Carlsen and Kramnik Lead in Corus
January 29, 2010
In the "A" section today of the Corus supertournament, GM Magnus Carlsen won over GM Lenier Dominguez in a tactical variation of the Grunfeld. This puts Carlsen in a tie for first with Kramnik with just two rounds to go, a situation that recalls the fantasy World Championship match that GM Rogers' conjured up in his latest CLO report from the scene.

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GM Alexei Shirov fought creatively, jonesing to get back up in the top spot but famous defender GM Vladimir Kramnik held the draw.

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GM Hikaru Nakamura didn't get far today in an English against the super-solid GM Peter Leko, but we'll expect some tough fights in the last two rounds from our US Champion. He'll face Fabiano Caruana and Sergey Tiviakov.

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One of the most dramatic games today was a teenager face-off in the "B" section. Tournament leader 15-year-old GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands played Wesley So of the Phillipines, who was just half a point behind. In a striking case of chess blindness, So walked into a mate in two. As GM Larry Christiansen said on the chess.fm broadcast, "When you're 16 (and 2650), Rf1+ feels like the end of the world."

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Position after 36.Ne2??, which loses immediately to Rf1+ Kxf1 Qf2#


GM Ray Robson broke his streak of losses in the "C" group with a win over GM Kjetil Lie of Norway. Despite tiring in the final stretch, Robson is still on a plus three score!

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Tomorrow, many eyes will be on Anand-Kramnik and Leko-Carlsen.

See GM Rogers' in-depth CLO report, The Hare and the Tortoise: GM Rogers on Corus. Follow the action on the official website, the Internet Chess Club (Games begin at 7:30 AM EST- CLO editor Jennifer Shahade will be hosting the coverage for rounds 10-13), chessdom, chessbase, chessvibes and look for a tournament report by GM Rogers in an upcoming issue of Chess Life Magazine.