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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Draws
After the first three rounds of the Tata Steel tournament, five players — Pentala Harikrishna, Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen, Nils Grandelius and Anish Giri — were tied on two points apiece and entered round 4 with the hope of pulling away with a win.
Co-leaders Pentala Harikrishna and Fabiano Caruana were paired up against each other.
Pentala Harikrishna and Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.
Caruana built up a visual advantage with the black pieces out of a Spanish. The American grandmaster had a comfortable position.
Black has some space advantage and the black bishop is much more active than the white knight.
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That draw meant two players from the group of five had neutralized each other, so there was perhaps a chance for one of the other players to get ahead.
Alireza Firouzja also had the black pieces against Aryan Tari and played his trusted Caro-Kann Defence. The world’s best junior started the game sharply and went for a kingside attack by giving up an exchange. It seemed as if he would be able to get the better of his opponent. The game later got extremely complicated.
10...f6!? 11.Bxh5 [The prudent alternative was 11.exf6 Nxf6] 11...fxe5 12.g4 [Forces the next move. [12.Bxg6+ Bxg6 13.dxe5 Qc7 14.f4 0–0–0 with compensation for Black.]
20.Rc1 d4 [Courageously played, given the juxtaposition of the fact that the white rook (c1) is on the same file as the black queen (c6) and king (c8). 20...Rh8 21.Nd4]
Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.
Even the world champion, who is used to winning, could not break away at the beginning of the tournament in Wijk aan Zee.
Magnus Carlsen and Jorden van Foreest | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit
Magnus Carlsen reached an endgame with an extra pawn in his game against Jorden van Foreest, and started playing for a win. But the Norwegian apparently miscalculated afterwards.
46... h6 [Black has entered the endgame with an extra pawn and is playing for a win.]
47.Nh4 Bd8 [Preparing g5. With the bishop on e7, Nxf5 would come.]
48.Rh7 Rd2?! [48...h5]
49.Rxh6 Kg7 [That was the idea — a double attack with the king, which frees the diagonal of the bishop, but...]
50.Rxg6+ Kh7 [Two white pawns are hanging, but White has a refutation.]
51.Nf3 [Retreating and counterattacking.] Rxf2+ 52.Kxf2 Kxg6 [The draw is inevitable.]
Nils Grandelius had a similar experience: he was clearly better with black against Andrey Esipenko, even close to a win. But the advantage suddenly slipped away.
40.... Kh8 [A superfluous precaution. The king does not protect the g6-knight any more. Correct was 40...Rxb2 41.Nh4 Bxh3 42.gxh3 Qxg3 43.Qxg6+ Qxg6 44.Nxg6 Kxg6 with won endgame.]
41.Nh4 Ne5 [41...Bxh3 42.Nxg6+ Kh7 43.Nh4+ f5 44.Qe5 Bg4 with an advantage.]
42.Qa8+ Kh7 43.Qe4+ Kh8 44.Qa8+ Kh7 ½–½
Alexander Donchenko seems to have overcome his “jet lag” by now and won his second half point against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. In a typical Najdorf game with short castling, the German grandmaster was never in danger, but he nevertheless had to fight to get the half point.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and David Anton played the longest game of the day. The Frenchman, playing from the white side of a Marshall, had an extra pawn in a double rook ending, but that ended in a draw despite all his efforts.
In the game between Jan-Krzytszof Duda and Anish Giri, White also got an extra pawn but could not make much of it.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
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The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
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