Tata Steel Chess 2022 R4: Mamedyarov, Praggnanandhaa Score
GM Vidit Gujrathi maintained his sole lead at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament going into the first rest day by drawing his game with GM Andrey Esipenko. GM Magnus Carlsen missed a chance to catch the leader after not going for a winning king walk vs. GM Jorden van Foreest, who had played a wonderful game before that.
The round did see two winners: GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and GM Praggnanandhaa R. scored his first win, vs. GM Nils Grandelius. GM Arjun Erigaisi, who won three games in a row, is now the sole leader in the Challengers.
You can follow the games of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament here: Masters | Challengers. Chess.com is providing daily commentary with exclusive camera footage from the playing hall on Chess.com/TV, Twitch, or YouTube.
At the end of the third round, Carlsen said that he was looking forward to his game with Van Foreest: "I can't wait to see what he's got up his sleeve. I'm sure it's going to be something crazy!" Although the world champion kind of shut down the door in terms of opening craziness by going 1.Nf3, later on the game got very exciting anyway.
Playing his former "boss" during the world championship, Van Foreest didn't hold back and played quite energetically. He sacrificed a pawn on move 20 and another one 10 moves later, giving him a chance to create threats on the kingside.
When Carlsen missed his first big chance on move 36 (where moving the king to f1 was promising), the game seemed to be ending in a draw soon, but then Van Foreest chose the wrong piece to sacrifice.
Here, taking with a rook on g5 would have led to equality but 36...Bxg5? gave Carlsen a second chance to go 37.Kf1! because that black bishop was temporarily pinned. This time he went for it, but after 37...Qa7 38.Qg4 Qa6+, Van Foreest escaped anyway as his opponent didn't play the winning king maneuver 38.Ke2! Qa6+ 39.Kd1.
It was the fourth classical game between the players. All were played in Wijk aan Zee, but it was only the first time the Dutchman played the with black pieces. It was his third draw, after he went down in the first encounter in 2019.
"It's a very important win for me. It gives me huge confidence of course. Yeah, I really wanted to win today with the white pieces," said Praggnanandhaa after scoring his first win in the tournament—by far the strongest classical tournament thus far for the 16-year-old GM from Chennai.
Pragg has to stay alone most of the time now that his coach is in quarantine (see yesterday's report) but he said he can still prepare with him online. The opening was definitely a success today.
The way he won was quite impressive as well, basically maintaining positional control from early in the game. The Grunfeld is supposed to be about dynamic counterplay, but in this game, Grandelius had to stay passive and never really had a chance:
Mamedyarov managed to beat Duda for the first time, after their first four encounters had all ended in draws. It was a topsy-turvy game where initially Duda was doing well with the black pieces, outwitting his opponent tactically. As the game progressed, it was Mamedyarov who found some nice tactical shots to equalize. In the end, Duda over-pressed and lost what should have been a drawn endgame:
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Tournament leader Vidit drew with Esipenko shortly before the time control. The position was still full of life, but it was indeed level:
"I forgot my YouTube password...now I have to ask Anish for a raid."@anishgiri reads the body language of his friend and #TataSteelChess leader, @viditchess! 😂 pic.twitter.com/vgBRiqD6Oi
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Shankland-Rapport, Caruana-Dubov, and Karjakin-Giri also ended in draws, the latter very quickly, after a theoretical move repetition.
Giri then joined the Chess.com live broadcast for quite a while, and said about his own game: "I thought he wouldn't do it this way, but it's possible. I was really preparing myself for a dangerous game, for a battle. I thought he would definitely give it a shot. I guess I surprised him with the Grunfeld, and he didn't have anything ready."
Round 4 Standings Masters
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 1 | Vidit | 2727 | 2924 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/4 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Esipenko | 2714 | 2864 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/4 | 5.5 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Carlsen | 2865 | 2826 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/4 | 5 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Mamedyarov | 2767 | 2830 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2.5/4 | 4.75 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Rapport | 2763 | 2799 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 2.5/4 | 3.75 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Van Foreest | 2702 | 2816 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2.5/4 | 3.75 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Duda | 2760 | 2752 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 2.0/4 | 4.75 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Caruana | 2792 | 2725 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/4 | 3.75 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Praggnanandhaa | 2612 | 2726 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.0/4 | 2.25 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Giri | 2772 | 2659 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 3 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Dubov | 2720 | 2669 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 3 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Karjakin | 2743 | 2661 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 2.5 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Shankland | 2708 | 2650 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 2.5 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Grandelius | 2672 | 2359 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0.5/4 |
A casual look at his game would suggest that Erigaisi, now the leader in the Challengers, had a fairly easy day at the office today. In reality, the German IM Roven Vogel actually missed a big chance just out of the opening that could have given him a nice advantage:
After three losses, WGM Zhu Jiner won her first game today at the expense of GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi. After a quiet opening, the game suddenly exploded:
Round 4 Standings Challengers
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 1 | Erigaisi | 2632 | 2870 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3.5/4 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Nguyen | 2613 | 2743 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.0/4 | 5.5 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Murzin | 2519 | 2721 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/4 | 4.5 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Jumabayev | 2631 | 2653 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2.5/4 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 5 | L'Ami | 2622 | 2614 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2.5/4 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Bjerre | 2586 | 2657 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 2.5/4 | 3.75 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Ganguly | 2627 | 2633 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/4 | 2.5 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Van Foreest | 2539 | 2531 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 4.25 | |||||||||||
| 9 | Warmerdam | 2607 | 2497 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 3.25 | |||||||||||
| 10 | Vogel | 2452 | 2483 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5/4 | 2.75 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Shuvalova | 2516 | 2470 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.5/4 | 2.5 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Dardha | 2532 | 2367 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.0/4 | 2 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Zhu | 2478 | 2373 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.0/4 | 0.5 | |||||||||||
| 14 | Maurizzi | 2502 | 2243 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5/4 |
All games round 4
Previous reports:
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