Abdusattorov Gives Carlsen His 1st 2-Game Losing Streak in 8 Years
In their first-ever classical encounter, 18-year-old GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the black pieces defeated GM Magnus Carlsen in round five of the 2023 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. With his previous round's victory vs. GM Parham Maghsoodloo, Abdusattorov has gained his second consecutive win while giving Carlsen a second classical loss in a row―an occurrence that we haven't seen in eight years since Norway Chess 2015. Abdusattorov has captured the sole lead with GM Anish Giri in second, chasing him by half a point.
Maghsoodloo rebounded with a "bloodthirsty" attacking victory vs. GM Jorden van Foreest. Additionally, GM Levon Aronian gained his first win against GM Vincent Keymer.
In the Challengers group, GM Mustafa Yilmaz has surged to the lead with three victories in a row.
Live broadcast of the tournament, hosted by GM Daniel Naroditsky and IM Jovanka Houska.
Round five was a unique one. For one, the players were coming off a rest day where some competed in a totally different sport at the John Cruiff Arena.
💙| What to do on a rest day? Play football at @telstar1963nv! ⚽ pic.twitter.com/KjH3fXmwno
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 18, 2023
Traditional football match at @tatasteelchess:
— Peter Heine Nielsen (@PHChess) January 18, 2023
Team Van Wely vs. Team Carlsen.
My role was to defend Ding Liren!
Result was a 3-3 draw. pic.twitter.com/y6elMBV2Gr
Secondly, the players played the round itself at the arena as a revival of the Chess on Tour tradition.
If the goal of Chess on Tour is to get the players out of their heads and into a fresh, competitive environment, it certainly succeeded. Every single player emerged ready for a fight this round.
In the all-American matchup, Caruana vs. GM Wesley So, the 2020 Tata Steel champion unleashed the risky Scotch Game, more common in the Romantic era of chess due to its fast development and opening of lines, on his compatriot. As Naroditsky commented: “I always love it when players bring back something that is out of fashion because you always wonder what they have in their pockets for that game.”
Matching the aggressive opening, the players castled to opposite sides, and Caruana ripped open the h-file to aim his heavy pieces at the black king. As the game progressed, Naroditsky observed: "Just terrifying preparation by Fabiano Caruana."
Just terrifying preparation by Fabiano Caruana.
-Daniel Naroditsky
However, So defended with his standard high awareness, perceptively rerouting his light-squared bishop to the c8-h3 diagonal to keep Caruana's queen from joining his rook on the h-file. When Caruana played the practical yet cautious 21.Nxc4, So was able to force a queen trade, calming the game down. In the ending, the players drew by repetition on move 41.
GM Arjun Erigaisi vs. GM Ding Liren was one exchange after another of attacking play and resourceful defense by both players. In an Italian Game, Ding aggressively chased away White’s pinning bishop on g5 by expanding his kingside pawns to g5, g4, and h5. Erigaisi responded by sacrificing a center pawn on d4 still well within his opening preparation, as Houska noticed: "You know what scares me the most? Arjun has more time than he started with. When your opponent is playing a move like 14.Rb1, you know you’re in some home-cooked preparation."
Ding characteristically countered with his attacking style, leaving his g4-pawn unguarded to focus on his counterattack, striking in the center with 19...d5!? This explosive move opened more lines for Ding's long-range pieces. His a7-bishop stared down the a7-g1 diagonal joined by his f8-rook in adding pressure on Erigaisi's f2-pawn.
When Erigaisi chose the more cautious 26.Nf3 over 26.Ne4, Ding employed the insightful Ra5-f5 maneuver, activating his only undeveloped piece to triple on the f-file. With all five of his pieces aimed at the white kingside, Ding seized the attacking chances from his 19-year-old opponent. As Naroditsky observed: "Ding, the guy is a beast—the way he survives preparation, initiative, doesn’t matter."
In the final minutes of the game, Ding unleashed an incredible onslaught against Black's king, yet Erigaisi countered with just as incredible creative defensive ideas despite his time trouble. This amazing back-and-forth duel ended in a fitting balanced result.
Maghsoodloo vs. Van Foreest started with explosive play in the center in the Queen's Gambit Accepted with the Dutch grandmaster throwing both his e5- and c5-pawns at White's center. Maghsoodloo countered by accepting both pawns and then sacrificing his knight to create a potent advanced passed pawn as Naroditsky described: “There was a piece sac carried out by a bloodthirsty Parham."
Maghsoodloo sacrifices a knight out of the opening, but Van Foreest is as resourceful as ever.
— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) January 19, 2023
Our commentators break down what happened over the last moves 👇. #TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/y6ozCfWioN
Though the game seemed to be calming down when Van Foreest gave the knight back, Maghsoodloo infused new aggression into the position with an additional pawn sacrifice, steering the game back into adventurous waters. White won in the end.
Carlsen vs. Abdusattorov is a prime example of an intergenerational matchup: Abdusattorov was born in 2004, the same year that Carlsen made his debut at Tata Steel Masters.
I took this picture in 2015. 7 years later, Abdusattorov would beat the World Champion in classical for the first time. pic.twitter.com/xfOeMXpin7
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) January 19, 2023
In recent years, the two have developed a rivalry at the World Rapid Championship: Carlsen recently defeated Abdusattorov on his way to winning the 2022 title, vengeance for Abdusattorov beating him on the way to winning the 2021 championship.
Their current duel began with a symmetrical English where Houska noted: "In a tranquil pawn structure, the energy transfers to the pieces." Carlsen sacrificed an exchange so his bishop could slice through the a3-f8 diagonal, preventing his opponent from castling kingside. Unfazed, Abdusattorov simply accepted the material and castled long. Then the world champion switched gears, gaining back a pawn on the kingside.
When Carlsen retreated his queen instead of playing the mindboggling yet engine-accurate 18.Qxh7, which would have further opened lines towards his own king, Abdusattorov wrangled the initiative from him with one fearless dynamic move after another. The Uzbek grandmaster then traded into a pawn-up queen ending and confidently converted his advantage against the highest-rated player in history.
This dazzling display is our Game of the Day (annotations by GM Rafael Leitao).
In his post-game interview, Abdusattorov shared his thoughts about Carlsen's exchange sacrifice: "I evaluated this whole exchange sacrifice as dubious because it seemed like I'm getting just a free exchange. And when he took on g7, I have a very powerful rook on g8. I think he underestimated long castles."
♟| Nodirbek Abdusattorov post round interview after he delivers Carlsen's 2nd loss in a row! #TataSteelChess https://t.co/cRpT784Qlq
— Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) January 19, 2023
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave added his two cents to the game, sharing how the queen ending holds unfathomable subtleties to a human player.
In many instances this queen endgame is a draw, but the nuances are almost impossible to comprehend. This is a draw whoever to move, so I’m sure Magnus knew he had drawing chances there pic.twitter.com/Blm1kA5rLG
— MVL (@Vachier_Lagrave) January 19, 2023
GM Richard Rapport managed to solve all the problems posed by GM Gukesh D. in the Grunfeld Defense, reaching an equal ending, and they agreed to a draw on move 47.
GM Praggnanandhaa R. and Giri faced off after both earning unbelievable victories against the world's top two, Ding and Carlsen, respectively in round four. Their game reached a double rook ending early on with Giri pressing down the f-file and Praggnanandhaa creating pressure on the queenside. The position stayed fairly balanced as pawns and a pair of rooks were traded away, and the players drew also on move 47.
Aronian won the last game to finish, grinding down Keymer in 79 moves in a minor piece ending. Annotations for this victory are by IM Adrian Petrisor.
Aronian wins today's last game with exquisite endgame technique! His first win of the tournament leaves him with a 3/5 score, a point behind the leader Abdusattorov.#TataSteelChess pic.twitter.com/7qIip1ZbG7
— ChesscomLive (@ChesscomLive) January 19, 2023
In the Challengers section, Yilmaz defeated GM Amin Tabatabaei with the black pieces, tactically overpowering his opponent's inaccurate exchange sacrifice, to reach four points. GM Javokhir Sindarov converted a long rook endgame against GM Jergus Pechac, while IM Thomas Beerdsen bounced back from a lost position against IM Eline Roebers after a heartbreaking blunder by the 17-year-old talent with one minute on the clock against 23.
Results - Masters Round 5
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Pairings - Masters Round 6
All Games - Masters Round 5
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Vanessa West is a National Master, a chess teacher, and a writer for Chess.com. In 2017, they won the Chess Journalist of the Year award.
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