Tata Steel Rd11: Carlsen beats Hou, Ding in third

The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 15 to 31, 2016, in the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee, North Holland. It is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The "Wimbledon of Chess" attracts the very best chess grandmasters in the world, along with thousands of amateur players, live event visitors and online visitors from around the world. The tournament has two main player groups, each with 14 players. They are known as the Tata Steel Masters and the Tata Steel Challengers. You will find the schedule, starting times, pairings and results at the bottom of the page.

Round eleven

All photos by Alina L'Ami from the official Facebook page

A view of the grandmaster events and the others (click image for high-res version)

A bird's eye view of the hall (click image for high-res version)

Masters

Let the games begin!

The top-most board between the world no.1 male against the world no.1 female was a clash many looked forward to. Even the great Judit Polgar had serious difficulties against Kasparov and Kramnik. Would Hou Yifan do any better?

The two greatest players of their generation: does it get any more worthy of a photo than that?

The short answer is 'sort of'. While she certainly held her own during the game, she eventually cracked where so many others have... in the endgame. She wasn't really outplayed though, and while Magnus certainly did his best to try to get her to make a concession or three, none came. That is until the very end.

It was a fascinating game, and showed that in spite of the disaster at the end, she could hold her own

Magnus Carlsen vs Hou Yifan

Wesley So is tied for 4th-6th with 6.0/11

Fabiano Caruana was unable to keep pace, and despite obtaining excellent
chances against Mamedyarov, nothing came of them

Ding Liren's win over Evgeny Tomashevsky pushed him to sole third with 6.5/11. Note that
he has yet to play Magnus Carlsen. Expect sparks to fly.

Michael Adams missed a golden opportunity against Anish Giri, when the Dutchman got feisty

Michael Adams - Anish Giri

Ye Olde Chess Shoppe

Replay round eleven Masters games (with times per moves)

Standings Masters

In spite of losing to Eltaj Safarli, one cannot fault Jorden van Foreest's will to win as he has
only played two draws in eleven games.

Mind you, his passion for the game has caught on to his little sister 8-year-old Machteld
van Foreest who is also playing in one of the Amateur tournaments. Instead of having a
large open, they are holding a very large number of round-robin events.

Machteld is in one of them and has scored 4.0/7 thus far
in spite of a field that is roughly 150-200 Elo above her

Samuel Sevian is playing at around his rating, which he cannot be happy with

Tournament leader Baskaran Adhiban (right) got into big trouble in his game against Nisipeanu,
but eventually saved the ending with king plus rook against king with rook and knight

Alexey Dreev won again and is now tied with Adhiban for first. The last two rounds will be tense!

Ju Wenjun in good spirits against Benjamin Bok

Anne Haast has had a tough event, but scored a couple of excellent wins

Replay round eleven Challengers games (with times per moves)

Standings Challengers

Playing schedule + Playchess commentary

The two main tournaments are round robins. Both groups start on the 16th of January 2016 in Wijk aan Zee. The Masters move to Amsterdam on January 21, and to Utrecht on January 27. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30 p.m., except for the last round on 31 January 2016, which begins at 12.00 p.m. Round five will take place in the Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam, and round ten in the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht. Both these external rounds start at 2.00 p.m.

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Masters 2016

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Challengers 2016

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN: Masters – Challengers The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.