Corus 2006 at Wijk aan Zee

Vishy Anand

Humpy Koneru

Throughout this year's Wijk aan Zee tournament India's newspapers have been enthusiastic in reporting the progress of Vishy Anand and Humpy Koneru. Far from being tucked away in a chess column, somewhere between Bridge and the classifieds, these reports have been in-depth stories in the Sports pages.

For that reason I decided to use The Hindu's last round report which captures some of the pride Indians feel for their chess players.

It's rare to see this kind of coverage in Australian newspapers, though it was commonplace during Bobby Fischer's World Championship campaign; then, briefly, chess became newsworthy.

There have been isolated instances since, the latest being the Courier-Mail's story about David Smerdon and Moulthun Ly during the Australian Championship in December. You can find that report under "Chess in the News" on the Rooty Hill home page. (Vaness Reid also created a lot of interest by winning the ill-fated "World Chess Beauty Contest" but that had less to do with chess than with novelty.)

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Sport – Chess:   Anand realises a dream NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand realised a long-cherished dream of crossing the rating barrier of 2800 points by winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament for a record fifth time at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday. With defending champion Peter Leko holding World champion and overnight leader Veselin Topalov to a draw, Anand pulled off a spectacular last-round victory over Boris Gelfand for a fitting finale. Anand and Topalov aggregated nine points each from this 13-round event but the Indian was given the trophy for scoring more victories with black pieces. In a field with an average rating of 2716, both players performed at a rating of 2850. In the process, Anand joined Gary Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Topalov in the list of those who have crossed the rating barrier of 2800 in their careers. The rating represents the playing strength of an individual. Anand's current rating is 2792 and Topalov's 2801. Most successful Anand's fifth title also made him the most successful player at Wijk aan Zee. He moved ahead of the pack that consisted of four-time winners like Holland's Max Euwe (1940, 1942, 1952 and 1958), Hungary's Lajos Portisch (1965, 1972, 1975 and 1978) and Soviet-turned-Swiss citizen Victor Korchnoi (1968, 1971, 1984 and 1987). In 1998, Anand topped a four-way tie with Bosnia-Herzegovina's Nikolic Predrag and Hungarians Zoltan Ribli and Gyula Sax. He shared the title with Kramnik in 1998 and won outright in 2003 and 2004. The exciting final day saw Anand's task cut out once Leko held Topalov in 40 moves of Sicilian Najdorf. Playing white, Anand had found a chink in Gelfand's armour after the latter had made a poor rook-move on the 16th turn. Anand soon sacrificed a rook for a minor piece, collected a couple of pawns and completed a comfortable victory in 66 moves. Humpy takes 11th spot In GM `B' Humpy Koneru (6) finished 11th in the 14-player field after losing the final round in 23 moves to Russia's Alexander Motylev (9), who tied for the first place with Norway's Magnus Carlsen.

And now, from the Corus official site:
In an amazing photo finish, Vishy Anand managed to win the final round, catch up with Topalov, share first place and take the trophy on tie breaks. White against Gelfand, the Indian GM punished a serious opening inaccuracy by his Israeli opponent. 15…Rb8? (15…0-0 was necessary). He brutally sacrificed an exchange, leaving Boris’ King in the center, and pawns in ruins CLICK HERE.

Group B’s finish was also dramatic, when Almasi lost to Cheparinov CLICK HERE while both Motylev CLICK HERE and Carlsen CLICK HERE won, with Motylev taking first place on tie breaks.

GM Suat Atalik had 1.5 points more than his competitors to convincingly win group C.

Final standings for Grandmaster Group A are:
1. V.Topalov/V.Anand 9, 3. V.Ivanchuk/M.Adams 7½, 5. B.Gelfand/S.Karjakin 7, 7. S.Tiviakov/L.Aronian/P.Leko 6½, 10. L.van Wely 6; 11. E.Bacrot 5½, 12. S.Mamedyarov/G.Kamsky 4½, 14. I.Sokolov 4.

Final standings for Grandmaster Group B are
1. M.Carlsen/A.Motylev 9, 3. Z.Almasi 8½, 4. B.Jobava 8, 5. D.Navara 7½, 6. A.Naiditsch/I.Cheparinov/E.L’Ami 7, 9.A. Beliavsky 6½, 10. G. Vescovi/H.Koneru 6, 12. J.Smeets 4, 13. D.Stellwagen 3, 14. K.Lahno 2½

Final standings for Grandmaster Group C are
1. S.Atalik 10½, 2. J.Werle/C.Marcelin 9, 4. J.van der Wiel 8, 5. L. Shilong 7½, 6. K.van der Weide/Y.Visser/K.Bischoff 6½, 9. H.Jonkman 5½, 10. P.Hopman/K. Atalik 5, 12. A.Adly 4½, 13. M.Bensdorp 4, 14. Y.Afek 3½.