CORUS round 11

Today Carlsen is White against Dominguez who is one full point behind him.

The other two top leaders, Kramnik and Shirov are playing each other
with Shirov being white.



after



D97 Grunfeld, Russian

with a new twist from White on move 10, where Be3 or h4 were mostly played.
He can of course still play Be3 successfully, after a Knight move from Black.

Ah, he just did.
10...Nb6, 11. Be3

Black may not be bothered by White's -e4-, as one feature of this Defence is that Black allows a strong white pawn centre, so that he can attack it, but is Black happy with an early -e5- and even an early -e6-?

Black seems to be developing quickly and his LSB may now go to =g4= which will elicit -f3-.

Dominguez has been thinking for an awful long time and has used up a whole hour according to the clock, which can't be right as their combined time used is less than that.
This is getting tedious and if they don't get a move on, I'll be out of here.
My boredom threshold is a lot lower than Carlsen's.

Shirov and Kramnik are already on move 23.

Finally. After this long think, Black only goes as far as Bf5 and my engine pats him on the back for that. Funny, how engines often totally ignore a move, and then when you give it them, they say "Thanks ever so much".

I am so hoping for 13.e6, mainly because it seems utterly audacious.
With the white Queen bearing down on =f7=, I think it looks wild.



leading to




These two are testing each other and providing an interesting, if somewhat slow, game.



leading to


5...f6 turned this position into a bit of a hornets' nest.
I shan't have the presumption to predict the next few moves...

ah...Carlsen has taken the sting out of it, pardon the pun.
playing 16.Nf3, rather than putting that Knight on =e4=.

With this safety valve, Black might push his Rook up to Rf7, which would allow White to really get a huge center front going with 17.d5
However, then Black's Knights are spoilt for choice on what to take.

but we still get a good clear out although Black might have done better to play 17...Nd5 rather than 17...fxe5



19.Qc5 Rc8 with e4 to look forward too surely.


60 mins vs 28 mins

35 vs 18 mins after move 22, so the gap is closing, but still 18 moves to go and Carlsen keeps up the pressure.

1-0

Well done White.