Tata Steel Chess: 'Shak' joins Anand, Anish

Mamedyarov makes a trio

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.

Round 5 impressions

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.

The Queen's Gambit accepted

Flexible plans for Black and strong weapons against the majority of White’s deviations from the main line are presented in an easy-to-understand manner. Most of the key ideas are illustrated with great examples from notable games between famous chess titans including Kasparov, Anand, Petrosian, Smyslov, and Kharlov. In this DVD, FM Lilov will teach you a plan for Black with a6, b5, Bb7, Nbd7 and c5, which is one of the best ways to meet White’s Queen’s Gambit. For those of you who like to experiment more in the opening, the FIDE Master has prepared a creative plan with Bg4.

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. 

The Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation

The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation is one of the most important opening systems, having been played by most of the great players in history and from both sides of the board. The most outstanding specialists in this method of play include Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky. The Black side proponents include Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky and Paul Keres. It is truly an opening of champions!

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. 

Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames

Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.

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.

Simon Williams' round-up of Round 5:

All round-up shows are available in ChessBase Videos, for Premium account holders.

Round 5 results

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

Standings after round five

All games (rounds 1-5)

Full commentary

Commentary by GM Robin van Kampen and FM Tex de Wit | Tata Steel Chess YouTube

Challengers

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.

My best games in the Spanish Vol. 1

Let Shirov show you how to break down the super-solid Berlin Defence. There are not many top grandmasters who enjoy such a great popularity among chess fans all over the world like Alexei Shirov. Thanks to his aggressive and ingenious playing style, commentators often compare him with the former world champion Mikhail Tal. He often sacrifices material easily in return for initiative and complications where he always seems to be just one step ahead of his opponent – following Shirov’s games is like watching “fire on the board”. Now the genius from Riga presents and explains his best games in a series of training DVDs in the Chess Media System.

Matthias Blübaum had to fight against Michal Krasenkow for a long time, but in the end he was able to save a draw.

Standings after round five

All games (rounds 1-5)

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Links

• Official site
• 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