Firouzja Bounces Back In Tata Steel Chess Masters; Roebers Wins Again

GM Alireza Firouzja is trailing GM Anish Giri by half a point again after Friday's sixth round of the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. While the tournament leader missed several chances to beat GM Parham Maghsoodloo, Firouzja did score the full point against GM Wei Yi.

GM Erwin l'Ami had a tough day at the office against GM 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.

Results - Masters Round 6

Standings - Masters Round 6

Firouzja's loss the other day seemed like a tough blow, but in today's interview it became clear that the 20-year-old grandmaster had dealt with it quite maturely. "For me it was okay, because I played for a win, she was playing for a draw, so I had to risk and whenever you risk it can backfire," he said. "It was not like I got outplayed so I was not really upset, but yeah, it would have been better to not lose, but I took it easy and said I have another game tomorrow."

That sounds like an excellent recipe for bouncing back straight away, and that's what happened: Firouzja scored an excellent win against Wei today. That was bad news for Giri, who failed to win a close-to-winning position and saw his lead shrink to half a point.

Firouzja admitted that he didn't have much out of the opening, a Queen's Gambit Accepted where he had expected a Grunfeld. "His position is a bit unpleasant, but nothing big," he said about the early part of the endgame, a phase when Wei was already getting a bit low on time (he had 27 minutes left when the queens were traded on move 22).

Firouzja was critical of Wei's running with his h-pawn and noted that his opponent made several small mistakes later on. The engine agrees: it was an accumulation of errors that brought Wei into a lost position, while Firouzja played it very strongly.

Giri missed a great chance to score another full point. After 15 moves, he had an overwhelming position on the board and a 40-minute clock advantage, but he couldn't convert it into a full point. For some reason, he opted against the most natural continuation, and this way he allowed Maghsoodloo back into the game.

Just before the time control, Giri got another golden opportunity to win, but he instantly played a different move that led to a rook endgame with an extra pawn that wasn't possible to win.

In the space of two days, GM Gukesh Dommaraju went from minus one to plus one. Today, he beat the Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest, whose younger sister Machteld started playing the nine-round event today. 

Gukesh said he was the first to surprise his opponent by playing 4...Qf6 against the Scotch. "It turned out he knew the line," he said. "I knew the line till 13...d6 and then I kind of knew the plan, like what Black is supposed to do but not the exact moves. It suddenly got very interesting."

The engine didn't approve of Gukesh's 20th move, but it was Van Foreest who made a bigger mistake soon after. With a tactic, Gukesh won an important pawn, and he could also point his pieces toward the white king, but there was no immediate killer idea.

"He kept finding these resources," Gukesh said. "It was not easy to find the checkmate. At some point I was sure there should be some brutal idea against the king, but I just couldn't find it."

He went for taking the pawn on a4 instead, and when the position became tactical, Gukesh showed once again how strong a calculator he is. Here's today's game, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao:

Combining his economics studies with playing chess, GM Max Warmerdam was hoping to score one victory in his debut in the Masters group. Not even halfway through the tournament, he has two wins already. Today he defeated GM Alexander Donchenko, whose choice of repeating the King's Indian was quite daring. "At this level, it's very risky to just play the King's Indian and have your opponent actually expect it," said Warmerdam, whose prep went beyond move 20.

The 23-year-old Dutch GM chose the move 7.d5, once championed by the ninth world champion Tigran Petrosian. His idea was to follow up with 8.Bg5, but Warmerdam's Be3 is the modern engine's choice, and something Donchenko likely didn't expect.

Play went according to White's plan, as Black's a-pawn dropped on move 25. There was some compensation, until Donchenko blundered his g-pawn two moves later, after which his h-pawn was doomed as well. "Now he really has to go all-out because he is down three pawns," said Warmerdam. And he was ready to meet that "all-out."

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was a game this author had trouble understanding. After 23 moves, Black was a pawn up with a nice-looking knight on d3, but the evaluation was... about equal. Two moves later, White's compensation became clear: either he would get his rook to the seventh row via the b-file, or he would win the pawn back.

The latter happened, and suddenly Nepo was much better thanks to a better pawn structure. Praggnanandhaa, however, found an ingenious way to defend, by giving a piece for two pawns, and as soon as the queens were traded, he was safe.

Results - Challengers Round 6

Standings - Challengers Round 6

"Today I was dead lost," L'Ami readily admitted after he had just drawn a very long game, lasting 109 moves, against a tough opponent. He kept his half-point lead in the Challengers after an incredible escape, which he summarized as follows:

"Not a great game on my part I think, though okay, some credit to him, I mean he outplayed me very nicely I think in that endgame. Then, I think when he was about to wrap things up somehow he started to give me some some small chances after move 40. I think he had some clear wins, but yeah, well, it didn't happen. I just don't know what happened, and then suddenly I managed to reach this theoretically drawn or at least I think it is a theoretically drawn position and well, that was it."

The day ended even better for the local fans when Roebers scored another win, and again against a strong opponent. It's almost impossible to fully understand what happened, so I'll have to summarize it as "King's Indian mayhem" and let the winner herself talk about it.

Winning his third game in a row, GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi joined Korobov in second place, together with GM Salem Saleh. Maurizzi got a more or less equal endgame against GM Hans Niemann, and the game seemed to be heading toward a draw until the American GM went wrong in time trouble, and so he lost his second game in a row:

Pairings - Masters 7

Pairings - Challengers Round 7

The Tata Steel Chess tournament takes place January 13-28, 2024, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game with a 30-second increment. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.

Previous posts:

• Women Ascendant In Tata Steel As Ju Wenjun Upsets Firouzja, Roebers Defeats Niemann
• Praggnanandhaa Defeats World Champion Ding, Passes Anand To Become #1 In India
• Giri Beats Donchenko, Catches Firouzja In 1st Place
• Firouzja Moves To 2/2 In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• 4 Black Wins In Tata Steel Chess Masters Opening Round
• Ding Liren Ready For Tata: 'I Feel Much Better Than Before'
• 2024 Tata Steel Chess: World Champion Ding Returns, Carlsen Missing