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Saturday, January 26, 2013

75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 R11: Magnus Carlsen Leads Despite Draw with Wang Hao; Levon Aronian a Point Behind

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,



In an exciting 11th round at the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament Magnus Carlsen was put to the test by Wang Hao (see picture) who managed to reach a better endgame in a Sicilian Rossolimo. Just when the squeeze seemed to be on, the Chinese Grandmaster traded his active knight for the passive black bishop, missing a clever defense that allowed Carlsen to completely equalize in the ensuing rook endgame. In the meantime it had become apparent that both Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand were en route to victories. As it turned out, only Aronian made good on the promise of his position and, albeit with a slight hiccup along the way, outplayed Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces.

World Champion Anand dropped the ball against former Women's World Champion Hou Yifan. What seemed destined to become a model endgame victory turned tragic for the Indian Grandmaster when he decided to transpose a winning knight endgame into a drawn pawn endgame.

Click on game links to view game in the super Chss King applet.

1 Leko, Peter (5½) 2735 - Van Wely, L. (5) 2679 1-0
2 Karjakin, S. (5½) 2780 -  Sokolov, I. (2½) 2663 1-0
3 Hou, Yifan (3½) 2603 - Anand, V. (6½) 2772 ½-½
4 Wang, Hao (4) 2752 - Carlsen, M. (8) 2861 ½-½
5 Nakamura, H. (6½) 2769 - Aronian, L. (6½) 2802 0-1
6 Giri, Anish (4) 2720 - Caruana, F. (4½) 2781 1-0
7 L'Ami, E. (3) 2627 - Harikrishna (5) 2698 ½-½ 



Holland's promise Anish Giri had seen many good positions dwindle away to nothing in recent days, but today he hit the jackpot against Fabiano Caruana. The Italian's greed in a Catalan was punished severely by the Dutchman who could chose between many roads to victory, but his choice of simply sending all troops to the enemy king turned out to be very effective. Giri's compatriot Ivan Sokolov had a tougher nut to crack playing Black versus Sergey Karjakin. The Dutchman tried to keep a strategically inferior position together with all his might, but it collapsed when his queen was trapped.

The remaining two Dutchmen were pushed to the limit in an endgame in today's round. Where Erwin l'Ami eventually managed to save his skin against Pentala Harikrishna, Loek van Wely succumbed to the pressure in a rook endgame against Peter Leko.
In Group B no fewer than six players are still in the run for first place. Sergey Movsesian drew with black against Jan Smeets, thus allowing Arkadij Naiditsch to join him in the lead. 

The German Grandmaster beat Richard Rapporture), who is now in 3rd place with Smeets and Danill Dubov. With 6,5 out of 10, Jan Timman still has a theoretical chance after beating Predrag Nikolic. In Group C Fernando Peralta beat Miguoel Admiraal to catch up with Sabino Brunello, who drew Twan Burg. They are now leading with 9 out of 11.

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2 Comments:

  • At January 26, 2013 at 9:13 AM , Anonymous alexis cochran, nz said...

    All credit to hou yifan. trifle disappointing for vishy anand. one tempo - that's how important it is. great game. Also aronian seems to be back to no. 2 in rating list with the comeback.

     
  • At January 26, 2013 at 10:27 AM , Anonymous gerard, paris said...

    devastating play by carlsen waiting for naka game with him

     

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