Tata Steel 2023

[Hans Jung]

In the masters prime entertainment was seen in the Magnus Rapport game where Magnus played Kf2 and Rapport sacked two pieces but in the end there wasnt enough compensation. In the So game Wesley played both knights to the rim (knights on the rim are dim) and then back into the center to win the game.
However Abdussatorov continues his winning ways and now leads the field by 1 point.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 7 In the Challengers all but one game were decisive. Donchenko played a nice positional game to beat his coleader Yilmaz. As a result Donchenko has taken a clear lead.

[Hans Jung]

After 6 rounds Yilmaz and Donchenko tied for first with 4.5 out of 6. Two a half point back.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 challengers Donchenko played a nice Caro-Kann with pressure ideas leading to breakthru. Vaishalli good positional chess leading to domination. L'Ami - Warmerdam was highly entertaining with Black attacking but getting nowhere and then White sacked a rook on h8 to get a passed pawn bone in the throat leading to a nice endgame finish.

[Hans Jung]

Abdusattorov still leads with a half point margin over Caruana and Giri after 6 rounds.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 6 Some great jousting ending up in passed pawn play starting with 32.c4 in So - Keymer. Nice endgame win by Wesley So. Caruana's c5 was revealing and opened up active play by the rooks and a better bishop soon became overwhelming.

[Hans Jung]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/tata-s...023-endgames-1 The good endgame doctor GM Karsten Mueller weighs in on interesting endgames from Tata Steel.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 5 In the masters - the big news is Abdusattarov beat Magnus and is now in clear first after 5 rounds.

[Hugh Brodie]

Round 5 - Abdusatarov has Q+NP vs Carlsen's Q. I assume it's a win with best play (I didn't check the tablebases).

[Hans Jung]

After 5 rounds Yilmaz has taken a clear lead of 4 out of 5 in the challengers. (as both Donchenko and Ivic drew their respective games)

[Hans Jung]

Rd 5 Today only challengers. Masters have a rest day.
Beerdsen - Roebers Black played French and chaos on the board (actually I like Black's attack). Beerdsen has made interesting opening choices in several games so far.

[Hans Jung]

Donchenko plays interesting positional chess.

[Peter McKillop]

Ivic, Donchenko, and Yilmaz tied for first in the challengers after 4 rounds.

Go Donchenko!! Any young buck who plays the Caro Kann is ok by me. Although, I think it was Larsen who said to a young opponent, "If you play the Caro Kann now, what will you play when you're an old man?" :)

[Hans Jung]

Pragganandhaa upset Ding Liren! - another one of the top seeds falls.
So and Aronian are all draws so far.

[Hans Jung]

Ivic, Donchenko, and Yilmaz tied for first in the challengers after 4 rounds.