Tata Steel Chess R7: Abdusattorov and Gukesh score, catch Giri in the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/21/2024 – The standings in both the Masters and Challengers were shaken up in round 7 of the Tata Steel Chess Festival. In the Masters, Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated former sole leader Anish Giri and is now tied for first place — both with Giri and with Gukesh D., who scored a third consecutive victory on Saturday. In the Challengers, Saleh Salem took the lead after beating Eline Roebers and seeing former leader Erwin l’Ami losing to Jaime Santos. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

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The same frontrunners from 2023

Last year, Nodirbek Abdusattorov entered the final round of the Tata Steel Masters as the sole leader, with a half-point advantage over Anish Giri and a full-point advantage over Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So. The Uzbek star lost to Jorden van Foreest in the final round, though, allowing Giri to overtake him in the final standings thanks to his victory over Richard Rapport.

Now, after beating Giri in round 7 (they drew their direct encounter in 2023), Abdusattorov is sharing the lead with the defending champion and with Gukesh D., who collected three wins in a row to recover from his consecutive losses in rounds 3 and 4.

Giri tried (and managed) to surprise his opponent in the opening, going for the Petroff Defence. Abdusattorov, however, reacted excellently, entering the sideline with 5.c4, which turned the tables in the theoretical struggle — according to the eventual winner of the game, Giri apparently forgot some of his preparation in this line.

Abdusattorov got to push his c-pawn to the fourth rank again, with 34.c4, showing great technique to convert his positional advantage.

Abdusattorov v. Giri

After 34...bxc4 35.bxc5 dxc5 36.Rxd7+ Kxd7 37.Kc3 Kc6 38.Kxc4, White gets a clearly superior minor-piece endgame.

The pawn structure favours the knight, while the outside passed pawn is a headache for Black. Abdusattorov patiently improved his position until getting a crucial 60-move win. (Find below full analysis of the game by GM Karsten Müller).

Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov

The opening phase of the all-important confrontation between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Anish Giri | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Sharing the lead with Giri and Abdusattorov is Gukesh, who has played six consecutive decisive games in Wijk aan Zee. After drawing Abdusattorov in the first round, he won four times and lost twice to go into round 8 tied for first place with 4½/7 points. The prodigy from Chennai has collected three wins in a row following the rest day.

In round 7, Gukesh got the better of Max Warmerdam with the white pieces. Warmerdam, a student of economics at Tilburg University, prepared a long theoretical line which involved a pawn sacrifice.

At this point, after White’s 23rd move, the queens had just left the board, leading to a technical position in which only Gukesh could fight for a win. Remarkably, though, Warmerdam had 1 hour and 40 minutes on his clock to Gukesh’s 18 minutes!

In the end, Warmerdam’s strategy backfired, as Gukesh managed to outplay him and convert his extra pawn into a 66-move win — despite the major time disadvantage.

Max Warmerdam, Gukesh

Gukesh climbed to shared first place after winning three games in a row | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

With six rounds to go, the three co-leaders stand a half point ahead of a 3-player chasing pack consisting of Alireza Firouzja, Vidit Gujrathi and Praggnanandha R.

In another crucial game for the standings, Vidit defeated Firouzja with white on Saturday. Firouzja sacrificed a minor piece for an attack, but saw his opponent finding a number of strong tactical recourses amid a double-edged position. After winning the 42-move encounter, Vidit reflected jokingly:

I told myself, a win is like two draws, so it’s better than a draw.

With this statement, Vidit was indirectly referring to the fact that he came from drawing his first six games of the event.

Results - Round 7

Vidit Gujrathi

Vidit Gujrathi beat Alireza Firouzja | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Abdusattorov 1 - 0 Giri

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Abdusattorov, Nodirbek27271–0Giri, Anish2749
86th Tata Steel Masters 2024
Wijk aan Zee20.01.2024[Mueller,Karsten]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.c4 Be7 6.Nc3 Nxc3 7.dxc3 0-0 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.Be3 Nf6 10.h3 b6 11.Qc2 Bb7 12.0-0-0 h6 13.Rhe1 Re8 14.Bd4 c5 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Bh7+ Kh8 17.Be4 Bxe4 18.Rxe4 Qd7 19.Nd2 a6 20.Kb1 Bg5 21.Nf3 Bf6 22.Qd3 b5 23.Rxe8+ Qxe8 24.Nd2 Qe6 25.Ne4 Be7 26.Qd5 Rd8 27.cxb5 axb5 28.f4 Kg8 29.f5 Qxd5 30.Rxd5 Kf8 31.b4 Ke8 32.Kb2 Rd7 33.g4 Kd8
Beautiful breakthroughs. In the fight knight against bishop, the knight often wants control: 34.c4‼ A beautiful breakthrough. bxc4 34...cxb4 35.cxb5 Ra7 36.Nxd6+- 35.bxc5 dxc5 36.Rxd7+ Kxd7 37.Kc3 Kc6 38.Kxc4 Kb6 39.a4 Kc6 40.Nf2 Bd8 41.Ne4 Be7 42.a5 Bd8 43.a6 Be7 44.Nc3 Bg5 45.Nb5 Be3 46.h4 Kb6 47.a7 Kb7 48.h5 Ka8 49.Kd5 Kb7 50.Kd6
A really study-like win follows. 50.Nd6+ wins as well due to Kxa7 51.Nxf7 Bd4 52.Nd8 Kb6 53.Ne6+- 50...c4 51.Kd5! The point. Bxa7 51...c3 52.Nxc3 Bxa7 53.g5 hxg5 54.f6 gxf6 55.h6 g4 56.h7 g3 57.h8Q g2 58.Ne2+- 52.Nxa7 c3 52...Kxa7 runs into 53.Kxc4 Kb6 54.Kd5 Kc7 55.g5! A beautiful breakthrough. Kd7 55...f6 56.gxf6 gxf6 57.Ke6+- 56.f6 gxf6 57.gxh6 Ke7 58.h7+- 53.Nc6! c2 53...Kb6 54.Nd4+- 54.Na5+ Kc7 55.Nb3 Kd7 56.g5 A beautiful breakthrough. Ke7 56...hxg5 is met by 57.f6 gxf6 58.h6+- 57.gxh6 gxh6 58.Ke5 f6+ 59.Kd5 Kd7 60.Nc1
And Black resigend as zugzwang, the sharp endgame weapon, decides. What a knightmare! 60.Nc1 Ke7 60...Kc7 61.Ke6 Kc6 62.Kxf6 Kd5 63.Kg7 Ke4 64.f6 Ke3 65.f7 Kd2 66.Na2+- 61.Kc6 Ke8 62.Kd6 Kf7 63.Kd7 Kg7 64.Ke6+-
1–0

Anish Giri

Anish Giri | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit


Video analysis by IM Robert Ris


Standings after round 7

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Challengers: Salem takes the lead

Similarly to the Masters, the standings table in the Challengers was shaken up in the seventh round. Former sole leader Erwin l’Ami lost his first game of the event and saw Saleh Salem beating Eline Roebers to take the lead with 5/7 points.

Both Salem and Roebers came from scoring two consecutive wins. By move 26, the Emirati grandmaster had a better position with black — and Roebers decided to go for a tactical line that only made matters worse for her.

Roebers v. Salem

26.Ne4, preparing a discovered check, looks nice at first but fails to 26...dxe4 27.d5+ f6 28.dxc6 — and the deciding 28...Nxg2

The queen is twice attacked on e3, and Black emerged with a clear material advantage after 29.Qxe4 Nxe1 30.Rxe1 Rae8. Roebers resigned.

Eline Roebers, Saleh Salem

Eline Roebers and Saleh Salem | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Three more players scored full points in round 7:

  • Jaime Santos, who showed great positional understanding and inflicted a first defeat on former sole leader Erwin l’Ami.
  • Divya Deshmukh, who collected her second victory of the event by beating Liam Vrolijk with the white pieces.
  • Leon Luke Mendonca, who defeated Stefan Beukema (expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller is presented below).

Standing a half point behind sole leader Salem are L’Ami, Anton Korobov and Marc’Andria Maurizzi, with Santos and Mendonca standing a half point further back.

Results - Round 7

Mendonca 1 - 0 Beukema

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Mendonca, Leon Luke26081–0Beukema, Stefan2428
86th Tata Steel Challengers 2024
Wijk aan Zee20.01.2024[Mueller,Karsten]
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Be2 dxc4 7.a4 Bd6 8.Nd2 e5 9.Nxc4 Bc7 10.b3 exd4 11.Qxd4 Nb6 12.Qxd8+ Kxd8 13.Ba3 Be6?!
This is very dubious. 13...Nxc4 14.Bxc4 Be6 is called for. 14.Nd6 Bxd6 15.Bxd6 Bxb3 16.Rb1 Bc4?
This novelty runs into a mighty blow. 16...Be6 17.a5 Nc4 is forced to limit the damage. 17.Rxb6! axb6 17...Bxe2 18.Rxb7 Bc4 19.f3+- is also hopeless as the opposite colored bishops favor the attacker. 18.Bxc4 b5?! Desperation, but there is no salvation anyway, e.g. 18...Kd7 19.Be5 b5 20.axb5 Ng4 21.Bg3 Ra1+ 22.Nd1 f6 23.Be2+- 19.Bxf7 Kd7 20.Ba3 bxa4 21.Ke2!? In the endgame the king should often be used actively. b5 22.e4 Kc7 23.e5 Ng4 24.f4 Nh6 25.Ba2 Rhd8 26.Rc1 Kb7 27.Ne4 Nf5 28.g4 White's pawn phalanx will just roll down the board. Nd4+ 29.Ke3 Nb3 30.Rb1 Na5 31.f5 Kb6 32.g5 Nb7 33.e6 c5 34.f6 gxf6 35.gxf6 b4 36.f7 b3 37.Bxb3
Black's passed pawns are eliminated and White's pawns will decide the day. 37...axb3 38.Rxb3+ Kc6 39.e7 Re8 40.Rxb7 Rxa3+ 40...Kxb7 41.fxe8Q Rxe8 42.Nd6++- 41.Kf4 41.Kf4 Kxb7 42.fxe8Q+-
1–0

Tata Steel Chess 2024

Chess fans of all ages | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Standings after round 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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