|
Dramatic Finish at Corus |
 |
|
Monday, 01 February 2010 09:03 |
 The 2010 Corus Chess Tournament, which was composed of three 14-player groups and took place on 16-31st January, had a thrilling finish with the last round deciding on who will win the main group A.
Magnus Carlsen sat for the final game with a half point advantage ahead of the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and tournament's earlier leader Alexei Shirov. Kramnik was the first to give up on the ambition to claim a full point after the last year winner Sergey Karjakin comfortably held equality with black pieces in the Queen's Indian defence.
Meanwhile, Carlsen tried to squeeze something out of the equal position against Fabiano Caruana, and Alexei Shirov jumped into the fire hoping to clear the way to Leinier Dominguez's King by sacrificing the material. The developments in this game provoked Carlsen to risk more while searching for a win and secured clear first place.
However, Shirov burned his clock to find precise moves which maintain the attack and consequently run into the horrible zeitnot. On the 30th move Dominguez erred but accompanied his move with a draw offer, which Shirov, with only few seconds remaining, accepted. Now Carlsen needed only half a point to become a sole winner, but Caruana was already pressing for a full point in the slightly better endgame. After the persistent defence, Carlsen took a well deserved draw and trophy for the first place.
Dutch champion Anish Giri battled his way through a higher rated opposition to win the Corus B and qualify for the next year's main event. He collected 9.0 points from 13 games and practically secured the first place even before the last round. The Chinese GM Li Chao B, top-seeded in the Corus C, also reserved the first place in advance, but he finished the tournament in style, with a win over the Netherland's GM Zhaoqin Peng.
Corus A final standings:
1. GM Magnus Carlsen, Norway - 8.5
2-3. GM Alexei Shirov, Spain and GM Vladimir Kramnik, Russia - 8.0
4-5. GM Viswanathan Anand, India and GM Hikaru Nakamura, USA - 7.5
6-7. GM Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukraine and GM Sergey Karjakin, Russia - 7.0
8-9. GM Leinier Dominguez Perez, Cuba and GM Peter Leko, Hungary - 6.5
10. GM Fabiano Caruana, Italy - 5.5
11-12. GM Loek van Wely, Netherlands and GM Nigel Short, England - 5.0
13-14. GM Jan Smeets, Netherlands and GM Sergey Tiviakov, Netherlands - 4.5
Corus B final standings:
1. GM Anish Giri, Netherlands - 9.0
2. GM Arkadij Naiditsch, Germany - 8.5
3. GM Ni Hua, China - 8.0
4-5. GM Wesley So, Philippines and GM Erwin l’Ami, Netherlands - 7.5
6-7. GM Parimarjan Negi, India and GM Pentala Harikrishna, India - 6.5
8-9. GM David Howell, England and GM Emil Sutovsky, Israel - 6.0
10-11. WGM Anna Muzychuk, Slovenia and GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Romania - 5.5
12-13. GM Tomi Nyback, Finland and GM Dimitri Reinderman, Netherlands - 5.0
14. GM Varuzhan Akobian, USA - 4.5
Corus C final standings:
1. GM Li Chao B, China - 10.0
2. GM Abhijeet Gupta, India - 8.5
3-4. GM Daniele Vocaturo, Italy and IM Robin van Kampen, Netherlands - 8.0
5-6. GM Ray Robson, USA and GM Robin Swinkels, Netherlands - 7.5
7. FM Benjamin Bok, Netherlands - 7.0
8-10. WGM Marya Muzychuk, Ukraine, FM Stefan Kuipers, Netherlands and IM Nils Grandelius, Sweden - 6.0
11. GM Kjetil Lie, Norway - 5.5
12. GM Zhaoqin Peng, Netherlands - 5.0
13-14. WGM Soumya Swaminathan, India and Sjoerd Plukkel, Netherlands - 3.0
|
|
|
