Tata 09: Aronian takes 1.5 point lead

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.

In front of the high tech campus from Eindhoven

Round nine - Masters

A short meet-and-greet lunch with the Tata Steel people

The players and the brainiacs from the campus

The ninth round of Wijk aan Zee can be considered pivotal in at least one respect, clearing up who would be leaving with the gold. On the other hand, it all but muddied the waters regarding second or third, since at least six players can legitimately lay claim to the honors.

Sopiko and Anish - a very cute couple

The final sprint to the end as the details are taken care of

He is the boss! Everyone is having a good time, right before the round started.

Dook van den Boer, Director Strip Products Mainland Europe
at Tata Steel, with the tournament director, Jeroen van den Berg

Loek van Wely and his lovely wife

This first game to end was interestingly the lightning loss by Arkadij Naiditsch to Pentala Harikrishna. The German GM played an incredibly primitive attack on the Indian, playing an offbeat d4, Nc3, and Bf4 followed by castling queenside and flinging his kingside pawns forward with no regard for his opponent’s replies.

Pentala Harikrishna played a perfect game

It was refuted so fast, and efficiently, it had to be almost gratifying to know that one cannot simply throw out all strategic theory without punishment. To the Indian’s credit, his replies were picture perfect, and the scoresheets were signed on move 19.  

Harikrishna shares his lightning win with live commentator Erwin L'Ami

Boris Gelfand and Leinier Dominguez played a Gruenfeld Exchange that never took off. White pushed for space, but instead mass exchanges took place and the steam evaporated as they drew.

The Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez has shown enormous class
and is now in the world top ten in the live ratings

Loek Van Wely played a Classical King’s Indian against Wesley So, and he seemed to have sufficient initiative to hold the draw though not more. Unfortunately a serious mistake on move 30 (30…f3! was necessary) sealed his fate and he was unable to save the game.

Wesley So first broke 2700 last year, and now is entering
the top twenty with a live rating of 2737 at the moment

Both Richard Rapport against Anish Giri, and Hikaru Nakamura against Fabiano Caruana were long, hard fought games that ended in balanced rook endgames. Being the fighters they are, the games pursued their course until the last drop of blood had been squeezed out of them, but the resulting draws were never really in doubt.

Despite a difficult last few rounds, Nakamura has lost none
of his fighting spirit

The game of the day was without a doubt Levon Aronian against Sergey Karjakin. Despite a breakneck speed that had left his opponents panting behind, the Armenian was finally in danger of being caught by Sergey Karjakin, who was now trailing a half-point behind, and in round nine they met. A decisive result by either could determine the top spot right there and then.

The beginning of the end

Daniel King's Highlight of the day

Though first place seems a virtual lock for Levoin Aronian with 7.0/9 and a 1.5 point lead over the rest, the same is not true of silver and bronze. Four players are tied with 5.5/9 and two more at 5.0/9. Anything can happen in the last two rounds, what will it be? Don't miss the final rounds on Saturday and Sunday for the Masters as tomorrow is a rest day. The Challengers will still be played though.

Replay Master games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Standings after nine rounds

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.