Tata Steel Rd3: Caruana takes lead

The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 15 to 31, 2016, in the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee, North Holland. It is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The "Wimbledon of Chess" attracts the very best chess grandmasters in the world, along with thousands of amateur players, live event visitors and online visitors from around the world. The tournament has two main player groups, each with 14 players. They are known as the Tata Steel Masters and the Tata Steel Challengers. You will find the schedule, starting times, pairings and results at the bottom of the page.

Round three

Photos by Joachim Schulze

The plant of the sponsors

In some ways, the third round brought a number of disappointments, but these were not due to a lack of good fights. The biggest shocker was without a doubt that of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who had built a completely winning position against Pavel Eljanov. He had solved most of his technical difficulties and now had to choose which path to victory he preferred.

Mamedyarov – Eljanov

White is up two pawns, not to mention his crushing position. Since Black played Qe4 to prevent Rb7 which would win on the spot, one obvious suggestion would be Rd1 with the idea Rd7. Or there is the computer suggestion of Rb6 followed by Rxe6. While contemplating these options, the brilliant Azeri  instead played…. c5?? and after Qxb1 resigned. Just terrible.

A young fan stares in shock at the ending of Mamedyarov-Eljanov

The next win of the day came from Fabiano Caruana, who outfoxed his British opponent in a long maneuvering game in which it was not always clear progress was being made. Somehow Black convinced himself to bury his bishop on a8, and as his pawns dropped, so did his position and he lost.

After a long struggle, Fabiano Caruana managed to prevail and take the early lead

Fabiano Caruana is the early leader with 2.5/3

Nevertheless, by far the biggest disappointment of the day was the absolutely fantastic attack by David Navara over Anish Giri. It started with this:

Navara – Giri

The Czech player uncorked 20.f5! exf5 21. Raf5!! And the follow up was no less breathtaking.

So why dub this a disappointment? Simply because after building a winning position, he failed to find the right path to victory, and after a few mistakes, Giri was able to defend. All the power to the young Dutchman of course, but from a spectator’s point of view, it was a deeply unsatisfying end to a game that screamed Game of the Year (of one of them in any case).

A masterpiece that fizzled out

Navara - Giri

Finally, one of the most anticipated games was between teen wunderkind Wei Yi and Old Man Magnus who is ten years his senior. In spite of his best efforts, Carlsen was unable to build anything, and when he finally got a microscopic pull in the endgame, the Chinese player showed he was more than up to the task.

Standings Masters

In the Challengers group Dreev won his third game in a row and now leads the tournament with 3.0/3. Half a point behind follows Adhiban Baskaran with 2.5/3.

Standings Challengers

Playing schedule + Playchess commentary

The two main tournaments are round robins. Both groups start on the 16th of January 2016 in Wijk aan Zee. The Masters move to Amsterdam on January 21, and to Utrecht on January 27. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30 p.m., except for the last round on 31 January 2016, which begins at 12.00 p.m. Round five will take place in the Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam, and round ten in the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht. Both these external rounds start at 2.00 p.m.

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Masters 2016

Schedule and results of Tata Steel Challengers 2016

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN: Masters – Challengers The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.