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Tata Steel: Giri Beats Mamedyarov, Carlsen Blunders But Wins
Giri, Adhiban and Svidler watch as Carlsen blunders vs Jones. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Tata Steel: Giri Beats Mamedyarov, Carlsen Blunders But Wins

PeterDoggers
| 89 | Chess Event Coverage

In a tumultuous eighth round in Wijk aan Zee, both Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen caught Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in first place. It was Giri who brought down the tournament leader, whereas Carlsen blundered a full piece but won anyway.  

The fight for first place at the 80th Tata Steel Chess Tournament is suddenly very tense as we have three leaders at 5.5 points, with five rounds to go. A revitalized Mamedyarov seemed to be running away with the tournament but found his Waterloo today in the local hero.

Anish Giri in round 8 Wijk aan Zee

Anish Giri, on scoring a "massive" victory today: "Every victory for me is massive!" | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Yesterday Giri had mentioned that Mamedyarov's openings aren't bulletproof, and although he didn't intend to criticize the Azeri's repertoire too much, some of it might be true. Today Giri got an advantage straight out of the opening, and on move 32, Mamedyarov threw in the towel as he had been outplayed. 

Giri, who joined his opponent in first place, is playing his best tournament in a long time. "I didn't really keep the count but I assumed winning is good today," he noted matter-of-factly.

Chess Game of the Day, GM Dejan Bojkov

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Wijk aan Zee

Mamedyarov was outplayed by Giri like Dreev was against Karpov in 2000. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The third leader after today is Magnus Carlsen, who won a bizarre game against Gawain Jones. Just out of the opening, the world champion blundered a full piece.

Here Carlsen went 17.g4?? allowing 17...f4.

"It's a little embarrassing obviously, more than a little embarrassing," Carlsen readily admitted.

Magnus Carlsen blunders vs Gawain Jones Tata Steel 2018

Magnus Carlsen, frustrated with himself after blundering a full piece. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Because it was the world champion, and because he quickly got an initiative after it happened, some fans weren't even sure if it actually was a blunder but Carlsen himself ended the debate right away in his post-game interview.

"That was obviously a crude blunder. I guess I was kind of lucky to get any play at all after that."

Carlsen was referring to move 22, where Jones missed the obvious chance to close off the kingside after the win should have been trivial even against this particular opponent.

"After this, I had nothing to lose," said Carlsen. "It felt kind of absurd; I felt like the game is over already but on the other hand, I thought: let's play a few moves and see what happens."

Gawain Jones vs Magnus Carlsen Wijk aan Zee

Gawain Jones missed a golden opportunity today. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

What happened was Jones losing the thread completely, and going from won to better to worse to lost. The English GM might have a hard time sleeping tonight.

Giri, in his typical half-serious tone, said: "It will be interesting to see whether Magnus is a full piece stronger than the rest of the players here. I didn't think so but now I start doubting."

Carlsen, father, signatures, Wijk aan Zee

Carlsen giving autographs to kids on the way to the playing hall (with his father Henrik closeby). | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the standings, Hou Yifan is having a horrible tournament. Today she had an excellent chance to do something about that as she was a very healthy pawn up (as in: two, if she had taken another one!) vs Fabiano Caruana. But, like Jones, at some point, she just collapsed and even lost.

Hou Yifan and her mother in Wijk aan Zee

Hou and her mother arriving for what would be another disastrous round. | Photo Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

2018 Tata Steel Masters | Round 8 Standings

# Fed Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 Pts SB
1 Giri 2752 2895 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 5.5/8 22.75
2 Carlsen 2834 2866 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 5.5/8 16.75
3 Mamedyarov 2804 2874 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 5.5/8 15.75
4 Kramnik 2787 2835 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 5.0/8 19
5 So 2792 2841 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5.0/8 18.75
6 Anand 2767 2792 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 4.5/8 16.5
7 Karjakin 2753 2777 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 4.5/8 15.75
8 Svidler 2768 2733 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.0/8 13
9 Matlakov 2718 2750 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.0/8 12.5
10 Jones 2640 2719 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 3.5/8
11 Wei Yi 2743 2676 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 3.0/8 12.5
12 Caruana 2811 2660 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 3.0/8 10
13 Adhiban 2655 2569 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 2.0/8
14 Hou Yifan 2680 2441 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 1.0/8

Games via TWIC.

Not only in the masters group were the standings shaken up. Anton Korobov lost his first game of the tournament in the challengers after completely misjudging the position shortly before the time control—before that he had built up a more-or-less winning advantage vs Bassem Amin. The Egyptian player finished it off nicely.

Anton Korobov in Wijk aan Zee 2018

Another close battle in the challengers as Korobov goes down for the first time. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi took full advantage and joined the Ukrainian in first place thanks to the following win with the black pieces.

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in Wijk aan Zee 2018

Vidit is back in shared first place. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

2018 Tata Steel Challengers | Round 8 Standings

# Fed Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 Pts SB
1 Vidit 2718 2791 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 6.0/8 22.25
2 Korobov 2652 2811 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 6.0/8 21.75
3 Amin 2693 2610 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 4.0/8 16.75
4 l'Ami 2634 2617 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.0/8 16.25
5 L. van Foreest 2481 2631 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 4.0/8 16
6 Bok 2607 2592 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.0/8 15.5
7 Krasenkow 2671 2609 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.0/8 15
8 Bluebaum 2640 2608 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 4.0/8 14.75
9 J. van Foreest 2629 2591 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 4.0/8 14.25
10 Xiong 2634 2561 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 3.5/8 13.75
11 Tari 2599 2565 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 3.5/8 12.75
12 Gordievsky 2622 2573 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 3.5/8 11.75
13 Harika 2497 2539 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 3.0/8
14 Girya 2489 2494 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 2.5/8

Games via TWIC.

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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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.”

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