There were no really exciting games in this round as opposed to previous rounds in the Grandmaster group A. All of the games were draws, so there were no upsets, and no changes in the results from previous rounds. The most exciting game was Radjabov-Van Wely, in which Van Wely tried to win a theoretically drawn endgame (only with the aid of tablebases). See if you can play white and draw:
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White to Move and Draw: Radjabov-Van Wely
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According to GM Mihail Marin reporting for Chessbase, this is a theoretically drawn position if the white king does not go past the fifth rank and if it does not get trapped near its pawn on a4. White must avoid a position of zugzwang at all costs. Another point is that white should not stray too far from the a-file. It is well known that a solitary rook pawn and king versus a king should lead to a draw as long as the lone king remains on the file of the rook pawn, blocking its path to promotion and creating a stalemate position. Black can win by sacrificing the exchange and promoting the pawn, but pawn promotion is not so easy unless white gets into a position where its king cannot block the rook pawn from promoting. Try to solve this position. This game ended in a draw.
In Grandmaster Group B, a world championship candidate and a former rival of Kasparov was crushed by Hou Yifan, a Chinese female chess genius. Nigel Short is not playing his usual chess these days.
Hou Yifan (2527) - Short,N (2645) [C67]
Corus B Wijk aan Zee NED (3), 14.01.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Be7 6.Qe2 Nd6 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.dxe5 Nb7 9.c4 0–0 10.Nc3 Re8 11.Rd1 Bf8 12.Bg5 f6 13.Bh4 g5 14.Bg3
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Short chooses an unfortunate approach to the opening as black by recklessly pushing the pawns in front of his king
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d6 15.Ne4 Bg4 16.exf6 Bh5 17.Qe3 Bh6
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White to Move: Short "short" circuits! Notice the bad dark squared bishop on h6.... Can you see the tactic of exploiting the bad location of the black queen? Notice as well the passed f-pawn....
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18.Ne5 Rxe5 19.Bxe5 Bxd1 20.Rxd1 Qe8 21.Bc3 Nd8 22.f7+ Qxf7 23.Nf6+
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Black to Move (Short resigns to a grandmaster young enough to be his daughter!)... while material is equal, the passed pawn, open lines towards Short's king, and the eventual move Re1 threaten black with mate
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