75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 R8: Carlsen Back in Lead with Win Over Karjakin

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

Hi everyone,

  

While a fierce snow storm battered Wijk aan Zee, inside De Moriaan the audience was treated to a quiet round, occasionally upset by blunders that only can be explained in one way: Wijk aan Zee fatigue. The first player to drop a piece was Hou Yifan, who blundered a piece in a worse endgame against Levon Aronian, chasing a perpetual check that didn't exist. Soon after, several players in Group B joined the blunderfest. Nils Grandelius lost to Predrag Nikolic and Arkadij Naiditsch lost to Robin van Kampen on a platter.

Back in the A-group Anand-Sokolov, Giri-Wang Hao and Leko-Harikrishna ended rapidly in a draw. Fabiano Caruana had an overwhelming position after the opening against Erwin l'Ami, but after several mistakes before the first time control the Italian Grandmaster had to start all over. Which he did successfully, raking in the full point before the second time control. Meanwhile Loek van Wely wasn't so lucky against Hikaru Nakamura. The American Grandmaster again confirmed his status as a “Spartelkoning” (Squirm King), to quote his Dutch opponent, and survived another lost endgame as he did earlier against Sokolov.



Today's last man standing was Magnus Carlsen, who again takes the sole lead after defeating Sergey Karjakin in a 92-move seasnake. You can replay the fantastic game with Chess King.

Group A: Round 8 - Sunday January 20

Loek van Wely - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½

Anish Giri - Wang Hao ½-½

Fabiano Caruana - Erwin L'Ami 1-0 

Levon Aronian - Hou Yifan 1-0

Magnus Carlsen - Sergey Karjakin 1-0

Pentala Harikrishna - Peter Leko ½-½

Vishy Anand - Ivan Sokolov ½-½

In Grandmaster Group the crowd was delighted to see 61-year-old Jan Timman win for the third time in a row, thus joining Richard Rapport and Sergey Movsesian in the lead at 5,5 out of 8. The Dutch living legend outplayed World Junior Champion Alexander Ipatov from a slightly better endgame. Italian Sabino Brunello again caught up with Fernanda Peralta to lead Group C with 6,5 out of 8. While Peralta was unable to beat Mark van der Werf, head of the Dutch Chess Federation, Brunello ground down Krikor Mekhitarian's Tarrasch Defence. Local player David Klein is one point behind the leaders after beating Ukraine's Oleg Romanishin. The Dutch International Master now requires a win in round 9 for a GM-norm.

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