Tata Steel Chess R3: Giri joins Firouzja in the lead, Ding beats Gukesh

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/16/2024 – Defending champion Anish Giri joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters after beating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces. Full points were also scored by Ding Liren, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Jorden van Foreest — all three grabbed their first wins of the event. In the Challengers, six players are sharing first place with 2/3 points following a round that saw five out of seven games ending decisively. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

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Four decisive results

Anish Giri is once again well positioned to fight for first place in his home tournament. Giri has played in the Masters section of the event every year since 2011. Five times he got second place before finally grabbing his first title in Wijk aan Zee last year, when a final-round win over Richard Rapport somewhat unexpectedly granted him outright victory.

Now, after beating Alexander Donchenko with black in Monday’s round 3, the 29-year-old is sharing the lead with Alireza Firouzja. Giri played a theoretical-yet-unorthodox line, in which Black voluntarily places his knight on d8.

Donchenko v. Giri

What Giri described as ‘a funny knight’ looks bad on the back rank, but the Dutchman was excellently prepared and knew that the minor piece is actually quite flexible from that spot, as it could jump to b7 or f7 in the future (or to e6, like in the game, under the right circumstances).

Another key factor in these situations is that the player who goes for the unorthodox line usually gets a major advantage on the clock. By move 33, when Black already had a positional edge, Giri had 30 minutes to Donchenko’s 7.

In this critical position, Donchenko correctly played 34.e4 — but faltered after 34...a5, when 35.Ne3 was called for and he chose 35.Qd3 instead.

The German grandmaster, who won the Challengers tournament last year, cracked under (time) pressure. Giri’s opening strategy worked wonders, as his opponent threw in the towel seven moves later.

Alexander Donchenko

The champions of the 2023 Masters and Challengers about to face each other — Alexander Donchenko and Anish Giri | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

While Giri had also scored a full point in the first round, the three other winners of the day grabbed their first wins of the event on Monday. All four decisive games favoured the player marshalling the black pieces.

  • Ding Liren beat Dommaraju Gukesh in 37 moves after the Indian ace misplayed a dynamically balanced yet tricky middlegame position (watch Robert Ris’ video analysis of the game below).
  • Jorden van Foreest bounced back from his two consecutive losses (both with white) with a victory over women’s world champion Ju Wenjun.
  • Nodirbek Abdusattorov played a risky line and inflicted a second consecutive loss on Parham Maghsoodloo.
Maghsoodloo v. Abdusattorov

Much like Giri, Abdusattorov surprised his opponent with a rather unconventional line. Here Maghsoodloo thought for over 12 minutes before playing 13.Nf2 (rejecting the correct 13.e3), which turned out to be inaccurate.

Abdusattorov was better prepared to navigate the intricacies of the position and went on to make the most of his psychological advantage to get a 34-move win.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

Results - Round 3

Round 4, the last one before the first rest day, will see Firouzja playing white against Abdusattorov and Giri facing Gukesh, also with white.

Other attractive matchups on Tuesday are Ding v. Praggnanandhaa and Wei v. Maghsoodloo.


Expert analysis by IM Robert Ris


Standings after round 3

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3 0-0 5.Be2 c5 6.d5 e6 7.Nc3 d6 8.0-0 exd5 9.cxd5 Bg4 10.Nd2 Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Na6 12.e4 Re8 13.Nc4 b5 14.Nxb5 Nxe4 15.Qf3 Qd7 16.a4 Nb4 17.Bf4 Nc2 18.Rad1 Nd4 19.Rxd4 cxd4 20.Ncxd6 Nxd6 21.Nxd6 Red8 22.b3 g5 23.Bg3 f5 24.Qxf5 Qxf5 25.Nxf5 Bf6 26.Nd6 h5 27.h3 h4 28.Bh2 Be7 29.Nb5 Bc5 30.d6 Rac8 31.Be5 d3 32.Bf6 Rd7 33.Bxg5 a6 34.Nc3 Bxd6 35.Ne4 Be7 36.Rd1 Bxg5 37.Nxg5 d2 38.Kf1 Re7 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Donchenko,A2643Wei,Y27400–12024E6086th Tata Steel Masters1.1
Van Foreest,J2682Firouzja,A27590–12024C1186th Tata Steel Masters1.2
Vidit,S2742Ding,L2780½–½2024E2086th Tata Steel Masters1.3
Ju,W2549Giri,A27490–12024B4086th Tata Steel Masters1.4
Gukesh,D2725Abdusattorov,N2727½–½2024C5586th Tata Steel Masters1.5
Warmerdam,M2625Nepomniachtchi,I27690–12024D3786th Tata Steel Masters1.6
Praggnanandhaa,R2743Maghsoodloo,P2740½–½2024B9586th Tata Steel Masters1.7
Abdusattorov,N2727Praggnanandhaa,R2743½–½2024E0486th Tata Steel Masters2.1
Nepomniachtchi,I2769Ju,W2549½–½2024E0686th Tata Steel Masters2.2
Giri,A2749Vidit,S2742½–½2024D1086th Tata Steel Masters2.3
Wei,Y2740Gukesh,D27250–12024C5386th Tata Steel Masters2.4
Firouzja,A2759Maghsoodloo,P27401–02024C6786th Tata Steel Masters2.5
Ding,L2780Donchenko,A2643½–½2024E9486th Tata Steel Masters2.6
Van Foreest,J2682Warmerdam,M26250–12024D0286th Tata Steel Masters2.7
Ju,W2549Van Foreest,J26820–12024B0686th Tata Steel Masters3.1
Donchenko,A2643Giri,A27490–12024A4186th Tata Steel Masters3.2
Vidit,S2742Nepomniachtchi,I2769½–½2024C4286th Tata Steel Masters3.3
Warmerdam,M2625Firouzja,A2759½–½2024E1586th Tata Steel Masters3.4
Gukesh,D2725Ding,L27800–12024C5086th Tata Steel Masters3.5
Praggnanandhaa,R2743Wei,Y2740½–½2024B9586th Tata Steel Masters3.6
Maghsoodloo,P2740Abdusattorov,N27270–12024A2286th Tata Steel Masters3.7

Challengers: Six co-leaders on 2/3

No player in the Challengers has managed to go into round 4 with the plus-2 scores obtained by Firouzja and Giri in the Masters. The tournament that grants a spot in next year’s top category has six players sharing first place with 2/3 points: Hans Niemann, Anton Korobov, Saleh Salem, Erwin l’Ami, Leon Luke Mendonca and Marc’Andria Maurizzi.

Out of these six, Korobov, L’Ami and Maurizzi scored full points in round 3.

Korobov’s victory over Eline Roebers was particularly interesting, though perhaps not as interesting as the Ukrainian’s post-game interview conducted by Fiona Steil-Antoni. Among other things, Korobov talked about how to handle his emotions in double-edged positions:

The task is very easy. You have to produce moves in order not to resign immediately — first not to resign and then try to regain some kind of control, and maybe some chances will come. But first, not to resign.

Referring to the differences between preparation in the pre-computer era and now, the charismatic grandmaster noted:

I’m trying to revise my old textbooks, and it’s very tricky to witness, as the modern cloud is nullifying immediately, in one second, the stuff in which you invested maybe half a year.

Besides the aforementioned round-3 winners who joined the lead, two players grabbed their first full points of the event on Monday: Divya Deshmukh, who got the better of Jaime Santos, and Liam Vrolijk, who defeated Turkish grandmaster Mustafa Yilmaz.

Two clashes of co-leaders — which are also ‘battles of generations’ — will be seen in round 4: Korobov v. Maurizzi and Mendonca v. L’Ami.

Results - Round 3

Divya Deshmukh

Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

Salem ½ - ½ Niemann

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Hans Niemann

Hans Moke Niemann playing black against Saleh Salem | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Standings after round 3

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qa4 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Ra7 11.Rc1 Be4 12.Qb3 Nc6 13.e3 Qa8 14.Nc3 Bxf3 15.Bxf3 Nxd4 16.exd4 Qxf3 17.Nxb5 Qxb3 18.axb3 Rb7 19.Nxc7 Rxb3 20.Rc2 Ne4 21.Nxa6 Ra8 22.Ra4 Nxd2 23.Rxd2 h5 24.Nc5 Rxa4 25.Nxa4 Bg5 26.f4 Bf6 27.Nc3 Rb4 28.Ne2 g5 29.Kf2 Rb3 30.Nc3 Kg7 31.Ke3 Kg6 32.Ke4 Bg7 33.f5+ exf5+ 34.Kd5 Bf8 35.Kc6 Bb4 36.d5 Bxc3 37.bxc3 Rxc3+ 38.Kb5 Rb3+ 39.Kc4 Rb8 40.d6 f4 41.gxf4 gxf4 42.d7 Rd8 43.Kc5 Kf5 44.Kd6 f3 45.Ke7 Rxd7+ 46.Rxd7 Ke4 47.h4 f2 48.Rd1 Kf3 49.Kf6 Kg4 50.Ke5 Kg3 51.Ra1 f6+ 52.Kf5 Kh3 53.Ra3+ Kg2 54.Ra2 Kg3 55.Ra3+ Kg2 56.Ra1 Kh3 57.Ra3+ ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Maurizzi,M2572Dronavalli,H2500½–½2024E06Tata Steel Challengers1.1
Dardha,D2602L'Ami,E2627½–½2024B13Tata Steel Challengers1.2
Roebers,E2381Mendonca,L26080–12024B94Tata Steel Challengers1.3
Salem,A2630Korobov,A26631–02024B94Tata Steel Challengers1.4
Niemann,H2692Vrolijk,L25731–02024C50Tata Steel Challengers1.5
Divya,D2420Beukema,S2428½–½2024D10Tata Steel Challengers1.6
Yilmaz,M2665Santos Latasa,J26150–12024D38Tata Steel Challengers1.7
Korobov,A2663Divya,D24201–02024C26Tata Steel Challengers2.1
Dronavalli,H2500Dardha,D2602½–½2024B57Tata Steel Challengers2.2
Niemann,H2692Yilmaz,M2665½–½2024A45Tata Steel Challengers2.3
Santos Latasa,J2615Salem,A2630½–½2024D35Tata Steel Challengers2.4
Beukema,S2428Roebers,E23811–02024A45Tata Steel Challengers2.5
Vrolijk,L2573L'Ami,E2627½–½2024D30Tata Steel Challengers2.6
Mendonca,L2608Maurizzi,M2572½–½2024C65Tata Steel Challengers2.7
Dardha,D2602Mendonca,L2608½–½2024D43Tata Steel Challengers3.1
Divya,D2420Santos Latasa,J26151–02024E49Tata Steel Challengers3.2
Yilmaz,M2665Vrolijk,L25730–12024D37Tata Steel Challengers3.3
Salem,A2630Niemann,H2692½–½2024C67Tata Steel Challengers3.4
Maurizzi,M2572Beukema,S24281–02024D45Tata Steel Challengers3.5
Roebers,E2381Korobov,A26630–12024B85Tata Steel Challengers3.6
L'Ami,E2627Dronavalli,H25001–02024C01Tata Steel Challengers3.7

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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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