Tata 04 (Group B): Bloodbath continues

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.

The Master section has a rest day today

Round Four - Challengers

Duda was a little too greedy today

Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 0-1 Muzychuk, Anna
Muzychuk peaked at 2606 in the middle of 2012, but has since dropped a few points. However she seems to be back in form and starts Wijk Aan Zee very successfully. Today she baited Duda who was too happy to pawn-grab, only to see his king get checkmated by his opponent's queen and rook. A lesson that when only major pieces remain, there is nothing more important than king safety.

Muzychuk's new hair style, straight instead of curly, seems to be helping her.
At 3.0/4 she is only half a point away from Jobava.

Zhao Xue 1-0 Bok, Benjamin
Bok was slowly outplaying the Chinese grandmaster until a mistake was very beautifully exploited:

Zhao Xue might have been positionally outplayed,
but a tactical mistake by Bok allowed her to get back in the game

Timman, Jan 1-0 Brunello, Sabino
Brunello seemed to be on his way to another victory. His opening and middlegame play were certailny superior to Timman's and he obtained a pleasant, though small, advantage. However he underestimated the blockading powers of White's knight, and he sacrificed too much to push his passed d-pawn forward. After Timman contained this pawn the game was over as Brunello was unable to justify his material losses.

Wojtaszek sported the Dutch colors today

Goudriaan, Etienne 0-1 Wojtaszek, Radek
Goudriaan loses for the fourth time in a row, and he really will need to pick himself up. Todays' game was rather bad on his behalf and Wojtaszek had to do nothing but logical moves to wipe him off the board.

Jobava, Baadur 1-0 Van Delft, Merijn
The game was an interesting Moscow variation of the Queen's Gambit, but Van Delft's strange decision to play 22...Rxd4? cost him an exchange. Whether on purpose or a mistkae, the fact is that an extra exchange was too much and Jobava cleanly converted.

Jobava followed his first round draw with a hat trick and is the sole leader

Reinderman, Dimitri 1-0 Yu Yangyi
This game was surely headed for a draw. The opposite colored bishops didn't allow either side realistic chances of winning, even though Yu Yangyi kept pressing since he has a very slightly safer king. However a horrible hallucination allowed Reinderman to simply attack a defenseless f7 pawn, which was holding his entire position together, and forced the Chinese player to give up a full rook. Black continued to play for many moves after that on intertia, but the game had been decided.

Yu Yangyi pushed too hard and blundered. His 1.0/4 is way below expectation.

Saric was not worried about any kingside attacks.
His defenses held and he beat back White's attack.

Troff, Kayden 0-1 Saric, Ivan
Troff's original but somewhat strange plan in the Slav to allow his pawns on the kingisde to be doubled so as to castle queenside and initiate a kingside attack did not pay off. His pair of bishops and doubled rooks had no chance of penetrating Black's solid pawn formation on the kingside, and slowly Saric improved his position on the kingside to the point of launching a strong counter attack. White was completely defenseless against this onslaught.

No rest for the commentary team either!

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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.