Tata 06: Could'ves and should'ves

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 six - Masters

Karjakin, Sergey 1-0 Naiditsch, Akradij
Karjakin pressed a small advantage throughout the game, but the German was very close to sealing the draw. However a mistake in the very late stages of the game allowed Karjakin to win an important pawn and make his passed a-pawn a real threat in the queen endgame. Naiditsch basically collapsed under pressure.

Aronian, Levon 1-0 So, Wesley

This man seems unstoppable this tournament

So has had a good showing, but Aronian brought him back to reality

Daniel King analyses the ending of Aronian vs So in his play of the day

Giri, Anish ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
After a grueling game in which neither side seemed to have an advantage, Gelfand let go of his precision and Giri had good winning chances. He chose the wrong plan, though and instead of 53.Rd8? the correct 53.Rh8! would have probably given him a winning position.

Things haven't been going Gelfand's way this tournament
but today he was at least able to draw a lost position

Harikrishna, Pentala ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Harikrishna converted an extra passed pawn on the queenside into an extra exchange, but the position of the pawns in the kingside and the fact that all the game was on one side of the board made the knight and rook combination of Caruana have hopes of keeping the draw against Harikrishna's two rooks. After 137 moves, Harikrishna admitted that he could not break his opponent's defenses.

Caruana's knight and rook held what seemed to be a lost endgame

Dominguez Perez, Leinier ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Dominguez played a very powerful Berlin endgame agaisnt Nakamura. He obtained a winning position with an extra exchange after Black's kingside could not be held anymore. However his conversion phase was not as precise as the begininng of the game and he let Nakamura escape with a draw.

Nakamura tried the Berlin, but he ended up escaping narrowly

Van Wely, Loek ½-½ Rapport, Richard
Rapport essayed a relatively normal opening today, but it did not pay dividends as he was positionally lost anyways. It was a combination of a miracle and unexplainable mistakes by Van Wely that the game ended in a draw.

Van Wely can't be happy with this result

Rapport played a King's Indian, relatively normal for him,
but it was Van Wely's mistakes that allowed him to draw today

Replay all Master games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Standings after six rounds

Round seven - Challengers

Few true surprises happened in the Challenger section, but definitely, like in the Master's, there were missed opportunities. The big miss was probably from Muzychuk, who was winning against Van Delft, but she missed her killing blow and remaind half a point behind Saric and Jobava.

Muyzchuk had her chance to be one of the three leaders, but she missed the winning tactic

The two leaders drew, but it was certainly Saric that was calling the shots. He had a very clear advantage, maybe even decisive, but a tenacious defense from Jobava allowed him to force a draw after sacrificing a rook. Saric continues his good form, but having a point over Jobava and Muzychuk would have been much better than the situation he is in right now.

Timman is the one that starts to poke his head from the rest of the players trying to catch the three leaders. He beat Reinderman today after the purple haired player played a more than questionable version of the Dutch defense.

Brunello played a nice sacrifice against Duda, and even obtained a winning position, but two blunders in a row turned a win into a losing queen endgame that the Polish youngster converted. Bok tried to deviate from theory against Troff but the American was never in any danger.

Troff has lost two games, against Saric and Muzychuk, but still has a good performance

Wojtaszek demolished Zhao Xue without problems to gain back some momentum while Yu Yangyi inflicted upon Goudriaan his seventh loss in a row from what should have been an easily drawn endgame.

The Chinese player's -1 result so far puts her a little below expectation

Arianne Caoili, Aronian's girlfriend, was spotted in one of the amateur sections

Replay Challenger section round 7

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Standings after seven rounds

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.