1/25/2013 – Four decisive games, just three draws – quite typical of this hard-fought event. Levon Aronian's win over Hikaru Nakamura pushed the Armenian into second place. The Chinese GM Wang Hao held Magnus Carlsen to a 31-move draw, while the 18-year-old Chinese GM Hou Yifan survived all winning attempts by World Champion Vishy Anand in a knight and pawn ending. Round eleven report.
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January 2013
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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
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 eleven report
By GM Alejandro Ramirez
This interesting round provided yet again more decisive results than draws,
and some of these wins were swift and bloody.
Group A: Round 11 - Friday January 25
Peter Leko - Loek van Wely
1-0
Sergey Karjakin - Ivan Sokolov
1-0
Hou Yifan - Vishy Anand
½-½
Erwin L'Ami - Pentala Harikrishna
½-½
Wang Hao - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Levon Aronian
0-1
Anish Giri - Fabiano Caruana
1-0
L’Ami-Harikrishna showed how important it is to know many different structures:
the game started out as a Queen’s Indian Defense, but by move 20 it resembled
a Gruenfeld more than anything else. Harikrishna held the upper hand for most
of the game, but his technique was not accurate enough in the endgame to convert
the full point. Erwin should consider himself lucky with this draw.
The Ruy Lopez makes yet another appearance in one of Karjakin’s games,
this time with white against Sokolov. Both players’ handling of the position
was precise, but Sokolov’s time management betrayed him. When complications
arose he had no way of calculating accurately through the variations, and a
series of mistakes landed him in a very difficult position.
Karjakin’s crushing move, 32.Bc2, just emphasized how badly placed Black’s
pieces were.
The 5... a6 Semi-Slav has become very popular in the past year. Black has had
a lot of success holding draws and even winning some games here and there in
this ultra-solid variation. Of course, this popularity was increased when Anand
used it in the World Championship match against Gelfand.
Levon Aronian (above right) employed it this time against Hikaru Nakamura (left),
who, instead of going for the traditional 6.b3 system, tried to clamp down the
queenside with 6.c5. This gave White no advantage and after 18...c4 it was clear
that only White was thinking of equalizing, the passed c4 pawn being a huge
problem for him. 29.Re2? was a mistake, and it was punished with the very strong
and unexpected move 29...e5! The two passed pawns on the center were too much
for Nakamura, who had to give up material. Aronian is now securely in second
place.
Wang Hao (above) had some pressure out of the opening against Magnus Carlsen,
but after too many trades the position simplified swiftly into a draw.
Much more interesting was yet another Dragon in this top level tournament,
this time in the game Leko-van Wely. Black must have been pleased with the opening
result as his position was solid and saying that it was equal is not far from
the truth.
Unfortunately for Loek (above), after the queen trade he started losing the
thread of the position slightly, and his rook play was not as efficient as Leko’s,
who quickly seized control over the weak c5 square. The pressure continued from
that point until the end of the game, and the Hungarian player won a very instructive
endgame.
Lastly we had a battle between a current World Champion (Vishy Anand, above)
and an ex-World Champion, Hou Yifan, who In 2010 became the youngest Women's
World Chess Champion in history by winning the Women's World Championship in
Hatay, Turkey, at the age of 16. Today she got slowly outplayed out of the opening,
which was a very unique Najdorf. Black’s strong pawn phalanx in the center
with e5, f5 and f6 must have guaranteed him a clear advantage. This quickly
turned into White being down a pawn as there was no way to defend d5. It’s
possible a lot of people saw the end of the game in sight, as Anand is much
higher rated and had all the pluses in the position, but the Chinese girl showed
just how resourceful she is.
The knight endgame must be lost for White, especially if Black plays the move
42...h5! which secures the weakness on g3. Instead, Vishy went directly into
the pawn endgame with 42...Nf5? and Hou Yifan accurately calculated that despite
being down a pawn, the king endgame was a draw! The endgame is a draw by one
tempo, but that’s all it takes in the game of chess. Anand gives up a
chance to shorten the gap between him and Carlsen, while Hou Yifan saves a very
valuable half point. You should listen to her brief interview in the video clips
at the bottom of this page.
Giri-Caruana was an instructive demolition. The Dutch player quickly sacrificed
a pawn for superior development. Caruana may have thought his position was solid,
but the crushing rook lifts in the fifth and fourth ranks exposed how undefended
Black’s king was. The sacrifice threats on g6, and then the pressure on
f7, were too much to handle and Caruana had to resign. Here's Anish's take on
the game:
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GM Danny King Play of the Day – Hikaru Nakamura vs Levon Aronian
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These video courses feature a black repertoire against 1.d4, 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.
Besides covering all the critical lines after 1.d4 & 2.c4, popular systems such as the Trompovsky, London/Jobava System, Torre Attack, Colle System and Veresov are dealt with as well.
This video course offers you a complete, clear repertoire for Black against the moves 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.
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