Tata Steel Chess R10: Gukesh beats Pragg in wild struggle

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/26/2023 – Magnus Carlsen and Dommaraju Gukesh continued their good runs of results in round 10 of the Tata Steel Masters, as they scored full points in the only two decisive games of the day. Carlsen has won three games in the last four rounds and is now sharing third place with Wesley So, while Gukesh won two out of his last three encounters to recover from a subpar start in Wijk aan Zee. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

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Carlsen climbs to shared third place

It is never wise to rule him out of contention. After losing two games in a row last week, Magnus Carlsen has won three out of his last four encounters to climb to shared third place in the standings of the Tata Steel Masters. The world champion now stands one point behind sole leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov with three rounds to go in the 14-player tournament.

The event is quite long, after all — if we go by today’s standards:

In Wednesday’s tenth round, Carlsen, playing black, outplayed Parham Maghsoodloo in a queenless position with rooks and minor pieces still on the board. In the final three rounds of the event, scheduled to take place between Friday and Sunday (following the third rest day of the event), the Norwegian will face So, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in that order. Carlsen will get the white pieces in the next two rounds.

The one remaining decisive game of the round saw Dommaraju Gukesh beating his compatriot Praggnanandhaa in a sharp battle that lasted 40 moves. The Indian prodigies went all out from the word go, as Gukesh opted for a plan with an early Rg1/g2-g4 out of a Symmetrical English. This was Gukesh’s second win in three games — the 16-year-old defeated Maghsoodloo, also with white, two rounds ago.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

A second win for Gukesh

The two youngest players in the field kept the audience fully engaged, as a fighting struggle was guaranteed once Gukesh pushed his pawn to g4 on move 11. Mistakes were made by both sides, but we got to witness a human, enthralling battle between two extremely talented, uncompromising talents.

 
Gukesh, D27251–0Praggnanandhaa, R2684
85th Tata Steel Masters 2023
Wijk aan Zee NED25.01.2023
1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 e6 6.a3 Be7 7.e4 0-0 8.Nf3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Qh5 10.Rg1 d5 11.g4
This idea has been played in the past, but not in this exact same order. Black's 10...d5 was the novelty of the game. 11...Nxg4 12.cxd5 exd5 13.Nxd5 Bc5 14.Qe2 f5 Not 14...Bxf2+ 15.Qxf2 Nxf2 16.Nf6+ making use of the pin along the g-file. White is clearly better here. 15.Nf4 Qf7 16.Rg2 Gukesh noted that Pragg was ready for this line, and knew it all along until 15...Qf7. It was him who forgot how to continue, as placing the rook on g2 is, in fact, not at all precise. Better was 16.Ng5 Qb3 17.Qc4+ To offer a queen trade is not forced, but surely makes sense for White. Qxc4 18.Bxc4+ Kh8 and only now: 19.Rg2 with a double-edged, albeit queenless, position. 16...Qe7
Pragg spent over 40 minutes before playing this move, which was a grave mistake. Gukesh: "When he played ...Qe7, I was very happy". 16...fxe4 is what Gukesh was fearing, and the best possible continuation for White is: 17.Ng5 Qf5 18.Rxg4 Qxg4 19.Qc4+ Kh8 20.Qxc5 Rf5 and Black is clearly in the driver's seat. 17.e5 A brilliant pawn sacrifice! Ncxe5 18.0-0-0 Bd6 19.Bc3 Nxf3 20.Qxf3 Be6 21.h3
This pawn push gives up much of White's advantage... 21...Be5 ...but Pragg failed to find the refutation, and instead gave up the knight on g4. According to Gukesh, his compatriot didn't really believe in Black's position. 21...Bxf4+ entering the following forcing line was the way to go: 22.Qxf4 Nf6 23.Re1 Rf7 24.Bc4 Ne4 All Black's moves up to this point are forced in this variation. 22.Nxe6 Qxe6 23.hxg4 Bxc3 24.bxc3 Rad8 25.gxf5 In order to enter this line, Gukesh had to foresee that the variations with ...Qb3 or ...Qa2 (which is stronger) still favour him. Rxd1+ 25...Qa2 26.Rxg7+ The point! Kxg7 27.Qg3+ And White's initiative is winning. Kh8 28.Qe5+ Kg8 29.Bc4+
Gukesh noted that this is what Pragg missed in his calculations (the same applies if the queen would have gone to b3). White has a mating attack. 29...Qxc4 30.Rg1+ Kf7 31.Rg7#
26.Qxd1 Qa2 27.Bd3 Re8 28.Rg4 Qxa3+ 29.Kd2 Qb2+ 30.Qc2 Qb6 31.Qa2+ Kh8 32.Rd4 Qh6+ 33.Kc2 Qh2 34.Qf7 Qxf2+ 35.Kb3 Rg8 36.Bc4 Rb8 37.Qe7 h5 38.Qg5 Qf3 39.Rh4 Qd1+ 40.Kb2 There are no more checks for Black. An exciting tactical fight, indeed!
1–0

Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa

Analysing — Gukesh (aged 16) and Praggnanandhaa (17) | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

Standings after round 10 - Masters

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All games - Masters

 
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Donchenko bounces back, shares the lead

Three games finished decisively in round 10 of the Challengers. Most notably, Alexander Donchenko bounced back from his loss against Erwin l’Ami with a win over Max Warmerdam. The German thus caught up with Mustafa Yilmaz, who had regained the sole lead in the previous round. Yilmaz signed a safe draw in his game with white against Adhiban Baskaran.

The remaining two decisive games saw Amin Tabatabaei and Luis Paulo Supi defeating Thomas Beerdsen and Velimir Ivic respectively. In a curious turn of events, the one player who had not scored a single win so far in the event (Supi) beat the one player who remained undefeated after nine rounds (Ivic).

Donchenko and Yilmaz are sharing the lead on 7 points. A half point back stands Javokhir Sindarov, while Ivic and Tabatabaei are tied for fourth in the standings, with 6 points each. Tabatabaei will feature in two key encounters in the following two rounds, as he will face Donchenko and Sindarov on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Amin Tabatabaei, Thomas Beerdsen

Amin Tabatabaei and Thomas Beerdsen | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

While explaining his victory over Warmerdam to Fiona Steil-Antoni, Donchenko highlighted the following position as the turning point of the game.

 
Warmerdam vs. Donchenko

Donchenko confessed that he did not expect to get the kind of advantage that he got after playing this innocuous-looking king move. The German explained:

I would say that mostly it came down to [the fact] that somehow I managed to — actually, unknowingly — create a position where his active play completely ran out. And I only realized it when he had already invested 10-15 minutes, and I did not see any move for him either.

Alexander Donchenko, Max Warmerdam

Game over — Alexander Donchenko and Max Warmerdam | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

Standings after round 10 - Challengers

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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