tag: Tata Steel Chess 2014 - Page 1

Wei Yi at Tata Steel Challengers (2)

1/30/2015 – The Challengers group of the Tata Steel Masters saw young talent Wei Yi fighting David Navara for the top spot right to the end, where the Chinese player edged out his Czech rival by a mere half point. With this win Wei Yi is just five Elo points away from breaking Magnus Carlsen's record of the youngest player to cross 2700 Elo. Detailed report with lots of interesting analysis.

Tata 11: Giri and Timman take silver

1/26/2014 – With the first place decided, the real question was who would take silver and bronze. It was a tense final round, and it showed. In the Masters group, Giri drew taking silver, while Karjakin survived a lost position against Dominguez for bronze. Aronian lost a won game against Van Wely in time trouble. In the Challengers, veteran Timman took silver ahead of Jobava. Final report.

Tata 10: Aronian and Saric win a round in advance

1/25/2014 – Demonstrating a fantastic return to form, Aronian gave Dominguez no chance as he beat him in an impressive game to win the Masters a round in advance. With 8.0/10, and a two point lead, he is untouchable, but he can still make history if he wins tomorrow. Second place is all but decided. Saric also won the Challengers a round in advance by beating Yu Yangyi. Report with GM commentary.

Tata 11 (Group B): Timman forgives!

1/24/2014 – Timman has been showing that his flame for chess is far from extinguished and he has been playing excellent chess in Tata Steel, Challenger's group. Today he had an opportunity to crown his performance by beating Jobava, but a blunder late in the game - move 74 - cost him a crucial half a point. Saric remains half a point ahead of the Georgian with only two rounds to spare.

Tata 09: Aronian takes 1.5 point lead

1/23/2014 – What do you do when your nearest rivals close in on you? You beat them off with.... a b-pawn. That is what Levon Aronian did to Sergey Karjakin, and with no other managing to keep pace, he has opened a 1.5 point lead with two rounds to go. Other results were Harikrishna's win over Naiditsch, and So beating Van Wely in a King's Indian. Four players are tied with 5.5/9. Illustrated report.

Tata 10 (Group B): Close Race

1/22/2014 – The close race in the Challenger's group of Tata Steel intensifies as Jobava has regained the lead position, tied with Saric. Only half a point behind is the veteran Timman, and only half a point behind him is the rising star Muzychuk. Will Jobava keep playing his reckless chess, as he did today against Bok, to try to snatch the qualification spot to the Master's?

Tata 08: A special guest

1/21/2014 – Nick Schilder from Nick and Simon was today's guest of honor in Tata Steel. His inspiration to the players was clear as the Master's group saw an impressive five decisive games, including two crushing checkmate attacks while the Challenger's group also saw many wins and a change in the leaderboard. We bring you both attacks with full GM analysis and annotations.

Tata 07: Exchange Sacrifice, anyone?

1/19/2014 – As if the spirit of Petrosian had possessed the playing hall, today's round in the Master's section of Tata Steel saw no less than five boards in which one side had an extra exchange! Interestingly, only in one of games was the exchange converted into a win (Rapport 1-0 Harikrishna) while one was lost (Nakamura 0-1 Van Wely) and three games finished in interesting positional draws.

Tata 06: Could'ves and should'ves

1/18/2014 – Levon Aronian continued his imperial romp, outclassing Wesley So to reach 5.0/6 and a 3013 performance, but the tale of the day was the amazing number of missed chances from all around. In Group A, Giri, Dominguez, Van Wely, and Harikrishna all had winning positions, yet failed to close. In Group B, both Saric and Muzychuk also had golden opportunities. Group A report.

Tata 05: Melee on the boards!

1/17/2014 – Fighting and strange chess was today's norm in both the Masters and Challengers section of the Tata Steel tournament. Aronian continues his steady pace and beat Naiditsch thanks to some mistakes by the German, while Dominguez ravaged Rapport, So blew Gelfand off the board, while Caruana and Giri won long endgames against Van Wely and Harikrishna. Round 5 analysis!

Tata 05 GroupB: Jobava unstoppable

1/16/2014 – With the clash of the 2700s being won by Jobava, the question of who can stop him in this tournament is a natural one. This is his fourth victory in a row. His two closest rivals, Muzychuk and Saric, are only half a point behind but will have to continue their winning streaks if they wish to catch up to what seems to be a crushing showing. His performance is currently over 2900.

Tata 04: Rijksmuseum!

1/15/2014 – Today's games were played in the famous Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, which has a collection of over a million objects going back to the thirteenth century. The round had three White wins, especially important is the victory by Aronian against Nakamura as this propels the Armenian to clear first. Beautiful pictorial report from Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Tata 04 (Group B): Bloodbath continues

1/14/2014 – While the Master section had a rest day today, the Challenger's section was in full force and they did not slow down. Not a single draw was seen today in the tournament as the players continue to play sharp and interesting chess. Jobava is the solo lead with his third win in a row, but he is followed closely by Muzychuk who beat Duda. Report of today's stars.

Tata 03: Topsy-Turvy A, Bloody B

1/13/2014 – Harikrishna and Caruana outplayed Dominguez and Karjakin for very nice positional full points. Van Wely and Gelfand missed their chances against Giri and Nakamura, respectively, but today's show was stolen by the Challenger section, with seven decisive games, which had everything from positional grinds to kings escaping to b5 to avoid perpetual. And it was their top seed's birthday!

Tata 02: Three quality wins

1/12/2014 – As opposed to yesterday's games, today's decisive results were characterized by quality and interesting chess. Aronian played a great game and never gave Caruana a chance to show his chess prowess. Giri went for Naiditsch's throat and the German was mated on f4, while Rapport exploited Gelfand's weaknesses and convincingly won with Black in a... Budapest Gambit!

Tata 01: Many mistakes, many wins

1/11/2014 – Only two draws were seen in the opening round of the 2014 Tata Steel tournament. Karjakin, Caruana, So and Nakamura all started with victories after taking advantage of their opponent's mistakes. Today's round was not marked by outplaying maneuvers as much as by self-destruction and mistakes. In some cases, rather obvious ones. Analysis and report of round one

Tata Steel 2014 under way

1/11/2014 – The opening ceremony made use of the group that staged the famous flashmob recreation of a Rembrandt painting (do not miss the video!), and had the players join historical personalities for the drawing of lots. Our roving reporter WGM Alina l'Ami could not catch the entire ceremony, as she was nominated Sports Woman of the year in a different location. Darn. So she sent us brief impressions.

Tata Steel 2014 starts tomorrow

1/9/2014 – The famous tournament in Wijk aan Zee, this time with two GM groups instead of three and twelve players instead of fourteen, will start with an opening ceremony at the Tata Steel headquarters in IJmuiden on Friday, with the first round at 13:30h local time on Saturday. The Master Group A has an average rating of 2743, making it a category 20. Tournament information and commentary schedule.

Tata Steel 2014: two groups with twelve players

10/10/2013 – The recession has hit chess: the prestigious Tata Steel (formerly Corus) tournament in Wijk aan Zee is being staged with a reduced budget and will have two GM groups instead of three and twelve players instead of fourteen in each group. But: two rounds will be held outside the wind-swept seaside resort: in a technology centre and in a national museum. Press release.
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