Corus live mid day comments

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Anand vs Mamedyarov

Anand again played boldly to open up his king side but found the right moves to always keep an edge. Looks like Anand will make it to a Rook endgame with an extra pawn.

Topalov vs Ivanchuk

In a modern Benoni game, Topalov seems to be playing pretty safe, probably stung by his loss to Aronian yesterday. The game is pretty much balanced with Topalov having nothing much more than a normal advantage that white gets as white.

Gelfand vs Aronian

Slav Defence game. Gelfand played a dubious pawn move that gave Aronian an edge that he's maintained. Aronian is almost winning. And this early, with black. We'll have to see if Gelfand's experience will help him hold this game.

Appears difficult since Aronian seems to be the man in form in this tournament so far.

Kramnik vs Radjabov

Its a Kings Indian again, with the classical variation. Radjabov has decided to take on the challenge even though he faced problems last year. Kramnik has played true to his style and has an edge by the middle game stage.

Carlsen vs Eljanov

Eljanov seems to be terrified of the strength of this tournament. Playing in the B is very different from the A. There are tigers everywhere. In a Gruenfeld game, he handed over the advantage to Carlsen by the 18th move when he grabbed a pawn to try and gain equality. Carlsen is still holding an edge at move 34 and had a chance to gain a winning advantage on move 35 with e4 (which he missed.)

Round 1 results of Corus Chess live

Vishy Anand lost his opening game against Teimour Radjabov at the Corus Chess tournament that started today. In a semi-slav game, Anand made a couple of serious mistakes in the middle game to lose an exchange. Ironically, he held his own in the opening when his king was exposed. Anand was not able to demonstrate his Houdini-like end game wizardry and resigned after a long struggle.

Another mini-upset was the defeat of Topalov against Aronian. In a game of swinging fortunes, Aronian managed to stave off the many threats that Topalov produced at the early stages of the game. Topalov was clearly playing for a win and had to concede advantage. Aronian nursed home the advantage to a clear win in a Rook and pawn ending.

Mamedyarov resigned in a dead drawn position with Carlsen.
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Update : Hou Yifan lost her game to Bacrot as per the official site result. There was a lot of commotion on the chat but the king was placed in the center on a DGT board, perhaps.
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Corus Chess Round 1 results:

Group A

V. Kramnik - L. van Wely ½-½
T. Radjabov - V. Anand 1-0
S. Mamedyarov - M. Carlsen 0-1
P. Eljanov - P. Leko ½-½
M. Adams - B. Gelfand ½-½
L. Aronian - V. Topalov 1-0
V. Ivanchuk - J. Polgar ½-½

Gruop B

P. Harikrishna - N. Short ½-½
Y. Hou - E. Bacrot 0-1
D. Stellwagen - M. Krasenkow 1-0
W. Spoelman - I. Cheparinov 0-1
S. Movsesian - G. Sargissian ½-½
J. Smeets - H. Koneru 1-0
I. Nepomniachtchi - E. L’Ami ½-½

Group C

S. Li - I. Krush 1-0
A. Ushenina - J. van der Wiel 0-1
F. Nijboer - A. Braun 0-1
P. Negi - P. Carlsson 0-1
Z. Peng - F. Caruana 0-1
M. van der Werf - E. Grivas 1-0
D. Ruijgrok - D. Reinderman 0-1

Corus Chess mid day live online commentary

Corus mid day live commentary

Mamedyarov vs Carlsen

Mamedyarov always had a plus and was almost close to a significant plus, but he delayed the f pawn advance. Carlsen then managed to gain equality by move 23.

Ivanchuk vs Polgar

This queen's indian defence game was always balanced and Polgar has a slight edge in the middle game.

Aronian vs Topalov
By far one of the most exciting games on display today. Topalov made some amazing moves to bring the white king into the middle. But he missed a promising continuation and the game is drawish.

Radjabov vs Anand

A Semi-slav game with 5. Bg6 h6
Anand chose to sacrifice his castling rights to gain two pawns but Radjabov gave them back to get a decent edge by the middle game stage. Anand missed the right continuation to achieve balance.

Corus Chess at Wijk aan Zee

Come on in. Everyday we will put up live analysis and post-mortem !

Here is the list of players that we consider masters at winning and masters at drawing. Its interesting to see some players who belong to these groups by character :)

Winning masters:

1. Garry Kasparov (73.08%)
2. Paul Keres (71.67%)
3. Max Euwe (71.43)
4. Lajos Portisch (66.14%)
5. Efim Geller (66.07%)

Drawing masters:

1. Gyula Sax (76.32%)
2. Peter Leko (75.96%)
3. Andras Adorjan (72.09%)
4. Gennadi Sosonko (71.52%)
5. Ulf Andersson (67.86%)