Thursday, January 26, 2006

Topalov Tops Corus

I have to admit that my interest in the Corus 2006 tournament in Wijk aan Zee dipped dramatically when Topalov lost to Adams in one of the early rounds. But I think I will be just one member of the chorus singing Topalov's praises after his sacrifice-filled victory over Aronian yesterday in Round 10 to move solidly into first place. With the tournament coming to a close on January 29th and his game with chief rival Anand still to be played, Topalov has added a lot of drama to the event that is sure to attract the world chess press.

Unless Topalov plays a better game in the final rounds, I expect every newspaper chess column to annotate Topalov - Aronian, Wijk aan Zee 2006 in the coming weeks. And it is a game you will be seeing in anthologies for years to come. Here are some links to annotations and news you can already read:

Topalov - Aronian, Wijk aan Zee 2006 by Dennis Monokroussos
The Chess Mind blogger is fastest with the mostest on this stunning Topalov win. See also his blog entry that links to the annotations.

Wijk aan Zee Round 10 Report, GM Sergey Shipov at Chess Pro
In Russian but with frequent diagrams to help follow the comments. Good notes on Topalov-Aronian.

Wijk aan Zee round 10: Topalov - Aronian by Konstantin Sakaev
In English, with some very deep commentary plus notes on how the other games were going as this one was played. The other commentary by Sakaev on Corus is also very worthwhile.

Topalov - Aronian at Convekta
You may need to download chess fonts from the main Convekta page (where you will also find links to their other reports). Very good comments with PGN and java board for play-through.

Corus, Wijk aan Zee Round 10 by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Excellent news report and commentary on the games. Excellent notes.

Round 10: 90% Persperation by Steve Giddens
Excellent report from the BCM columnist, with good general annotations to the game (scroll down past the crosstable and report to find them).

Reaching New Heights with the Incredible Topalov by Susan Polgar
Under the picture of a balloon, you will find some brief notes from GM Polgar on the game.

ChessBase Flash Report
The page features a link to PGN and java applets of the game plus current crosstable and report.
Corus 2006 r10 by Mig Greengard
An initial posting at Mig's Daily Dirt blog about the momentous game, which is sure to attract forum postings from readers that should prove interesting.

Corus website, Round 10 Report
The game is discussed in general terms, along with the other news of the day.

I expect Malcolm Pein and InforChess to have reports by the time you read this, likely.

Continuing live coverage is available from various sites, including Chess FM and ICC, but also Playchess and World Chess Network.

1 comment:

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