2015 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee)

Round #1 – Saturday, 10 January 2015

Masters
Anish Giri – Magnus Carlsen, ½-½
Ivan Saric – Levon Aronian, ½-½
Teimour Radjabov – Loek van Wely, ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Hou Yifan, 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk – Baddur Jobova, 1-0
Ding Liren – Fabiano Caruana, 0-1
Wesley So – Radaslaw Wojtaszek, ½-½

The 77th edition started with a bang with three decisive results in the most instructive of ways. It was the Ivanchuk-Jobava game that had the twists and turns including an instructive ending that was demonstrated by Ivanchuk in the post-mortem. Many GMs including commentator Yasser Seirawan were flummoxed as to why Jobava resigned.

In the diagrammed position, many wondered why the Georgian resigned, but after 43.Rxa4 bxa4 44.Kc4! Kc6 45.Kd3! winning. How? After 45…Kd5 46.e6! fxe6 47.f6 Kd6 forced 48.c4! The problem is that the split pawns are like a two-on-one fastbreak in basketball. 48…a3 49.c5+ Kd7 50.Kc2 e5 51.c6+ Ke6 52.c7 Kd7 53.f7 and white queens.

Ivanchuk says, “Well… not so hard if you are a good Grandmaster.” Even the computers did not see the subtleties for a few moves. So Ivanchuk gave a quick lesson on pawn endings and opposition. Quite instructive. Here is the animated interview…

There was another pawn ending demonstrated in another decisive game Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) winning over Hou Yifan. The Chinese played French Defense, an appropriate defense against the Frenchman, but apparently not sufficient. MVL essayed the Albin-Chatard Alekhine Attack after 6.h4!?, but after Hou Yifan equalized, she went astray in the complications and got a wrecked structure. The ending became difficult to defend and she was unable to hold. She also “resigned like a professional” before waiting for MVL to prove the pawn ending.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave versus Hou Yifan, 1-0.
Photo by Alina L’Ami.

The other decisive game was Fabiano Caruana’s win over Chinese Ding Liren. In this Grunfeld Defense, a tense middlegame ensued in the imbalanced position. White began to play less optimal moves and black finally seized control after 32…Rfe8! With the bishops slicing the board, Caruana dealt a killing blow with 36…a5! (threatening a4 and Qd4+) winning after 37.Rxa5 Bc3 38.Rd5 Qa7+ white suffers massive losses.

Saric-Aronian was also another game that lacked an edge as the pieces melted from the board and went into a dull, opposite-colored bishop ending with no imbalances. What is interesting was that a Pirc Defense was also played in Radjabov-Van Wely. This was the so-called Austrian Attack gave white a structural advantage, but black had more than enough fluidity to equalize and the game petered out.

Wesley So is coming off of a successful 2014 campaign and is playing in his first 2015 tournament after announcing he was turned professional. Of course, there was still a lot of buzz about his Death Match with Hikaru Nakamura. He lost by a wide margin but chuckled that he would certainly play better in this event. So played impressively throughout in a complicated Najdorf Sicilian. The result seemed in doubt all the way until the final moves when they agreed to a repetition draw.

Great stuff! Giri-Carlsen was a strange Modern Defense, an opening rarely seen at top level. There was nothing in this opening but a slight advantage for white, but black was never in danger. Giri still holds a +1 score over Carlsen. Carlsen joked that Giri was a “coward” for not being a bit more ambitious.

Giri on Carlsen: "Magnus' comments didn't exactly make me cry […] I may be a coward, but I play well against him" #TataSteelChess

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) January 10, 2015

It was clearly a joke and some took it out of context. Suffice it to say, all of the players will be looking to put a notch on their belt when they play the world champion. Wesley So will take a crack in the second round.

The Challengers section was very quiet today as only one game proved decisive. Robin Van Kampen beat the world’s youngest GM Samuel Sevian in a technical win. Black was saddle with a bad bishop which was partically stifled by his own isolated d5-pawn. Van Kampen had optimally pieces and great mobility and seized the winning advantage with 42.Re8! After that, it was a matter of technique… bishop overpowering the clumsy knight. Some of the other games were rather placid, but Dale-Hasset was quite a thrill as was Timman-Klein.

Pressroom with GM Yasser Seirawan at the far end.
Photo by Alina L’Ami.

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Round #3 – Monday, 12 January 2015

Masters
Ding Liren – Baddur Jobova, 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk – Loek van Wely, 1-0
Anish Giri – Fabiano Caruana, ½-½
Radaslaw Wojtaszek – Magnus Carlsen, 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Teimour Radjabov, ½-½
Wesley So – Levon Aronian, 1-0
Ivan Saric – Hou Yifan, ½-½

Standings after Round #3 (Masters)

Standings after Round #3 (Challengers)

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Round #5 – Thursday, 15 January 2015

Masters
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Loek van Wely, ½-½
Radaslaw Wojtaszek – Fabiano Caruana, 1-0
Ding Liren – Vassily Ivanchuk, ½-½
Wesley So – Hou Yifan, ½-½
Anish Giri – Baddur Jobova, 1-0
Magnus Carlsen – Levon Aronian, 1-0
Ivan Saric – Teimour Radjabov, 0-1

Radoslaw has toppled both Carlsen and Caruana.
Photo by Nadja Wittmann.(ChessBase).

More blood spilled on the boards today as the race got tighter after the first rest day. Vassily Ivanchuk holds the slimmest of leads after drawing with Ding Liren in a somewhat uninspiring draw. Meanwhile, Radoslaw Wojtaszek beat Fabiano Caruana giving him victories over the top two players in the world… in consecutive rounds. He pulls within half-point of the lead. Caruana suffered his first loss, but remain one point out. Carlsen closed within one-point with a rather convincing win over Levon Aronian. The post-game commentary was impressive. Watch.

Perhaps we will see another comeback from his typical sluggish starts. There is plenty of time. Unfortunately for Carlsen, Anish Giri seems to be on excellent form and is also on +1. Giri was fortunate to win today’s game against Baadur Jobava after the Georgian threw 22…Nh4!! on the board with a menacing attack. Giri had to donate an exchange to cool the attack. However, the tide turned when Jobava saw a ghost and missed the simple combination costing him a rook.

The Asian battle between Wesley So and Hou Yifan that turned into a seesaw affair. Hou won a pawn in the opening, but unfurled a sham sacrifice with 19…Nf3+!? After 20.Kh1 Qh4 21.gxf3 Bh5. So was ready and countered with 22.Bxe6+ Kh8 and 23.Bg4 ready to return the piece. The battle continued with white holding a slight edge with an active king but black was able to attack with her rook and held the balance.

Standings after Round #5 (Masters)

Continuing the trend, the Challengers section has had 20/35 decisive games meaning resulting in a field where only two points separates the top from the bottom. No one has been able to put together a streak to away from the pack. Erwin L’Ami has won his last two games to pull out front along with top seed David Navara and the stable Wei Yi. Anything can happen in this section!

Standings after Round #4 (Challengers)

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Round #6 – Friday 16 January 2015

Masters
Loek van Wely – Levon Aronian, ½-½
Baddur Jobova – Wesley So, 0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk – Ivan Saric, ½-½
Fabiano Caruana – Magnus Carlsen, 0-1
Hou Yifan – Radaslaw Wojtaszek, ½-½
Teimour Radjabov – Anish Giri, ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Ding Liren, 1-0

MVL polished off Ding Liren to inch closer to contention with 3½-2½.
Photo by Nadja Wittmann.(ChessBase).

Magnus Carlsen got a key win over nemesis Fabiano Caruana is an absolute masterpiece of attacking chess. This display of aggression caught many off guard including Caruana who faced Carlsen’s 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 with 3.Bb5, a popular anti-Sicilian line that has nice positional nuance… and scores big. In this game Carlsen, took advantage of Caruana’s unusual 11.Qb1 and launched an attack with f5-f5, g5-g4. Even after trading queens black obtained an initiative and was able to conjure up a mating attack! GM Daniel King makes the call…

Perhaps we will see another comeback from his typical sluggish starts. There is plenty of time. Unfortunately for Carlsen, Anish Giri seems to be on excellent form and is also on +1. Giri was fortunate to win today’s game against Baadur Jobava after the Georgian threw 22…Nh4!! on the board with a menacing attack. Giri had to donate an exchange to cool the attack. However, the tide turned when Jobava saw a ghost and missed the simple combination costing him a rook.

The game between MVL-Ding Liren was tactical slugfest with pieces strewn about the board. After 13.Nd5! Kf7 14.g4! Bxg4 15.Ng5+ fxg5 16.Bxg4 Nce5 17.Bxg5!? black’s position came under heavy pressure. Ultimately, white’s piece mobility gave him a lasting initiative and the Chinese #1 could not avoid losing material and the game. Nice display of power chess by the Frenchman.

Wesley So kept pace by beating Baadur Jobava after a wierd Guioco Piano saw 7.Bd5!? ceded the two bishops early. So talked about his affinity for the two bishops and demonstrated the power of these weapons. Baadur tried 14.c4 fxg5 15.cxd5 Bd7, but the bishops were soon slicing through the board. After 23…Qh4! white was soon under heavy fire… both bishops, both rooks and queen bearing down on the white kingside. Even the elimination of black’s dark-squared bishop didn’t help. Black’s 39…Qe6 forced resignation because 40.Qd1 is met by Qe2 and white has no more moves.

All the other games were hard-fought. Radjabov-Giri was an exciting Sicilian battle where both sides attacked viciously on opposite wings, but in the end the result was a perpetual check. Van Wely-Aronian also had its moments of tension but ended in a three-fold repetition. Ivanchuk-Saric was an interesting struggle that whittled down to a knight vs. bishop ending. The game with Ivanchuk having only a bishop left.

Standings after Round #6 (Masters)

Standings after Round #6 (Challengers)

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Round #8 – Sunday 18 January 2015

Masters

Hou Yifan – Levon Aronian, ½-½
Ding Liren – Ivan Saric, 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk – Wesley So, 0-1
Baadur Jobova – Magnus Carlsen, 0-1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Anish Giri, 1-0
Loek van Wely – Fabiano Caruana, 0-1
Teimour Radjabov – Radaslaw Wojtaszek, 1-0

So had preparation waiting for an unsuspecting Ivanchuk.
Photo by Nadja Wittmann. (ChessBase).

Fire on board today as 7/8 of the games in round eight were decisive. Magnus Carlsen won his fifth game in a row by grinding out another win from a drawn position. Baadur Jobava’s state of preparedness for this tournament has been woeful. For a man of his stature to lose games with a whimper is quite unusual. His 1.b3 did not win him plaudits as the world champion was able to equalize easily and use his determination to slowly win an ending.

Vasil Ivanchuk was crushed by Wesley So after being unaware of preparation in a Marshall Gambit line. This has been covered in a previous game featuring Viswanthan Anand and Levon Aronian and covered by Jan Gustafsson (Gulyiev-Gustafsson, 2014) and Anish Giri in New in Chess article. Apparently Ivanchuk was not aware of these resources and paid dearly.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave crushed local hopeful Giri today which makes even more apparent that the young generation has made its presence felt. With Anand’s loss in the world championship, may signal the end of that generation of Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand and Ivanchuk. Although Ivanchuk still has chances in this tournament, his loss to So is clearly an indication that the younger generation are better prepared than their veteran counterparts.

Standings after Round #8 (Masters)

The kill-rate in the Challengers section is 35/56 or 63% decisive games. The tournament standings has gone as predicted with the top four holding the top four positions. David Navara (6½), Wei Yi (6½), Samuel Shankland (5) and Robin Van Kampen (5) have dominated the field, but Wei Yi has shined with a 2809 performance. There have been quite a number of upsets including Anna Haast’s wins over Dutch legend Jan Timman and this round’s win over Russian Champion Valentina Guinina. With five rounds remaining, the field seems to be playing for bronze as Navara and Wei have outclassed the opposition thus far.

Standings after Round #8 (Challengers)

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Round #9 – Tuesday 20 January 2015

Masters

Ivan Saric – Loek van Wely, ½-½
Radaslaw Wojtaszek – Vassily Ivanchuk, ½-½
Anish Giri – Ding Liren, 1-0
Magnus Carlsen – Teimour Radjabov, 1-0
Wesley So – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, ½-½
Fabiano Caruana – Hou Yifan, ½-½
Levon Aronian – Baadur Jobova, 1-0

Magnus Carlsen won his sixth in a row today. According to a previous interview, he had not won more than five in a row before. This streak is remarkable in that he has done it in various ways. He has a chance to do a “Caruana” tomorrow if he wins against Vassily Ivanchuk.

Today he won with a nice attacking game against Teimour Radjabov where the Azeri made some questionable decisions. It appeared that 19…c5 was rendered the black bishop to a prison life since he did not follow with …a4. That bishop would not move again after 15…Bb6. As it were, white attacked mercilessly and had all the positional trumps to offer a shattering sacrifice with 31.Nxg7! winning a pawn. Even if black trade queens, the position is untenable.

Anish Giri ground down Ding Liren’s King’s Indian in a very exciting encounter while Levon Aronian crunched Baadur Jobava. The attacking wave was a gem! This may be a relief for the Armenian who has been floundering at the bottom of the table.

In a post-game interview, he was asked if he knew why he was in such bad form and he responded, “I wish I had.” There has been a lot of buzzing about Aronian and his fall from the #2 position. Much is being made of his genial nature and that this is the reason he doesn’t have the edge to play well in the candidate’s tournament. He now sits at #7.

Standings after Round #9 (Masters)

David Navara broke out ahead of Wei Yi with another black win. That is 5/5 with the black pieces. Perhaps the white advantage is overstated! Wei and Robin Van Kampen drew keeping first place in their sights. The only other decisive game was the Samuel Sevian winning over Anna Haast who was coming off of her second win. The tournament is turning out to be almost as expected in terms of the standings.

Standings after Round #9 (Challengers)

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Round #10 – Wednesday 20 January 2015

Masters

Vassily Ivanchuk – Magnus Carlsen, ½-½
Ding Liren – Wesley So, ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Radaslaw Wojtaszek, ½-½
Ivan Saric – Anish Giri, 0-1
Baadur Jobova – Fabiano Caruana, 0-1
Teimour Radjabov – Levon Aronian, ½-½
Loek van Wely – Hou Yifan, 1-0

The tournament moved to the Hague today and the players took an excursion. This photo was taken in front of the famous Binnenhof, the governmental district of The Netherlands. This will one day be a “how many players can you name” photo.

The streak is over for the world champion, but he has been able to keep the distance as other contenders drew. In the post-game press conference, Magnus Carlsen seemed exasperated that he didn’t get a chance to play a real game as Vasil Ivanchuk steered the game into a sterile draw.

Carlsen chuckled noting that the Ukranian was 1½ point behind and expected a fight. Quickly, the game was leveled and Carlsen took more interest in discussing the other games. A insightful discussion followed on a wide range of topics. Definitely worth a look!

Carlsen’s prediction that perhaps it is India as the future dominant power (as opposed to China) has been uttered before by Nigel Short. Both overlook China’s vigorous support and remarkable structure as opposed to India’s temperamental federation and uneven support by the private sector. Lots of talent in India, but perhaps not the structure needed to gain consistency. The Chinese women have proven what such a system can produce and they have dominated women’s chess for 25 years.

In other action, there were a few decisive games including a nice win by Anish Giri over Ivan Saric. The game started 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qf3. This was played in Radjabov-Giri in round six with quite a spectacular draw.

In this game, Saric played 9.f4 instead of Radjabov’s 9.0-0-0, but the game transposed. This time it was Giri who improved with 14…e5 instead of his 14…Rc8 in the aforementioned game. In this line, white never got any attack going and it was black who was probing. The time had come. Black executed a theoretical exchange sacrifice 30…Rxc3! shattering white’s center.

In actuality, black was winning material since 31.Qxc3 Nxe4 32.Qd3? (32.Qb4 Nc3+ 33.bxc3 Bxg2 34.Rxe5 Rxh2 35.Re2! This line was given by GM Josh Friedel, but there are ways to improve for black.) 32…Nc3+ 33.Qxc3 Bxg2 and white is completely busted. White resigned several moves later.

In another exciting Sicilian, Loek Van Wely crushed women’s world champion Hou Yifan in 24 moves. The Dutchman eschewed the chance to go into a sharp Sicilian and essayed the positional Rossolimo Attack. Before the game there was an inside joke between Carlsen and Van Wely. Carlsen gave this account…

It’s funny. Right before the game Loek was talking about the way he wanted to catch the first bus home. I told him he should play 1.e4 then! I didn’t think he would take me seriously, though… then he kind of ruined the impression by playing [1…c5 2.Nf3 Nc6] 3.Bb5.

Of course, the Rossolimo has a plodding positional reputation, but can contain a lot of bite if black plays random moves. As it were, Hou got into trouble after 17…d5? 18.cxd6 exd6 19.Rxd6 Bf5 20.Nf6+ Bxf6 21. Bxf6. This position is a bit frightening and sure enough, Hou panicked. After 21.Rab8?? white cashed in the advantage with 22.Qc4+ Rf7 23.Red1. Black’s position is completely hopeless and the game ended after 23…Qb1 24.h3.

Perhaps the most exciting game of the round was a wild affair between Baadur Jobava and Fabiano Caruana. As usual, the Georgian displayed his creative flair and gave the fans their money’s worth. Playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bf4!? white sidestepped Caruana’s Grunfeld to simply play chess. However after 20 moves he started to lose the thread of the position. Caruana built up a strong position while whites pieces were a bit clumsy.

The fireworks started with 33…Nh4 34.Bh3 Nf3+ 35.Kg2 Qd6 36.Rxd5 Bxd5 37.Rxd5 Qb6 38.Rxc5 Qxc5 39.Nxe4. The smoke clears and white has sacrificed two exchanges for a couple pawns and a weakened black king. Of course black should be winning but play is still tricky and time was winding down.

White still had some play and actually won all the material back. When it appeared that he would escape with a draw, he blundered horribly with 51.Kg3?? after which he got mated. How many times have we fought back in a losing position only to throw away the draw on one move? Too many times. Truly an entertaining game nevertheless. Take a look!

Standings after Round #10 (Masters)

Wei Yi won again to take a share of 1st place after beating back Erwin L’Ami’s piece sack. Black never got enough compensation despite white’s pieces being underdeveloped… especially after the queens were traded. Robin Van Kampen mated Bart Michiels with a neanderthal kingside attack. Despite the win, he remains 1½ back and chances to win have all but vanished. Meanwhile Jan Timman has tumbled near the bottom of the standings with another loss… this time it was Salem Saleh getting a much-needed win. The Emirati is now on 50% All other games were drawn.

Standings after Round #10 (Challengers)

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Round #13 – Sunday 25 January 2015

Masters

Hou, Y. – Ivanchuk, V., ½-½
So, W. – Van Wely, L., 1-0
Carlsen, M. – Saric, I., ½-½
Wojtaszek, R. – Giri, A., ½-½
Aronian, L. – Ding, L., 0-1
Caruana, F. – Vachier-Lagrave, 0-1
Jobava, B. – Radjabov, T., 1-0

World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament on the strength of his six-game winning streak. His draw against Ivan Saric of Croatia clinched the result. The victory was never in doubt after Anish Giri drew his game and ended on 8½/13. Wesley So and Ding Liren beat Loek Van Wely and Levon Aronian respectively to finish joint second with Maxim Vachier-Lagrave also on 8½/13. The tiebreak order was MVL, Giri, So and Ding. It has been pointed out that this was a tournament of the youth as the five top players above are less than 24. This bodes well for the future of chess!

MVL was impressive in mating Fabiano Caruana in middle of the board.
Photo by Alina l’Ami.

Of course, one of the young stars Fabiano Caruana had a relatively poor showing with +1. In his final game against Maxim Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) he faced the Najdorf Sicilian and played 6.h3!? He played this against Hou Yifan and only drew, but this game would be far worse as MVL came with a creative improvement after 13…d5!? As a Sicilian player, it is the dream of black to play this move, but at second glance white has that square covered and wins a pawn after 14.Bxb6 Qxb6 15.Nxd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 Bd7. Black has two bishops control over dark squares and a looming kingside attack.

Caruana tried to lock the kingside by sacrificing a pawn, then a piece, but his king was eventually flushed out to protect white’s collapsing structure. The finale’ was beautiful as black’s razor bishops sliced through the position on both sides of the board. The final coup de grace was 30…Rxe4+! 31.Kxe4 Re8! and white was hit in a fatal crossfire. The game ended 32.Kf4 g5+ 33.Kf5 Kf7 sealing the door 34.Rfe1 Bd3+ 35.Re4 Bf6! mating.

Ding Liren mauled Levon Aronian to cap off an abysmal showing for the the Armenian. He has had a bad run of tournaments. It was only one year ago that he was hoisting the trophy as the winner of 2014 Tata Steel tournament, but something has gone horribly wrong as his ELO rating is in freefall at 2777.

On the other hand, the Chinese fared well in this tournament with a strong +4 by Ding and a par performance by Hou Yifan. The future is bright as Wei Yi dominated the Challengers section with a scorching 10½/13 and rising to 2695 on the live list. Wesley So’s star also rose with his +4 result and gaining of 17 ELO points. He now has the top rating of American players, but that could change as Hikaru Nakamura gears up for Gibraltar in a couple of days.

All in all, it was a great tournament with exciting games, a wide range of opening, dashing sacrifices, novelties, endgame masterpieces and an occasional swindle. The organizing committee did a great job assembling such a great collection of players. Even the selection of Baadur Jobava added intrigue and excitement to the tournament despite his poor result. Looking forward to 2016 when the next young star will shine. Will it be Wei Yi?

Standings after Round #13 (Masters)

Apart from Wei Yi’s strong showing in the Tata Challengers tournament, the Americans had reason for optimism as both Samuel Shankland and Samuel Sevian had strong results.

Sam Shankland shown here polishing off Anna Haast
with a vicious kingside assault.
Photo by Alina L’Ami.

Shankland has been on an undefeated run since winning a board medal at the Tromso Olympiad. He finished with 9/13 in this tournament and has also been undefeated at the Chess Olympiad, Millionaire Chess Open, Continental Championship, Qatar Masters and the Al-Ain Open. With talents like Ray Robson and the addition of Wesley So to Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky, the American side will be strong for years to come.

The five Dutch players did not fare particularly well but Robin Van Kampen got 4th with a strong 8½/13. Unfortunately the legendary Jan Timman lost his energy after a decent start with two four-game losing streaks. He lost to Anna Haast which created a sensation and helped the Dutch women’s player earn her WGM title.

David Navara had a strong result on 10/13 and of course would be better employed in the Masters Section, but there has to be at least one 2700 as motivation for the other aspirants. Salem Abdul-Rahman Saleh was the lone representative of the Middle East and a bright talent from the region. The affable 21-year old got 7½-5½ after a slow start. Valentina Guinina has had so much success on the women’s circuit, but it may have been unsettling playing stronger competition nearly every single round.

Ranked 10th in the field (finished 9th), she had wins over three GMs, but lost some disappointing games including one against Anna Haast. Perhaps more women should be competing in the strongest tournaments and the results will improve. One of her wins was against Jan Timman who perhaps made his curtain call for elite tournaments. Thirteen rounds may be a bit much.

Standings after Round #13 (Challengers)

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First tournament win since April, first gain of rating since February, and my longest winning streak ever @tatasteelchess #cheerupyoumoron

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) January 25, 2015