Tata simmering after eight rounds

With five round left in the 2012 Tata Steel tournament, the world’s two highest-rated players hold the lead in a tight race. Both Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian hold a half-point lead over Teimour Radjabov and a mere one-point lead over Vassily Ivanchuk, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.

There are some marquee matchups in the sunset phase of the tournament with Carlsen-Karjakin and Aronian-Caruana in round 9; Carlsen-Nakamura in round 10; Carlsen-Topalov and Caruana-Giri in round 11; Aronian-Radjabov in round 13.

There have already been plenty of fireworks throughout the three sections. This beauty between Anish Giri and Vugar Gashimov was widely commented on.

Official Site: https://www.tatasteelchess.com/
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2012/01/12/2012-tata-steel-chess-wijk-aan-zee/
Pairings: https://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/schedule/year/2012/
Photos: Frits Agterdenbos of ChessVista