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Out of the 14 games played on Saturday in the Masters and Challengers combined, 10 finished decisively, the highest number so far in this year’s edition of the Tata Steel Chess festival.
Once all was said and done at the Dorpshuis de Moriaan Hall in Wijk aan Zee, both tournaments have sole leaders, with Nodirbek Abdusattorov extending his lead in the Masters and Alexander Donchenko scoring a second consecutive win to go into round 8 alone atop the standings of the Challengers. But there is still about a week to go in the events, as the final round is scheduled for next Sunday, with two more rest days in the interim.
Following the lively seventh round, Abdusattorov is a full point ahead of his closest chasers. The 18-year-old remains undefeated and has so far collected four wins in the Masters — his fourth being a fine win with black over Arjun Erigaisi. A performance this strong against such a tough field has naturally yielded the youngster a considerable rating gain, as he is now the clear number two in the hyper-competitive juniors’ ratings list.
Standing sixth in that list is now Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, who is 1.2 points away from crossing the 2700 barrier after beating Jorden van Foreest in round 7. The Indian prodigy is one of four players sharing second place on 4½/7 points. Similarly to Pragg, Wesley So joined the chasing pack with a win on Saturday, as he grabbed a second consecutive full point in his game with black against an out-of-form Dommaraju Gukesh.
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Two big guns complete the plus-two group (all undefeated with two wins to their names): Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana. Both super-GMs grabbed half points, but their games could not have been more dissimilar — while Giri drew his game with Levon Aronian after only 21 moves, Caruana worked for over seven hours in his encounter against Parham Maghsoodloo. Nearing the end of the marathon, Caruana got winning chances in a tough queen endgame, but only after surviving an inferior position for hours on end. In fact, it was the Iranian’s eagerness to win which led to his needing to defend well into the night.
In other news, Vincent Keymer missed some chances to beat Ding Liren (draw in 58 moves), and Magnus Carlsen returned to a fifty-percent score by taking down Richard Rapport with the white pieces. Carlsen will face a (likely) exhausted Caruana in Sunday’s eighth round.
The traditional exhibition boards are being used in the live commentary room | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
Wesley So | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
Only the last game to finish in the Challengers section saw the contenders, Max Warmerdam and Velimir Ivic, splitting a point. Out of the six remaining games, five favoured the player marshalling the white pieces, including the crucial matchup between Alexander Donchenko and Mustafa Yilmaz, who entered the round sharing the lead with 4½ points each.
In 60 minutes you will get a crash course how to play such a complicated opening like the Sicilian Najdorf by the hands of GM van Wely who knows by experience how the dangers look like! The contents:
• Video 1, 2, 3: how to survive versus whites most aggressive approach: 6. Bc4, 6. Be3 and 6 Bg5
• Video 4: how to deal with the latest fashion in the Najdorf 6. h3 and last but not least
• Video 5: how to play vs the more classical set ups 6. Be2 and 6. g3
Second seed Javokhir Sindarov also won with white, and now stands in sole second place a half point behind his German colleague. Sindarov already faced Donchenko in this tournament — he drew the current leader with black in their first-round confrontation.
Still with more than realistic chances of winning the lengthy event are Thomas Beerdsen, Ivic and Yilmaz, all standing on 4½ points. Out of the three, only Beerdsen won on Saturday, as he got the better of Abhimanyu Mishra from the white side of a Sicilian Najdorf.
Javokhir Sindarov defeated fan favourite Eline Roebers | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
Alexander Donchenko | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
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