Monday, February 02, 2009

Youth Conquers Corus

Sergei Karjakin, who was the youngest player ever to become a Grandmaster, fulfilled expectations and won one of the world's most prestigious tournaments, main group of Corus Wijk aan Zee. He was the only winner, with 8 points, but six players were on shared first prior to the last round. Karjakin was the only to win, with Black against Dominguez.

Corus B finish was a thriller. "Crazy" Motylev beautifully sacrificed his Queen in the early opening against the leading Kasimdzhanov and went on to win after 70+ moves. At the same time Fabiano Caruana kind of swindled against another leader Nigel Short and won to become lone winner.

Corus C is always the most interesting tournament because of many decided games. Those people are fighting like they will never play chess again. Manuel Leon Hoyos made 5 wins, 8 losses, without draws. Eduardo Iturrizaga made a single draw and this put him half a point ahead of Leon Hoyos. The winner was 15 years old Wesley So, pride of Philippines, who collected fantastic 9,5 points.

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