Corus 2008, Round 8 – Anand demolishes Topalov

Anand drives Topalov from the board. Leko neutralises van Wely’s pawn centre. Polgar holds the rook endgame against Kramnik. Gelfand secures a draw against Carlsen. Mamedyarov and Aronian share the points. Radjabov capitalises on Ivanchuk’s inaccuracy, but Ivanchuk’s stubbornly holds the fort. Eljanov and Adams draw.

Anand – Topalov

Anand gets another typically positional advantage out of a Najdorf Sicilian. Topalov gets into an awkward pin and weakens his kingside by exchanging off his dark-squared bishop. He artificially castles his king, extracting his badly positioned rook, but Anand’s better central development secures him an advantage, and breaks up any Black’s play down the c-file. Topalov stumbles in defending his king ceding the initiative and the advantage to Anand. Anand drives through to Topalov’s king forcing a resignation.

van Wely – Leko

Van Wely erects a big pawn centre in a Classical Nimzo-Indian, and Leko immediately takes steps to neutralise it. The liquidation also exchanges off the queens. Leko’s active knights quickly force van Wely to part with his bishop pair and that leaves a balanced endgame.

Kramnik – Polgar

A battle for the e4 and e5 squares breaks out in the Queen’s Indian Defence which allows Kramnik to snaffle an extra pawn. Polgar gets some compensation of tempo to activate her pieces. Polgar attacks the static White pawn centre allowing Kramnik a free hand down the c-file. Kramnik’s pawn centre disappears, but he manages to re-forge some of it by an exchange of queens. But Polgar holds the rook endgame.

Carlsen – Gelfand

The queens are exchanged in a Semi-Slav, and Carlsen gains the upper-hand thanks to an extra pawn and an uncontested open a-file. Gelfand grabs the initiative and opens operations on both sides of the board with his bishop against Carlsen’s knight. Carlsen activates his rook and the battle whittles down to the kingside and Gelfand successfully defends the endgame with his pawn minus.

Mamedyarov – Aronian

Aronian gets a solid position from a Meran Semi-Slav and equalises comfortably with a typical queenside pawn-storm. Neither side gets their initiative going and as the pieces come off the game dissolves into a draw.

Radjabov – Ivanchuk

In a Classical Caro-Kann, Ivanchuk’s offbeat plan leaves his king stuck in the centre unable deprived of castling. Radjabov’s knight is a little stuck but he manages to extract it before Ivanchuk can take advantage of it. Radjabov manages to co-ordinate his pieces, pushing Ivanchuk onto the defensive. Ivanchuk manages to exchange the queens, and Radjabov’s two knights force a repetition of position

Eljanov – Adams

Eljanov’s stormy Catalan demolishes Adams’ queenside, but its not sufficient for an advantage as Adams slowly improves his position to equalise and has no difficulties holding the position.

This entry was posted in Adams, Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Chess, Corus, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Leko, Mamedyarov, Polgar, Radjabov, Topalov, van Wely. Bookmark the permalink.

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