2017 Tata Rd10: Aronian brilliant, So clear leader

The elite Tata Steel tournaments in Wijk aan Zee are underway and take place from January 13-29, with two main tournaments, the Masters with both Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin as headliners, as well as Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Baskaran Adhiban, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, Dmitri Andreikin, Wei Yi, Pavel Eljanov, and Loek van Wely. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30pm, except for the last round on 29 January 2017, which begins at 12.00pm. Both rounds on the Chess On Tour days start at 2.00pm.

All photos by Alina L'Ami for the official site

Masters tournament

Daniel King's Quick review of round 10

Daniel King's Game of the Day

Game of the Day

The tournament today was on tour, as the players visited the city of Haarlem. The grandmasters of the Tata Steel Masters played the tenth round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in De Philharmonie in Haarlem. The sports alderman, Merijn Snoek of the Municipality of Haarlem had the following to say: "We are very pleased to be able to welcome the Tata Steel Chess Tournament to our city for a playing round, in cooperation with De Philharmonie. Chess is a very successful sport in Haarlem, with the Kennemer Combinatie taking a very active role. But such an event is fun for everyone who, just like me, enjoys playing chess with a friend or child. We will be hosting the world’s very best chess players. The arrival of Tata Steel Chess On Tour will help us promote chess among young people as well as adults”. 

The players posing in front of The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 by Frans Hals, one of the main attractions of the Frans Hals Museum and a largely studied masterpiece.

The cold is no excuse not to pose! Here in front of the Frans Hals Museum.

Impressions from Haarlem

Another day with thrilling battles! Three decisive games, and the most important for the leaderboard is definitely Wesley So's triumph over Radoslaw Wojtaszek. This puts the American at a full point lead over a large group of players, and with the impeccable form he is showing, including a 53-lossless game streak, all against elite opposition, it is hard to imagine him not bagging another title.

One point lead, three rounds to go: American Wesley So. Also, 18 points behind Carlsen,
and only 4 behind Caruana in the live ratings.

Wesley So on his victory

The brilliancy of the day was definitely by Levon Aronian. Grandmaster Alexander Yermolinsky annotates the game in full:

Sometimes you have to tell your pieces to behave. Sometimes they actually do!

The most technical win of the day came in the hands of Sergey Karjakin. His opponent might have gotten a good position from the opening, but was soundly outplayed, and White's positional pressure was uncomfortable. Andreikin sacrificed a pawn to create his own passer, but White's pieces were sufficiently well placed to always deal with the incoming threats. At the end, it wasn't just White's strong supported pawn on b4 that gave him the victory, it was the combination of that and the passive position of Black's king.

Adhiban Baskaran obtained a good advantage from the opening, both in time and position, against Ian Nepomniachtchi after a thrilling preparation in the Najdorf. The game would have been a masterpiece, but when the technical task came to be, the Indian player was unable to push the win through and had to settle for a draw.

The opening did not go well for this man: Ian Nepomniachtchi

The World Champion tried his best to outplay Pentala Harirkishna with Black, and even though he was pressing through most of the game, his opponent's defenses were good enough and Magnus Carlsen had to settle for a draw.

Can't win all your blacks, even when you are Magnus

Almost! Wei Yi had his chances today.

Missing this idea, Eljanov was able to come back into the game and draw, keeping his own distance to Wesley So at only one point.

Many spectators showed up to watch the game live, some here are watching Yasser Seirawan do live commentary

With the solid draw between Van Wely and Giri, that only leaves us one game, one game that could have seriously rocked the standings. Wei Yi, with black, was winning against Eljanov, maybe you can spot the wining plan in the following position?

Pavel Eljanov - Wei Yi

Current Masters standings

Challengers tournament

It was a big day for the standings in the Challengers. With the draws by the leaders, Smirin and Ragger a gainst l'Ami and Bok respectively, the opportunity was opened for young Xiong to catch them with a victory against the lowest seed, Guramashvili. The game was truly a lesson on why rooks don't coordinate as well with knights as queens do.

The other decisive games came in as Grandelius used a very wonky white side of the Najdorf to annihilate Dobrov, while Lu Shanglei played a very bad game and gave Hansen a relatively easy victory. The Canadian continues his surge, and is only half a point behind the leaders. The race is packed tight at the top with three rounds to go!

The Challengers did not travel to Haarlem, so there is not as much media of them for this round!

Current Challengers standings

Schedule, pairings, and results

Tata Steel Masters 2017

Tata Steel Challengers 2017

Links Official tournament site All Masters games in PGN All Challengers games in PGN The games are being 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 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.