Corus 2008 live commentary with Alex Brunetti
Corus 2008 commented games
Round 1: Mamedyarov Carlsen / Aronian – Topalov / Spoelman – Cheparinov / Peng – Caruana
Round 2: Topalov – Ivanchuk / Kramnik – Radjabov / Cheparinov – Movsesian
Round 3: Adams – Carlsen / Polgar – Topalov / Smeets – Cheparinov
Round 4: Van Wely – Topalov / Carlsen – Aronian
Round 5 LIVE now Ivanchuk – Carlsen / Aronian – Anand/ Topalov – Gelfand / Grivas – Caruana
Corus 2008 pgn, photos, and more
General Corus 2008 page/ TWIC pgn / Chessvibes video / Corus photos / TotoScacco
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PGN Grivas Caruana
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{Welcome again to Chessdom live coverage of the Wijk Aan Zee’s Corus. This game is the most important of today’s C tournament: Caruana, the top rated player, needs a win since Braun, current leader, plays the lowest rated Ruijgrok. On the otehr hand, Grivas is an experienced GM and he’s doing well, after the bad 1st round. We’re going to follow an interesting battle. Probably they’re going to play a Slav Defense; possibly a Nimzoindian.
If you like, you can set your forecast in the free TotoScacco game!} 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 {The most recent fashion.} dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bg4 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.g3 e6 8.Bg2 Be7 {Until now following first round game Peng-Caruana.} 9.Ne5 {Peng played 9.O-O; the text move was played in the Agrest-Shirov, Gibtelecom Masters 2006.} Bh5 10.Nxd7 {Agrest played 10.Ndf3.} Nxd7 11.O-O O-O 12.Nb3 a5 13.a4 e5 {Hitting at White’s pawn center.} 14.Rd1 Qc7({Black can ignore the threat dxe5, since after, for example} 14… Re8 15.dxe5 Nxe5 {he attacks the white Queen, keeping the balance.}) {The text move clears the d8 square for a Rook. Now 15.d5, trying to profit of the pin on the ‘d’ file doesn’t work, because after …Nb6 16.Qc2 Bg6 17.e4 Rfd8 White’s central pawns are going to fall. White should complete his developement with 15.Be3 or 15.Bd2 idea Bc3.} 15.Bd2 {Black has to choose where to put his rooks: one in d8, and the other one in c8, to play on the Queenside, advancing the ‘c’ pawn, or in e8, to play in the center.} Rfd8 {There’s a lot of tension in this position: the e2 pawn is pinned and the Queen is bind to its defence; she’s also threatened by Nd7-b6; at the same time, Black’s queenside pawn are somewhat static, shile Rook and Queen’s Rook are linked to them defence.} 16.Be1 {White chooses to keep the pressure on the a5 pawn, while clearing the ‘d’ file for his Rook.} exd4 {Black opens the long dark diagonal to play …Bf6 following his plan to attack on the Queenside.} 17.Nxd4 Bf6 18.Bc3 {White now tries to reinforce his strong central Knight, opposing his Bishop to Black’s one at f6.} Ne5 {Caruana gains the time to double Rooks on the ‘d’ file.} 19.Qb3 ({After} 19.Qc5 Rd7 {followed by …b6 can follow …Rad8 anyway.}) …Nd7 20.Rd2 {White refuses to repeat the position and now he’s him who doubles Rooks.} Qb6 {Black offers to exchange Queens, since he could try to secure an advantage in the endgame, thanks to his better pawn majority. On the other hand, if White avoids the exchange, the Queen at b6 contributes to bring pressure to bear on d4, c5 and b2.} 21.Qa2 Nc5 22.Rad1 Bg6 {Black threatens to gain the bishop pair with …Ne4. And there’s no way to prevent that: even 23.f3 fails to …Bxd4! winning.} 23.Qc4 Re8 {Interesting preparatory move to …Ne4: now after 24.e3 Ne4 24.Bxe4 he can play …Rxe4, avoiding simplifications and sustaining his initiative.} 24.Nc2 Bxc3 {Black gains the small advantage of weakening White’s pawns.} 25.bxc3 ({Of course,} 25.Qxc3 {loses a pawn after} Nxa4{.}) Bxc2 {Caruana plays further simplifications hoping to exploit his better pawn structure. Or he’s satisfied with a draw…} 26.Rxc2 Rad8 27.Rcd2 Rxd2 28.Rxd2 Qb1+ 29.Bf1 Qf5 {The endgame is pretty equal, since Black has a better structure while White has the more active pieces.} 30.Bg2 Qe5 {Now White can force a draw, if he likes, with 31.Bd5! Ne6 32.Bxe6 Rxe6 33.Rd8+ Re8 34.Rxe8+.} 31.Bd5 Ne6 32.Bxe6 Rxe6 33.Rd8+ Re8 34.Rd7 Re7 {White should take the draw, since there’re no bases at all to play for a win.} 35.Rd8+ Re8 36.Rd7 Re7 {Grivas seized the first chance to take the draw against the top rated Fabiano: after having played quite a solid opening, the greek GM was put under some pressure in the middlegame, but Caruana’s not very incisive play led to a drawish endgame. Both players can be quite satisified, having scored half a point with a dangerous opponent. Fabiano has still full chances to win the tournament, having to play on Sunday against his rival Arik Braun. I hope you have enjoyed this game!} 1/2-1/2
