Corus 2009 Round 7 pairings and results

I really did get behind on these games, but I did observe the Kamsky-Stellwagon game on ICC, sadly Gata missed a mating net, but hey, it was a mate in 27, I messed up on Susan Polgar's site when I quoted the idea was to get to the c8 square and avoid further checks, it was the c8 square. I had looked at the Queen move by Black and saw Qe7 after Kc8, when the game is lost for black. This was a very interesting game with advantages going back and forth, but when Deep Rybka 3 Human found 64. Kd4 with mate in 27, players observing the game along with me were surprised, most GM's were calling the game a draw, obviously a computer had a large advantage, with no pressure on them to find the right move in a certain amount of time, and this endgame was very complicated with Stellwagon making a sacrifice to free his Queen to go for the perpetual check. A great move by Stellwagon to take this chance and also lucky that GM Kamsky didn't find the right moves to win the game. Maybe Gata should have passed on this tournament to continue to work on the match preparation vs GM Topalov for the right to challenge World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand. The results of this tournament could be discouraging for GM Kamsky, but it isn't over yet, he could make a comeback, but his results so far don't seem to be in the same league as Topalov, much less Anand. But Gata DID earn this chance, we can't put it behind Topalov to have a bad match, he has played spotty at times. Kamsky could take advantage of this. Now, the Corus Round 7 results and the Kamsky-Stellwagon game.

Round 7 - Saturday the 24th
Group GM-A

V. Ivanchuk 0-1 S. Movsesian
S. Karjakin ½-½ L. Aronian
L. van Wely ½-½- M. Carlsen
G. Kamsky ½-½ D. Stellwagen
M. Adams ½-½ T. Radjabov
L. Dominguez ½-½ Y. Wang
A. Morozevich 1-0 J. Smeets

GM Daniel Stellwagon
GM Gata Kamsky Photos Courtesy of CorusChess 2009 Copyright CorusChess

Round pairings courtesy of Corus Chess 2009

GM Gata Kamsky(2725) vs GM Daniel Stellwagon(2612)



Here is the critical position



Gata played 64. Kc3 but (64. Kd4 Qa4+ 65. Ke3 Qa7+ 66. Ke2 Qa2+ 67. Kf1 Qc4+ 68. Kf2 Qh4+ 69. Ke3 Qe1+ 70. Kd4 Qd2+ 71. Rd3 Qf2+ 72. Kc4 Qc2+ *Rook is poison 73. Kb4 Qb2+ 74. Ka5 Qe5+



The King is close to safety..75. Kb6 Qb2+ 76. Kc6 Qf6+ 77. Kc7 Qe5+ 78. Qd6 Qa5+ 79. Qb6 Qe5+ 80. Kc8 and black can resign, the rest is just mop up work to mate. Qe7 81. Rd8 Qxf7 82. Rd7 Kg8 83. Rxf7 Kxf7 84. Kd7 Kg7 85. Ke7 g5
86. Qf6+ Kg8 87. Qxg5+ Kh8 88. Kf7 Kh7 89. Qh4# one of 3 possible mates. )



Overall, a great game to watch, but remember that computers don't feel the pressure of the game, don't get tired, etc. Just because Gata missed this win in a complicated position which other GM's were calling draws as well shows that computers are not bound by human emotion and in endgames are getting better.



Round 7 - Saturday the 24th
Group GM-B

N. Short 1-0 R. Kasimdzhanov
A. Volokitin 1-0 D. Reinderman
H. Mecking 1-0 K. Sasikiran
A. Motylev 1-0 Y. Hou
D. Navara 0-1 E. l'Ami
Z. Efimenko ½-½ F. Vallejo Pons
F. Caruana 1-0 J. Werle

Fighting chess in this round for Group GM-B!

Round 7 - Saturday the 24th
Group GM-C

O. Romanishin ½-½ R. Pruijssers
A. Giri ½-½ F. Nijboer
A. Gupta 1-0- D. Howell
E. Iturrizaga 0-1 T. Hillarp Persson
M. Leon Hoyos 1-0 M. Bosboom
D. Harika ½-½ W. So
F. Holzke ½-½ A. Bitalzadeh