Tata 02: Three quality wins

The 76th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from 10 to 26 January 2014. The top players will compete in two groups (previously there were three), with twelve players in each, instead of fourteen. The structure of the amateur tournaments remains unchanged. Both groups start on January 11th 2014, with all rounds starting at 13:30h (1:30 p.m.) local time, except for the last round on January 26th, which begins at 12:00h. Two rounds will be played in Amsterdam and Eindhoven and will start at 14:00. The time controls are 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move.

Today was Karjakin's birthday!

Harikrishna was not as nice as the organizers, however, and held birthday-boy to a draw

Round Two

Giri played an exciting game and, though it was not the most exact game ever played,
did manage to mate his opponent's king on f4!

Giri, Anish 1-0 Naiditsch, Arkadij
The Dutch player chose a topical line against the Bogo-Indian. White does not worry so much about development as much as he worries about launching a quick kingside attack to weaken his opponent's structure. This paid off as even though Naiditsch was able to halt his opponent's attack by exchanging queens, his structure was ruined and White's knight and rooks still applied strong pressure to the enemy king. In a difficult position Naiditsch exposed his king too much, and it was mated in the middle of the board.

Daniel King analyses Giri vs Naiditsch

Nakamura sits comfortably at 1.5/2

So, Wesley ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Nakamura's solid choice of opening left him battling against his opponent's pair of bishops. However So was never able to find a good plan and even though he might have tried to push his pair of bishop advantage a little further, even in the last position, Nakamura was clearly never in any danger and a draw is a solid result for both players.

So is also at 1.5/2, not bad for someone that flew from America hours before the event started

Gelfand has started the event with two losses

Gelfand, Boris 0-1 Rapport, Richard
Gelfand certainly does not begin this event as he had planned to. Rapport exploited some of the weaknesses of Gelfand's play and his idea to take him out of book as early as possible paid of handsomely.

Jobava and Fressinet (right, Rapport's second) figure out how many ways the young Hungarian could have finished his game faster

Dinner was delayed a bit, but a full point is a full point!

Aronian played a very clean game today

Aronian, Levon 1-0 Caruana, Fabiano
Aronian played a technically fantastic game. He converted his slight structural advantage into a slight initiative, which netted him an extra pawn that was rather weak. He slowly but surely made his pawn stronger and stronger until he forced the exchange of his isolated pawn on the d-file for an a-pawn, granting him a passed pawn on that flank. He then secured his kingside gainst any onslaught and won a very clean game.

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Harikrishna, Pentala
This game was clearlyr headed for a draw when the position became completely symmetrical and Karjakin's only advantage was that his bishop was technically better than his opponent's. However this was a far cry from putting his opponent in any danger and the game was eventually drawn.

Two young spectators happily look at the masters play, while a worried wife
(WIM Lorena Zepeda) tries to figure out what her husband, Van Wely, is doing.

Dominguez Perez, Leinier ½-½ Van Wely, Loek
Van Wely's hyper-accelerated dragon was a good choice today as Dominguez didn't really exploit it in the best way. Van Wely's position was acceptable after thet opening and the game was drawn in a strange way.

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Challenger Section

Some spectators have an easier time watching the games than others

The young Polish player, Duda, is in the big pack of leaders with 1.5/2

Bok, who recently got his third but not final grandmaster norm, simply demolished Yu Yangyi's Kan Sicilian. The game is worthy of study and it exemplifies how quick action on the kingside can be dangerous for Black even in the lines where White plays an early c4.

Predicting what Jobava will play in the opening is never easy

Jobava, true to his style, played a very bizarre opening against Goudriaan. However this was ok as the young player with the White pieces was unable to creat any threats and slowly but surely he saw himself outplayed by Jobava.

Kayden Troff (right), the American fifteen year old, somehow messed up the opening against Wojtaszek, but he was able to salvage a draw by exploiting some inaccuracies from the Polish player.

Zhao Xue, from China, starts with a good 1.5/2

Yu Yangyi, from China, starts with a not so good 0.0/2

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Photos by Alina l'Ami

Schedule and results

Grandmaster Group B

Commentary schedule on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All Master Section games All Challenger section games The games will be 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.