[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Corus Round 12: Topalov and Radjabov Tied for First, Meet Tomorrow

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Corus Round 12: Topalov and Radjabov Tied for First, Meet Tomorrow
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1169948055.shtml


   Who'd have thought the schedule would turn out so brilliantly?
   Topalov had an edge against Kramnik, but the latter's cool defense
   held the draw.
   Meanwhile, of the three players entering the round half a point back
   (Radjabov, Aronian and Svidler), only Radjabov managed to catch up.
   Radjabov played his trademark King's Indian Defense, and although
   Motylev achieved a good position, he didn't figure out what to do with
   it and was ground down. Aronian almost caught them, but he failed to
   convert a won position against Shirov and remains half a point back.
   And although Svidler had the best chance of the three going into the
   last round, at least on paper, he lost badly to van Wely, missing some
   severe tactical blows. (One obvious but so far unmentioned way (as far
   as I can tell) Black might try to improve on Svidler's play is with
   18...Qa7 instead of 18...Qb6. It has the same idea of pressuring
   White's d-pawn, but without leaving the queen vulnerable to her
   counterpart (e.g. 18...Qb6 19.Rc5 with the point that 19...Nxd4?
   20.Rh5 gxh5 21.Qxb6 costs Black the queen).)
   In the round's other games, Tiviakov played an unenterprising line
   against Anand's Caro-Kann, leading to a short draw. Also drawn, but
   far more entertaining,was the battle of the prodigies,
   Karjakin-Carlsen. It's unusual to have both players attacking when
   kings are castled on the same side of the board, but that's just what
   happened here. With both kings in danger, the game wound up drawn by
   repetition. Finally, Navara defeated Ponomariov in a surprisingly
   one-sided game.
   Standings after Round 12:
   1-2 Radjabov, Topalov 8
   3 Aronian 7.5
   4-6 Anand, Kramnik, Svidler 7
   7 Navara 6
   8-9 Karjakin, Ponomariov 5.5
   10-11 Tiviakov, van Wely 5
   12 Motylev 4.5
   13-14 Carlsen, Shirov 4
   And now, as if following a script, we have the perfect last-round
   pairing: Radjabov-Topalov.
   Pairings for Round 13: (Note to online spectators: the last round
   starts an hour early, at 6:30 a.m. ET. Ugh.)
   Radjabov - Topalov (Can Radjabov overcome the White pieces to win the
   tournament?)
   Aronian - Tiviakov (Obviously important: if Radjabov draws, Aronian
   ties for first with a win.)
   Anand - Navara
   Svidler - Karjakin
   Kramnik - van Wely (These two are usually good for an entertaining
   battle when they play each other.)
   Ponomariov - Motylev
   Carlsen - Shirov (The battle to avoid last!)
   Round 12 games replayable [1]here, video of van Wely's "press
   conference" [2]here.

References

   1. http://www.coruschess.com/pgnviewer.php?year=2007
   2. http://www.chessvibes.com/?p=527&lp_lang_pref=en