Kasparov goes one point clear

Garry Kasparov consolidated his position atop the standings in the Corus chess championship after beating Dutchman Jan Timman in round 11 on Friday.

The victory swelled his points tally to eight, a full point clear of second placed Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Alexei Shirov of Spain. The former split the point with Veselin Topalov of Blugaria while Shirov was beaten by Vassily Ivanchuk.

Meanwhile, Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won his 11th round game to register his first victory in 10days. The FIDE world champion made swift moves to crush Dutchman Jeroen Piket.

Playing white, Anand gave a wonderful display of his attacking acumen to demolish Piket in just 23 moves of a Petroff defence.

With the victory Anand now has 6.5 points. He shares the third place with Vassiliy Ivanchuk of the Ukraine and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

The Kasparov - Timman game probably decided the champion. Out of an English opening the Dutchman, who was playing Black, was in a very good position when White bungled with 17.Bf4?. Kasparov had simply forgotten about 17…Bxe5. After 18.Bxe5 Re8! White got into trouble and immediately Black was looking good, until he failed to prevent 31.h6 by playing 30…h6.

Instead, Timman played 30…Rc8? allowing White to get counterplay. Soon after Timman further drifted with 35…Nb6?, only to conclude the game with an outright blunder 42…b5?. All of a sudden Black could no longer defend his a-pawn and had to resign a few moves later.

Much earlier into the round, it became clear that Alexei Shirov was going to lose track with his colleague leader. After fourteen moves he was confronted with a piece sacrifice by Vassily Ivanchuk that was just crushing. Shirov managed to avoid an immediate loss, but his position had become beyond repair. With a pair of bishops and a much healthier pawn structure, Ivanchuk mobbed Black up convincingly.

Clear third in the standings, Alexander Morozevich, could not make full profit of Shirov’s misstep. On the contrary, with White against Veselin Topalov he had little reason to complain about sharing the point. In an opposite colored bishop ending a draw was agreed.

The game of the day was played by Michael Adams and Alexei Fedorov. For the third time in the tournament the Sicilian Dragon set the board on fire. Fedorov’s beautiful combination was rightly so awarded with the Spectators' Prize.

The contest for ‘First Game to Finish’ was narrowly won by Sergey Tiviakov and Loek van Wely. After fifteen moves they agreed to a draw.

The game Anand - Piket lasted only a few moves longer. A novelty found by Anand’s second, Elizbar Ubilava, proved fatal. In vain, Jeroen Piket tried to find an antidote to 15.Nh4!TN.

The sad story of the day was Peter Leko’s illness. During the FIDE World Championship in New Delhi he was caught by a devious virus. A two-week mediterannean absence of chess, previous to the Corus Chess Tournament, didn’t kill the disease. Last week the virus returned in full swing and this morning it turned out playing round eleven was all but possible. Leko's opponent Vladimir Kramnik acted like a true champ and said he had no desire to beat someone who was in no state to play chess. At first, the game was postponed for an hour and once it started a draw was soon agreed.

The leaderboard after round 11:

1. Garry Kasparov (RUS) 8/11.
2-3. Alexander Morozevich (RUS), Alexei Shirov (ESP) 7/11.
4-6. Vishy Anand (IND), Vassili Ivanchuk (UKR), Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 6.5/11.
7. Michael Adams (ENG) 6/11.
8. Peter Leko (HUN) 5/11.
9-11. Alexei Fedorov (BLR), Veselin Topalov (BUL), Loek Van Wely (NLD) 4.5/11.
12. Jan Timman (NLD) 4/11.
13-14. Jeroen Piket (NLD), Sergei Tiviakov (NLD) 3.5/11.