Official Website Round 8 Report

A flurry of draws and just one decision in eighth-round action brought little change to the standings in Grandmaster Group A at the 74th annual Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk-aan-Zee on Sunday.

Levon Aronian of Armenia settled for a relatively quick draw, while the other tournament leader, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, rejected an early peace offer only to reach the same result by a repetition of moves after trying in vain for most of the afternoon.

“I think it was a drawish line, more or less,” said Aronian about his Queen’s Gambit with black against Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov. “I don’t know too much about it but it felt very natural the way I played it.”

 

When asked about his preparation, Aronian indicated he hadn’t studied all that hard, as he’d spent the night before Sunday’s round at the BIM-House, a jazz music hall in nearby Amsterdam. Even so, at one point he felt that black was better “but then, I committed a couple of inaccuracies, because I thought the game was already finished. Fortunately, I collected myself and played correctly and it was a draw.”

 

 

Carlsen, meanwhile, played black in a Gruenfeld against Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov, an inventive player with a reputation as a tough defender, who sprung an early proposal to split the point on his formidable opponent. The top-rated Norwegian refused, of course. “You should expect to have to fight to the end for every half point,” he told reporters afterwards. “But, okay, I think the position never strayed beyond the bounds of a draw, although I believe I was better to begin with and then, he might have tried for a win, because I over-pressed.” The game ended when a repetition of moves became unavoidable, which deprived Carlsen of the privilege to play on until just two kings were left on the board – as he did twice in earlier rounds.

 

 

 

 

Karjakin-Nakamura and Caruana-Ivanchuk were what experts call ‘correct draws’. In the first game, from a Dutch Defense, Karjakin held a slight edge throughout. It was far from enough, however, which was hardly a surprise for Nakamura, who had only a few days before told reporters that “white often seems to be better in the Dutch … when in fact he is not.”

 

 

In the other encounter, a French Defense, Caruana saw the offer of an exchange refused, went on to sacrifice a full rook and threw in a knight for good measure only to force a draw by perpetual, after he realized that trying for a win would have been too risky.

 

 

 

Less ‘correct’ was the draw between David Navara of the Czech Republic and Holland’s Loek van Wely, who held a clear edge with black in one of his pet lines of the Sicilian Defense. “I had a comfortable position but somewhere he bluffed me,” Van Wely said, referring to the point where he missed 19…Nxe3, which would have given him a clear if not winning advantage. “Why, I should have calculated better,” complained Van Wely. “Later, Navara insisted on playing on – he’s had a bad tournament so far and probably thought he might beat me. Wrong decision! He ended up in a position where the only one who could win was me. Sadly, it wasn’t enough.”

 

 

 

Entirely ‘incorrect’ was the outcome of the encounter between Israel’s Boris Gelfand and U.S. champion Gata Kamsky, a Gruenfeld Defense which black handled perfectly until he produced the dismal 34…Re4, where 34…Qc7+ would have led to a straightforward win: 35.Kf2 Qh2, with the idea Re4-f4. After he also missed 40…Qh6 - which might still have saved the day - the only explanation one expert could think of was: “Poor Kamsky has lost his head completely.” Instead, the American champion came up with 40…R8e6? and, ignominiously, had to sign the peace four moves later.

 

 

 

The 500-euro ‘Piet Zwart Prize,’ put up by the municipalities of Velsen and Beverwijk, Sunday went to Azerbaijan’s Vugar Gashimov for his resounding win with black against Dutch champion Anish Giri. “Something must have gone wrong with Giri’s preparation,” supposed GM Ivan Sokolov in awarding the prize to Gashimov. “The Azeri was playing a well-known line from the 1950s, when Giri opted for the very unusual 10.Bd5?!, a move played only in some Opens,” Sokolov said. “Many top games have seen the more logical 10.Bb3.”

It turned out that what went wrong was that Giri had not really prepared 10.Bd5 at all. “I had looked at it for two minutes in a correspondence game this morning,” he admitted shamefacedly. “I thought it was interesting and, without discussing it with my second, I decided to try it.” The idea backfired seriously and Gashimov coasted to victory in 38 moves.

 

 

 

The standings after round 8 in Group A:

Aronian, Levon	ARM	2805	5½
Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2835	5½
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2773	5
Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2736	4½
Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	2766	4½
Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2759	4½
Giri, Anish	NED	2714	4
Van Wely, Loek	NED	2692	4
Kamsky, Gata	USA	2732	3½
Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2769	3½
Topalov, Veselin	BUL	2770	3½
Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2739	3
Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	2761	3
Navara, David	CZE	2712	2

 

In Group B, where the day prize is set at 250 euros, Sokolov picked Vladimir Potkin as the award-winner for his fine victory with black over Holland’s Dimitri Reinderman. “Potkin, the European Individual Champion, got the better play delaying 6…Nc6 (the main theoretical move) and opting for the novel 6…Be7,” Sokolov said. “Reinderman went for complications for which his position was not ready and soon landed in trouble. He got one last possibility to stay in the game with the exchange sac 32.Raxb4! but missed it, played 32.Ra6 instead” and went down 14 moves later.

 

 

India’s Pentala Harikrishna kept the lead in Grandmaster Group B with a 6.5/8-score after a draw with white against Holland’s Sergei Tiviakov in 63 moves from a Benko opening. He was followed at half a point by Russia’s Alexander Motylev.

 

 

The results of round 8 in Group B:

Harikrishna, Pentala	½-½	Tiviakov, Sergei
Motylev, Alexander	1-0	Vocaturo, Daniele
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	1-0	Timman, Jan H
Ernst, Sipke	½-½	Nyzhnyk, Illya
Reinderman, Dimitri	0-1	Potkin, Vladimir
Lahno, Kateryna	0-1	L'Ami, Erwin
Harika, Dronavalli	½-½	Cmilyte, Viktorija

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The standings in Group B after round 8:

Harikrishna, Pentala	IND	2665	6
Motylev, Alexander	RUS	2677	5½
L'Ami, Erwin	NED	2596	5
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	CUB	2691	5
Nyzhnyk, Illya	UKR	2568	4½
Ernst, Sipke	NED	2606	4
Reinderman, Dimitri	NED	2581	4
Potkin, Vladimir	RUS	2684	3½
Tiviakov, Sergei	NED	2677	3½
Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	2503	3
Timman, Jan H	NED	2571	3
Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	2557	3
Harika, Dronavalli	IND	2516	3
Vocaturo, Daniele	ITA	2545	3

 

Lars Ootes took the 100-euro daily prize in Grandmaster Group C for a 68-move win in a King’s Indian with black against fellow Dutchman Pieter Hopman.

 

Russia’s Maxim Turov, the sole leader in this group at the outset of Sunday’s round, dropped half a point to Britain’s Matthew Sadler, allowing Sweden’s Hans Tikkanen to come alongside in the first spot on the strength of a win in 68 moves with white from a Reti against Holland’s Anne Haast.

 

 

The results of round 8 in Group C:

Tikkanen, Hans	1-0	Haast, Anne
Grover, Sahaj	1-0	Schut, Lisa
Brandenburg, Daan	½-½	Adhiban, Baskaran
Sadler, Matthew D	½-½	Turov, Maxim
Tania, Sachdev	½-½	Danielian, Elina
Paehtz, Elisabeth	1-0	Goudriaan, Etienne
Hopman, Pieter	0-1	Ootes, Lars

 

The standings after 8 rounds in Group C:

Tikkanen, Hans	SWE	2549	6½
Turov, Maxim	RUS	2645	6½
Adhiban, Baskaran	IND	2561	5½
Grover, Sahaj	IND	2532	5
Brandenburg, Daan	NED	2527	4½
Sadler, Matthew D	ENG	2660	4½
Tania, Sachdev	IND	2411	3½
Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	2454	3½
Goudriaan, Etienne	NED	2279	3½
Schut, Lisa	NED	2290	3½
Ootes, Lars	NED	2326	3
Danielian, Elina	ARM	2490	2½
Haast, Anne	NED	2290	2
Hopman, Pieter	NED	2342	2

 

Report and photos from the official website coverage. Videos by Freshmen media.