Tata R02: All games drawn, but many very tense

75. Tata Steel Chess Tournament

This event is taking place from January 12-27. The venue is as usual the traditional De Moriaan Center in the Dutch sea resort of Wijk aan Zee,. The tournament has taken place since 1938 and was known as the Corus Chess Tournament. The Indian company Tata Steel bought Corus (for US $7.6 billion) in 2006 and the chess event way renamed accordingly. The tournament has three Grandmaster Groups, which have 14 players and are held as full round robins (each competitor plays against every other). The rate of play for all three groups is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting with the first move of the game.

Round two report

The Dutch organisers of the Tata Steel event have done something extraordinary. They wait in the gangway outside the playing venue and get the players to give short statements on the game they have just played. These are fresh and spontaneous opinions and very interesting to hear. Links to the videos, which usually last less than two minutes, are given at the bottom of the page. One you shouldn't miss is the poignant five-second statement by Ivan Sokolov.

Loek van Wely: "I was very happy with my game, I got a very nice and solid edge, but somehow I lost control over the game. Things were getting pretty bad and in the end it seems that I bluffed her and managed to get a draw."

Hou Yifan: "It was a tough game, I had a slightly worse position with no play, but somehow my opponent did not find a clear plan to break through my position and gave me some chances. But in time trouble I did not find any winning move. His position looked very strange, so I am sure I missed something."

At some point the computer saw a win for you...

Yes, Yifan, on the server the engines were showing 7.4 to 10.6 for Black!

These things happen, dear friend. You are very strong, but not a machine...

Magnus Carlsen: "I thought I got an interesting position, but he outplayed me and I was pretty lucky to survive. I had a nice trick in the ending, which might have been winning for him, but it looked very dodgy."

Levon Aronian: "The position was really good, I felt I played well up to a point, and then, like yesterday, my intuition failed me. After 41...c6 it is like a miracle for Black to survive. Of course I am disappointed."

Hikaru Nakamura: "Frankly from the beginning of the game I played like an idiot and tried to be creative at the wrong time. Ivan made a bunch of logical and correct moves and then just after time control he went for this crazy idea of 42...Kf5 and 43...Kg4. There are plenty of plans which win, and he went for the one plan where I had some hopes for a draw."

Ivan Sokolov: "I was completely winning. If I don't kill myself tonight I'm going to live thousand years"

Anish Giri: "I played in the style like when I was ten years old – I think I had big experience of winning this kind of games. But now it was a different opponent. When he played 17.Nd7 and then back to f6 I thought if he loses so much time I should punish him [and played 20.Ng4]. I calculated a lot on what if he takes, and not what if he doesn't. I kept on thinking of bad move for him."

Vishy Anand: "I knew the attack is nothing, and so when he got excited I started to feel that maybe I will get winning chances. My knight on d6 defends everything and I didn't see any real attacking chances for him. This was exactly my idea and I was very happy with it." [More in the replay board and video link below].

GM Danny King Play of the Day – Aronian vs Carlsen

Replay all the games of the round on our JavaScript player

Results of the B and C Groups

Commentary schedule

There is full broadcast of all games on the official site and on the Playchess server, which will provide live audio commentary of the most interesting games (free for Premium members) starting at 15:00h for each round, 14:00h for the final round. Commentary begins at approx. 3 p.m. and lasts 2 to 2½ hours, with breaks in between. A round-up show is provided at 8 PM server time. Commentary is available, by the following experts:

Interviews with players after round two

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Group A – Group B – Group C 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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