Radjabov finished equal second at Linares last year so this result should not be considered a surprise. (In fact, there he was behind Aronian and level with Topalov, so the podium is identical.) At Corus he showed he is still improving and also that he is imposing his will by continuing to play the King's Indian. Radjabov's mastery of my old favourite, and the energy with which he plays it, gave him a stunning four wins with the black pieces. At the top level he has single-handedly revived the defence I abandoned in 1997.
At the time, I was turned off by the then-new lines with 9.b4 Nh5 10.Re1. I felt that White could play almost without risk and Black had to suffer. The 12.Bf3 c6 13.Be3 lines fromKramnik vs Judit Polgar, 1997, also looked disagreeably one-sided. Long ago Korchnoi said that the only person who can kick Kasparov out of his Najdorf can take his title. In fact I instead lost to the man who kicked me out of the King's Indian! Now I see I was probably overestimating the dangers. Every metal has melting point and my King's Indian armour was feeling overheated. These days it's White who is switched to 12.f3 instead of 12.Bf3 and the focus has returned to fighting middlegames. Watching Radjabov attack against Shirov I felt like a retired warhorse hearing the distant horns of battle.>
n Kasparov, New In Chess 2007/2
There is video at youtube with Teimour at press conference after this game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9v_yhOPAyc&feature=PlayList&p=EBB40F44DB9F45CF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=20