1/18/2013 – A lot of terrific games today: Magnus Carlsen crushed Ivan Sokolov to put half a point between himself and his pursuers – and five more points on his Elo rating; Levon Aronian wrung a point out of Peter Leko in 59 moves; Loek van Wely did likewise against Wang Hao in 41; the Chinese GM Hou Yifan used a Dragon to defeat Anish Giri in 85 moves. Full report with pictures and videos.
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Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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75. Tata Steel Chess Tournament
January 2013
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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 six report
By GM Alejandro Ramirez
More terrific games happened today, and some super solid players were defeated
in unusual fashions. Carlsen put half a point between himself and his pursuers,
but by no means is he running away with the tournament just yet. This close
struggle will be vibrant over the next few rounds!
Group A: Round 6 - Friday January 18
Loek van Wely - Wang Hao
1-0
Hikaru Nakamura - Erwin L'Ami
½-½
Anish Giri - Hou Yifan
0-1
Fabiano Caruana - Sergey Karjakin
½-½
Levon Aronian - Peter Leko
1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Ivan Sokolov
1-0
Pentala Harikrishna - Vishy Anand
½-½
A couple of years ago, Hikaru Nakamura beat Erwin L’Ami from a completely
equal endgame. This year I expected Hikaru to press for a long time against
the Dutchman, but surprisingly Erwin seemed to be the higher rated player as
he made his position better with every move. A solid Caro-Kann allowed him to
outmaneuver the American, and the only question I have about the game is if
Black had any chances to push in the final position with 41… Nfg6.
Sergey Karjakin has been playing the Berlin Defense with white and black for
years now, and he rarely loses when he is on the defending side. This one was
no exception as he easily held Fabiano Caruana to a draw.
Harikrishna-Anand was a very strange game all around. An unusual opening led
to an unusual position in which I honestly thought the World Champion might
have some pushing chances. After a strange combination White had two pieces
for a rook, but they were very uncoordinated and the pawns very weak. The players
agreed to a draw in a position that is hard to evaluate.
Loek van Wely (above) vs Wang Hao was also unusual. Black sacrificed a pawn
early on in a Fianchetto King’s Indian Defense. The follow-up 18…
g5? was very ineffective and Van Wely soon had a free extra pawn and a dangerous
majority on the queenside. Black’s activity was never enough to compensate.
Here is the postgame analysis of Loek in Wijk:
Carlsen on his side took advantage of Sokolov’s over eagerness to trade
pieces. At some point after the rooks came off Black was saddled with weaknesses
on the kingside and a relatively useless bishop on a7. Not a good combination.
After a knight was firmly placed on f5, White may have only held a slight advantage,
but in my mind there was no doubt what the result of the game was going to be.
Carlsen didn’t forgive and won convincingly at the end.
Levon Aronian got somewhat lucky against Peter Leko. The 21st Century Gambit
in the Queen’s Indian Defense gave the first player a little edge, but
nothing special. In the endgame it seemed like the pair of bishops could easily
hold the pawn deficit. Trading off into an opposite colored bishop was probably
not a wrong decision, but Leko soon went astray with the move 53…Bc2?
I’m sure our friend Karsten Muller will soon be analyzing this endgame
for us and providing the drawing technique.
Anish Giri has been super solid this tournament, but Hou Yifan (above) didn’t
care. She went all out and played a Dragon against him! Giri’s handling
of the situation was rather mediocre. He shunned the complications of the Yugoslav,
which is alright, but the way that he handled his Nge2/g3 setup was strange.
The move 14.Ra2 really showed me he was planless at that point. Yifan quickly
put the pressure on the queenside, and capitalized with the powerful exchange
sacrifice 22… Rxb3! followed by 23… Nc4! Giri sacrificed an exchange
in hopes of holding the endgame, but it was to no avail. The Chinese girl picks
up her first full point, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Giri resigns after 85 moves in this live cam coverage from Wijk
Replay all the games of the round on our JavaScript player
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 14:30h 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:
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.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of King’s Indian and Pirc structures with colours reversed, often arising from the French or Sicilian.
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