Rd1 e4 20. Ng5 e3 21. Qb2
Qxg5 22. Bxe3 Qg4 0-1

[lmader]

Wow, no kidding. What a disaster.

[notyetagm]

I don't have a dark horse favorite, but my money is on Carlsen to win this year (again).
Lar

But 1st he must stop playing like this ....

ROFLMAO

[BB+]

I liked this ChessVibes comment (Round 3):

Thanks to a nice tactic Shirov managed to prolong the game

Makes all that study-time seem worthwhile when you hit pay-dirt like this... EDIT: Probably Ra4 on move 52 would be enough to draw. Engines like 54. c5 from White, though I'm not so sure. Was the game spoiled by increment chess in the end?

[BB+]

Not a bad Round 4 start. Shirov is losing again, Anand with a knight sac line in the Nimzo (16. Nd4, and he wins the piece back in a bit), Nepo went for Carlsen's revivification of Be6 (from Nanjing) in the Bf4 Gruenfeld against Aronian and seems to have hung a Rook on move 10. Nakamura played a Benoni (no KID?) against Giri, and was taking some minutes by move 4 or 5.
[White "Aronian"][Black "Nepomniachtchi"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Rc1 Be6 7. Qb3 c5 8. Qxb7 cxd4 9. exd4 Qb6And 10. Qxa8 with 11. c5 if Black tries to trap the Queen.
[White "Anand"][Black "Wang Hao"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. e4 Ne7 10. Be3 O-O 11. Qb3 Qc7 12. Bb5 Nec6 13. Ne2 Na5 14. Qb4 e5 15. O-O Be6Anand played 16. Nd4, and has an edge after 16. Nd4 exd4 17. cxd4 Nbc6 18. Qc3 Ne7 19. Rfd1 Rad8.

[BB+]

I'm not sure Shirov is really worse in his game, but needs to play accurately in his "caveman" attack to get a draw. Nakamura is approaching being an hour behind on the clock against Giri (at move 14). In the B section, the Li Chao versus Le Quang Liem game has become rather sharp.[White "Li Chao"][Black "Le Quang Liem"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Ba5 8. a3 Bb6 9. e5 dxe5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. c5 exd4 13. Ne4 Qg6 14. cxb6 f5 15. N4g3 e5Not sure if Black's 15th is all that great, though in such a position, soundness is not everything.

[BB+]

Well, as with many a game from this tourney, they've now gone to a (double) rook endgame.
[White "Li Chao"][Black "Le Quang Liem"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Ba5 8. a3 Bb6 9. e5 dxe5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. c5 exd4 13. Ne4 Qg6 14. cxb6 f5 15. N4g3 e5 16. bxc7 e4 17. Bc4+ Kh7 18. O-O d3 19. Bxd3 exd3 20. Qxd3 f4 21. Qxg6+ Kxg6 22. Ne4 f3 23. N2c3 Rf7 24. Nd5 Be6 25. Nec3 Nd4 26. Rfe1 Ne2+ 27. Kh1 Kh7 28. gxf3 Nxc3 29. Nxc3 Bd7 30. Rac1 Bc6 31. Nb5 a6 32. Nd4 Rxc7 33. Nxc6 bxc6 34. Rc5 Rf8 35. Kg2 Rf6 36. Rec1 Kg8 37. b4 Kf7 38. a4 Rb7 39. R1c4 Rb6 40. h4 Ke7 41. h5 Rb8 42. Kg3 Rb6 43. f4 Rd6 *

[BB+]

Round 5 looks like a Ruy Lopez day. Carlsen with 5. d3 against L'Ami to avoid(?!) the Open Ruy, Smeets-Anand a Breyer, Nepomniachtchi-Shirov an Arkhangelsk (or maybe not -- b5, but then Bc5 instead of Bb7 directly). Giri opted for a Petrov against Vachier-Lagrave, while Kramnik ensures a draw with White with an Exchange Slav against Aronian. The other two games are also d4 games, with Wang Hao vs Grischuk essentially a KID Fianchetto (via transposition), and Nakamura-Ponomariov a Nimzo, again with White opting for a g3/Bg2 fianchetto.

EDIT: Nepomniachtchi-Shirov is following Shirov's Round 1 loss to Smeets. Maybe he will improve at some point. Now at move 26 rather rapidly. White varied first with 23. Qc2 rather than 23. Na7.