Tata Steel Rd7: A day of big wins

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 seven

Photos by Alina L'Ami

Masters

Daniel King shows the game Eljanov vs Carlsen 

Visiting Judit Polgar officially starts the tournament

Ding Liren gives his 'there can only be one' look. Unfortunately it was his monarch that was beheaded.

Some post-game comments by Fabiano Caruana

It was a thrilling and dramatic day for the Wijk aan Zee leaderboards as heads rolled in both the Masters and Challengers events. In both, the leaders squared off against each other to decide who would emerge the new sole leader.

Magnus Carlsen scored his third consecutive win

In the Masters event, there were three leaders heading into the day’s round: Magnus Carslen, resurging from a slow start with two wins, Fabiano Caruana, leading from the start but now having to fight hard to retain it, and Ding Liren.

Caruana and Ding Liren faced each other, and it turned out to be the longest game of the Masters section, with both sides refusing to throw in the towel. The American eventually emerged up material in the endgame, which he converted smoothly after 83 moves.

Pavel Eljanov fought valiantly and tried to surprise his opponent with a piece sacrifice...

... but this didn't ruffle Magnus.

The next big game, much shorter, was Magnus Carlsen’s win over Pavel Eljanov, who has had an amazing past 12 months, including a fantastic World Cup result. The Norwegian could already lay claim to a small advantage in a Closed Catalan, when the Ukrainian chose to sacrifice a piece in order to confuse the issue somewhat and give himself some practical chances. The game was highly entertaining, but eventually Carlsen emerged on top in no uncertain terms and the day was his.

A quick interview of Magnus Carlsen after his game

Pavel Eljanov - Magnus Carlsen (Analysis by IM Sagar Shah)

With this win, both Carlsen and Caruana became the sole leaders with 5.0/7, but theirs were not the only tales of blood and glory.

Today was also the Clash of the Dutchmen as Loek Van Wely, who had been the top Dutch
player for many years prior to the arrival of Anish, faced his young compatriot. Youth prevailed
and Anish Giri moved up to one point behind the leaders. Giri will face Carlsen in round ten.
Expect sparks to fly!

The heroine of the event, Hou Yifan, had done her utmost but finally succumbed to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Replay round seven Masters games (with times per moves)

Standings Masters

Challengers

By IM Sagar Shah for ChessBase India

Both of them were off to a flier and were leading together with 5.0/6. But their paths had to cross each other and that happened in the seventh round. Adhiban vs Dreev - was the big clash of the round and maybe the entire Challengers event. The Indian player came amazingly prepared to the game and simply blew his experienced opponent of the board with some powerful moves! A resounding victory for Adhiban in just 24 moves! We have in-depth analysis.

The seventh round of the Tata Steel Challengers section saw the two leaders crossing swords against each other - India's B.Adhiban faced Russia's Alexey Dreev.

Both the players were having a sublime event as they were beating their opponents with absolute ease. Adhiban and Dreev were on +4 and in many ways this was the most important clash of the Challengers section.

Everyone knows what a huge expert Dreev is in the Slav, especially the Meran systems characterised by the structure e6-d5-c6. But everyone in chess world should also know that when it comes to preparation, Adhiban is one of the best in the business.

This move 6...b6 is a Dreev speciality. He has played it in 43 games before this one! Yes 43! With eleven wins and five losses. While Dreev has clear experience in this system, it also made him susceptible to Adhiban's home preparation.

The thing with young and ambitious players like Adhiban is that they do not feel intimidated by their opponent's strengths. While many of us will shy away from this line thinking that our opponent clearly has a better feel for such positions due to his experience, Adhiban felt that this gave him a clear opportunity to prepare a novelty in the opening. Easier said than done!

15.e4!? was the novelty that Adhiban had prepared. When this position is fed in the computer it doesn't shoot out with the move e4. But Adhiban dug deeper and realized that practically it would pose maximum problems to his opponent. Of course there are so many possibilities - taking the rook on a1, retreating the bishop, play the move c4 as Dreev did in the game. If you are unprepared, this can be a highly unpleasant move to face.

In four moves the king on e8 was stuck in the centre and the white pieces dominated the board. Adhiban scored an absolutely clean victory in just 24 moves!

Here's the entire game on our JavaScript player for you to play through and learn from the Indian maestro:

A powerpacked game, wouldn't you agree?

He made it look easy!

Adhiban is now the sole leader of the Challengers section with 6.0/7. Eltaj Safarli won his game against Mikhail Antipov and is only half a point behind the Indian player. Both of them will face each other in the tenth round.

Six rounds still to go. It's a long tournament, but there is surely no doubt that Adhiban is well and truly on his way to not only winning this tournament but also securing a spot in next year's Masters!

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Replay round seven 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.