The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The 86th edition is held from 12 – 28 January 2024. 13 – 29 january 2023

Tata Steel chess tournament Round 6:

Alireza Firouzja is trailing Anish Giri by half a point again after Friday’s Round 6 of the Tata Steel Masters. While the tournament leader missed several chances to beat Parham Maghsoodloo, Firouzja did score the full point against Wei Yi. Erwin l’Ami had a tough day at the office against Anton Korobov, but after 109 moves, the Dutch grandmaster saved the half point by the skin of his teeth and kept his lead in the Challengers, while IM Eline Roebers won another game.

 

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The 86th edition is held from 12 – 28 January 2024. 13 – 29 january 2023

Magnus Carlsen scored a brilliant win over his 2018 World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana to win a record 8th Tata Steel Masters title. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov gratefully accepted a blunder by Vidit to join Richard Rapport in second place a point behind, but when it was announced that Daniil Dubov couldn’t play Magnus on Sunday despite a 2nd, negative, PCR test, the title was confirmed. Sam Shankland stunned Sergey Karjakin in just 26 moves, while Arjun Erigaisi will play in the 2023 Tata Steel Masters after cruising to victory with 9.5/12 in the Challengers.

Magnus Carlsen went into the penultimate round of the 2022 Tata Steel Masters in an unusual situation. It was his final game of the event, since a forfeit win over Daniil Dubov awaited in the final round. That put Magnus on the brink of overall victory, since a draw would leave only Richard Rapport within touching distance, and needing to score 2/2 against the formidable duo of Andrey Esipenko and Anish Giri just to force a playoff.

 

See also:

• Official website
• chess24

Magnus Carlsen will return to action after the World Championship match when he plays in Wijk aan Zee for an 18th time on the 14-30 January 2022. Magnus will be looking to win an 8th Tata Steel Masters title, but will face tough competition from world no. 2 Fabiano Caruana and local hero Anish Giri. 13 of the 14 players have been announced, with 16-year-old Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour winner Praggnanandhaa given his debut in the top event, while another teenager, 19-year-old Andrey Esipenko, gets the chance to build on his brilliant debut in 2021.

The 84th edition of the super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee is hoping to put the pandemic behind it with the return of the Challengers, amateur events and even spectators, though current restrictions will keep the numbers below pre-COVID levels. Tournament Direct Jeroen van den Berg commented: I am delighted that we will be able to organise amateur tournaments again and will be receiving visitors as well. The mix of amateurs and grandmasters all playing their games in the hall in De Moriaan is unique in the world and creates a very special atmosphere. I am certain that chess aficionados all over the world will rejoice at this news.

Most attention, however, will once again focus on the main event, the Tata Steel Masters, with Anish Giri present at a press conference on Tuesday where 13 of the 14 players were announced.

official website 

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Magnus Carlsen has won the top tournament in Wijk aan Zee for a record 7th time after drawing the final game against Anish Giri to finish on 9/13. He described his performance as “very professional” if not “sparkling”, but apart from Giri no-one ran him close. With little left to play for there were draws elsewhere, with only Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Kramnik committing different kinds of chess suicide to lose to Richard Rapport and Sam Shankland and finish in last place. Vladislav Kovalev will play the Masters next year after winning the Challengers with a brilliant 10/13.

So that’s all for the 2019 Tata Steel Chess tournament! We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage, and fortunately there’s no need to despair about a lack of top-level chess. The Gibraltar Masters is entering the finishing straight, with the action beginning at 15:00 CET each day.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24: Masters | Challengers
• Tata Steel Chess 2019 Preview
• Tata Steel 2019, 1: Nepo and Anand snatch early lead
• Tata Steel 2019, 2: The Dutch strike back
• Tata Steel 2019, 3: Nepo beats Kramnik to lead
• Tata Steel 2019, 4: Giri and Vidit win
• Tata Steel 2019, 5: Magnus breaks the streak
• Tata Steel 2019, 6: Carlsen and Giri hit the front
• Tata Steel 2019, 7: Insane chess
• Tata Steel 2019, 8: Carlsen and Anand take the lead
• Tata Steel 2019, 9: Nepo catches Magnus and Vishy
• Tata Steel 2019, 10: Vintage Carlsen beats Anand
• Tata Steel 2019, 11: Shankland commits hara-Giri
• Tata Steel 2019, 12: A Carlsen-Giri showdown

American grandmaster Wesley So (23) has won the 79th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Playing with black he managed to beat Russian Ian Nepomniatchi and thus managed to leave behind world champion Magnus Carlsen, Chinese super talent Wei Yi and Levon Aronian. They were all half a point behind So before the start of the 13th round, which was opened by former world champion Anatoli Karpov, and so were all still competing for first place. It’s the first time So has won a tournament in which Carlsen was participating.

Carlsen came in second in the Tata Steel Masters. The first regular match between Carlsen and Karjakin since their world championship match in New York ended in a draw today. Wesley So has remained unbeaten for 56 matches in a row and is now the world’s number three chess player. So after his victory: “Winning this prestigious tournament has been a goal for a long time. I really love the Tata Steel Chess Tournament”. So received the award from Anatoli Karpov and Theo Henrar, chairman of the directors of Tata Steel Nederland. Henrar announced that the 80th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in Wijk aan Zee from 12 – 28 January 2018.

Other winners

Gawain Jones (UK) managed to win the Tata Steel Challengers. The fight for first place was fierce in this group as well during the last round, which started with three players still in the race for victory. Winning the Tata Steel Challengers means that Jones will participate in the Tata Steel Masters in 2018. The top amateur group was won by Lucas van Foreest (15), brother of Jorden van Foreest (17).

The latter participated in the Tata Steel Challengers. His victory means that Lucas van Foreest will participate in the Tata Steel Challengers in next year’s edition. The Vugar Gashimov Fair Play Award was won by Adhiban Baskaran (India) and Eric Hansen (Canada). They received the award from Sarkhan Gashimov, Vugar’s brother. The Professor Van Hulst Young Talent Award was won by 16-year-old American Jeffery Xiong, who secured third place in the Tata Steel Challengers. He received the prize from 106-year-old Johan van Hulst.

Steel and chess: creativity and innovation

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament has a long tradition. Starting as an employee tournament, it has grown into an international tournament of world class renown, for which grand masters and amateurs alike will clear their diaries. Tata Steel has chosen for chess, because chess entails strategic thinking and focuses on finding creative solutions for complex issues. Tata Steel has that very same focus. Steelmaking is a high-tech process with a crucial role for innovation.

Tata Steel employees are continuously and relentlessly working on finding clever solutions to improve processes and products. That is how Tata Steel is able to provide top products to its customers, allowing them to distinguish themselves in their markets. At the same time Tata Steel contributes to creating a sustainable society through its product and process innovations. Among chess aficionados the tournament in Wijk aan Zee is known as ‘The Wimbledon of Chess’.

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Magnus Carlsen plays Sergey Karjakin in the final round of the 2017 Tata Steel Masters knowing a win will likely mean a title playoff against Wesley So. In the penultimate round Magnus beat Pavel Eljanov from a position he was struggling merely to hold, while Levon Aronian inflicted a 7th loss of the tournament on Loek van Wely to move into a tie with Wei Yi and Carlsen for 2nd place. In the Challengers Jeffery Xiong’s hopes lie in tatters after he lost to Aryan Tari while Markus Ragger and Gawain Jones both won to overtake him.

Magnus Carlsen has now won all five classical games he’s played against Pavel Eljanov, with the World Champion admitting “maybe it was in the back of his head”. Carlsen played the Stonewall Dutch and soon ended up in what looked to be close to a strategically lost position.
Then the old, familiar Magnus took over, arguably playing his best chess of the event so far. Lawrence Trent takes us through the game:

Before the round the key showdown was Wesley So’s game against Wei Yi, with the young Chinese player theoretically in with a chance of overtaking the long-term leader. Karjakin-Nepomniachtchi, with both Russian players already out of the race for first place, was drawn in a blink-and-you-missed-it 21 moves, while Wojtaszek-Andreikin was a complicated 51-move draw in which the balance was never seriously upset.

Going into the final round of the Challengers Jones and Ragger lead on 8.5/12, but have the black pieces. Xiong is joined half a point behind by Ilia Smirin, who also has Black. Xiong is the only contender with the white pieces, which is not to be dismissed given he’s won all his games with White so far in Wijk aan Zee! He faces Benjamin Bok, who has stabilised with five draws in a row after a bad start.

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Wesley So has now climbed to 2820.1 on the live rating list after his efforts in the Haarlem Philharmonia. He has opened up a 1-point gap on the field with only three rounds of the 2017 Tata Steel Masters to go. He outprepared the brilliantly prepared Radek Wojtaszek and went on to make the rest look very easy.

Wesley had made it his trademark to claim 9-round events by winning 3 games and drawing the rest, so perhaps it was fitting that in Round 10 he picked up another win and greatly increased his chances of starting 2017 with a supertournament victory. It’s noteworthy that he’s already played all but Wei Yi in the 5-man chasing pack.

The victory over Radek Wojtaszek was yet more evidence that So has added superb opening preparation to his already formidable practical skills. Wesley was in his own private “theory” until he played 18.b4:

Levon Aronian scored a beautiful win over Richard Rapport to move into a tie for second with Carlsen, Eljanov, Wei Yi and Sergey Karjakin, with the latter winning the all-Russian derby against Dmitry Andreikin. In the Challengers the leaders drew to allow Jeffery Xiong to join them in the battle for a Masters place next year.

After the rest day the final three rounds take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In Round 11, So has Black against Andreikin, who’s on a run of two losses in three games, while Carlsen had probably pencilled in White against Adhiban as a must-win game, at least before the tournament began. Wei Yi – Karjakin will be another important clash in the race for first place.

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Magnus Carlsen joked early on in the tournament that “it’s a shame to waste a White on Loek”, but his game with the white pieces against Van Wely came just when he needed it. He bounced straight back after the loss to Rapport and, with all other games drawn, moved back to within half a point of leader Wesley So. The draw included near misses for Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wei Yi and a wild encounter between Dmitry Andreikin and Pavel Eljanov. In the Challengers co-leader Gawain Jones lost to Jeffery Xiong, allowing Ilia Smirin to join Markus Ragger in the lead.

Tuesday was initially billed as the day Magnus Carlsen could lose his no. 1 spot on the live rating list to Fabiano Caruana. It later turned out that results going against him would “merely” have reduced his lead to less than a single rating point, but such calculations were swept aside in a game where Loek van Wely’s aggressive opening choice soon left him fighting only to draw.

The key games at the top in Round 10 will be Harikrishna-Carlsen, Eljanov-Wei Yi and So-Wojtaszek, while Aronian-Rapport looks like one of the most attractive encounters in terms of style.

source chess24

Richard Rapport kept his cool to score a sensational win over Magnus Carlsen in Round 8 of the Tata Steel Masters. The World Champion overpressed following the missed win against Anish Giri the day before, while the Dutchman also went down in flames after running into some devilish home preparation from Levon Aronian. The final winner of the day was Adhiban, who’s on an incredible 3.5/4 run and ended Dmitry Andreikin’s sequence of seven draws in a row. Wesley So drew to remain sole leader when Pavel Eljanov fell just short.

Magnus Carlsen lost only three classical games in 2016 (to Aronian in Norway Chess, Nakamura in Bilbao and of course Karjakin in New York), but he’s already suffered his first loss of 2017. The identity of his opponent is a surprise, but not a huge one, since Richard Rapport’s obvious talent and flare have made him a player to watch.

After a well-deserved rest day on Monday, Round 9 is again full of intriguing pairings: So-Aronian, Wei Yi-Adhiban, Giri-Rapport and Carlsen-Van Wely. It’s fair to assume Magnus will be out to steady the boat by beating his old friend Loek!

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Wesley So still leads the Tata Steel Masters after securing a draw when Adhiban challenged him in the most romantic of all chess openings – the King’s Gambit. The big story of the day, though, was Anish Giri finally ending a sequence of 14 draws by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in a game where the Russian grandmaster managed to blunder not just Bxh6 but Bxa6! The only other decisive result was a spectacular win for Wei Yi over Richard Rapport, featuring a fearless king march on a board full of menace.

It seems that in the World Championship match Magnus moved away from the approach he was famous for of playing every position for a win and instead grew to like forcing draws with Black with sharp but solid preparation. In Wijk aan Zee he’s now drawn in 33, 27, 28 and 30 moves with the black pieces, while winning his two games with White. The bad news for the rest of the field, of course, is that Magnus will have White more often in the games to come!

Standings after round 6:

The tournament finally crosses the halfway mark in Round 7 with Carlsen-Giri one of those grudge games that no-one wants to miss. Magnus is a secret fan. In general the favourites have the white pieces, meaning we could expect decisive results even if we didn’t have exciting pairings such as Wei Yi-Van Wely and Nepomniachtchi-Rapport!

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