Tata Steel Rd.10: Triumph and trauma in Wijk aan Zee

This event is taking place from January 14th to 30th, 2011 in the traditional De Moriaan Center in Wijk aan Zee. There are three Grandmaster Groups, with 14 players each and each competitor playing against every other. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting with the first move of the game. Games begin at 13:30h local time (CET), except for the last round on January 30th, which begins at 12:00h. There are three rest days, on January 19th, 24th, and 27th.

Results of round ten

The Open Tournament under way. Behind the spectators the A and B Groups are playing

After nine rounds, it was pretty much impossible to point to a favorite, whether in the “A” group or the “B” group. The organizers had to wonder whether they even had enough trophies at hand. Still, the tenth round was everything the fans wanted with glorious victories and disgraceful defeats to keep everyone on their toes.

In the top event, the very same two names who have been the cast stars throughout, Nakamura and Anand, once more took the spotlight. Nakamura challenged Vachier-Lagrave to play the Gruenfeld variation made famous in the 2010 World Championship, but the French GM chose to take a side road that never worked out for him. Anand actually played the exact same opening novelty Aronian employed the day before, and it was clear the Indian had come prepared, while the Spaniard had not. The other big result of the day was Nepomniachtchi’s visceral win over Carlsen.

The usual stuff

Alexei Shirov repeated in the Cambridge Springs Variation which he had lost a round earlier to Levon Aronian, deviating on move eleven. But even with the new move he got a difficult position. “It was very complicated,” Anand explained to reporters. “With so many pieces on the queenside there were a lot of tactics. You always have the feeling that you might miss something but, fortunately, it was Alexei who did so."

Anand,Viswanathan (2810) - Shirov,Alexei (2722) [D52]
73rd Tata Steel GMA Wijk aan Zee NED (10), 26.01.2011
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4 9.Rc1 h6 10.Bh4 c5 11.Bc4

This is exactly the same position that Shirov had a round earlier against Levon Aronian. That continued 11...cxd4 12.Qxd4 and Aronian won in 53 moves. Today Shirov tried 11...Nxc3 12.bxc3 Ba3 13.Rb1 a6 14.Be2 0-0 15.0-0 b5 16.c4 Bb4 17.Qc2 Bb7 18.Rfd1 bxc4 19.dxc5 Nxc5 20.Rd4 Rab8 21.Ne5 Bd5

"After 20.Rd4 and 21.Ne5, I had to see 22.Be7" said Anand, "the position was so complicated that you never can be sure everything is working out as you hoped it would. But he just walked into it, because he didn’t see 22...Rfe8 23.Bd6 Rbd8 24.Bh5! After that it was very nice.” Indeed: 24...Rxd6 25.Bxf7+ Kf8 26.Bxe8 1-0. [Click to replay]

Shirov in despair? Actually he is trying to remember his analysis after 11.Bc4

“You have to take it step by step,” Anand said. “For today, it’s nice to stay at plus four. All I can say about my chances is that it is still very close.” Asked what he had planned for the rest day Thursday, Anand said: “I might go to the beach, depending on the weather. I’ll work, I’ll sleep, you know, the usual stuff.”

After the last two rounds where he had been " far from superb" Nakamura came to round ten well prepared. He was up against French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, an expert in the Grünfeld. Nakamura deviated into less familiar territory with 13.Bg5, forcing Vachier to start working things out at the board.

US GM Hikaru Nakamura at the start of round ten

Nakamura,Hikaru (2751) - Vachier-Lagrave,Maxime (2715) [D86]
73rd Tata Steel GMA Wijk aan Zee NED (10), 26.01.2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bg5 Qd7 14.Bh6 Bb7 15.Bxg7 Kxg7. This position occurred in Leitao,R (2620)-Sutovsky,E (2657)/Bursa 2010, a game that ended after 36 moves in a draw. Nakamura deviates: 16.d5 f5 17.f3 Rf7 18.exf5

Here Vachier had missed that he could not play 18...Qxd5 because of 19.fxg6 Rd7 20.Qe3 Qxd3 21.Qxe5+ Kg8 22.Qe6+ Kh8 23.Rad1 Qxd1 24.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 25.Kf2 hxg6 26.Nf4 with a winning attack for White. He panicked, tried 18…c4 "and was expertly kicked off the board in the following 15 moves," as the tournament bulletin diplomatically puts it. 19.Bc2 gxf5 20.Rad1 f4 21.g3 Qd6 22.gxf4 exf4 23.Kh1 Re8 24.Rg1+ Kf8 25.Be4 Bc8 26.Nd4 Qf6?

27.Ne6+! Bxe6 28.dxe6 Qxe6 29.Bd5 Qh3 30.Bxf7 Qxf3+ 31.Rg2 Kxf7 32.Qd7+ Kf6 33.Qg7+ 1-0. [Click to replay]

“I’m happy to be retied for first again,” said Nakamura.“There are still three rounds to go and I am taking it one game at a time. But I think I’ve got good chances if I keep playing the way I did today.”

The 500 Euro “Piet Zwart Prize” for the best game of the day went to Russian national champion Ian Nepomniashchi for "trouncing" (tournament bulletin) the World's highest ranked play, Magnus Carlsen, with the black pieces.

Carlsen,Magnus (2814) - Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2733) [B92]
73rd Tata Steel GMA Wijk aan Zee NED (10), 26.01.2011
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Kh1 Nc6 10.f4 b5 11.Be3 Bb7 12.a4 exf4 13.Rxf4 Ne5 14.Qd4 Nc6 15.Qd2 Ne5 16.Qd4 Nc6 17.Qd2 Ne5. Now Carlsen could have taken the draw with 18.Qd4, but the Norwegian superstar naturally wanted (and needed) more with White. 18.axb5 axb5 19.Re1N Ng6 20.Rff1 b4 21.Nd5 Nxe4 22.Nxe7+ Qxe7 23.Qxb4 Nh4

Here some of the spectators on the Playchess server thought that the black queen was overloaded, since she had to protect three pieces. GM Daniel King explained patiently that one piece, the knight on e4, was defended by the other attacked piece, and the knight on h4 was not attacked at all, so he felt comfortable with the black position. You should listen to excerpts from Daniel's highly enjoyable commentary in the YouTube video below.

24.Bf3 Nxf3 25.gxf3 Qd7 26.Bf4 Ra4 27.Qb6 Nf6 28.Qxd6 Qg4 29.Nd4 Rxd4 30.Qxd4 Bxf3+ 31.Rxf3 Qxf3+ 32.Kg1 Qg4+ 33.Kh1 Qc8 34.Qf2 Qb7+ 35.Kg1 Ne4 36.Qd4 Re8 37.Re2 h6 38.h3 Re6 39.Kh2 f5 40.b4 Kh7 41.Re3 Rg6 42.Re2 Qb5 43.Re1

43...Rc6. While Nepomniachtchi was thinking the spectators on Playchess found a very deep and convincing continuation: 43...Qa6, which you will enjoy analysing with a chess engine. After the text move the continuation is obvious: 44.Rxe4 fxe4 45.Qxe4+ Rg6. White has a pawn for the exchange, but his two connected passers give him genuine drawing chances. 46.Bg3 Qd7 47.h4 h5 48.c4?! This cannot be good – White picks up one of the pawns.

48...Qd2+ 49.Kh3 Qc3 50.Qf4 Qxb4 51.Qf5 Qxc4 52.Qxh5+ Rh6 53.Qf3

53...Qe6+ 54.Kh2 Rf6 55.Qd3+ Rf5 56.Qc2 Qd5 57.Bf2 Kh6 58.Be3+ Kg6. Ian is playing quickly, because Magnus' clock has run down to almost zero. 59.Bf2 Kf6 60.Bg3. The Norwegian makes the time control, but his position is essentially lost. 60...Rf1 61.Bf2 Rd1 62.Qc3+ Qe5+ 63.Qxe5+ Kxe5. Rook vs bishop with a pawn each on the board. The tablebases announce mate in 33. 64.h5 Kf6 65.Bh4+ Kf5 66.Be7 Rd7 0-1. [Click to replay]

Carlsen second loss vs three wins dropped him to a shared fifth place and out of the race for the 10,000 Euro first prize in Group A. In the live world rankings Anand is now once more in first place, and you will be shocked to hear that it is not Carlsen who is in second – it is Levon Aronian! Incredibly, Aronian’s sheer consistency has added one Elo point after the other, and though he is behind Anand, he is also past 2812 and climbing! Staggering.

Photos by Joachim Schulze (Schachfotos...)

Live commentary on Playchess

Video report by GM Robert Fontaine for Europe Echecs

Current standings after ten rounds

Grandmaster "A" tournament

Statistics after ten rounds (63 games) White won 15 games = 23.8% Black won 13 games = 20.6% 35 games were drawn = 55.6%

The “B” tournament’s leaderboard changed hands rather oddly. While So drew quickly and quietly prior to the rest day tomorrow, both McShane and Sargissian lost their respective games. McShane was finally replaced by his challenger from earlier rounds: Efimenko, after the latter beat him in their game. Both So and Efimenko now share the lead with 6.5/10.

Grandmaster "B" tournament

Grandmaster "C" tournament

Watching the games

It goes without saying that the options to watch the games live are wide and varied. You can watch them at no cost on Playchess, enjoying the software's new options to display multiple boards at the same time, and if you are a Premium member, live grandmaster commentary will be provided on Playchess for every round by GM Daniel King, author of the best-selling Power Play series, and GM Lubomir Ftacnik.

If you miss the live games, you can always watch the commentary after the fact, or get an abridged tale via the Daily Roundup show also hosted on Playchess. Again, if you miss the show, it remains available on the server at your disposal.

Schedule of Grandmaster Group A

Schedule of Grandmaster Group B

Schedule of Grandmaster Group C

Links Official tournament site "A" tournament games in PGN "B" tournament games in PGN "C" tournament games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!