Wijk aan Zee, Round 8: Mamedyarov Catches Carlsen

Going into the tournament's second rest day, two players are tied for first with five rounds to go: Magnus Carlsen, who drew with the semi-correct Von Hennig-Schara Gambit against Sam Shankland; and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who easily outplayed Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in an offbeat English. (The youngster is gaining "experience", i.e., what you get when you don't get what you want.) And two other players have also gained half a point on Carlsen, to close to within half a point of the lead: Anish Giri, who won an ending with three pawns against a knight against Andrey Esipenko; and the early leader Vidit Gujrathi, who also kindly contributed to Nils Grandelius' stock of "experience".

The remaining games were drawn, with White failing to show anything in any of them.

A note about the Challengers event: one of the rising stars of 2021 has gotten the new year off to a bang: Arjun Erigaisi has 7/8 and is leading by a point and a half, with a 2898 TPR. That's better than the TPR of the leaders of the main event, and while it's one thing to do that against a field of 2500s and 2600s than against one with (almost) all 2700s, it's still extremely impressive. On the Live Rating List, Erigaisi has gained almost 24 points so far, and gone up 45(!!) places in the rating list. He's coming.

Here, with my comments, are today's games; here are the pairings for round 9, on Tuesday (it's pretty easy to see what will be the game of the round):

• Giri (5) - Shankland (3.5)
• Duda (3.5) - Esipenko (4)
• Van Foreest (4) - Dubov (3)
• Grandelius (2) - Caruana (4)
• Rapport (4.5) - Vidit (5)
• Praggnanandhaa (2.5) - Karjakin (4)
• Carlsen (5.5) - Mamedyarov (5.5)

Wijk aan Zee, Round 5 & 6: A Three-Way Tie for First, Including Carlsen

The tournament has continued to be competitive and generally aggressive, with 16 decisive games so far out of 42, with plenty of other games seeing players miss significant chances for the full point. It has also tightened at the top, and Vidit Gujrathi is no longer the sole leader, though he continues to enjoy a share of the lead.

In round 5 he was caught by Richard Rapport and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Jorden Van Foreest, respectively. Rapport mishandled the opening against Pragg, but in the sharp middlegame that ensued his opponent lost the thread and was soon lost (though the game went on for a long time). As for Mamedyarov, JVF got too optimistic, and his 21.Nf7 seemed to be a blunder - he probably just missed 21...Rxf7 or, perhaps more likely, missed 24...Nxf5. Whatever the case, he was lost, but Shakh gave him a chance to escape. 35.Qb7+ would have drawn, but 35.Rc1? allowed Black to coordinate everything for a final attack, and Black won.

As for Vidit, he was fortunate to draw with Anish Giri in round 5, and in round 6 he achieved a more normal draw with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Mamedyarov remained tied for first after his short but shaky draw with Nils Grandelius, but the third member of the triumvirate changed. Magnus Carlsen defeated Rapport to take his place in shared first. Rapport was within a move or two of solving his problems on the black side of a Catalan, but didn't manage to find the best moves at the key moments. (20...Ne5 probably would have resulted in a quick draw, for instance.)

There were two other decisive results. One saw Fabiano Caruana lose a horrible game to Giri. The weirdness started with the baffling 18.Kh1 and concluded with the unbelievable 40.Rb6. Sometimes, one's brain goes on strike, and when that happens all you can do is shrug it off and hope it feels like returning to work the next day. Speaking of going on strike, your blogger has decided to give himself a pass when it comes to examining games in the Giuoco Piano. So (almost) all I can tell you about Sergey Karjakin's game with JVF was that it was a Giuoco and that he won it.

All the other games from these two rounds have more robust comments from yours truly, and you can replay them here. And here are the pairings for round 7, today (Saturday):

• Esipenko (3.5) - Shankland (2.5)
• Giri (3) - Dubov (2.5)
• Duda (3) - Caruana (2.5)
• Van Foreest (2.5) - Vidit (4)
• Grandelius (1.5) - Karjakin (3)
• Rapport (3.5) - Mamedyarov (4)
• Praggnanandhaa (2.5) - Carlsen (4)

Wijk aan Zee, Round 4: Vidit Continues in Clear First

Vidit Gujrathi still leads the 2022 edition of Wijk aan Zee (the Tata Steel Masters) with three points after four rounds, but his tenure at the top was threatened today. With White against Andrey Esipenko he was in good shape through most of the short (32 move) game, but at the end he was worse when the draw was agreed and especially before Esipenko's last move. With a win Esipenko would have leapfrogged Vidit, but he was satisfied with a draw.

More surprisingly, he wasn't caught by Magnus Carlsen, who was winning more than once in a tricky game with Jorden Van Foreest. Van Foreest played very enterprising chess, and despite a couple of lapses his combative approach was (on balance) correct.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda was another player who could have caught Vidit with a win, and he was most certainly winning against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In time trouble, however, he got bamboozled, and with successive errors went from winning to better to equal to worse to lost over the space of nine moves.

The only other player who could have caught Vidit with a win was Richard Rapport, but he was fortunate to bailed out of a bad position when Sam Shankland played the hasty 17.e6 (rather than, say, 17.f4). That game finished in a quick draw - only 24 moves.

Fabiano Caruana vs. Daniil Dubov was a relatively uneventful but real draw, while Sergey Karjakin's "game" against Anish Giri was a joke. Karjakin, with White, repeated a line that allows Black to force a repetition - one which has already occurred more than 30 times in tournament play - and the game finished in just 14 moves. Unless Karjakin is sick, it's hard to understand why he would do this.

Finally, someone who is interested in playing is the youngster, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who nicely outplayed Nils Grandelius that went from an Exchange Gruenfeld to a sort of disastrous King's Indian for Black. The game lasted a long time, but Grandelius's position was just about hopeless by the game's halfway point.

The games, with my comments, are here. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a rest day; this is what we have to look forward to on Thursday, in round 5 (of 13):

• Dubov (2) - Shankland (1.5)
• Esipenko (2.5) - Caruana (2)
• Giri (1.5) - Vidit (3)
• Duda (2) - Karjakin (1.5)
• Van Foreest (2.5) - Mamedyarov (2.5)
• Grandelius (.5) - Carlsen (2.5)
• Rapport (2.5) - Praggnanandhaa (2)

Wijk aan Zee, Round 3: Vidit Leads

Ten rounds remain, so the fact that Vidit Gujrathi leads with 2.5 points after three rounds doesn't justify any chicken-counting; many eggs remain to be hatched. Still, so far, so good. His win today came at Daniil Dubov's expense. Dubov seemed to have him on the ropes, but Vidit defended perfectly. Strangely, when it was time to make a draw, Dubov blundered with 32.f3, and the (relatively) young Indian GM gained the full point.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Magnus Carlsen shared the lead with Vidit coming into the day; they drew a generally well-played game. Duda held the advantage almost all the way, but for the most part it meant that his position was more comfortable; there was never something tangible for him to use.

There were three other decisive games. Defending champion Jorden Van Foreest bounced back from yesterday's loss with a surprising opening idea and a convincing win over Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Andrey Esipenko took advantage of a terrible misjudgment by Sergey Karjakin, and Richard Rapport won on the black side of a sharp Taimanov Sicilian against Nils Grandelius. All three winners joined Duda and Carlsen in a big tie for second, half a point behind Vidit.

In the other games, Anish Giri drew quickly with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but seemed to have a significant advantage early on. Finally, Fabiano Caruana tried to outplay Sam Shankland on the white side of the Berlin ending, but Shankland's play was excellent and Caruana didn't come close.

The games, with my notes, are here; these are the pairings for tomorrow's (Tuesday's) round 4 games:

• Shankland (1) - Rapport (2)
• Praggnanandhaa (1) - Grandelius (.5)
• Carlsen (2) - Van Foreest (2)
• Mamedyarov (1.5) - Duda (2)
• Karjakin (1) - Giri (1)
• Vidit (2.5) - Esipenko (2)
• Caruana (1.5) - Dubov (1)

Wijk aan Zee, Rounds 1 & 2

I'm back!

More importantly, for all of you as chess fans, at least, so is big-time chess. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 (Netherlands version), aka "Wijk aan Zee" for its long-time home, started this weekend, and I've commented on all the games from the first two rounds, here.

Not all the world's best players are in action, but many of them are, starting with the World Champion - or should I say the Classical World Champion, given his lack of enthusiasm for his only remaining title? Gibes aside, he is of course the strongest and most accomplished player in the field, and of course the favorite. In round 1 he let Andrey Esipenko off the hook - very strangely, too - but won an impressive game against Anish Giri in round 2.

He is tied for first with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (who defeated Richard Rapport in round 1) and Santosh Vidit (who defeated Sam Shankland in round 1 in a fine ending). Defending champion Jorden Van Foreest got off to an excellent start, defeating Nils Grandelius in round 1 in good style, but lost to Rapport in round 2 when he wrongly avoided a drawn pawn ending.

Unmentioned thus far: Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Daniil Dubov, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Each has drawn both games so far, but that's not to say that all the games were calm or even from start to finish, as you'll see.

Here are the round 3 pairings:

• Caruana (1) - Shankland (.5)
• Dubov (1) - Vidit (1.5)
• Esipenko (1) - Karjakin (1)
• Giri (.5) - Mamedyarov (1)
• Duda (1.5) - Carlsen (1.5)
• Van Foreest (1) - Praggnanandhaa (1)
• Grandelius (.5) - Rapport (1)

Carlsen-Firouzja, and More

Last year it was Chess.com that had all the interesting online chess; this year it's Chess24. The Peter Svidler vs. Santosh Vidit match started a few minutes ago, and will be followed by the Pentala Harikrishna vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda match. There's also an ongoing warm-up match for Anish Giri, against Jorden Van Foreest, helping him prep for the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, which starts on Saturday. And finally, the day and time has been set for the Banter Blitz finale between Carlsen and 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja: it will be on Wednesday (April 15) at 19:00 CEST/1 p.m. ET.

2019 Wijk aan Zee, Round 4: Nepomniachtchi Remains in Clear First; Carlsen Draws Again

Looks like I was wrong about Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik. After Kramnik's first three games I assumed he'd be ripe for the picking by Carlsen, but where Kramnik's suicide streak only extended to three games (and two in which he was successful), the champ's 20-game series of draws was an unstoppable force. Kramnik put on his Sunday best, played strong and sensible chess, and drew like the three-time world champion and frequent 2800 player that he is.

Theirs was an interesting draw, but the other four drawn games were utterly forgettable. I'd tell you more about them, but they've already slipped my memory, so I'll only note that one of the draws was the shared property of Ian Nepomniachtchi, who continues to enjoy the sole lead in the event with a +2 score of 3 out 4.

On to the two decisive games. As usual, the Dutch players were involved. On the sunny side, Anish Giri moved to +1 by defeating Richard Rapport with the black pieces. The game was balanced until Rapport found an exchanging combination that backfired. Rapport presumably missed Giri's 22nd or 24th move, and the result was a lost middlegame that Giri cashed in without much trouble. Things were less sunny for Jorden Van Foreest. He found himself a pawn down in an opposite-colored bishops ending. It was probably drawn, as I think I've demonstrated in the analysis, but (possibly due to time trouble) he didn't manage to save hte game against Santosh Vidit.

All the games can be replayed here, with comments to the two decisive games and Carlsen-Kramnik. (Tournament site here.) Here are the pairings for round 5: 

• Van Foreest (1) - Carlsen (2)
• Fedoseev (1.5) - Vidit (2.5)
• Shankland (2) - Ding (2.5)
• Radjabov (2) - Duda (2)
• Giri (2.5) - Anand (2.5)
• Nepomniachtchi (3) - Rapport (1.5)
• Kramnik (1) - Mamedyarov (2) 

Carlsen has to win this time, right?

So-Gujrathi

As usual, I'll give the result of this match, the penultimate quarterfinal match of Chess.com's 2018 Speed Chess Championship, in the comments. For those who would like to watch the stream of the Wesley So-Vidit Gujrathi match as if live, here it is.

Coming Events: So-Gujrathi, Nakamura-MVL, European Club Cup

The first two events listed above are the final quarterfinal matches of the 2018 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship. Wesley So takes on Vidit Gujrathi tomorrow (Tuesday) at 12 p.m. ET, and on Thursday starting at 1 p.m. ET Hikaru Nakamura will play Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The winner of the first match will face Jan-Krzysztof Duda in one semi-final, and the winner of the second match faces Levon Aronian in the other. Those matches can be seen live on Chess.com/TV or Twitch.tv/Chess.

The other event, the European Club Cup, starts Friday and stars lots of elite players. Above all, Magnus Carlsen will participate in what will be his last event before his championship match with Fabiano Caruana this November. Caruana had an excellent showing at the Olympiad with notable wins over Mamedyarov, Anand, and Gelfand. Will Carlsen make a similar or even more impressive statement? We'll see!

Vidit-Andriasyan Match: After the Fact

I advertised their 1/8 final match in the 2018 Speed Chess Championship a few days ago; now that it's over, here are a couple more links. First, if you want to see the result and a report on the match, go here. If you want to watch the video of the broadcast as if in live time, go here. The next match is on Thursday: Karjakin-Duda, starting at 1 p.m. ET.