Tata Steel 2021: Winners and Losers

by ChessBase
2/2/2021 – Magnus Carlsen has won the Tata Steel tournament seven times, more than any other player. But the tournament in 2021 was a disappointment for the World Champion. He finished with 7½/13, but he was not happy about his play and lost 15.3 rating points. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave fared even worse - he lost more than 26 points, twice as much as Jan-Krzyszof Duda (-13). Rating winners in Wijk are Jorden van Foreest (+ 30), Andrey Esipenko (+24), Anish Giri (+12), and Alireza Firouzja (+10).

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But Carlsen remains the clear number in the world and with a live-rating of 2846.7 he is still 27.1 points ahead of Fabiano Caruana.

However, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is no longer among the world's top ten. After his disastrous result in Wijk he dropped a few places on the live-rating list, where he is currently number 15. But it is well-known that a bad dress rehearsal often leads to a good premiere, and for "MVL" this "premiere" would be the Candidates Tournament 2020-21, that is scheduled to finish in Spring 2021.

Currently, Vachier-Lagrave shares first place with Ian Nepomniachtchi (both have 4½/7) in the Candidates, and if he regains his form he can still hope to win the tournament to become Carlsen's next challenger.

The 17-year old Firouzja won 10 rating-points in Wijk and is now number 13 on the live-rating list, two places ahead of Vachier-Lagrave.

With their impressive performances in Wijk Van Foreest and Esipenko both managed to jump the +2700 mark and now belong to the small group of super grandmasters with a rating of more than 2700.

The closing ceremony

Live-rating list (the FIDE rating list from February 2021 did not take the results of Wijk into account)

1

  

Carlsen

2846.7

−15.3

2

  

Caruana

2819.6

−3.4

3

  

Ding Liren

2791.0

0.0

4

  

Nepomniachtchi

2789.0

0.0

5

↑1

Aronian

2781.0

0.0

6

↑1

Grischuk

2777.0

0.0

7

↑4

Giri

2776.4

+12.4

8

  

Mamedyarov

2770.0

0.0

9

  

So

2770.0

0.0

10

  

Radjabov

2765.0

0.0

11

↑1

Wang Hao

2763.0

0.0

12

↑1

Rapport

2762.9

+3.9

13

↑5

Firouzja

2759.2

+10.2

14

  

Dominguez Perez

2758.0

0.0

15

↓10

Vachier-Lagrave

2757.7

−26.3

16

↓1

Karjakin

2757.0

0.0

17

↓1

Anand

2753.0

0.0

18

↓1

Kramnik

2753.0

0.0

19

↑1

Nakamura

2736.0

0.0

20

↑1

Topalov

2735.0

0.0

21

↑2

Wei Yi

2732.1

+0.1

22

  

Harikrishna

2730.4

−1.6

23

↓4

Duda

2729.5

−13.5

24

  

Vidit

2726.0

0.0

25

  

Andreikin

2725.0

0.0

26

  

Adams

2716.0

0.0

27

  

Vitiugov

2715.0

0.0

28

  

Svidler

2714.0

0.0

29

↑5

Yu Yangyi

2712.2

+3.2

30

↓1

Dubov

2710.0

0.0

31

↓1

Vallejo Pons

2710.0

0.0

32

↓1

Artemiev

2709.0

0.0

33

↓1

Le Quang Liem

2709.0

0.0

34

↓1

Xiong

2709.0

0.0

35

  

Tomashevsky

2706.0

0.0

36

  

Bu Xiangzhi

2705.0

0.0

37

↑30

Van Foreest

2701.2

+30.2

38

↑22

Esipenko

2701.1

+24.1

Final standings Tata Steel Tournament 2021

 

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Tata Steel R4: Missed opportunities

1/20/2021 – On the fourth day of play in Wijk aan Zee, all games finished drawn. In a number of games, especially the players with the black pieces had better positions but could not convert their advantage into full points. In Aryan Tari vs Alireza Firouzja, both players missed chances to win. Wednesday is a rest day. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021
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Wojtaszek and Grandelius at Tata Steel Chess Tournament

12/30/2020 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland) and Nils Grandelius (Sweden) will participate in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 in January. They will replace Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who have recently cancelled. 33-year-old Wojtaszek is the world’s number 36, with a rating of 2705. 27-year-old Grandelius (number 76 on the world ranking list) will debut in the Tata Steel Masters. He is Sweden’s best player and known for his adventurous playing style. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee from 15 – 31 January 2021.
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Video

An Anti-Sicilian Repertoire

Tired of spending hours and hours on the boring theory of your favourite opening? Then here is your solution, play an Anti-Sicilian with 3.Bb5 against 2...d6 or 2...Nc6, and 3.d3 against 2...e6. In 60 minutes you will get a crash course in how to avoid mainstream theory and in understanding the ideas of this Anti-Sicilian setup. After these 60 minutes you should be able to survive the Sicilian for a long time, without being bothered by new developments found by engine x supported by an x-core machine. Now that it finally comes down to understanding, let's play chess!

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Rules for reader comments

 
 

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Masquer Masquer 2/3/2021 08:14
Bingo, you need a combo of strong players, but of different levels, including young up-and-comers, to create an environment ripe for fighting chess instead of draw death.
satman satman 2/3/2021 03:51
The real winners are:
- Classical chess
- the Mixed Tournament
1