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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.
Group A: Round 3 - Monday Jan. 13 | |
Loek van Wely - Anish Giri |
½-½
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Pentala Harikrishna - Leinier Dominguez |
1-0
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Fabiano Caruana - Sergey Karjakin |
1-0
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Richard Rapport - Levon Aronian |
½-½
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Hikaru Nakamura - Boris Gelfand |
½-½
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Arkadij Naiditsch - Wesley So |
½-½
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Daniel King shows van Wely - Giri and Nakamura - Gelfand in his highlights of the day
Giri pondering the meaning of life with a glass of wine.
Or trying to remember his prep with some tea, your call.
Van Wely, Loek ½-½ Giri, Anish
Van Wely used a Trompowsky today against Giri, and then proceeded to play aggressively and actively. He sacrificed all of his queenside pawns for time to push his f-pawn forward and disrupt his opponent's king position. This seemed to be paying off as a subsequent rook lift cost Black a queen! Giri found a clever resource, however. Without this rook, White's attack evaporated, and he countered by using the power of his pawn on b2 to bind White's position.
Van Wely had no choice but to give a perpetual check to prevent Black from winning the game. An exciting duel between the Dutch players!
Albert Silver points out that Van Wely could have won the game with the hard to believe sequence 23.Bxe6 fxe5 24.f7+! Kh8 25.Ng5!
Van Wely and Giri played a wonderful game of chess today
Harikrishna, Pentala 1-0 Dominguez Perez, Leinier
Dominguez's Najdorf left him in a very slightly worse position. Harikrishna had a passed pawn on the d-file but the opposite colored bishops made it very hard for Harikrishna to make progress. His patience, coupled with some inaccuracies by the Cuban, gave him some slim chances to hope for a victory. In time pressure Dominguez kept making mistakes until eventually his position actually became difficult to defend.
The Indian player seized his opportunity and applied pressure until the Cuban collapsed in the endgame. Harikrishna has proven many times that he is a grinder, and will exploit even the most minimal of advantages.
Karjakin was no match for an inspired Caruana
Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
The Catalan, a common guest in top level chess, always seems to be especially successful in Wijk Aan Zee. Look at how Caruana uses a Kramnikesque positional game to paralyze Karjakin:
[Event "76th Tata Steel Chess Masters"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee"] [Date "2014.01.13"] [Round "3"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E05"] [WhiteElo "2782"] [BlackElo "2759"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "141"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NED"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qa4 a6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 {The Closed Catalan, known to some as the main line of the Catalan, is a common guest in top level chess. One of my favorite Catalan games of all time was played in the Moriaan Hall in Wijk Aan Zee between Kramnik and Anand back in 2007.} Bd6 {In 2007 10...Ra7 was all the rage, but it has since fallen out of grace. Nowadays both 10...Bd6 and 10...Be4 are sharing the spotlight.} (10... Ra7 11. Rc1 Be4 12. Qb3 Nc6 13. e3 Qa8 14. Qd1 $1 Nb8 15. Ba5 Rc8 16. a3 $1 {And Kramnik eventually won a memorable game against Anand.}) 11. a3 {A Kramnik-like idea that is gaining rapid popularity.} (11. Re1 Be4 12. Qc1 Bb7 13. Bg5 {is another way to try to fight for the advantage, but it usually costs White the pair of bishops. Wang Yue-Carlsen, for example, finished in a draw in 2009.}) 11... Nbd7 12. b4 {Black seems to have solidly defended the c7 pawn, but without the ability to break on c5 he will have to find some other useful plan.} Ra7 $5 {A common idea in the position: The queen will swing to a8 to control the long diagonal while preparing the a5 break.} 13. Bc3 $5 {Caruana's novelty} (13. Nc3 Qa8 14. Nh4 Bxg2 15. Nxg2 c6 {soon simplified into a draw in the important game Carlsen-Aronian from last year's Candidate's Tournament.}) 13... Be4 14. Qc1 Qa8 15. Nbd2 Bd5 16. Qc2 {The knight is better posted on d2 than on c3. Kramnik explained this in his post-mortem in Wijk Aan Zee in the aforementioned game. The idea is that it can easily go to a5, controlling the important c6 square which is useful for an invasion once the lightsquared bishops are traded.} Nb6 17. Ne1 Na4 18. Nb3 Be4 19. Bxe4 Qxe4 20. Ra2 {Black seems close to equality, but actually finding a continuation is not as easy as it seems.} Nxc3 (20... Qxc2 21. Rxc2 Raa8 22. Nd3 {is simply a slight edge for White.}) (20... Qd5 21. Ba1 Nb6 22. Na5 {also looks uncomfortable for the second player. Notice how weak c6 is.}) 21. Qxc3 e5 22. Nf3 exd4 23. Nfxd4 { Even thouguh Black got in the e5 break, he has not made c5 any easier nor has he fixed his c6 problem. Caruana continues to play for the squeeze.} Raa8 24. Rc2 Nd5 25. Qf3 Qxf3 26. Nxf3 (26. exf3 $6 {is hasty and unnecessary. In this position the structure is far more important than tempi.}) 26... Rfe8 27. Rd1 Nb6 28. Na5 {Letting the knight into c4 would be a big mistake.} g6 (28... Rac8 29. Kg2 Bf8 30. Nc6 Nc4 31. Nfd4 $16) 29. e3 Kg7 30. Rd3 Rac8 31. Rc6 {Not allowing Black to even dream of a potential c5.} Rb8 32. Kf1 h5 33. h3 Kf6 34. Nd2 Kg7 35. Ndb3 Re6 36. Kg2 Kf8 {With Black completely tied down on the queenside, White starts to make use of his majority on the opposite flank.} 37. f4 (37. Nc5 Bxc5 38. bxc5 Nc4 39. Rxe6 fxe6 40. Nc6 {Gave White an advantage too, but why make the game messy?}) 37... Ree8 38. Kf3 Red8 39. Rc2 Rd7 40. e4 Ke8 41. e5 Be7 42. Rxd7 Kxd7 43. Rd2+ Ke8 44. Nc6 {White's knight locks in the opponent rook} Ra8 45. Nba5 f5 46. g4 hxg4+ 47. hxg4 fxg4+ 48. Kxg4 Kf7 49. Rh2 Bf8 50. f5 Nd5 51. f6 Nxf6+ 52. exf6 Kxf6 53. Rf2+ {Black was forced to sacrifice a knight for the two powerful passed pawns. Now the position is hopeless because Black is still reduced to passivity and he has no hopes of ever taking White's pawns, giving White infinite time to improve his position.} Ke6 54. Re2+ Kd5 55. Rd2+ Ke4 56. Nb7 Ke3 57. Rd7 Re8 58. Rxc7 Bh6 59. Nc5 Rf8 60. Re7+ Kd2 61. Re6 Rf1 62. Na7 {The last ten moves, and the remaining ten, do not require annotation.} Be3 63. Rxa6 Ke2 64. Rxg6 Rf4+ 65. Kh3 Rf3+ 66. Rg3 Rf7 67. Nxb5 Bf2 68. Rb3 Rf4 69. Nc3+ Kf1 {At least Black has a threat!} 70. Rb1+ Be1 71. Rxe1+ 1-0
"1.b3 didn't work? well let's play the Tromp" - Hungarian reasoning
Aronian is a solid player, but he isn't afraid of early complications against random openings
Rapport, Richard ½-½ Aronian, Levon
It is unusual to see a Trompowsky in the highest level of chess, let alone two in the same round, but somehow that is what happened today in the Moriaan Hall. The game started with some unsual maneuvers: Black quickly captured his opponent's dark-squared bishop with his knight, and sacrificed a pawn to triple his opponent's structure on the g-file. However with some simplifications the game simply ended in a draw when neither side could really make any progress.
Gelfand missed his one opportunity against Nakamura, and the American Star never gives second chances
Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Nakamura must have lost one of his nine lives today as he scraped a draw from a lost position against Gelfand. Things for the Israeli have simply not gone his way this event thus far. He obtained a great position from the opening, slowly outplayed the American and obtained a fantastic position, but when it was time to finish his opponent off he missed his cue:
[Event "76th Tata Steel Chess Masters"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee"] [Date "2014.01.13"] [Round "3"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Gelfand, Boris"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A35"] [WhiteElo "2789"] [BlackElo "2777"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "7r/6k1/1p3p2/1Pqbp1p1/2Pp2P1/1Q1B1P2/P5K1/2R5 w - - 0 43"] [PlyCount "33"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NED"] 43. Qb1 $6 {White's position was already bad, but this allows a killing blow.} Bf7 $2 {A bad move in itself (Ba8 was superior if nothing else), but the fact that the instant win was missed is the big issue here.} (43... Bxf3+ $1 { Pointed out by Seirawan almost instantly in the live commentary on playchess. com... and without using any engines!} 44. Kxf3 e4+ $1 {The beautiful point} ( 44... Qa3 {is also sufficient for a strong advantage as the threat of Rh3 is hard to meet}) 45. Bxe4 (45. Kg2 Rh4 $1 $19) 45... Qa3+ 46. Bd3 (46. Kg2 Qh3+ { and White won't survive long}) 46... Rh3+ 47. Ke2 (47. Kg2 Rxd3 {is a free and decsivie attack}) 47... Rh2+ 48. Kd1 (48. Kf3 Qa8+ 49. Be4 Qb8 50. c5 Qf4#) Rh1+ 49. Kd2 Qa5+ $1 {This is the important point of the combination. White is now defenseless against the mate threats.} 50. Ke2 Rh2+ 51. Kf1 Qd2 {A beautiful missed chance. Not easy to see, but Gelfand was not in time trouble and he spent 13 minutes on his 43rd move, presumably calculating this}) 44. Rh1 Rxh1 45. Qxh1 Bg6 46. Bxg6 Kxg6 47. Qh5+ Kg7 48. Qe8 {As is typical in Nakamura games, if his opponent misses the killing blow there will be no second chance. From now on the American secures the draw using his opponent's weak king position to his advantage.} Qxc4 49. a4 Qc2+ 50. Kg3 Qc7 51. Qc6 Qd8 52. a5 bxa5 53. b6 d3 54. Qc7+ Qxc7 55. bxc7 d2 56. c8=Q d1=Q 57. Qc7+ Kh6 (57... Kg6 {was slightly more precise} 58. Qxa5 { however it is hard to believe Black has a real chance at winning this endgame.} ) 58. Qe7 $1 {Precise, Black cannot escape the perpetual.} Qg1+ 59. Kh3 {Truly a bad start for Gelfand.} 1/2-1/2
Naiditsch, Arkadij ½-½ So, Wesley
A Berlin in which not much happened. Not every game can be exciting and full of action!
The German player was last year's winner in Group B,
but has struggled so far in the Master's (what used to be called Group A)
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
Group B: Round 3 - Monday Jan. 13 | |
Baadur Jobava - Zhao Xue |
1-0
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Merijn van Delft - Etienne Goudriaan |
1-0
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Radek Wojtaszek - Jan-Krzysztof Duda |
½-½
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Anna Muzychuk - Kayden Troff |
1-0
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Ivan Saric - Dimitri Reinderman |
1-0
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Yu Yangyi - Jan Timman |
1-0
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Sabino Brunello - Benjamin Bok |
0-1
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Today was Radek Wojtaszek's birthday!
But it was his girlfriend, Alina Kashlinskaya, that ended with the flowers
The American Kayden Troff today fell against Anna Muzychuk, but he is still having a good event
Today was a very bloody round in the Challenger Section as some of the favorites gained ground. Yu Yangyi dispatched of Timman in a strange Spanish Opening in which the Chinese player had everything going for him from the start. His strong knight on d5 was just the tipping point and Black's position collapsed.
Wojtaszek was unable to beat his younger teammate Duda, and is losing quite a bit of rating despite only having played three rounds. Ivan Saric, fourth ranked in the event, obtained his first victory by beating Reinderman in a long and grueling endgame.
Zhao Xue was outplayed by her 2700 opponent
Jobava played a random opening against Zhao Xue but obtained a comfortable position. His transposition from a superior rook endgame into a winning pawn endgame is worthy of being studied! A well calculated sequence.
Anna Muzychuk and Kayden Troff played a wild Najdorf. Black erred with 28...Rb3?! probably thinking that he had a perpetual in store, but Muzychuk's king made its way to b5 (!) and escaped the checks, leaving White with the decisive attack and material advantage.
Bok continues his excellent form. Today he cleanly beat Brunello by using the power of his bishops coupled with a passed a-pawn. A good positional example of the power of the diagonals. Lastly, Van Deflt won a pawn against Gouudriaan and inflicted upon him his third defeat in a row.
Goudriaan hasn't had the best start, but with 13 rounds there is always room for recovery
Peng Zhaoqin, the strongest woman from the Netherlands, made a surprise visit
The commentary room: heroes behind the scenes
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
Photos by Alina l'Ami
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Wednesday, Jan. 15 – Free day
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Monday, Jan. 20 – Free day
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Thursday, Jan. 23 – Free day
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Day | Date | Round | English | German |
Monday | January 13 | Round 3 | Yasser Seirawan | Klaus Bischoff |
Tuesday | January 14 | Free | ||
Wednesday | January 15 | Round 4 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
Thursday | January 16 | Free | ||
Friday | January 17 | Round 5 | Simon Williams | Oliver Reeh |
Saturday | January 18 | Round 6 | Yasser Seirawan | Klaus Bischoff |
Sunday | January 19 | Round 7 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
Monday | January 20 | Free | ||
Tuesday | January 21 | Round 8 | Lawrence Trent | Klaus Bischoff |
Wednesday | January 22 | Free | ||
Thursday | January 23 | Round 9 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
Friday | January 24 | Free | ||
Saturday | January 25 | Round 10 | Simon Williams | Klaus Bischoff |
Sunday | January 26 | Round 11 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
LinksThe 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. |