Tata Steel

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tata Steel

Tata Steel 2015

Round Thirteen
January 25, 2015

One of the early games to finish is Wojtaszek-Giri:

Tata Steel Masters
Round 13, Jan. 25, 2015
Wojtaszek, Radoslaw – Giri, Anish
D97 Grunfeld, Russian, Byrne Variation

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 O-O 7.e4 Nc6 8.Be2 Nd7 9.Be3 Nb6 10.Qc5 Bg4 11.d5 Bxf3 12.gxf3 Nd7 13.Qc4 Na5 14.Qa4 c6 15.Rd1 b5 16.Qc2 a6 17.dxc6 Nxc6 18.Nxb5 axb5 19.Qxc6 Qa5+ 20.Kf1 Ne5 21.Qxb5 Qxa2 22.f4 Rab8 23.Qd5 Qxd5 24.Rxd5 Nc6 25.Rd2 Rxb2 26.Rxb2 Bxb2 27.Kg2 Nd4 28.Bd3 Ne6 29.f5 gxf5 30.exf5 Ng7 1/2-1/2

Anish comes in to talk to Yasser. He played a Grunfeld, with which he has both won and lost lots of games.
There were possibilities but the game was a draw.

Yasser says that he has had a good tournament, gained rating points and has had steady progress. It is a pretty steady path to 2800. Anish says that he has been scoring pretty well in team tournaments and winning against other strong players like MVL and Wesley. To continue, he would like to win many games in the Grand Prix tourneys. He has played badly in his only GP (at Tashkent) so far. His next tournament is in Februrary at Tbilisi.

There were 15,000 viewers watching the ending that Giri was playing yesterday against So and as it continued, the viewership climbed. The spectators in the hall applauded at the end, there was nobody else present playing to disturb.

Tata Steel Masters
Round 13, Jan. 25, 2015
Caruana, Fabiano – Vachier Lagrave, Maxime
B90 Sicilian, Najdorf, Adams Attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e5 7.Nde2 h5 8.g3 Be6 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.a4 Be7 11.O-O Rc8 12.Be3 Nb6 13.b3 d5 14.Bxb6 Qxb6 15.Nxd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 Bd7 17.c4 Qd6 18.a5 f5 19.Qd3 h4 20.g4 O-O 21.Nc3 e4 22.Qe3 Bd8 23.Bxe4 fxe4 24.Nxe4 Qf4 25.Qxf4 Rxf4 26.f3 Be7 27.Kf2 Rcf8 28.Ke3 Be8 29.c5 Bb5 30.b4 Rxe4+ 31.Kxe4 Re8 32.Kf4 g5+ 33.Kf5 Kf7 34.Rfe1 Bd3+ 35.Re4 Bf6 0-1

Tata Steel Masters
Round 13, Jan. 25, 2015
Aronian, Levon – Ding Liren
E90 King’s Indian, 5.Nf3

1.c4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.h3 e5 7.d5 Nh5 8.g3 f5 9.exf5 gxf5 10.Ng5 Qe8 11.c5 Nf6 12.Bb5 Qe7 13.g4 Na6 14.Ne6 Bxe6 15.dxe6 Nxc5 16.g5 Ne8 17.Nd5 Qxe6 18.b4 Ne4 19.Bxe8 Qxe8 20.f3 Ng3 21.Rg1 f4 22.Nxc7 Qe7 23.Qb3+ Kh8 24.Ne6 Rfe8 25.Nxg7 Kxg7 26.Bb2 Qxg5 27.Rd1 Rad8 28.Rd5 Qf5 29.Kd2 Qxh3 30.Kc1 Qf5 31.Bc3 h5 32.Kb2 h4 33.Qd1 h3 34.Qd2 Kf7 35.Re1 Qf6 36.Qc2 Nf5 37.Rd2 Rg8 38.Qe4 b6 39.Rh1 Rh8 40.Qb7+ Qe7 41.Qa6 Ng3 42.Rhh2 Rd7 43.Rc2 Rc7 44.Qd3 Qe6 45.Ka3 Nf5 46.Bd2 Rxc2 47.Qxc2 Nd4 48.Qd3 Qd5 49.Kb2 b5 50.Bc3 Qxf3 51.Qb1 Qg3 52.Rd2 h2 53.Bxd4 h1=Q 54.Qf5+ Ke7 55.Qc2 Qd5 0-1

So wins. Yasser says that it is the mark of a champion as to how he reacts to a loss. You wouldn’t want to play Garry Kasparov after he had lost a game, he was so angry. Magnus is no happy camper after one either, according to his father.

Tata Steel Masters
Round 13, Jan. 25, 2015
So, Wesley – Van Wely, Loek
A61 Benoni Defence

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 d6 5.Nc3 exd5 6.cxd5 g6 7.Bf4 a6 8.a4 Bg7 9.h3 O-O 10.e3 Nh5 11.Bh2 f5 12.Be2 f4 13.Qd2 Bh6 14.e4 Bg7 15.O-O Nd7 16.Ne1 Ndf6 17.Nd3 Qe8 18.Rfe1 g5 19.e5 dxe5 20.d6 Kh8 21.Bd1 g4 22.Rxe5 Qg6 23.Nxf4 Nxf4 24.Bxf4 gxh3 25.Rg5 Qf7 26.Be5 Bd7 27.Bb3 Be6 28.Bxe6 Qxe6 29.Re1 Qf7 30.Nd5 Nh5 31.Bxg7+ Nxg7 32.Re7 1-0

Hou Yifan – Ivanchuk is a draw and Jobava wins his final game against Radjabov.

The whole tournament turns on the game Carlsen-Saric:

Tata Steel Masters
Round 13, Jan. 25, 2015
Carlsen, Magnus – Saric, Ivan
B30 Sicilian Defence

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Qc7 5. O-O Nd4 6. Re1 a6 7. Bc4 b5 8. Nd5 Nxd5 9. Bxd5 Rb8 10. Nxd4 cxd4 11. d3 e6 12. Bb3 Bd6 13. Qh5 Bb7 14. f4 Bxf4 15. Bxf4 Qxf4 16. Rf1 Qe3+ 17. Kh1 O-O 18. Rf3 Qh6 19. Qe5 a5 20. a4 Bc6 21. axb5 Rxb5 22. Qxd4 Qd2 23. Raf1 Qb4 24. Qf2 f6 25. Rf4 Re5 26. Rb1 a4 27. Ba2 Rb8 28. c3 Qb6 29. Qd2 Rb5 30. Rf2 Qc7 31. h3 h6 32. Qe3 Rg5 33. d4 Kh8 34. Re1 Bb5 35. e5 f5 36. d5 exd5 37. Bxd5 Bc4 38. Rd1 Re8 39. Bxc4 Qxc4 40. Rxd7 Qb5 41. e6 Qc6 42. Qf3 Qxe6 43. Rd5 Qe1+ 44. Rf1 Qe2 45. Rxf5 Rxf5 46. Qxe2 Rxe2 47. Rxf5 Rxb2 48. Ra5 Rc2 49. Rxa4 Rxc3 ½-½

(chess-news.ru) The final round of the main event of Wijk aan Zee turned out to be bloody: one victory after another came - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Ding Liren. All three of them caught up with Magnus as did Anish Giri with his draw.

Initially, it would seem that the champion has not experienced any problems with Ivan Šarić, but in reality it was not so easy. In addition, many will recall that the Croatian inflicted a painful defeat on Carlsen at the finish of the Olympic Games in Tromsø.

White played a quiet version of the Sicilian Defence and did not have an advantage. Moreover, at some point Magnus’s began to look a bit suspect. However, towards the time control, the champion broke out and even took the initiative. Probably in another tournament situation, he would have tried to "squeeze out" the point. Here he reasonably assessed that there was no point taking chances, since a draw ensures clear first place. Therefore, thoughts of revenge were postponed.

Carlsen – My two games against Aronian and Caruana were my best games.

Final Standing Masters

Carlsen 9
Vachier-Lagrave 8.5
Giri 8.5
So 8.5
Ding 8.5
Ivanchuk 7.5
Caruana 7
Radjabov 6.5
Wojtaszek 5.5
Aronian 5.5
Hou Yifan 5
Saric 4.5
Van Wely 4
Jobava 2.5

Final Standing Challengers

Wei Yi 10.5
Navara 10
Shankland 9
Van Kampen 8.5
Salem 7.5
Sevian 7.5
Potkin 7
L’Ami 6.5
Gunina 5
Michiels 4.5
Klein 4.5
Haast 4
Dale 3.5
Timman 3

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Tata Steel

It is great to have the REAL world chess champion: first on a rating list by a margin, came and won effectively a tournament straightforward after the match.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tata Steel

I like this tournament. Always a very decent mix between the world's best and upcoming superstars, many of them playing their first super-tournament at Wijk aan Zee. With the added locals who I care less for, but hey, they're putting on the show.

Picking Wei Yi to win the challengers (easy choice really), and Wesley So to win the top section (don't actually believe his chances are very good, but always hoping to see something different).

Very nice handicapping, Alex. Wei Yi finishes clear 1st and Wesley So joint 2nd (4th on tie-breaks), just a 1/2 point behind Carlsen (:

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tata Steel

Mig Greengard once said at his blog, in his wont tongue-in-cheek manner, that Radjabov should be the only GM allowed to play the KID. Surely today though, he should substitute Ding Liren for Radjabov. Radjabov has surely passed the KID torch since Ding Liren is not only higher rated than Teimour (2742.3 vs 2728.1), but he's beating Teimour at his own opening. Ding Liren is now a perfect 2/2 against Teimour with his KID win today and held a draw as White in their 3rd KID encounter. While the old KID king isn't quite dead just yet, long live the new king (:

With Radjabov losing his KID today to Jobava, while Ding was absolutely crushing Aronian with his KID, is there any doubt the KID crown has been passed!

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Tata Steel

I wonder how many of the 4 joint 2nds, all incredibly young, none of whom Carlsen beat at Tata Steel, and none of whom Carlsen has ever beaten with the one exception of MVL (plus 2, minus 1, equal 5), will manage to make it to the 2016 Candidates? I'd love to see all 4 there but that's highly improbable. It's arguably even more likely that none of these 4 make it to the 2016 Candidates than all 4 ):

At the moment, only Anand is guaranteed a spot in the 2016 Candidates. Caruana and Grischuk have the inside track on the 2 ratings spots but that race is far from over. Caruana and Nakamura are the early leaders for the 2 Grand Prix spots but that's also still very much undecided. Of course, if Caruana double qualifies, that opens up one more ratings spot. Two more spots go to the top 2 finishers at the World Cup but that's very much a crap shoot with the quick match format. And one spot goes to the wildcard nomination.

Personally, I'd like only the winners of the Grand Prix and the World Cup to qualify. I'd also drop the wildcard spot (unless I reserved that for Ding Liren!) and make the top 5 by rating all qualify. My guess is that would at least ensure that both Giri and So would stand a far better chance of qualifying.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Tata Steel

It is great to have the REAL world chess champion: first on a rating list by a margin, came and won effectively a tournament straightforward after the match.

I echo those sentiments. Most people take that for granted. They shouldnt.

[Nathan Zeap]

Re: Tata Steel

Asians Wesley So and Liren Ding placed second... If Wesley was able to draw that game with Giri or perhaps won that 1st game against Wojtasek ( missed Rf5 winning move) he would have tied Carlsen for 1st. Hou, the lone woman player placed better than golden boys Saric and Jovaba.

To the person who opened this thread and labelled these Asians as "lame substitutes" , I say " EAT CROW "