Corus Chess Round 1: Iron chinned Wesley So earned a hard fought draw against Naiditsch

Many times in the past, we heard chess fans about hating draws. But there also some rare occasions that fans love to see a a game ended in a draw...quickly. Ironic, isn't it? Naiditsch maybe one of the most hated chess players in Corus B for keeping everyone awake late that night but let us put ourselves in the situation Naiditsch was in, in the early and middle part of the game. He has nothing to lose, position and material wise and so Naiditsch made Wesley earn every ounce of his end game knowledge to earn his draw, just looking for "one more time" to find a hole and eventually trap Wesley and force the issue via rook and king mate! It's possible, if Wesley let go his guard. But Naiditsch was mistaken. Wesley knows his endgame.

Replay the game with live commentary by GM Villamayor here

The game was painfully slow and uneventful (okay, no thanks to Naiditisch). GM Bong Villamayor actually left the live arena at chessbomb where he is commenting live the game of Naiditsch-So sometime in move 80, I believe, not because he get's bored of the game, but according to him, "it's very difficult to reach the desired winning position (for Naiditsch...)" This is actually the first time that a live game commentator, as far as we know, abandon an ongoing game he is commenting. And who could blame him? The game dragged on for 111th move and lasted for 7 hours and it was getting on 3:00 am in the morning! Many are getting impatient and some hinted about the 50 move rule, it maybe reasonable but that won't happen since Naiditsch is pushing for a win having the advantages for nearly the entire game. He's just simply coudn't find a way to knock the iron chinned Wesley out with one final blow. Wesley is just that stubborn. You have to admire Naiditsch persistence there and likewise, you have to admire So's stiff resistance despite the odds.

Wesley So will be facing Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami in Round 2 on what is left of the energy he spent yesterday. The game will start at around 8:30 in the evening. I made a wrong calculation about the exact time the games will begin. Not 10:00 PM, as I previously posted but 8:30 PM, Manila time.

Group B: Round 1 results

Ni Hua - Erwin l'Ami ½-½

Emil Sutovsky - Dimitri Reinderman 1-0

Tomi Nyback - Liviu Nisipeanu 0-1

Anish Giri - Pentala Harikrishna 1-0

David Howell - Parimarjan Negi ½-½

Anna Muzychuk - Varuzhan Akobian ½-½

Arkadij Naiditsch - Wesley So ½-½


Round 2 pairings, Group B: Sun. Jan. 17th

Erwin l'Ami - Wesley So

Varuzhan Akobian - Arkadij Naiditsch

Parimarjan Negi - Anna Muzychuk

Pentala Harikrishna - David Howell

Liviu Nisipeanu - Anish Giri

Dimitri Reinderman - Tomi Nyback

Ni Hua - Emil Sutovsky



Important links:

Replay the Naiditsch-So game at Chessdom with GM Buenaventura Villamayor live comments

Real-time live chess games from Corus at chessbomb

Photos from Corus at ChessBase

Video from Corus at ChessVibes

Corus Chess 2010 official website