The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament took place from January 15 to 31, 2016, in the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee, North Holland. It was one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The tournament had two main player groups, each with 14 players: the Tata Steel Masters and the Tata Steel Challengers. The former was won by World Champion Magnus Carlsen, the latter by Indian GM Adhiban Baskaran.
Final photo with the winners and organizers (click on image for high-res version)
Adhiban sent us a detailed account of his exploits in Wijk, with some superb game annotations. This two-part series on his victory will give you an insight into the mind of one of the best emerging talents in the world.
It was a lazy afternoon in the month of July and I was planning my Euro trip. The year 2015 was looking dull compared to my previous year’s achievements. Also my rating had stagnated a bit, since every good performance would be ruined by a bad one, bringing me back to where I was! But luckily I got a wake-up call in the form of a mail from Jeroen van den Berg (organizer of the prestigious Tata Steel event) asking if I would like to participate in the Tata Steel Challengers. Winning this event would bring me closer to my first super Round Robin event, as I would qualify for the masters. Needless to say I immediately agreed and was happy to be given such a golden opportunity.
I won the Benasque Open, tied for first in the Biel Open, helped my Spanish team Solvay to win the Spanish league for the first time in ten years, increased my rating to 2674, and for the first time broke into the top 100 on the FIDE rankings. The first step in a very long journey!
All these achievements put too much hope and expectations on myself, which lead to disaster in the World Cup 2015 where I was knocked out in the first round by Vladimir Fedoseev. Year 2015 also ended with a poor performance at the Qatar Masters (losing 15 Elo) which was a real pity, since the event was one of the strongest I had ever been in.
Adhiban after winning the Benasque 2015 ahead of Granda Zuniga and Jorge Cori
I didn’t have much time to recover from Qatar and had to immediately shift my focus on the upcoming event Tata Steel challengers, where I had to bring back my best if I hoped to win the event. I had a brief thought about what went wrong and swore to myself that I won’t make the same mistakes again. Incidentally that was also my New Year’s resolution for 2016!
The Zeeduin hotel where I stayed
My dad accompanied me this time. The last time he was with me was way back in the 2011 Asian Continental, which didn’t go so well (with the exception of a nice win against Wesley So, but back then he hadn’t become the monster we now know him to be!). Besides, I really wanted my dad to see me win a strong event.
My messy room – normally it is worse, but my father had made sure not to let things get out of hand!
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was the top seed and I started as the shared second seed with Eltaj Safarli. We both had the same rating of 2653. Being one of the top seeds could be really counter-productive since you expect yourself to win the event, which just puts lot of unnecessary pressure and that really doesn’t help your cause at all. But luckily I had a forerunner who showed that such things don’t matter in the least if you can keep your focus! It was Wei Yi and he became a super star from the same tournament in 2015. So instead of worrying about how to win the event I just decided to take it game by game.
Usually I start a tournament slowly, drawing my first round, but in Wijk Aan Zee things were different. I knew that I was going to need every point that I could get! I got into the beast mode right from the start! (For some reason one of my nicknames is Beast and I have no idea why it is catching on!)
| Editorial note: Before you embark with Adhiban on his round by round journey we would like to let you know that the 23-year-old Indian has sent us some extremely meticulously annotated games from the first seven rounds, including training questions. For all those who have ChessBase software installed on your computer, (and those don’t can always use the free ChessBase reader) you can download the CBV file here and solve the training questions. We thoroughly recommend doing this and are of the opinion that this exercise will make you stronger by at least by 50 Elo points! |
I chose an interesting variation in the 4.Qc2 Nimzo Indian and there was a
crucial moment where I would recommend the readers to find out the right way.
How should White continue?
Click for the solution
I used an interesting line in the Italian and was able to win a nice game. There was one moment where I had to find an interesting idea which I would like you to find as well.
White has just played his rook to e3 and looks to increase
the pressure on the e5 pawn with Rae1. How should I deal with this?
It was an interesting middlegame with many ups and downs, but it was the endgame which was really interesting.
Bh5+ looks like the natural move here. But there was a
deep point why I wanted to provoke g6. Can you guess why?
This was a funny game. It started off with Queen’s Indian, went into Benoni and finally we settled on Nimzo Indian. A lot of the pieces were exchanged leading to an equal endgame. I managed to slowly improve my position and eventually converted it after some inaccuracies on her part. There was only one moment where it was interesting and I had to be little bit careful.
White's king doesn't seem to be doing so great how would you exploit it?
(There are a few more interesting points in the solution below)
Anne Haast showed what a fighter she was in our round five encounter
Up until round five Anne was on 0.0/4. So how do you play against someone who is not in the best form? The main thing I had to do was to expect a strong fight and maintain my level of play not thinking about my opponent’s score. I managed to get a good position and converted it convincingly though there were some tense moments.
This looks like a normal Gambit Variation of the Slav. Black’s last move was f7-f5!? Your task is to find
the best way of trying to take advantage of Black’s lag in development. Think deep, not just one move ahead.
I tried to relax on the rest day but was also eager to extend my lead and hence I ended up overworking on the rest day! But somehow even a full day didn’t seem enough to prepare all your lines!
I went for the Taimanov and got a very good position, but I missed out a couple of details
in the crucial moments and my opponent’s tenacious defence was rewarded with a draw.
Everyday a special guest would be invited to hit the gong which signifies the beginning of the round, and this time it was done by Judit Polgar. It was time to pay tribute to her! And the following game did really do justice to such a great legend and one of my best games in the event! The win was especially sweet as I beat the co-leader and shot into the sole lead.
This position is not new to opening theory: seven games have reached this point. Bb5, Be4 and Rb1 have all been tried, the last one being Giri’s choice against Mamedyarov in 2012. I came up with a completely new idea.
Click for the solutionI had won against my main contender (Dreev) and it looked like I was in great form. It felt like nothing could go wrong – but unfortunately I was mistaken. I had to fight a lot of mental battles with myself and what followed next would be nothing short of a miracle…
Adhiban’s story from round 8-13 will be continued in Part II, which will be published soon. Stay tuned!
Pictures by Alina l’Ami
Links
|
 |
