Anand Wins With Flair, Joins Giri In Lead
With some cute tactics, Viswanathan Anand nicely defeated Fabiano Caruana today at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The Indian grandmaster joined Anish Giri in the lead. Anton Korobov and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi are tied for first in the challengers.
A five-time world champion and five-time winner in Wijk aan Zee, Viswanathan Anand is not showing any fatigue at 48 years old. Having just won the World Rapid Championship in Riyadh a few weeks ago, the Indian legend started pretty well at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Today he moved to plus-two with a fine win over Fabiano Caruana.
Viswanathan Anand is on 2.5/3 in Wijk aan Zee.
Caruana came well prepared with a piece sacrifice in a Petroff, which Anand could have seen coming as he was quite deeply preparing himself. A long and complicated middlegame arose, with Anand impressing commentator GM Robin van Kampen with his bishop maneuver Bb2-c1-f4-d6.
It still wasn't the end of the world for Black until Caruana took on b4. Anand: "axb4 was a gift because after Qxb4 I just get a free shot at b7."
Tournament leader Anish Giri drew fairly quickly with Peter Svidler as Black. Magnus Carlsen spent more than double the number of moves to reach the same result against Wei Yi—this time it not only seemed an equal endgame, it actually was.
Carlsen again plays each game on the central board due to a fixed camera for Norwegian TV. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
Carlsen did not give an interview to either the official broadcast nor Norway's TV2, leaving journalists wondering once again what is stipulated in the players' contracts.
Carlsen to TV2's Tarjei Svensen: "I have nothing to say." | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
Later in the day, Carlsen was active on social media. About his own game, he gave a pretty clear assessment, in a photo posted on Instagram.
Carlsen also graciously gave kudos to the man whom he dethroned in Chennai in 2013:
Rd6!! @vishy64theking #stillgotit
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) January 15, 2018
After losing her first two games, Hou Yifan had the tough task of facing Vladimir Kramnik as Black but she did just fine and drew her game without much trouble. Mamedyarov-Matlakov and So-Karjakin were also drawn.
At the end of the day, 2017 qualifier Gawain Jones managed to get to plus-one with a win over Baskaran Adhiban, the Indian player did so well as a qualifier last year.
Adhiban didn't fully equalize in a French Tarrash as he put his rooks on the wrong squares. When Jones found the excellent mini plan 19.Nxf6+ and 20.Ba6! he won a pawn and kept control as all the tactics favored White. "I am not sure the engine will approve of the game but of course I'm very happy," said Jones.
2018 Tata Steel Masters | Round 3 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Anand | 2767 | 3040 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5/3 | 2.75 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Giri | 2752 | 3024 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5/3 | 2.75 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Mamedyarov | 2804 | 2850 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.0/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Jones | 2640 | 2860 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.0/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Carlsen | 2834 | 2856 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.0/3 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Karjakin | 2753 | 2733 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | So | 2792 | 2759 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 2.25 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Svidler | 2768 | 2717 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 9 | Kramnik | 2787 | 2725 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1.5/3 | 1.25 | ||||||||||||
| 10 | Caruana | 2811 | 2627 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/3 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 11 | Wei Yi | 2743 | 2676 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1.0/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Matlakov | 2718 | 2668 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 13 | Hou Yifan | 2680 | 2502 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0.5/3 | 0.75 | ||||||||||||
| 14 | Adhiban | 2655 | 2468 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0.5/3 | 0.75 |
Games via TWIC.
In the challengers, both Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Anton Korobov won their games, and are now tied for first with 2.5 points. Korobov won against the winner of the 2017 Groningen tournament, Benjamin Bok. White's advantage in the endgame "only" consisted of the bishop pair, but in the hands of the Ukrainian GM this was enough:
Anton Korobov. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
Vidit beat Bassem Amin as Black in what was one of the top games of the tournament rating-wise. Both players seemed very well prepared in this 3.Bb5 Sicilian but when the tactics started, Amin missed a thing or two.
Vidit vs Amin, a top clash in the challengers. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
2018 Tata Steel Challengers | Round 3 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Korobov | 2652 | 2906 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5/3 | 2.75 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Vidit | 2718 | 2933 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5/3 | 2.5 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Gordievsky | 2622 | 2692 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2.0/3 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Xiong | 2634 | 2583 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 2.5 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | J. Van Foreest | 2629 | 2581 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1.5/3 | 2.5 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | L'Ami,Erwin | 2634 | 2621 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Harika | 2497 | 2644 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Girya | 2489 | 2632 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1.5/3 | 1.75 | ||||||||||||
| 9 | L. Van Foreest | 2481 | 2633 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1.5/3 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| 10 | Tari | 2599 | 2487 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1.0/3 | 2.25 | ||||||||||||
| 11 | Amin | 2693 | 2496 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/3 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Krasenkow | 2671 | 2491 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/3 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| 13 | Bluebaum | 2640 | 2470 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.0/3 | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| 14 | Bok | 2607 | 2474 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/3 | 1.5 |
Games via TWIC.
Live coverage of the 80th Tata Steel Chess Tournament is proudly powered by Chess.com.
Previous stories:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
