Wei Yi at Tata Steel Challengers (2)

The 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament had two main round robin tournaments, both with 14 players each. The time control was 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 third place in the final table we find US American GM Samuel Shankland. Born in San Francisco, Sam was California State champion in 2008, 2009, and 2011 (and US Junior Champion in 2010). At the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, he took home gold for his performance as a reserve player. Going undefeated, he scored an incredible 9 points out of 10 games, giving him a performance rating of 2829 for this tournament. By our count he has currently played 68 standard games undefeated.

In Wijk Samuel Shankland did not play any sort of flashy chess.
He was rock solid and remained unbeaten, scoring 9.0/13.

This is how Samuel described his event on facebook:

Shankland won a miniature against David Klein. What is interesting to note in the game is Black’s simple central play against the unorthodox opening employed by White.

Klein’s choice of opening was not so good …

… but his choice of chocolate was excellent!

One of the best performers could definitely be Samuel Sevian. He lost his first two games
of the tournament but recovered well to score 7.5 and gain 20 Elo points.

Samuel’s style is very aggressive and reminds of the great Mikhail Tal. Here is a Tal-like sacrifice by America’s youngest grandmaster:

Sevian - Timman, Round 13

White to play. What do you think about the queen sacrifice with Qxc8?

It is depressing to see one of the finest players of the 1980s having such a bad tournament. Jan Timman finished last with a score of 3.0/13. In his defence it could be said that he played quite creatively in few of the games and was unable to convert many promising positions.

Valentina Gunina lost a few Elo points, but she did beat Salem, l’Ami and Timman!

The lowest rated player of the event, Ari Dale, was unable to win a game, but he scored seven draws and also gained 13 Elo points. One thing is sure, he goes back home with an unparalleled experience of facing great players in one of the best tournaments in the world.

Coming to the last round, Wei Yi already had a one point lead over Navara. Finally, David rose to the occasion and scored a nice victory over David Klein.

The battle between two Davids!

Klein - Navara, Round 13

It’s Black to play. You are in a must win situation. What would you do?

a score of +7 would be good enough for the first place on more occasions than not!
David Navara was now on 10.0/13, Wei Yi had to draw or win in order to take the clear first place.

Salem could pose very few problems to the Chinese, and a truce was signed in 37 moves

In the end it was Wei Yi who edged out Navara just by a half point in this marathon 13 round event!

With 10.5/13, Wei Yi became the deserving champion! He not only gained 20 Elo points and took his live ratings to 2695 but he also gets something special:

An invitation to Tata Steel Masters 2016!

Born in 1999, Wei Yi is just 15 years and 238 days old. With a live rating of 2695 he moves into the top 50 players bracket of the world. Magnus Carlsen was the youngest player to breach 2700 Elo mark, at the age of 16 years, seven months and one day. Wei Yi is just five points away and has nearly a year to break this record.

Pictures by Alina l’Ami

Links Official tournament site Master Games in PGN Challenger Games in PGN 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.