Tata Steel (Wijk aan Zee): Grandelius Back in Clear First After Five Rounds
He's still hanging in there. I'm waiting for Nils Grandelius to remember that he's one of the lowest seeds, and to his great credit, he's treating the ratings as if they're meaningless. Good for him! The ghosts of Schlechter, Andersson, and Giri continue to cast their pall over the tournament, but while six of the seven games this round finished in a draw, one did not. With Black against Grandelius, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave either forgot his preparation or came up with a terrible ad lib against Grandelius, and paid the price. The game was of no theoretical significance whatsoever - Black had repeatedly achieved very easy draws from the position where MVL (probably unknowingly) innovated. The lesson is more practical, and it's an encouragement to us: it's reminder 352,487 that even super-GMs can't keep everything in their memories, no matter how brilliant and diligent they are. (Here's the game, with my notes.)
The round six pairings for Wijk aan Zee are:
- Duda (2) - Carlsen (3)
- Van Foreest (2.5) - Anton (2)
- Vachier-Lagrave (2) - Tari (2)
- Grandelius (3.5) - Caruana (3)
- Harikrishna (3) - Wojtaszek (2.5)
- Esipenko (2.5) - Giri (3)
- Donchenko (1.5) - Firouzja (2.5)