Corus Finishes

Corus finished yesterday

Winners: Shirov started out 5/5 but ran out of steam, going -2 the rest of the way to finish at a still very good 8.0/13. Pretty good for somebody seeded near the middle. Kramnik also managed a solid 8.0/13, including a win over the winner, Magnus Carlsen, who won with 8.5/13.

Also did well: Hikaru Nakamura managed a very respectable 4th-5th with a plus 2 score. Against 2700+ rated players he did less well, 3.5/8, but the overall performance of 2774 is a good sign. He'll be invited back next year. Visi Anand drew his first nine games but won twice in the last four games, including a win over Vladimir Kramnik.

Also rans: Karjakin and Ivanchuk finished in 6th-7th at '+1'. Although Karjakin actually gained some rating points from this finish, it has to be a bit of a disapointment since he was the defending champion. Leko and Dominiguez finished at an even score. Caruana was in 10th place with -2, not bad considering his rating. The lowest rated player, Van Wely, actually scored three wins (more than Anand!) and actually broken even on rating despite a low score (5.0/13)

Disapointing: Nigel Short also scored 5.0/13 but with his recent tournamnet successes this is a little disapointing. Tiviakov and Smeets both finished at the bottom 4.5/13. All three should be demoted to Corus B next year.

Corus B:

The Winners: Anish Giri scored a very impressive 9.0/13 with a 2773 performance. This is higher than Anand's performance at 2768! Making it even more impressive was that he was only the 12th out of 14 seeds. He well deserves the promotion to corus A next year. The German Champion Naiditsch finished clear second with 8.5 with a 2735 performance, and Ni Hua finished third with 8.0 and a 2708 performance.

Also Did Well: teenager Wesley So had a solid performance tied for 4th with '+2', it'll be interesting to see what he can do next year.

Also rans: English player David Howell performed almost exactly to his rating at '-1', hopefully he'll be given another chance next year.

Disapointing: Akopian finished dead last with just one win and 4.5/13 overall. Hopefully this is just a momemntary setback for him, but this means he probably won't be invited back next year to B, and his rating will be too high for group C.

Group C:

Winners: Li Chao grabbed the lead several rounds ago from Ray Robson, but has really put an exclamation point in the last rounds, finishing strong with 10/13! He was the top seed, so his victory wasn't too surprising. It'll be interesting to see how he does in Corus B next year.

Also rans: After a strong start, Ray Robson finished with only 7.5/13 and a 2501 performance, losing to all top four players on the leaderboard. For those hoping that Robson would pass 2600 soon, it looks like they'll have to wait a little longer.