Tata Steel Chess: Giri makes his move

Anish advances to first

A very big win with black from the Dutch number one, who beat the Wijk rookie Maxim Matlakov, which gets Giri back into the top ten in the world in the live rankings. Giri has been playing in the Masters tournament every year since 2011.

Meeting Anish Giri | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube

On the rest day evening, the players attended a gala dinner with managers of Tata Steel, the tournament sponsor. Anish took the opportunity that presented itself to troll World Champion Magnus Carlsen:

Having a good time with the TataSteel managers at the management evening. One person left without getting his dessert. Blunder or a sacrifice? #TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/SrWqRX2RcO

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) January 22, 2018

That's of course a reference to Carlsen's game on Sunday with Gawain Jones, when Magnus blundered a bishop, but still won the game.

But Magnus returned the favour! Touche!

Banter or obsession? That's the real question https://t.co/bFUuToXfBH

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) January 22, 2018

On paper, Giri had the easiest pairing of the three tournament leaders. Carlsen had black against Anand, and Mamedyarov had to contend with Kramnik. Giri, while black, faced the Maxim Matlakov who has been in the middle of the pack throughout the tournament.

According to GM Fernandez, "Giri rolled the dice a few times in today's game", but it was ultimately a sudden blunder from Matlakov that gave him the point, seemingly out of nowhere.

Analysis and comments by GM Daniel Fernandez

Maxim Matlakov 0-1 Anish Giri

The opening battle was very interesting, thanks to Anish's willingness to take risks, but both sides missed some very instructive tactics.

The Slav and Semi-Slav revisited

For Shirov the Slav and the Semi-Slav form one huge and common opening. Of course it is a mighty opening complex and the DVD cannot give a complete picture of it, but in the areas he chooses to highlight our author is an absolute expert and capable of giving the deepest possible insights into the secrets of this extremely solid opening.

Giri: "The pressure is on Magnus Carlsen because of my obsessions." | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube

Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

There was an interesting near-new opening idea in the Breyer demonstrated by Magnus Carlsen. To compensate somewhat for the lack of interest in the game itself (White steered it in quite safe fashion to a draw) I have copied quite extensively from my own opening notes on the Breyer.

The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation

Pavel Eljanov explains in depth what Gyula Breyer already saw in 1911 and what became an opening choice of the likes of Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen. The Breyer Variation, which is characterised by the knight retreat to b8.

Carlsen:  | Tata Steel Chess on YouTube

Wesley So ½-½ Peter Svidler

Next, we see Wesley So mixing up his opening choice a bit, with a flank-type d4 construction of a sort quite familiar to this author. He gets an edge, but as seems to be a recurring pattern in this tournament, the bishop-for-knight imbalance neutralises and ultimately threatens to flip over Wesley's advantage, so he hastily agrees a draw.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik

A line which is familiar to me from the game Anton-Howell from last year was repeated with minor modifications in the next game. Black played against the Italian with an early ...d5 and then offered a gambit, which was sensibly declined. Some minor wrinkles aside, the game was never going anywhere other than a draw.

Attacking with the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez

The purpose of this DVD is to teach players how to conduct the attack on the black king using different methods. Although the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez are mostly positional openings, it is very often possible to make use of attacking methods of play

Mamedyarov has lost the lead and has tough pairings in the final rounds | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel

Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Wei Yi

Entering now the realm of the slightly more eventful games, Sergey Karjakin had some quite reasonable chances to press in various long endgames, after showing a new concept in the Catalan. Nevertheless after a few patient moves from his opponent he was unable to come up with enough new ideas and soon began repeating, despite the latent chances still in the position.

Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Baskaran Adhiban

Caruana goes for a similar approach to the one he took against Gawain Jones. Like in that game, he has his fair share of chances in this one, but ultimately does not manage to make use of them. Meanwhile, Black's opening concept was good, so the quality of play required to neutralise the tricks and reach a safe stable plus should not be underestimated.

King's Indian: A modern approach

Bologan: "If you study this DVD carefully and solve the interactive exercises you will also enrich your chess vocabulary, your King's Indian vocabulary, build up confidence in the King's Indian and your chess and win more games."

Caruana has righted the ship after his horrendous start | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel

Gawain Jones ½-½ Hou Yifan

In a topical Catalan Hou Yifan played an interesting idea, which is either misguided preparation or divinely inspired psychology: go material down against Jones, to raise echoes of the previous day, and also because he might play worse when dealing with nebulous and ill-defined compensation. The English star was quite close to being handed a second successive defeat.

The English Opening Vol. 1

Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.

Guess who? | Photo: Alina l'Ami © 2018 Tata Steel

Lawrence Trent's round-up of Round 9:

Standings after nine rounds