Corus 2009: Wesley So back on track with a win, Carlsen nine straight draws

The suffering of Wesley So's fans had finally ended last night with a win against IM Bitalzadeh. I won't be surprise if Wesley's round 8 blunder is the most talked about chess topics in the internet! Grandmasters blunder somehow makes chess more exciting! Come on, we need to see more Grandmaster blunders :) I don't know if Wesley did visit chess forums to hear the reactions of his fanatic followers about his loss to Holzke but if he did, the result of his match with Bitalzadeh could have been different.

Checking the standings, how one could actually beleive that Magnus Carlsen is just a point behind the leaders, Karjakin and Aronian despite nine straight drawn games? A single win and and a loss by the leaders could actually put him tied for first place! In the meantime please do check the replays of the game between Karjakin and Movsesian. It is so far one of the best performance in the tournament and one could only marvel at the superb calculation skills of Karjakin.



Here are the standings after 9 rounds:

Corus A

1. L. Aronian, S. Karjakin, L. Dominguez 5½
4. T. Radjabov, S. Movsesian 5
6. M. Carlsen, L. van Wely, M. Adams, J. Smeets 4½
10. V. Ivanchuk, G. Kamsky, Y. Wang 4
13. D. Stellwagen 3½
14. A. Morozevich 3

Corus B

1. N. Short 6
2. A. Volokitin, A. Motylev, D. Navara, F. Caruana, F. Vallejo Pons 5½
7. R. Kasimdzhanov 5
8. Z. Efimenko 4½
9. E. l'Ami 4
10. Y. Hou, D. Reinderman 3½
12. K. Sasikiran, H. Mecking, J. Werle 3

Corus C

1. T. Hillarp Persson 6½
2. W. So 6
3. D. Howell, A. Gupta, F. Holzke 5½
6. A. Giri 5
7. D. Harika, M. Bosboom 4½
9. F. Nijboer, E. Iturrizaga, A. Bitalzadeh, R. Pruijssers 3½
13. O. Romanishin, M. Leon Hoyos 3

Official website: www.CorusChess.com