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| January 18, 2003 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 14, 1423 |
Anand, Shirov, Polgar in three-way tie
WIJK AAN ZEE (Netherlands): Jan 17: Viswanathan Anand of India and Alexei Shirov of Spain moved into a three-way tie for the lead Thursday with Hungarian Judit Polgar by winning their games, while Polgar drew in the fifth round of the Corus Chess Tournament.
American master Aviv Friedman described Anand’s game against former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia as “a real fistfight.”
On the White side of the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense, Anand sacrificed a piece for three pawns.
Anand called Karpov’s 24th move “a mistake. After that, I’m out of danger.”
While Karpov might have defended better, Anand’s piece made itself felt in the end.
As Black against Polgar, Vassily Ivanchuk of the Ukraine chose the rarely seen O’Kelly Variation of the Sicilian Defense but the game soon transposed into a typical Maroczy bind or Hedgehog position.
It’s called a Hedgehog because it’s difficult to attack despite White’s spatial advantage, which is often only optical. Faced with a solid Black position, Polgar agreed to a draw on move 18.
Shirov’s win came against Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. After the game, Shirov said he had missed Kramnik’s 18th move, a novelty, in his preparations, after which “Black is OK.”
Shirov called Kramnik’s 33rd move “an incredible mistake” after which “it doesn’t feel like I deserved to win.”
After Kramnik’s error, Shirov used threats against the enemy king to win a pawn and advance his own pawn to c7 to force Kramnik’s resignation.
The draw between Russian Alexander Grischuk and FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov was so dull that, at one point, it was replaced on the monitors in the press room with one of the games from the B-section.
Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands equaled his score from last year’s tournament when he pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.
Dutchman Jan Timman had totally outplayed Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and was well on his way to victory when he dropped a piece to lose the game.
Standings after five rounds: Anand, Polgar, Shirov 3.5; Bareev, Van Wely 3; Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Kramnik 2.5; Karpov, Ponomariov, Radjabov, Topalov 2; Krasenkow, Timman 1.5.
The pairings for the sixth round, which takes place on Saturday are (the first-named player has White): Bareev-Van Wely, Timman-Topalov, Karpov-Radjabov, Ivanchuk-Anand, Ponomariov-Polgar, Kramnik-Grischuk, and Krasenkow-Shirov.—APP/AP
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