Tata 05 GroupB: Jobava unstoppable

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.

Round Five - Challengers

More birthday celebrations! This time it was arbiter Aart Strik

Yu Yangyi ½-½ Troff, Kayden
Beating a young player in a sharp Najdorf isn't easy. Troff showed excellent preparation by playing an ultra-sharp game in which he only used a couple of minutes (thanks to the increment). Every move was a Houdini favorite and a crazy forced perpetual was the way this game finished.

Troff's clock marked 1:34:53 at the end of the game. He started with 1:40:00

Van Deflt, Merijn ½-½ Zhao Xue
A game that was solid all through-out and that maybe the players played on for too long. A hard-fought draw in which neither side had a real advantage at any point of the game.

Van Delft didn't have any real chances of winning today, but neither did his opponent

Brunello, Sabino 1-0 Reinderman, Dmitri
What a beautiful game! Brunello played sacrifice after sacrifice against Reinderman who defended the entire game. It is possible that White's sacrifices were not entirely sound and that there was a way to defend, but in the heat of the battle and with the clock running low it is very difficult to thwart the threats that Brunello was creating. Eventually White's attack crashed through, even though he played most of the game, and actually even ended the game, down a rook.

Lennart Ootes (left, chess photographer) and Reinderman:
the question is which color their hair will be in the next tournament

Saric continues showing good form, and today he wiped his opponent from the board

Saric, Ivan 1-0 Duda, Jan-Krzysztof
The Croatiana grandmaster gave his young opponent a severe lesson on positional chess in the Najdorf. White was dominant on the light-squares and Black never had any sort of counterplay. Saric continues to put pressure on Jobava, but is still half a point behind.

Bok can thank his lucky star for saving today's game

Bok, Benjamin ½-½ Timman, Jan
Timman got the better part of a strange Spanish game. His extra pawn was compensated by his opponent's activity, but Bok let go of the gas and Black's passed c-pawn became a monster. After missing direct wins, Timman tried to win a rook endgame in which he still had some practical chances. Bok defended well, and then accurately realized that an ensuing endgame with a rook against a queen with both sides having passed pawns was a draw.

Muzychuk is not letting Jobava run away with the tournament just yet.
She and Saric still only trail by half a point.

Muzychuk, Anna 1-0 Godriaan, Etienne
Muzychuk started out playing a fantastic game. She outplayed her opponent completely, weaving together threats in the kingside, pressure against an isolated black pawn and keeping the queenside locked down with a powerful knight on b5. However she let ther opponent back in the in time trouble after missing a couple of killing blows. Fortunately for her Godriaan's shape is obviously quite bad in this tournament and he blundered the game back to the Slovenian player.

Four in a row: Jobava sitting pretty with 4.5/5

Wojtaszek, Radek 0-1 Jobava, Baadur
The battle of the titans was a completely one sided affair. Jobava played a beautiful Budapest gambit in which he powerfully placed his pieces while not allowing any real threats from his opponent. White did not know exactly how to react, and instead of punishing Black's advanced pawn structure he ended up opening lines against his own king and Jobava finished him off in style.

Today's round didn't have the Master group or the amateurs playing, so it was rather lonely

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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.