|
WIJK AAN
ZEE, JANUARY 25: Viswanathan Anand continued his march towards
a possible record fifth Corus Grandmasters title with a convincing
win over local man Loek Van Wely in the ninth round of the
13-round contest that is entering the last stages.
Anand now has 6.5 points from nine rounds, but keeping in
step with him is co-favourite Veselin Topalov, who also scored
over Sergey Karjakin to take his tally to 6.5 points.
Anand, the NIIT Brand Ambassador, and Topalov are a full point
clear of the rest of the field. The third place is shared
by Michael Adams and Boris Gelfand, who have 5.5 points each.
Karjakin and Vassily Ivanchuk are another half a point behind.
Anand’s game against Loek Van Wely, with whom he has
a huge plus score was in the Sicilian Sveshnikov. Anand playing
with white made an exchange sacrifice and that Anand said
gave him as “risk free position”. Black’s
attempt to exchange Queens left him with an unpleasant position.
From there on it was almost impossible to stop Anand’s
march of pushing the passed ‘b’ pawn to the seventh
rank. He also activated the Rook and engaged the Knight. In
the post game analysis, Anand some possible plans for black,
but it all indicated that despite it all, white would win
the game comfortably.
In another Sveshnikov duel Topalov disposed of Karjakin in
grand style. The two were following a long line of theory,
which the winner believed was very fine for Black. Karjakin
may have missed the chance of equalizing, but nevertheless
Topalov was always dominating.
In group B, Koneru Humpy created a stir by holding Magnus
Carlsen to a draw in ninth round. Carlsen still leads the
field with seven out of nine, while Humpy has 4.5 points in
seventh place.
Pairings for Round 10: Sokolov v Adams; Bacrot v Kamsky; van
Wely v Leko; Mamedyarov v Anand; Tiviakov v Ivanchuk; Topalov
v Aronian; Gelfand v Karjakin
Results of Round 9: Anand beat Van Wely; Gelfand beat Sokolov;
Karjakin lost to Topalov; Ivanchuk drew with Mamedyarov; Leko
drew with Bacrot; Aronian drew with Tiviakov; Kamsky lost
to Adams
Standings
after Round 9: 1. Anand and Topalov 6.5 each; 3. Adams and
Gelfand 5.5 each; 5. Karjakin and Ivanchuk 5.0 each; 7. Leko
and Aronian 4.5; 9. Tiviakov and Van Wely 4.0 each; 11. Mamedyarov
3.5; 12. Bacrot and Sokolov 3.0 each; 14. Kamsky 2.5
|
