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Viswanathan Anand has carried his strong start through to the fifth round, leading the table along side Anish Giri, both of whom drew. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov moved to plus two with a win over Fabiano, who is uncharacteristically struggling in Wijk aan Zee.
I still think the highlight from today's round at #TataSteelChess will be the historic introduction of #Muppets to elite events.
— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) January 17, 2018
Anand played with White against Wei Yi, who scored his first victory in round four against Gawain Jones. But against Anand the Chinese showed no great ambition, despite proving to be excellently prepared. Wei Yi answered Anand's 1.e4 with the Petroff and shook off a novelty from Anand on move 15. Although the position looked tactically complicated at first sight, Wei Yi spent only a few minutes thinking until the game was drawn on the 29th move — a sure indication of thorough home prep.
Anand: "We'd found this [Qh5] at the last minute. We had to take a decision in the car" | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
@fionchetta Cookie Monster likes your interviews. 🍪🍪🍪 pic.twitter.com/SRXruTizFf
— Dan (@AntonSquaredMe) January 17, 2018
The game between Maxim Matlakov and Sergey Karjakin was less forced, but the result was the same as between Anand and Wei. In a position on move 17 in which both sides could still play on, Matlakov and Karjakin shook hands.
Final position
After 17.axb4 b5 18.e4 Karjakin felt the game would see simplifying exchanges, yet with unbalanced material and pawn structure, once wonders if another pairing with the same moves would not have continued.
Karjakin: "I offered him a draw because I saw...we exchange everything." | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
The match between Gawain Jones and leaders Anish Giri was also unspectacular. In a Caro-Kann both avoided sides risks and called it quits after 25 moves.
The four other games of the round, however, were rich in content and interesting. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won an important game against Fabiano Caruana.
Mamedyarov: "In the last years I start to play a little bit strategical, positional." | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
Peter Svidler adds to Hou Yifan's miserey | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
Peter Svidler won against Hou Yifan, but was very self-critical after the game because he missed a simple tactical opportunity.
White had just played 20.Nxb5 and Hou Yifan responded with 20...Bd7? (better is 20...Qd8), after which Svidler could have won immediately. With 21.Nxd6 Bxa4 22.Nc8 Re6 23.Ng5! Black loses the exchange, since after 23 ... Re8 24.Nb6 follows with a double attack on the a4-bishop and the rook on a8.
But instead of 22.Nc8 Svidler played 22.Rb1 in the game, after which Hou Yifan mounted a come back. As Svidler admitted afterwards, he had completely overlooked the possibility of 23.Ng5 — he had no real explanation for this oversight. "It's a calculation which a ten-year-old child should make blindfolded", he said jokingly after the game.
But later in the game, Hou Yifan returned the compliment, as after several inaccuracies Svidler won in the end. Hou now has lost four of five games and is in clear last place.
Peter Svidler: "I have a rest day tomorrow, so that's useful." | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
GM Daniel King took a look at this game for his Powerplay Chess channel:
GM Daniel King | Powerplay Chess on YouTube
Especially dramatic was the match between Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik. In an Italian game Kramnik reached easy equality with Black. After one "impulsive" move (28.b5) — as Carlsen said after the game — the Norwegian even came under pressure and had to save himself in a rook ending, where black had two pawns extra — although doubled on the g-line. With only one g-pawn it would be a theoretical draw, but the second g-pawn made the matter "tricky" to quote Carlsen. But Carlsen defended himself precisely and saved the draw.
Carlsen: "My White games have been fairly disasterous...but I've had worse starts here." | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube
Carlsen prepared for the game by taking part in quite possibly the best chess photo ever | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel
The game between Wesley So and Adhiban Baskaran also turned out to be an interesting rook ending. After a tactical exchange of blows in a queenless middlegame, So emerged in a rook endgame with an extra pawn, which he was finally able to exploit.
All round-up shows are available in ChessBase Videos, for Premium account holders.
Br. | Title | Name | FED | ELO | Res. | Title | Name | FED | ELO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen |
|
2826 | ½ - ½ | GM | Vladimir Kramnik |
|
2794 |
3 | GM | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
|
2791 | 1 - 0 | GM | Fabiano Caruana |
|
2794 |
4 | GM | Wesley So |
|
2788 | 1 - 0 | GM | Baskaran Adhiban |
|
2671 |
5 | GM | Peter Svidler |
|
2760 | 1 - 0 | GM | Hou Yifan |
|
2678 |
6 | GM | Viswanathan Anand |
|
2783 | ½ - ½ | GM | Wei Yi |
|
2740 |
7 | GM | Maxim Matlakov |
|
2730 | ½ - ½ | GM | Sergey Karjakin |
|
2765 |
8 | GM | Gawain Jones |
|
2640 | ½ - ½ | GM | Anish Giri |
|
2762 |
After four rounds, Elmo is the surprising leader at #TataSteelChess closely followed by @anishgiri, Carlsen and Big Bird. pic.twitter.com/q4VNK2eyR8
— Tex de Wit (@texdewit) January 17, 2018
Commentary by GM Robin van Kampen and FM Tex de Wit | Tata Steel Chess YouTube
The Challengers tournament was quite stormy fifth round. One of the decisive matches was the encounter between Bassem Amin and Dmitry Gordievsky. Beginners are always taught that you should develop your pieces in the opening before going pawn grabbing. But grandmasters like to violate rules — which in this case led to a spectacular defeat.
Front runner Vidit Gujrathi played a draw against Erwin L'Ami and Anton Korobov took the opportunity to take take sole lead with victory over Jorden van Foreest. Korobov benefited from a tactical blackout from his opponent after after the opening phase.
Matthias Blübaum had to fight against Michal Krasenkow for a long time, but in the end he was able to save a draw.
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
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