[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Corus, Round 11: A mini-review

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Corus, Round 11: A mini-review
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1201293669.shtml


   I'll be unavailable to blog until late Saturday at the earliest, so
   this overly brief recap will have to do until then. A pity, because it
   was an extremely eventful round, with Carlsen finally losing his lead
   in the tournament. He had White against Anand, but - thanks again,
   Judit - now that he's on a roll, it's trouble for the rest of the
   field. The world champion defeated Carlsen, and now they're tied at
   +2.
   They're joined at that score by Radjabov, who defeated tail-ender
   Gelfand with his signature opening, the King's Indian Defense.
   (Gelfand loves queenside openings, but as long as Radjabov's playing
   the Schliemann he really ought to make an exception.) Yet +2 isn't
   good enough at this point, as Aronian defeated van Wely, and enjoys
   solo first at +3. Three other players are at +1, so with two rounds to
   go the tournament is far from decided.
   Round 11 Results:
   Aronian - van Wely 1-0
   Ivanchuk - Adams 1/2-1/2
   Polgar - Eljanov 0-1
   Topalov - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
   Gelfand - Radjabov 0-1
   Leko - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
   Carlsen - Anand 0-1
   Standings after Round 11:
   1. Aronian 7
   2-4. Radjabov, Carlsen, Anand 6½
   5-7. Kramnik, Adams, Ivanchuk 6
   8-10. Mamedyarov, Topalov, Leko 5½
   11-12. Polgar, Eljanov 4½
   13. van Wely 4
   14. Gelfand 3½
   Pairings for Round 12:
   van Wely - Anand
   Kramnik - Carlsen
   Radjabov - Leko
   Mamedyarov - Gelfand
   Eljanov - Topalov
   Adams - Polgar
   Aronian - Ivanchuk
   Other Groups:
   In Group B, Movsesian continues to lead, but his 8/11 score is only
   good for a half-point over Short and Bacrot. In Group C, Caruana
   extended his lead to a full point over the chase pack; he has 8
   points, while Reinderman, Nijboer and Negi have 7. Finally, in the
   Honorary Group Korchnoi made a colossal blunder in a dead drawn*
   ending against Ljubojevic, just trying to hard to win. Portisch
   meanwhile defeated Timman, which means that the winners caught the
   losers: Korchnoi and Ljubojevic lead with 3-2, while Portisch and
   Timman trail at 2-3.
   * Positions can be objectively "dead", but experience teaches us over
   and over again that if a player really sets his mind to losing a game,
   there is almost no force in the whole of reality that can stop him.