2017 Tata Rd2: Eljanov takes lead; Carlsen wins

The elite Tata Steel tournaments in Wijk aan Zee are underway and take place from January 13-29, with two main tournaments, the Masters with both Magnus Carlsen and Serget Karjakin as headliners, as well as Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Baskaran Adhiban, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, Dmitri Andreikin, Wei Yi, Pavel Eljanov, and Loek van Wely. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30pm, except for the last round on 29 January 2017, which begins at 12.00pm. Both rounds on the Chess On Tour days start at 2.00pm.

All photos by Alina L'Ami for the official site

Masters tournament

One minute of video impressions of round two

The second round of Tata Steel was certainly a step in the right direction as far as the fans were concerned. After a very tepid opening round, round two saw things heat up with not only three decisive games, but a lot more fight to be seen in the boards. There were also a number of intriguing moments to be seen, notably in openings play.

Daniel King gives a quick recap of the Masters

There is little doubt that once again the center of attention was board one with world number one, Magnus Carlsen. He faced Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek with whom he shares a bit of history, notably at Wijk aan Zee. Back in the 2015 edition, Carlsen lost to the Polish player after a difficult Dutch defense saw him lose a piece after 29 moves. Though he did avenge himself later that year in a brilliant win during the Tromso Olympiad, Wojtaszek had to be wondering whether he could repeat his success this time.

Magnus caught Radoslaw off-guard with his opening play, and never let his opponent recover his balance

It seemed like it would be a ‘normal’ game when the Polish player played 5…a6 to initiate a Najdorf, but it is quite impossible for him to have predicted Magnus Carlsen would repeat Sergey Karjakin’s odd experiment from round one.

The only reason why I played 6.a3 against @anishgiri is that I forgot adaptor for my laptop and I urgently had to create a new ideas😆😆😆

— Sergey Karjakin (@SergeyKaryakin) January 15, 2017

Sergey Karjakin himself denied it was the product of any special preparation, with this tongue-in-cheek Tweet

GM Alex Yermolinsky analyzes Carlsen-Karjakin

GM Alex Yermolinsky was hardly the only player fascinated by this struggle, and GM Daniel King also weighed in on the struggle that took place.

GM Daniel King analyzes Carlsen-Wojtaszek

The players stroll around in a coordinated pas-de-trois

Needless to say, the ultimate expert from whom one hopes to gain insight from is of course the player himself. Here Magnus Carlsen shares some quick notes with Anna Rudolf on his victory in round two.

Pavel Eljanov brought back memories of his incredible start at the Baku World Cup a couple of years ago, when he started with 6 wins against 2700 average rated players. He notched his second win in round two, outclassing Loek Van Wely. Pavel Eljanov is now the sole leader with 2.0/2.

GM Alex Yermolinsky analyzes Loek Van Wely - Pavel Eljanov

Although both were team mates on the strong Indian team at the Olympiad in Baku, there was no holding back punches here as Pentala Harikrishna, world no. 12, overcame his compatriot Adhiban.

IM Sagar Shah analyzes Pentala Harikrishna - Baskaran Adhiban

Many thanks to IM Sagar Shah from ChessBase India for sharing his analysis with ChessBase.com readers.

A delighted Harikrishna tweeted, "Got my first win in #tatachessmasters. Beat Adhiban in a tight game. 11 more to go in this elite championship..."

Pentala Harikrishna gives a quick interview after his win

Anish Giri's ultra-prophylaxy led him to exchange queens on move ten, and the rest was drawstory. This opened him up to gentle, but pointed jibes, such as Nigel Short tweeting, "You've got to love Anish Giri - he is like a turbo-charged Peter Leko."

Levon Aronian got nowhere against the 17-year-old Wei Yi who neutralized any ambitions the Armenian might have

Richard Rapport is anything but dull in chess, and though he drew against Sergey Karjakin, it was not without interest as the two players struggled to make things happen. Here he discusses his game and his playing style.

A small phrase of the day from Fernando Arribal, "All chess players are artists"

Round two games of Masters

(Some of the games contain tweets posted by interesting and interested parties, during or immediately after the round)

Current Masters standings

Challengers tournament

The Challengers tournament also saw more blood and action in the second day of competition, even if its three decisive games from the opening day were hardly the objects of complaints. There was a much awaited duel between the two very talented juniors Jorden Van Foreest, who had won his first game against L’Ami, and Jeffery Xiong who rocketed to the Top 100 in 2016 and swept through the World under-21 at age 15. The game was fairly balanced with a nagging edge for White in the later stages, but the Dutch player, defending with black, was unable to hold and Xiong outplayed him to return to 50%.

Markus Ragger, the top seed, also showed his class as he defeated his Chinese rival Lei Tingjie after a marathon 84 moves. That said, this also perched him at the top with a perfect 2.0/2.

Lei Tingjie - Markus Ragger

Though it would take him nearly 40 more moves, the Austrian GM eventually ground down his opponent and took home the full point.

Gawain Jones is another top contender, and though he did not win himself any fans by defeating the recent mother, Sopiko Guramishvili, at least he won with a nice dose of style.

Gawain Jones - Sopiko Guramishvili

Round two games of Challengers

Current Challengers standings

Schedule, pairings, and results

Tata Steel Masters 2017

Tata Steel Challengers 2017

Links Official tournament site All Masters games in PGN All Challengers games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.