Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.The final round at Wijk aan Zee provided fine entertainment. When play began, Jeroen Piket and Valery Salov shared the lead, half a point ahead of Ivan Sokolov. Salov, as White against Korchnoi, made the mistake of playing for safety and rapidly found himself a pawn down in an endgame. Piket was struggling against Yermolinsky, and eventually suffered his only loss of the tournament. Sokolov, meanwhile, was playing a wild game against Nikolic, with the advantage apparently changing hands every few moves. When that ended in a draw, Salov needed a draw to take first place. He finally saved himself, a queen for rook behind in an endgame.
Final scores: Salov 81/2; Sokolov, Onischuk, Piket 8; Yermolinsky 7; Granda, Timman 61/2; van Wely, Short, Korchnoi, Lautier 6.
Here's Nigel Short's 12th-round win, a rare King's Gambit leading to a good positional victory.
White: Nigel Short
Black: Predrag Nikolic
1 e4 e5 22 Qe5 Rf6
2 f4 exf4 23 Rxf6 gxf6
3 Bc4 c6 24 Qf4 Kh7
4 Nc3 Nf6 25 c4 Rg8
5 Bb3 d5 26 cxd5 exd5
6 exd5 cxd5 27 Rc1 Qe6
7 d4 Bd6 28 Rc7+ Rg7
8 Nf3 Nc6 29 Rxg7+ Kxg7
9 0-0 Be6 30 Qc7+ Kf8
10 Ng5 h6 31 Nf4 Qf5
11 Nxe6 fxe6 32 Qb8+ Ke7
12 Bxf4 Bxf4 33 Qxb7+ Kd6
13 Rxf4 0-0 34 b4 axb4
14 Qd3 Qd6 35 Qxb4+ Kc6
15 Raf1 Nh7 36 Qa4+ Kb6
16 Ne2 Na5 37 g3 Kc7
17 c3 Nxb3 38 Qa5+ Kc6
18 axb3 a5 39 Kg2 h5
19 Qg6 Qe7 40 Qa8+ Kd6
20 Qh5 Ng5 41 Qd8+ resigns
21 h4 Ne4
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