Anand and Topalov Share Tops at Corus

Anand pulled of win in the final round against Boris Gelfand to share first place with Topalov at this year's fantastic Corus Tournament. Anand and Topalov finished the tournament with 9.0 points each, 1.5 points ahead of the playing field. Are we looking at the top two players in the world? GM and IM commentary on ICC Webcast seems to think so!

Other notables, Ivanchuk defeated the young Karjakin in the final round to finish tied with Michael Adams who took a draw with Mamedyarov. American Gata Kamsky managed to pull out from the bottom of the pack towards the end, after being in last place for most of the tournament, finishing with 4.5.

FINAL RESULTS:
  9.0 GM Viswanathan Anand (India 2792)
  9.0 GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria 2801)
  7.5 GM Michael Adams (England 2707)
  7.5 GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine 2729)
  7.0 GM Boris Gelfand (Israel 2723)
  7.0 GM Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine 2660)
  6.5 GM Levon Aronian (Armenia 2752)
  6.5 GM Peter Leko (Hungary 2740)
  6.5 GM Sergey Tiviakov (Netherlands 2669)
  6.0 GM Loek van Wely (Netherlands 2647)
  5.5 GM Etienne Bacrot (France 2717)
  4.5 GM Gata Kamsky (USA 2686)
  4.5 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan 2709)
  4.0 GM Ivan Sokolov (Netherlands 2689)

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Aeroflot Open 2006

The tournament games will begin at 7:00 AM ET with the exception of the last round. The last round will begin at 3:00 AM ET. This tournament is a 9 round swiss-system tournament. The tournament is split into 4 sections A1, A2, B, and C sections. Aeroflot is known for being one of the largest open master tournaments in the world! As in the three previous tournaments, the organizers of AEROFLOT OPEN 2006 and the super tournament in Dortmund have agreed that the winner of A1 tournament in Moscow will be invited to play in Dortmund from 23 July to 5 August 2006.

For more details on this tournament and the ICC relay coverage visit the ICC relay schedule. You can also visit the official web site for the tournament.

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 The Queen's Indian Defence 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 One of the most solid ways to play. Black intends to play ...d5 and if White captures he will recapture with the c6 pawn blocking the White's Bg2 and using his Ba6 on the opened diagonal. 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 White tries to maintain his pawn on c4 11...0-0 12.0-0 Nf6 13.e4 b5 14.exd5 exd5 [If 14...cxd5 15.c5! b4 16.Bxb4 Bxf1 17.Bxf1 and the White b and c pawns advanced in Anand-Adams Wijk aan Zee 2005 won by Anand.] 15.Re1 Rb8 16.c5 Bc8 17.Nf3 Ne4 18.Rxe4!! The Topalov-Cheparinov laboratory strikes again. Significantly this improves over two games between Kramnik and Leko from Dortmund 2004. 18...dxe4 19.Ne5 Qd5 20.Qe1 Bf5 21.g4 Bg6 22.f3! Black cannot afford to take so White captures on e4 winning a pawn and takes the center. The Bg6 also become a spectator 22...b4 [22...exf3 23.Bxf3 Qe6 24.Nxc6] 23.fxe4 Qe6 24.Bb2 Bf6 25.Nxc6! Qxc6 26.e5 Qa6 27.exf6 Rfe8 28.Qf1! Having created two connected passed pawns Topalov wants to get to an endgame.

28...Qe2 29.Qf2 Qxg4 30.h3 Qg5 31.Bc1 Qh5 [31...Qxf6 was the best chance 32.Qxf6 gxf6 33.d5 Looks natural but Black holds after 33...Re1+ 34.Kf2 Rbe8 35.Bf3 Be4!; 31...Qxf6 32.Qxf6 gxf6 33.Bf4 Rbc8 34.a3! activating the rook is good for White after (34.Kf2 Also looks good) 34...bxa3 35.Rxa3 Be4 36.b4 Bxg2 37.Kxg2 Re4 38.Bh6] 32.Bf4 Rbd8 33.c6 Be4 34.c7 Rc8 35.Re1 Qg6 36.Rxe4!! The second sacrifice on this square, in this form Topalov is a worthy successor to Kasparov 36...Rxe4 37.d5 Rce8 [37...Qxf6 38.Bxe4] 38.d6 heading for touchdown 38...Re1+ 39.Kh2 Qf5 40.Qg3 g6 41.Qg5 Qxg5 42.Bxg5 Rd1 43.Bc6 Re2+ 44.Kg3 1-0

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