Radja unstoppable!

Today the saying that luck favors the strong got reconfirmation in the Navara - Rajabov game. David took advantage of the fact that Teymur wrongly interchanged his moves: 10…e6? immediately instead of 10…f5 first. The difference, as the game showed, was white's ability to quickly get 11.g3 and 12.Bg2 in with a significant edge.

Radja admitted he was reduced to 'playing for tricks', as he couldn't go, for example: 14…Bxb2 15.Nc4 Bxa1 16.Qxa1 where black is left without any counterplay.

A crisis point in the game came on move 21.e4?, as white opened the position with the black pieces placed perfectly to deal with that. Soon thereafter white tried to mix things up by letting his Nb5 drop, but the kingside initiative he got for it was only temporary. Now that the tables had been turned, Teymur played quite strongly with 25…Ne5 and 27…Bd3, and the Czech grandmaster's position quickly collapsed.

Rajabov: "perhaps he could have defended better, but it is hard to change your mindset from playing for a win to playing for a draw."

Scoring his 4th win in 5 rounds, the Azeri GM leads in Corus with 4 1/2 points.

Standings after 5 rounds

1. T. Radjabov 4 1/2
2. V. Topalov
V. Anand 3 1/2
4. L. Aronian
V. Kramnik 3
6. S. Karjakin
D. Navara
R. Ponomariov
P. Svidler 2 1/2
10. L. van Wely
A. Motylev 2
12. S. Tiviakov
M. Carlsen 1 1/2
14. A. Shirov 1/2

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