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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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
Caruana 0 - 1 Praggnanandhaa
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1.c4e62.Nc3d53.d4Nf64.cxd5exd55.Bg5c66.e3Bd67.Bd30-08.Nge2Re89.h3Nbd710.Qc2Nf811.0-0-0A brave decision by Caruana, who
goes for a game with castling on opposite sides. In this position, women's
world champion Ju Wenjun, for example, had castled short against Kateryna
Lagno in the World Rapid Championship last year.b5
A novelty. Pragg
immediately expands on the queenside.12.Kb1a513.f313.e4was an
interesting alternative, and e.g.b4Or the more positional13...Be714.e5N6d715.Bxe7Qxe716.f414.e5bxc315.Bxf6gxf616.exd6cxb2with a
wild position.13...Be714.Bxf6Bxf615.e4a416.a3b4For the time
being, Black is quicker with his pawns on the queenside - though his pieces
are somewhat undeveloped still.17.axb4a318.b3Qb619.Ka2dxe420.fxe4Bxd421.Nxd4Qxd422.b5Bd723.Bc4Qa724.bxc6Bxc625.Rhf1Re726.Nd5Rb727.Rf5
27...Rc8Caruana has handled the complications exemplarily, and
now his army looks slightly better coordinated. Both players had less than 10
minutes for 13 moves at this point (with 30-second increments per move).28.Qd3Not the most precise.Stronger is28.Qf2inviting a queen trade, e.
g.:Be828...Qxf2+29.Rxf2Re830.Ba6Ra731.Bd3Ne632.Rc2Ba833.b4
and White is for choice.29.Qxa7Rxa730.Nb6Rb831.Rd6with more active
pieces for White in the queenless position.28...Ne629.Rdf1Be830.R5f2Qb831.Rc2Nc5Pragg has dealt with the time pressure better than his more
experienced opponent, and has created a number of tactical threats connected
to a potential invasion along the b-file.32.Qe3This imprecision is the
result of a miscalculation.Better is32.Qe2which does not allow what
followed in the game, i.e.:Nxb333.Bxb3Rxb3fails to34.Ne7+with a
fork.32...Nxb333.Rb1Now33.Bxb3is not possible due toRxc2+
and the queen cannot capture the rook, like in the aforementioned line after
32.Qe2.33...Ba4
Black is winning.34.Bd3This only makes matter
worse.Nc535.Ne7+Kh836.Rxb736.Nxc8Bxc237.Rxb7Qxb7threatening
mate on b2.36...Qxb737.Ba6Qxe7With both rooks under attack, Caruana
resigned. He is a piece and a pawn down.0–1
1.e4c62.d4d53.exd5cxd54.Bd3Nf65.h3Nc66.Nf3Nb4A rarely seen
move. More often, White goes for Bb5+ or Be2, avoiding the immediate
minor-piece exchange.7.Ne5The main line goes:7.Bb5+Bd78.Bxd7+Qxd79.c3Nc610.0-0e67...Nxd3+8.Qxd3e69.Nc3A novelty by Keymer.Bd710.0-0Rc811.Re1Be712.Bg50-013.a4Be814.a5a615.Qd2Qc716.Re3Kh817.Nd3Bb518.Ne5Be819.Rf3Ng820.Bf4Qd821.Nd3Nf622.Nc5Bc623.b4Ne424.N3xe4dxe425.Rg3Qd526.Re1Qf527.c3f6
28.h4An
inaccuracy by Keymer, who should have continued to manoeuvre his pieces around.
Weakening his kingside with the h-pawn push gave Abdusattorov chances to
create tactical difficulties for his opponent in the middlegame.28.Be3Bd629.Rg4and the tense struggle continues - though Black is also for choice
here.28...e5After spending 6 of the 30 minutes he had left on the clock,
Abdusattorov makes the right decision, immediately opening up a central file.29.dxe5Rcd830.Qe3Bxc531.bxc5
At this point, Keymer had 2 minutes
to Abdusattorov's 19. Despite the time advantage, though, the Uzbek GM failed
to find the killer blow in this position.31...Rd331...g5would have ended the
game quickly, since after32.hxg5fxg533.Bxg5Rd3White cannot deal with
all the threats, now that Black's queen and rooks are perfectly coordinated -
there is a potential capture on f2, and there is no way to save the bishop
without making major concessions. E.g.:34.Qe2Rxg335.fxg3Qxg5and White
is doomed.32.Qc1fxe533.Bxe5Qxf2+34.Kh2Rxg335.Bxg3Qxc5The line
calculated by Abdusattorov still gave him a better endgame with an extra pawn,
but here White is still alive and with chances to fight for a draw in the
technical phase of the game.36.Bc7Rf737.Qd2h638.Bb6
38...Qe7
Another mistake by Abdusattorov, allowing Keymer to force the exchange of
queens.Better is38...Qh539.g3Qg640.Re3Rf1and keeping more
pieces on the board favours Black.39.Qd8+Qxd840.Bxd8Rf241.Bb6Ra242.h5e343.Rxe3Rxg2+44.Kh3Kg845.Bd4Rg146.Re7Rg547.Kh4With bishops
of opposite colours, Keymer managed to defend this position thanks to his
active pieces and careful handling of the endgame.Kf848.Rc7Be449.Bb6Kg850.Rc8+Kh751.Rc7Bf352.Bd4Bxh553.Rxb7Be254.Re7Bf155.Rf7Bc456.Re7Bd357.Kh3Bf5+58.Kh2Rg459.Rc7Bd360.Rc5Bb561.Kh3Rg662.Rc7Bf1+63.Kh4Bd364.Kh3h565.Rc5Be266.Re5Bf367.Re3Bd168.Re1Bg4+69.Kh4Kg870.Re5Rd671.Re7Rg672.Re5Rc673.Re7g674.Rb7Re675.Kg5Bf576.Rb6Kf777.Rxe6Kxe6½–½
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!
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.
Lu v. L'Ami
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.
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