Tata 03: Topsy-Turvy A, Bloody B

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.

Round Three

Daniel King shows van Wely - Giri and Nakamura - Gelfand in his highlights of the day

Giri pondering the meaning of life with a glass of wine.
Or trying to remember his prep with some tea, your call.

Van Wely, Loek ½-½ Giri, Anish
Van Wely used a Trompowsky today against Giri, and then proceeded to play aggressively and actively. He sacrificed all of his queenside pawns for time to push his f-pawn forward and disrupt his opponent's king position. This seemed to be paying off as a subsequent rook lift cost Black a queen! Giri found a clever resource, however. Without this rook, White's attack evaporated, and he countered by using the power of his pawn on b2 to bind White's position.

Van Wely had no choice but to give a perpetual check to prevent Black from winning the game. An exciting duel between the Dutch players!

Albert Silver points out that Van Wely could have won the game with the hard to believe sequence 23.Bxe6 fxe5 24.f7+! Kh8 25.Ng5!

Van Wely and Giri played a wonderful game of chess today

Harikrishna, Pentala 1-0 Dominguez Perez, Leinier
Dominguez's Najdorf left him in a very slightly worse position. Harikrishna had a passed pawn on the d-file but the opposite colored bishops made it very hard for Harikrishna to make progress. His patience, coupled with some inaccuracies by the Cuban, gave him some slim chances to hope for a victory. In time pressure Dominguez kept making mistakes until eventually his position actually became difficult to defend.

The Indian player seized his opportunity and applied pressure until the Cuban collapsed in the endgame. Harikrishna has proven many times that he is a grinder, and will exploit even the most minimal of advantages.

Karjakin was no match for an inspired Caruana

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
The Catalan, a common guest in top level chess, always seems to be especially successful in Wijk Aan Zee. Look at how Caruana uses a Kramnikesque positional game to paralyze Karjakin:

"1.b3 didn't work? well let's play the Tromp" - Hungarian reasoning

Aronian is a solid player, but he isn't afraid of early complications against random openings

Rapport, Richard ½-½ Aronian, Levon
It is unusual to see a Trompowsky in the highest level of chess, let alone two in the same round, but somehow that is what happened today in the Moriaan Hall. The game started with some unsual maneuvers: Black quickly captured his opponent's dark-squared bishop with his knight, and sacrificed a pawn to triple his opponent's structure on the g-file. However with some simplifications the game simply ended in a draw when neither side could really make any progress.

Gelfand missed his one opportunity against Nakamura, and the American Star never gives second chances

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Nakamura must have lost one of his nine lives today as he scraped a draw from a lost position against Gelfand. Things for the Israeli have simply not gone his way this event thus far. He obtained a great position from the opening, slowly outplayed the American and obtained a fantastic position, but when it was time to finish his opponent off he missed his cue:

Naiditsch, Arkadij ½-½ So, Wesley
A Berlin in which not much happened. Not every game can be exciting and full of action!

The German player was last year's winner in Group B,
but has struggled so far in the Master's (what used to be called Group A)

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Challenger Section

Today was Radek Wojtaszek's birthday!

But it was his girlfriend, Alina Kashlinskaya, that ended with the flowers

The American Kayden Troff today fell against Anna Muzychuk, but he is still having a good event

Today was a very bloody round in the Challenger Section as some of the favorites gained ground. Yu Yangyi dispatched of Timman in a strange Spanish Opening in which the Chinese player had everything going for him from the start. His strong knight on d5 was just the tipping point and Black's position collapsed.

Wojtaszek was unable to beat his younger teammate Duda, and is losing quite a bit of rating despite only having played three rounds. Ivan Saric, fourth ranked in the event, obtained his first victory by beating Reinderman in a long and grueling endgame.

Zhao Xue was outplayed by her 2700 opponent

Jobava played a random opening against Zhao Xue but obtained a comfortable position. His transposition from a superior rook endgame into a winning pawn endgame is worthy of being studied! A well calculated sequence.

Anna Muzychuk and Kayden Troff played a wild Najdorf. Black erred with 28...Rb3?! probably thinking that he had a perpetual in store, but Muzychuk's king made its way to b5 (!) and escaped the checks, leaving White with the decisive attack and material advantage.

Bok continues his excellent form. Today he cleanly beat Brunello by using the power of his bishops coupled with a passed a-pawn. A good positional example of the power of the diagonals. Lastly, Van Deflt won a pawn against Gouudriaan and inflicted upon him his third defeat in a row.

Goudriaan hasn't had the best start, but with 13 rounds there is always room for recovery

Peng Zhaoqin, the strongest woman from the Netherlands, made a surprise visit

The commentary room: heroes behind the scenes

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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.