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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.
Daniel King's Highlights of Round 11
| Group A: Round 11 - Sunday Jan. 26 | |
| Hikaru Nakamura - Anish Giri |
½-½
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| Arkadij Naiditsch - Richard Rapport |
1-0
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| Wesley So - Fabiano Caruana |
½-½
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| Boris Gelfand - Pentala Harikrishna |
1-0
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| Levon Aronian - Loek van Wely |
0-1
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| Sergey Karjakin - Leinier Dominguez |
½-½
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Nakamura getting some encouraging words from Kasparov before the round
Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Giri, Anish
Nakamura had a fair amount of extra material but Giri's powerful blockading bishop did not allow him to make any real progress. Giri defended well and was probably never that much worse.
Nakamura has a big challenge coming up: Zurich starts in one week!
Naiditsch, Akradij 1-0 Rapport, Richard
Rapport's opening was rather ridiculous this time around and he got a simply lost position out of it. Naiditsch just had to make a few normal moves to make Rapport look like an amateur. Despite his good showing in the event, with fighting and exciting chess, Rapport does have to learn to control himself.
Naidtisch's impressions of his tournament and his game
Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Dominguez Perez, Leinier
A well calculated tactical shot in the opening netted Dominguez an extra pawn. Karjakin fought on but his compensation was murky at best. Dominguez was however unable to convert his advantage, which transformed into a safer king in a rook and queen endgame which must have been winning for him at several points
Dominguez on his problems converting...
So, Wesley ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
A very long theoretical line of the Grunfeld ended in a draw as Black's powerful passed a-pawn compensated for him being down a rook for a bishop and a knight.
Aronian, Levon 0-1 Van Wely, Loek
[Event "76th Tata Steel Chess Masters"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee"] [Date "2014.01.26"] [Round "11"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Van Wely, Loek"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A80"] [WhiteElo "2803"] [BlackElo "2678"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez, Alejandro"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NED"] 1. d4 f5 {Carlsen once remarked that Aronian scored quite badly against the Dutch, so the player from said country goes ahead and gives it a whirl.} 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 d6 4. e3 h6 {Already it is hard to explain what is going on in the position. h6 prepares g5, but it is unclear if this is weakening or aggressive. } 5. h3 g5 6. Bh2 Bg7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. c3 {Black's position on the kingside is rather loose, and he must justify it. That is why it makes sense to play solidly like this, as it is Black and not White that has to prove that his position makes sense. As long as White defends accurately Black's weaknesses will grow exponentially.} Nc6 9. Bd3 Rb8 {Further creative play! This protects the b-pawn and prepares b5, maybe, I guess?} 10. O-O Qe8 11. Re1 Qh5 12. Qc2 g4 {Without this move Black's position falls apart.} (12... e6 13. e4 fxe4 14. Nxe4 Nxe4 15. Rxe4 $16 {is already a horrible version of.... its just horrible. }) 13. hxg4 Nxg4 14. Bb5 {This move is not so clear to me either. It does put some restraints on Black's natural idea of e5 though.} (14. Bg3 e5 15. dxe5 dxe5 16. e4 f4 17. Bc4+ Kh8 18. Bh4 $14) 14... Kh8 (14... e5 15. Qb3+ $1 {And suddenly Black is down a pawn and some after} Kh8 16. Bxc6 e4 17. Bg3 exf3 18. Bxf3 $18) 15. Qb3 Nd8 $6 (15... Bd7 16. d5 Nxh2 17. Nxh2 Ne5 {would have given Black a perfectly acceptable position.}) 16. Bg3 e5 17. dxe5 dxe5 18. Qb4 {The series if strange moves continues. Developing the rook was certainly more logical at this stage of the game.} Ne6 19. Rad1 c5 20. Qb3 Nc7 21. Be2 Be6 22. Bc4 Bd7 23. Be2 $2 (23. Qa3 $18 {was not a difficult double attack to spot. Here both a7 and c5 are hanging.}) 23... f4 24. exf4 exf4 25. Bh4 Bc6 26. Be7 Rf7 27. Bc4 Nd5 28. Bh4 $2 (28. Bxc5 {was a computer like move, but it worked. White isn't getting checkmated and Black's position slowly falls apart.}) 28... Rf5 $6 (28... Rg8 $1 {Already put some serious pressure on White's position, as here the g-file can sometimes become a dangerous factor.}) 29. Bd3 Rff8 30. Bb1 Rbe8 31. Rxe8 $6 {Certainly it was unnecessary to trade these rooks.} (31. Qc4 Ne5 32. Nxe5 Rxe5 33. Qd3 Ref5 34. Qh3 Re5 35. Nc4 $16) 31... Rxe8 32. Ne4 $2 Nde3 $2 {Well, why not...} (32... Ne5 $1 33. Ned2 Nxf3+ 34. Nxf3 Nf6 {and White's position would have been difficult to defend.}) 33. fxe3 Bxe4 34. Bxe4 Rxe4 35. Qxb7 $6 (35. exf4 Rxf4 36. Rd8+ Rf8 37. Rxf8+ Bxf8 38. Qxb7 {seemed like the easier way to take the pawn.}) 35... Qg6 36. Rd8+ Kh7 37. Qd5 $2 { Already a bad move.} Re6 {Surprisingly here Black has counterplay thanks to the back rank. Which Aronian completely underestimates.} 38. exf4 $4 (38. Ne1 $11 {was still ok for White}) 38... Bd4+ $1 {A tactical shot you can find in a kid's puzzle book. But time pressure and maybe some psychological factors allow Van Wely to finish off a very strange and inaccurate and hard to explain game.} (38... Bd4+ 39. cxd4 Qb1+ 40. Ne1 Qxe1+ 41. Bxe1 Rxe1#) 0-1
Gelfand, Boris 1-0 Harikrishna, Pentala
Gelfand finishes the tournament off with two wins in a row. This one was aided by his opponent as in a game that was maybe marginally unpleasant for Harikrishna, the Indian miscalculated the pawn endgame horribly and had to resign only a few moves after entering it.
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
| Group B: Round 13 - Sunday Jan. 26 | |
| Yu Yangyi - Zhao Xue |
1-0
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| Sabino Brunello - Ivan Saric |
½-½
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| Benjamin Bok - Anna Muzychuk |
½-½
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| Jan Timman - Radek Wojtaszek |
½-½
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| Dimitri Reinderman - Merijn van Delft |
1-0
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| Kayden Troff - Baadur Jobava |
½-½
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| Jan-Krzysztof Duda - Etienne Goudriaan |
1-0
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Zhao Xue's tournament was pretty close to a disaster. With only 4.5 points she lost 18 Elo
A story similar to the Master's almost happened in the Challenger's as Brunello could have taken down Saric. The Croatian player was better for most of the game but after sacrificing a piece it was not so clear that he had enough for it. Brunello misstepped, however, and Saric got a draw.
Saric's impressions on his win of the tournament and next year's challenge
The Chinese duel in Wijk Aan Zee ended in favor of Yu Yangyi who simply put played a very nice game against Zhao Xue's Caro-Kann defense. Bok's minor pressure in the double rook endgame was never truly significant and Muzychuk defended well enough to get a draw.
Muzychuk can be quite satisfied with her fourth place and +17 Elo
Timman also had a very minor advantage, this time against Wojtaszek, but it also was insufficient for real conversion chances. Jobava's strange version of the Benoni allowed him to equalize against Troff, but certainly not more than that and a draw was reached after both sides exhausted their options.
Goudriaan played a completely unsound positional sacrifice against Duda, and although the Polish player played far from exact it was still good enough to win. The game finished with a picturesque mate.
Finally Reinderman proved the power of White's position in the Catalan positions in which Black takes on c4 and holds on to the pawn. Van Delft had to find the most accurate defensive moves and it was one slip that was enough for his position to fall down like a house of cards.
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
Photos by Fabrice Wantiez
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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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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. |
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