Chess News
In Friday's preview, we noted some key historical stats, and one you will definitely want to keep in mind is the record for the most Wijk aan Zee tournament wins, currently shared by Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, with five apiece. Anand has the upper hand for the moment, defeating the newcomer to Wijk aan Zee, Maxim Matlakov, in round one.
It's a bit surprising that Vladimir Kramnik has competed in Wijk eleven times, yet finished in first place only once — in his first attempt 20 years ago in 1998 — when he tied with Anand on 8½ / 13. In Saturday's first round, he overcame Wei Yi, who is making his third consecutive appearance in the Masters group (he finished with 6½ in 2016, and 7½ in 2017).
As usual the opening weekend of #tsct18 has drawn huge numbers of both chess players and fans to Wijk aan Zee - it's good to see a packed room here at the De Moriaan for the start of round 1. pic.twitter.com/tSa3l8XxTc
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 13, 2018
Click or tap a player name to see rating progression, or on a result to open a game via live.chessbase.com
The battle between the two rating favourites turned out to be a bit of a non-event. Black essayed the Petroff, and in a manner reminiscent of the final classical game of his title defense last year, Carlsen opted to play uncritically and take pieces off. Nobody likes to start a tournament with a loss! However, due to inefficiencies in his vacuuming procedure he found himself in some small difficulties at one point. My comments below are necessarily rather 'hand-waving' in nature, and there are no long lines.
A solid start for Caruana; black against Magnus is generally not a welcome first round pairing | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
Caruana commented after the game, "I kind of felt like I don't have to force a draw. I thought I had a promising position with my knight on d5 and my pawns advancing. But maybe I was a bit too ambitious."
GM Yannick Pelletier also took a look for our daily round-up show, which you can see live at 21:00 CET (3 pm EST):
Round-up show (part 1)
Equally uneventful was the game between the English GM Gawain Jones and Carlsen's opponent from the above-mentioned encounter.
Jones: "I knew I couldn't out prepare him" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
The final draw was arguably quieter in terms of chances for advantages, but it is a bit less boring thanks to the opening, which I have felt the need to comment on at length.
The next game was one where both myself and the engine are convinced of White's opening edge, and then suddenly it isn't there anymore. And this occurs not once but twice! The chess culture of Peter Svidler is arguably the greatest in the world, but in this unprincipled Short System position he was not able to keep a tight enough grip on his opponent's resources.
Baskaran Adhiban makes his second appearance in the Masters. He scored 7½ / 13 (3rd place) in 2017 | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
When it comes to wins, we begin with the one I felt was least likely to happen. The second Petroff of the round was presumably Black's attempt at starting off solidly, but one cannot play for a draw against a master of draws. Nevertheless, it almost came off, and Black survived an awkward queen ending only to make an instructive mistake in a pawn ending.
After the win, Giri was asked about his brief stint (mid-round) as world number two a few years ago, and subsequent slide in the world rankings:
Giri: "One game doesn't mean anything" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Next we see a game that was a bit 'all over the place'. White's tactics seem to fizzle out multiple times, but ultimately the knights are just very tricky pieces and in moves 30-40 king safety is of extra importance...
In his post-game interview, Anand was asked about the tournament wins record shared with Carlsen, and pointed out that Magnus' wins all came in the years after Anand's last (in 2006, when Carlsen one the Challengers — then called 'Group B').
"If I win now, I'm winning after 12 years, so it's not like I've been blazing but, well, I'll try for sure."
Follow Anand's comments in the game viewer above! | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
GM Pelletier also dove into this game in his live re-cap of the day's highlights:
Round-up Show (part 2) available at Videos.ChessBase.com
Finally, a technical masterpiece, because I always prefer technique to tactics! Wei Yi might be a future world champion, but even he must still respect that which has come before.
Asked if he and Anand could "show the youngsters who's really the boss" he quipped, "I'm afraid they know already that we are not, so I don't think they have any illusions, and we also do not."
Commentary by GM Robin van Kampen and Yasser Seirawan | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Jorden van Foreest, Anton Korobov and Dmitry Gordievsky all won their respective games, to take the early lead in the Challengers group. Van Foreest was obliged to "beat up" his little brother! It's wouldn't be unusual for the arbiters to ensure siblings (or teammates) play each other in the first round, to avoid any possibile appearence of conflict of interest later on, but in this case it looks like it simply happened by chance:
The draw for the Challengers! #TSCT18 #tatasteelchess pic.twitter.com/xWu2B5qxuZ
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 11, 2018
GM @jordenvforeest on beating his brother Lucas: pic.twitter.com/EQQA4iA9s7
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 13, 2018
Van Foreest's brief remarks after the game
Alina l'Ami is publishing delightful photo galleries to the tournament's Facebook page.
You can now find all of @alinalami's photos from #tsct18 round 1 on our Facebook gallery: https://t.co/SQTXSYntr7 pic.twitter.com/YCeQcmIBdM
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 13, 2018
All rounds start at 13:30 CET except where noted.
