Tata Steel Chess: Carlsen, the Roger Federer of chess
1/29/2018 – Magnus Carlsen scored his record sixth Tata Steel Chess tournament win, on the same day tennis legend Roger Federer won his sixth Australian Open title. Draws from the tournament leaders in the Masters forced a playoff blitz match, which Magnus won with seeming ease. Challengers leader Vidit made a solid draw which secured him the top spot and automatic invitation to next year's Masters. And there will be a next year; at the conclusion of the round, it was announced that the tournament was guaranteed for January 11-27, 2019. Analysis and commentary by GM Daniel Fernandez | Photo: Alina l'Ami Tata Steel Chess on Facebook
Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen
Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.
Blitz decides
As the players started the final round in Wijk aan Zee, on the other side of the world in Melbourne, Australia, Roger Federer was making history winning his sixth Australian Open title, tying the all-time record, and his 20th Grand Slam event (a record that it's hard to see ever being broken). Chess fans in Melbourne woke up Monday morning to a new six-time Tata Steel Chess tournament winner: World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Much as Federer's feat took a full match of five sets to accomplish, Carlsen relied on his blitz accumen to carry the day, after a pair of last round draws left the leaders Carlsen and Anish Giri tied with 9 / 13, which has been the winning tally since 2015. Carlsen was the heavy favourite, not only due to his rating edge (he ends the tournament at 2843, his highest rating since November, 2016), but also because of his unbleamished record in rapid and blitz tiebreaks, going back over a decade.
In any other year, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen would have been "co-winners" | Photos: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
Unlike Federer, who won a slew of tournaments in 2017, this was Carlsen's first classical round-robin tournament win since July, 2016 in Bilbao. At the closing press conference he called that "a big deal", adding "it was a huge relief already for me before today that I actually played kind of decently here, apart from blundering a piece [referring to round eight -Ed.], I don't think I made major mistakes." That stands in contrast, Magnus noted, to recent tournaments such as the London Chess Classic and the Sinquefield Cup during which his play was much more uneven.
This was the first time that a blitz playoff was used to determine the winner in Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen said afterward that he thought it was important to settle a tournament winner over the board, via a tiebreak match, or else it's better to treat players who tie for first as "shared winners", as has been done in the past editions.
Impressions from Round 13
The start of the grand finale at the 80th Tata Steel Chess tournament | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
The tiebreak
Carlsen had white in the first game, and went for a quick queen trade. He maintained a tiny advantage until liquidating into a winning bishop endgame. "A very clean technical win," noted live commentator GM Eric Hansen. That meant that Giri was forced to strike back in his white game.
In the second game Giri played 1.e4 and Magnus calmly finished adjusting his pieces even after his clock had begun to tick. Giri sacrificed a piece for two pawns and immediately Carlsen started grimacing. He decided to give back the piece immediately and instead play a pawn down, with a minute less on the clock to boot. Carlsen's 27...Rde8 came with sort of shrug, but Anish spent all of his time advantage and more and that really hurt him. Carlsen managed to get maximum activation for his pieces, and ensure a draw.
Replay the full tiebreak:
The first game begins at 6:34:25 | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
Tiebreak games (annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez)
One tweet in a row without any dubious jokes and puns: thank you all for your support, great result @tatasteelchess , tremendous achievement for my team, my fans and myself! Special thanks to my sponsor @OptiverEurope #TataSteelChess
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) January 28, 2018
Three-time winner (the only three times he played!) Garry Kasparov congratulated Magnus:
Since it is @MagnusCarlsen's record sixth @TataSteelChess victory, I could save time by retweeting previous congratulations. But winning supertournaments never gets old, so neither should the tweets! https://t.co/J5dZ94U0Cm
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 28, 2018
Both Giri and Carlsen had black, and the last round attracted quite a crowd | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
A half point back
Vladimir Kramnik's third place finish was first among the participants in the upcoming Candidates tournament. His last round win allowed him to edge past Mamedyarov on Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak score. Long gone are the days of rueful fans cracking jokes about "Drawnik" — in fact Kramnik played the most decisive games of any plus scorer in either tournament (Hou Yifan lost eight games). That, in part, helped him win the Vugar Gashimov "Fair Play Award" awarded by Sarkhan Gashimov (Vugar's older brother), who initiated the prize three years ago: Previous winners in 2017 were Baskaran Adhiban in the Masters and Canadian GM Eric Hansen in the Challengers.
"It's nice to get at least some trophy, if not the main one, but still something for my kids to play with." Kramnik hadn't played in TSC since 2011, but for no special reason. He feld some nostalgia for the tournament while watching as a spectator last year, and reached out to the organisers to see about playing once again. "For me coming to Wijk aan Zee after seven years break was like a new place. It was like a new tournament. Maybe that's also the reason why I played so many interesting and decisive games." He noted that 20 years ago he also had six wins and two losses, the one time he shared first in the tournament (with Anand).
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ended the tournament fourth, but was upbeat after his last round draw with Vishy Anand. 'Shak' noted that in his first trip to Wijk aan Zee he scored 4½ points in thirteen games. This year he had the same score after six games. He also ends the tournament solidly in posession of the number two spot on the Elo list with a career best rating of 2814. When asked if this was his last tournament before the Candidates he inadvertantly broke the news of the upcoming Tal Memorial, which has yet to be announced on the Russian Chess Federation web site. But Russian guests at TSC familiar with the planning said it will be a rapid and blitz tournament in Moscow from March 2nd to 5th. Therefore for Mamedyarov it'll be a warm-up of sorts for the Candidates tournament which starts just a few days later. Among other players (to be confirmed) expected are Hikaru Nakamura, Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler.
Final standings
Analysis and comments by GM Daniel Fernandez
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
In Karjakin-Carlsen, one of the tournament leaders made a relatively safe draw with Black from the Black side of a Spanish sideline. Only White ever seemed to be in any danger and indeed probably Black could have played on a bit if he'd wanted.
Winning with the Ruy Lopez Vol. 1: Berlin Wall and others
Among the open games the only opening with which White can really fight for an advantage in the long term is the Ruy Lopez. But in order to make this serious effort, he has buckle down and learn a whole series of sub-variations. That is what the professionals do, including of course Viktor Bologan, who now reveals the secrets of his own grandmaster repertoire.
Carlsen: "I thought it would be reasonable to play solidly today" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Wei Yi ½-½ Anish Giri
Likewise in Wei-Giri, the other tournament leader navigated the move-order subtleties of a Meran-type position sufficiently well to equalise with Black. He could also have perhaps played on a few more moves at the end, just to see how White untangled, but chose not to. Interestingly, the thought process involved in his opening decisions seemed not to stick in his mind long — he could have used it during the tiebreaks...
The English Opening with 1.c4 is one of the most subtle yet combative means of starting a chess game which has found favour with many of the great players in history. On this DVD Davies tells you everything you need to know to start playing the English in tournament games, showing how White should react to Black’s different set-ups using 40 illustrative games.
Giri: Based on "how many tiebreaks Magnus has won, the pressure's on him." | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Mamedyarov-Anand could have produced one more last-minute leader to join those two, but in an optically slightly better endgame White failed to find a way to set his opponent enough problems, and indeed in analysis I have the same issue, so it is hard to blame him. The opening, however, was (for the second time running for Vishy!) of tremendous historical value, and I have made a summary of the main points in the notes.
Power Play 23: A Repertoire for black with the Queen's Gambit Declined
On this DVD Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black with the QGD. The repertoire is demonstrated in 10 stem games, covering all White's major systems: 5 Bg5, 5 Bf4, and the Exchange Variation.
Mamedyarov: "I never win against him in my life" | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Anand: Plus three is not a bad result but you shouldn't get too impressed either | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Wesley So 1-0 Hou Yifan
So-Hou featured another slightly strange Black opening from the female player (Anand-Hou and Jones-Hou from a few days ago fell into this category too.) Again, detailed analysis shows that it was probably okay, and I have indicated where the line can be patched, but the overall impression is one of under-preparation rather than mistaken preparation. White's central pawns played a nuanced role to perfection in the final attack, which manages to succeed without explicit use of any complicated tactics whatsoever.
The Catalan: A complete repertoire for White!
The Catalan is one of the most solid openings for White. It forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. Grandmaster Victor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Suffice it to say that the Catalan rules!
Baskaran Adhiban 0-1 Vladimir Kramnik
Adhiban-Kramnik was a great shame for the Indian player — having allowed his world champion opponent to equalise from the opening (by move 10), he then outplays Kramnik (!), and could have reached a selection of pawn-up endgames, but then loses his nerve, begins to repeat, and then, undoubtedly in time pressure, makes a totally uncharacteristic exchange sacrifice which simply doesn't work.
The King’s Indian Attack is a unique opening system in that it offers White a dynamic and interesting game but without the need to know reams of theory. In addition to being easy to learn it has an excellent pedigree, leading exponents including great players such as Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian, David Bronstein, Viktor Korchnoi, Leonid Stein and Lev Psakhis. It is playable as either a complete, self-contained opening system or as part of a regular 1.e4 repertoire. On this DVD Davies presents a complete repertoire for White as well as the lines he can use to supplement a King’s Pawn repertoire. Having had extensive experience in these positions he is able to communicate the plans and ideas in lucid fashion. Video running time: more than 5 hours.
Round-up show with GM Daniel King
All games
Full commentary
Commentary by GM Eric Hansen and GM Jan Smeets (and guests) | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
Challengers
Vidit Gujrathi capped off a phenomenal week with a draw that secured a tie for first place with 9 / 13. He had no way of knowing how the tiebreak scores would shake out should Anton Korobov manage a win with black, but not long after his game, Korobov's position deteriorated, and Vidit could relax. Ultimately Korobov would lose, which made no difference compared to a draw for his own final position in clear second place.
The post-mortem of Vidit and van Foreest attracted the interest of Anatoly Karpov | Photo: Macauley Peterson
Vidit Gujrathi ½-½ Jorden van Foreest (annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez)
Vidit: "I thought I should play a bit but not risk too much."
Final standings
All games
Correction 9:30 CET: This story initially noted that TSC 2018 was Carlsen's "first classical tournament win since July, 2016", however the word "round-robin" was omitted. He also won the Chess.com Isle of Man Open.
Links
- Official site
- Round 12: "Tomorrow is the wedding night"
- Challengers: Vidit has the edge
- Round 11: Tied trio
- Round 10: And then there were three (again)
- Round 9: Giri makes his move
- Round 8: A three horse race
- Round 7: Carlsen gets it going
- Round 6: Reversals of fortune
- Round 5: 'Shak' joins Anand, Anish
- Round 4: Kramnik shines
- Round 3: Anand ups the ante
- Round 2: Giri grabs early lead
- Round 1: And they're off!
- Wijk aan Zee turns 80 — and other stats
- On the bucket list: Wijk aan Zee
- Tata Steel Chess 2018 field complete
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
I thought Magnus is Carlsen, Federer is Mozart, Anand is Federer. Please! I'm confused! Who is who?
AIekhine summarised the tournament quite nicely. Giri no longer a winner due to some silly rules.
I'd have to agree with Taric. Magnus is fantastic and has amassed a tone of credit to his name. But I wouldn't call him the Roger Federer of chess....not yet at least. To get to Roger Federer class he has to win more championships and then even after a possible fall out or decline in his performance, make another come back run to win another championship!
Sounds impossible, yet it's very possible with Magnus.
Sounds impossible, yet it's very possible with Magnus.
Nice article! I don't think that Carlsen is the Roger Federer of chess. I think that title belongs to Kasparov or Korchnoi...to a player that was at the top of chess well past their physical prime.
A blitz tiebreak for a 13 round tournament at normal time control? This is the nadir of absurdity and injustice. Carlsen "won" the tournament and Giri "lost". Yes, I'm convinced. Next year, they should use a "helpmate" solving contest as a tiebreak. That too, is distantly related to what the players did for over two weeks in the tournament. This pathetic charade didn't do anything except cheapen the tournament. Why are the organizers so desperate to manufacture a "winner" in a field in which the draw is a common, respectable result?
@Aighearach: I heard in the press room that Giri would only shave when he wins a supertournament (never clear how reliable such secondary sources are). If that's true, we will be deprived of/spared a reincarnation of Aman Hambleton: Giri considered himself (co-)winner of the event and did shave after the round and before the playoff - see first photo in this article and some of my own closeup pictures.
@Macauley (or someone else in charge of picture captions): "In any other year, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen would have been 'co-winners' " isn't all true: a playoff was also foreseen in 2017, but not needed as Wesley So finished clear first.
@Macauley (or someone else in charge of picture captions): "In any other year, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen would have been 'co-winners' " isn't all true: a playoff was also foreseen in 2017, but not needed as Wesley So finished clear first.
I know Giri used to be famous for his fashion sense, but he should really either feed that poor emaciated caterpillar some solid food, or just shave it off already.
Perhaps Kramnik said that because the process of playing 13 classical games lasts around 50 hours (at 4 hours per classical game) of playing + many more hours of preparation over 17 days, while the tie-break lasted around half an hour in total.
Kramnik said that they are both winners to him, and this blitz tiebreak makes no sense
@sdd - Thanks. Corrected.
It is inaccurate to say "this was Carlsen's first classical tournament win since July, 2016 in Bilbao." He won the Isle of Man tournament in October 2017.
Have to admire Anish Giri though. Given his reputation for draws, it was refreshing to see him win many games and tie for first place.
I completely agree with Magnus, during his interview, that tiebreakers should always be settled on the board and not through calculations.
Congratulations to the Roger Federer of chess (and Anish Giri) to the tournament win! Always a fantastic effort to be at the top without any loss to your name :)
There was one guy though, who lost two games, but still would have won the tournament (joint first with playoff) because of his six wins. Question: Any thoughts of using the 3-1-0 system in the future to reward such daring quests? Please know I don't know if it has been used in earlier editions.
Congrats also to Vidit and good luck to his campaign in the A-group in 2019.
Thanks to Tata Steel, organizers, players, commentators, audience and anyone I might have forgot! Naturally also thanks to Chessbase for the reports! It is brilliant to be able to follow the action and learn something at the same time this way!
There was one guy though, who lost two games, but still would have won the tournament (joint first with playoff) because of his six wins. Question: Any thoughts of using the 3-1-0 system in the future to reward such daring quests? Please know I don't know if it has been used in earlier editions.
Congrats also to Vidit and good luck to his campaign in the A-group in 2019.
Thanks to Tata Steel, organizers, players, commentators, audience and anyone I might have forgot! Naturally also thanks to Chessbase for the reports! It is brilliant to be able to follow the action and learn something at the same time this way!
Surely Carlsen is the Carlsen of Chess. I don't think that Roger Federer holds a candle to Carlsen at Chess.
I'm surprised they got right from classical to blitz thats a bit extreme. I would have thought at least 25 min games first then blitz.
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