Chess News
The final weekend in the Masters is shaping up to be quite an exciting one. With three players tied for first, Magnus Carlsen predicted today that the winner will need to finish strong with 1½ points from the final two rounds. In the event of a tie, however, he figures his successful track record in tiebreak games should favor him. In addition to the leaders on 7½ — Carlsen, Anish Giri, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov — Vishy Anand is still very much in the running with 7 points amassed.
Scenes from round eleven, back in Wijk aan Zee | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
Sergey Karjakin has made a late charge, beating Fabiano Caruana in round seven and Vladimir Kramnik today. Karjakin, who had a difficult 2017, has passed Russian Champion Peter Svidler in the live rankings and is closing in on Alexander Grischuk. Today's win over Kramnik also has psychological significance, as he explained after the game, due to the fact that both his victims are also Candidates in Berlin in six weeks time. With white against Magnus in the final round, he still has an outside chance to catch the leaders and make his 20 days away from home worthwhile.
Не видеть 20 дней семью очень тяжело😑... Но осталось немного и можно домой😉!
— Sergey Karjakin (@SergeyKaryakin) January 23, 2018
It is hard not to see my family for 20 days😐. But very soon we will meet😉! pic.twitter.com/xjalU0603y
Mamedyarov-Carlsen featured an unusually compliant opening from the World Champion, where he strove to simply equalise and neutralise rather than doing anything spectacular. It is a shame that quite often games between tournament leaders go this way. There might have been one or two chances for Mamedyarov to make something of his bishop pair, but once those had passed the game was headed very swiftly to a draw.
Carlsen: It's a decent result but I'm not really satisfied with the way it went early on | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Still a frontrunner | Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
Caruana-Giri was an interesting game to look at, being one of those where White's advantage drifts in and out of being for no discernible reason. The opening was a London, where White played a creative and quick g4, and soon it looked more like some kind of Petroff (despite the pawn on e6!) The tactical subtleties at the end, connected with the duel between the respective centralised minor pieces of each side, are noteworthy.
Caruana: I sort of lost motivation...everything went wrong from the start | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Giri: "I chose to play very safe" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Anand-Hou featured a line I've never looked at much, but maybe I should after today. Like many pseudo-Grunfeld things (i.e. Black recaptures on d5 with a knight at some point and then takes on c3) it should objectively equalise for Black but is hard to play over the board. Certainly with the simplifications initiated by Hou Yifan it was difficult to see her ending up anything but worse, and Anand demonstrated (once again) quite clinical technique to clinch it. It must be said that he has a habit of getting into 'better' positions that nevertheless appear to 'win themselves' — against Matlakov, Jones and now Hou in the same event!
After the win, Anand analysed the game with GM Eric Hansen on the live webcast:
Anand and Hansen towards the end of round 11 | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Mamedyarov faces Anand in Sunday's final round, while Giri has Adhiban and Wei yet to come | Photos: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
Karjakin-Kramnik was an interesting Catalan duel between the man who has been playing most Catalans in this event, and the one who has played the most Catalans in his life. After playing a slightly slack 14th move Black soon found himself in quite big trouble, ironically, centred on the very file which his 14th had contested.
Sergey Karjakin, happy on plus two with two to go | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Not Kramnik's day | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
So-Jones was a game in two parts: the opening battle was really interesting, though brief — it was over by move 14 and White had a better position. The second real part of the game came when Wesley chose to play 29.Nh7!?, allowing Black's fortress chances to become much more explicit. It is something of a pity that Black cracked quickly and gave a pawn, because the fortress possibilities were really interesting.
Jones: "I was one move away from drawing this one" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
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Commentary by GM Eric Hansen and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Vidit and Korobov finally crossed swords after jointly leading the tournament for several rounds, but with a 1½ point gap between them and their nearest rivals, a draw was naturally a reasonable result for both. In round twelve both will be heavy rating favourites to win facing Girya and Lucas van Foreest respectively.
