Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov finished in a three-way tie for first place in the CORUS Chess Tournament which took place in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, from January 13-28, 2007.

FIDE world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik finished in the fourth position a half point away from the winners, while the world’s number two player, Viswanathan Anand was one point away in the fifth position.

Today’s game features the win by Topalov – a former FIDE champion – over Anand. Topalov produces a novelty with 19.b4!! which ensures Anand cannot open the ‘B’ file to bring his Rooks into the game.

Topalov,V (2783) – Anand,V (2779)

Corus Chess Tournament.

Wijk aan Zee.

January 2007.

Queen’s Indian Defence.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 This is a very solid line of the Queen’s Indian and a continual battleground for the elite players 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.0-0 Nf6 13.e4 dxe4 14.a4! Nd5 15.cxd5 Bxf1 16.d6! Bxg2 17.dxe7 Qxe7 18.Kxg2 f5 19.b4!! The deep idea. Black has a slight material advantage with rook and two pawns against bishop and knight which is why your computer will tell you Black is better. However if no files are opened then White minor pieces will dominate and 19.b4!! rules.Qd7 20.Qe2 Qd5 21.f3! exf3+ 22.Nxf3 h6 23.Re1 Rfe8 24.Qc2 Rad8 25.Bd2 Qd7 26.Kf2 Rc8 27.Bf4 Qd5 28.Re5 Qd7 29.h4 Ra8 30.Bd2! 30…Rac8 31.Qc4 Kh7 32.Bc3 Qd6 33.Ne1! b5?! 34.Qc5 Qd8 35.Nd3 Black Resigns!! 1-0.