[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Corus, Round 5: The Azeris strike, Topalov awakens, Gelfand collapses

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Corus, Round 5: The Azeris strike, Topalov awakens, Gelfand collapses
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1200630800.shtml


   The return from the rest day was a mixed bag. There were three
   decisive results (that's good), but the four draws were all pretty
   lame (that's bad). Gelfand hasn't been a drawing machine so far
   (that's good), but only because he has turned into a punching bag
   (that's bad). The national representative, Loek van Wely, has been
   playing very well and performing well above his rating (that's good),
   but he suffered his first loss today (that's bad). Rather than
   continuing with this and making jokes about frogurt, let's get to the
   details.
   The Mamedyarov - van Wely contest was interesting and well-balanced
   until near the end, when the Dutchman apparently overlooked
   Mamedyarov's plan to create a passed f-pawn. Unfortunately, this was
   the sort of error that was practically impossible to overcome, and he
   fell back to 50%.
   Eljanov - Radjabov was a King's Indian that turned into a sort of
   Modern Benoni, and things progressed smoothly for the second player.
   That opening often turns into a race between Black's queenside play
   and White's attempt to bust through the center with e5 (see for
   example yesterday's van Wely - Topalov game), and this time Black was
   ahead in the race. If White had recognized this in time and taken a
   defensive posture, he'd have survived. Instead, he continued
   aggressively with 24.f4?, and was overwhelmed. This returned Radjabov
   to a first place tie.
   Adams - Kramnik was a Petroff with 5.Nc3, and when Adams forsook the
   aggressive try 17.h5 the game quickly devolved to a draw. Aronian -
   Anand was even less interesting. Instead of 16.Na4, which was played
   in four previous games that ended in a short draw, Aronian innovated
   with 16.Nd2...which was drawn four moves later. Ivanchuk - Carlsen was
   another quickie draw, but Carlsen did have to solve a minor problem
   (appropriately, since he's a minor) before achieving equality. He did,
   he did, and they drew.
   Polgar - Leko took a bit longer than the three games mentioned in the
   preceding paragraph, but the result was never in doubt. Polgar met
   Leko's Marshall Gambit with an interesting idea. She played d3
   (well-known) and sacrificed that pawn to reach an ending with bishop
   and knight against two bishops, but with Leko saddled with an isolated
   d-pawn. It wasn't enough: Black simply gave up the d-pawn to reach a
   position where the bishop pair was perfectly active, and White's
   choices were to make no progress or to enter a hopelessly drawn
   opposite-colored bishop ending. So, a draw.
   Finally, Topalov - Gelfand saw Topalov escape the last-place cellar by
   sending the blunder-prone Gelfand to take his place. Their game, a
   Petroff, saw White enjoy a small advantage until Black's 26th move,
   when Gelfand first blundered a couple of pawns and lose his queen on
   the next move. Sometimes, this just happens, even to grandmasters, and
   this time around it's Gelfand's turn. He'll be back.
   Round 5 Results:
   Mamedyarov - van Wely 1-0, 41
   Eljanov - Radjabov 0-1, 33
   Adams - Kramnik 1/2-1/2, 25
   Aronian - Anand 1/2-1/2, 20
   Ivanchuk - Carlsen 1/2-1/2, 20
   Polgar - Leko 1/2-1/2, 35
   Topalov - Gelfand 1-0, 28
   Standings after Round 5:
   1-3. Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov 3.5
   4-5. Kramnik, Polgar 3
   6-10. Mamedyarov, van Wely, Leko, Adams, Ivanchuk 2.5
   11-12. Anand, Topalov 2
   13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 1
   Pairings for Round 6:
   van Wely - Gelfand
   Leko - Topalov
   Carlsen - Polgar
   Anand - Ivanchuk
   Kramnik - Aronian
   Radjabov - Adams
   Mamedyarov - Eljanov