2/1/2025 – The fight for first place remains fierce in both sections of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament with two rounds to go. In the Masters, Gukesh Dommaraju retained the sole lead, but Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu closed the gap by scoring a crucial win over Fabiano Caruana. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Erwin l'Ami emerged as the new sole leader after defeating Lu Miaoyi, while Thai Dai Van Nguyen suffered a setback against Frederik Svane. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes
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YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Benko Gambit is back at the very highest level - and it's easy to see why. Black sacrifices a pawn to seize the initiative on the queenside, obtaining long-lasting pressure, active pieces and open files that make life difficult for White.
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A three-horse race
With two rounds to go, three players remain in the fight for the title at the Tata Steel Masters. Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning world champion, is still the sole leader, with 8 points to his name, while Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu stand a half point behind. Three players are sharing fourth place a full two points behind the leader and do not have realistic chances of claiming the title.
Round 11 on Friday saw Pragg catching Abdusattorov by scoring a memorable win over Fabiano Caruana. The youngster showed stronger nerves than his more experienced opponent to prevail amid a double-edged middlegame in which both contenders were dealing with pressing time trouble. This was Pragg's second consecutive win, which came after his loss in round 9 against Anish Giri.
This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.
Abdusattorov, on his part, could easily be tied for first at this point, as he missed a huge chance to catch Gukesh in his game against Vincent Keymer. The Uzbek GM got a clear advantage, but failed to find a killer blow on move 31, and then mistakenly allowed a queen exchange while still in the driver's seat.
Pragg was not the only winner of the day, though, as Giri, Pentala Harikrishna and Leon Luke Mendonca also collected full points. Mendonca thus obtained his first win of the event, as he defeated Vladimir Fedoseev with the black pieces. The winner of last year's Challengers had three times lost with black in the previous rounds.
Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning world champion, remains as the sole leader in the Masters | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
In this Video-Course we deal with different dynamic decisions involving pawns. The aim of this Course is to arm club/tournament players with fresh ideas which they can use in their own practice.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov tried hard but could not defeat Vincent Keymer | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes
From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!
Round 11 results
Standings
All games
Challengers: L'Ami leapfrogs Nguyen
Five out of seven games ended decisively in the Challengers section, including three games that greatly impacted the top of the standings. Frederik Svane defeated Thai Dai Van Nguyen, who entered the round as the sole leader; Erwin l'Ami, who was Nguyen's closest chaser, beat Lu Miaoyi; and Aydin Suleymanli got the better of Vaishali Rameshbabu. These results left L'Ami in sole first place, followed closely by Nguyen and Suleymanli a half point back.
Curiously, all three games that impacted the top of the standings featured the eventual winner converting his advantage in a superior rook endgame. Not all rook endgames are drawn!
L'Ami, for example, had five pawns to Lu's four in a rook ending.
Svane, on his part, made the most of his outside passer in a position with four versus four pawns against Nguyen.
To avoid theory battles in well-known lines against Ruy Lopez (Berlin, Open Variation or the Marshall Attack), Sergey Tiviakov invites you into the world of an extraordinary early queen move for White: Qe2 – elegant, effective and easy to learn!
Friday's round also saw Divya Deshmukh beating Irina Bulmaga and Nodirbek Yakubboev defeating Faustino Oro. In both cases, the winner had the black pieces.
This was Frederik Svane's second win in a row | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes
Erwin l'Ami | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos 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.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Keep it simple. Stay objective. Watch the clock. Sometimes take the risk. GM Loek van Wely explains the ten principles that decide real games. They aren’t about theory. They’re about what you do at the board when it counts.
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The Nimzo-Indian has stood the test of time for over a century: Still a top choice for elite players today, from Magnus Carlsen to Praggnanandhaa, it remains one of Black's most reliable ways to fight for real chances against 1.d4 2.c4 3.Nc3.
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4!? is an opening idea well worth considering. Black immediately threatens to double the pawns on c3 in the style of the Trompowski or Sicilian Grand Prix attack.
In this 60-minute video course you’ll learn how to use the Austrian Defence as a practical weapon for Black!
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