Chessable Houska's Caro

76th Tata Steel Tournament 2014 (8)

Aronian leads and Karjakin sneaks into second after Tata Steel Round 8

Leinier Dominguez-Perez. Photo ©

Leinier Dominguez-Perez. Photo © | http://www.tatasteelchess.com/

Leader Levon Aronian had to be accurate to hold Anish Giri and maintain his lead after 8 rounds of the 76th Tata Steel Masters Group. The other five games were decisive and all won by the player with the white pieces. There are rest days on Wednesday and Friday either side of the Master's group trip to the High Tech Campus Eindhoven on Thursday.

Levon Aronian never thought he was in danger of losing to Anish Giri in spite of having to defend an inferior rook ending. Giri felt that Aronian was inaccurate at one moment making life difficult for himself but didn't think he missed any chances either.

Sergey Karjakin ground down Boris Gelfand but only after a lengthy rook ending having secured a near winning position earlier on (18...b4). Karjakin very much under the radar is only half a point off the lead.

Leinier Dominguez Perez was very happy with his quick win against Wesley So. Dominguez felt 16...g6 (16...d4!) was already possibly the decisive error. 19.Rh7 was a brilliant idea, 20...Qe7 lost instantly (20...Bxf3 21.Rxg7+ was highly unlikely to save in the long term).

Loek van Wely won a rather strange against Arkadij Naiditsch, he first of all dropped an exchange with 18...Ra7?! but was lucky enough to pick up a pawn in return and almost full compensation. 30...Qd8 was a waste of time and black's position was very difficult afterwards. Eventually Van Wely broke through.

Fabiano Caruana was faced with a very unusual variation of the French Rubinstein variation by Richard Rapport. It's alright playing these lines if you're playing well but Rapport clearly isn't. Caruana's early reaction of 7.Bf4 maybe wasn't the best and after 9.Bb5 9...Qd5 may even give black an advantage. After that it was one way traffic to a Caruana win.

Pentala Harikrishna blew away Hikaru Nakamura who hasn't been playing well but surely the American will still be absolutely mortified to allow 30.Nh5! a pretty but hardly difficult tactic to see to lose immediately.

In the B-Group Benjamin Bok made his final GM norm with a draw over the struggling Etienne Goudriaan. Sabino Brunello defeated Baadur Jobava allowing Ivan Saric to take the lead after a win against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. They have games on Wednesday.

Round 8 Standings: Aronian 6pts, Karjakin 5.5pts, Caruana, Dominguez, Giri 5pts, Harikrishna, Van Wely, So 4pts, Rapport, Nakamura 3pts, Gelfand 2pts, Naiditsch 1.5pts

Round 9 Thur 23rd Jan 2014 1pm GMT: Rapport-Giri, Nakamura-Caruana, Naiditsch-Harikrishna, So-Van Wely, Gelfand-Dominguez, Aronian-Karjakin.

76th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 11-26 i 2014 cat. XX (2743)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2812 * . 1 . ½ ½ . 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 6 2932
2. Karjakin, Sergey g RUS 2759 . * 0 . . ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 2872
3. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2782 0 1 * 0 ½ ½ 1 . 1 . 1 . 5 2833
4. Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2754 . . 1 * ½ 0 ½ 1 1 ½ . ½ 5 2821
5. Giri, Anish g NED 2734 ½ . ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ . . ½ 1 5 2837
6. Harikrishna, Pentala g IND 2706 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 * ½ . 0 1 . . 4 2749
7. Van Wely, Loek g NED 2672 . 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * . ½ 1 . 1 4 2741
8. So, Wesley g PHI 2719 0 ½ . 0 ½ . . * 1 ½ 1 ½ 4 2754
9. Rapport, Richard g HUN 2691 ½ 0 0 0 . 1 ½ 0 * . 1 . 3 2660
10. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2789 0 ½ . ½ . 0 0 ½ . * ½ 1 3 2652
11. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2777 ½ 0 0 . ½ . . 0 0 ½ * ½ 2 2557
12. Naiditsch, Arkadij g GER 2718 0 0 . ½ 0 . 0 ½ . 0 ½ * 2501
Round 8 (January 21, 2014)
Karjakin, Sergey - Gelfand, Boris 1-0 60 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Caruana, Fabiano - Rapport, Richard 1-0 32 C10 French Rubinstein
Dominguez Perez, Leinier - So, Wesley 1-0 21 C42 Petroff's Defence
Giri, Anish - Aronian, Levon ½-½ 48 E06 Catalan
Harikrishna, Pentala - Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0 33 B51 Sicilian Rossolimo
Van Wely, Loek - Naiditsch, Arkadij 1-0 48 E11 Bogo Indian Defence
Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 11-26 i 2014 cat. XIV (2579)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
1. Saric, Ivan g CRO 2637 * ½ ½ . ½ 1 . . 1 1 1 . ½ 1 7 2781
2. Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2710 ½ * . ½ . . 0 1 1 ½ . 1 1 1 2740
3. Timman, Jan H g NED 2607 ½ . * ½ ½ 1 1 0 . 1 ½ 1 . . 6 2704
4. Muzychuk, Anna g SLO 2566 . ½ ½ * . ½ . . ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 6 2687
5. Bok, Benjamin m NED 2560 ½ . ½ . * ½ 1 1 . ½ ½ 0 . ½ 5 2612
6. Reinderman, Dimitri g NED 2593 0 . 0 ½ ½ * 0 1 1 . 1 1 . . 5 2641
7. Brunello, Sabino g ITA 2602 . 1 0 . 0 1 * 1 . 0 ½ ½ . ½ 2572
8. Yu, Yangyi g CHN 2677 . 0 1 . 0 0 0 * . 1 ½ . 1 1 2549
9. Wojtaszek, Radoslaw g POL 2711 0 0 . ½ . 0 . . * ½ ½ 1 1 1 2549
10. Duda, Jan-Krzysztof g POL 2553 0 ½ 0 0 ½ . 1 0 ½ * . . 1 . 2531
11. Troff, Kayden W m USA 2457 0 . ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ . * . 1 . 2518
12. Zhao, Xue g CHN 2567 . 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ . 0 . . * ½ 1 2498
13. Van Delft, Merijn m NED 2430 ½ 0 . ½ . . . 0 0 0 0 ½ * 1 2423
14. Goudriaan, Etienne m NED 2431 0 0 . 0 ½ . ½ 0 0 . . 0 0 * 1 2255
Round 9 (January 21, 2014)
Saric, Ivan - Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 1-0 29 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Timman, Jan H - Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 1-0 67 A33 English Symmetrical
Muzychuk, Anna - Zhao, Xue ½-½ 33 C92 Ruy Lopez Chigorin
Bok, Benjamin - Goudriaan, Etienne ½-½ 61 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Reinderman, Dimitri - Troff, Kayden W 1-0 69 D43 Anti-Meran Gambit
Brunello, Sabino - Jobava, Baadur 1-0 45 A53 Old Indian Defence
Yu, Yangyi - Van Delft, Merijn 1-0 96 B47 Sicilian Paulsen

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

vs

Advertising

New in Chess Complete Chess Swindler


Chess.com Events


Chess and Bridge Fritz 19

Modern Chess Spring


Jussupow course Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals

The New Jobava London System


Contact Mark Crowther (TWIC) if you wish to advertise here.


The Week in Chess Magazine

Send a £30 donation via Paypal and contact me via email (Email Mark Crowther - mdcrowth@btinternet.com) I'll send you an address for a cbv file of my personal copy of every issue of the games in one database. Over 3 million games.

Alternatively subscribe to donate £4 a month

Read about 25 years of TWIC.

TWIC 1533 25th March 2024 - 8591 games

Read TWIC 1533

Download TWIC 1533 PGN

Download TWIC 1533 ChessBase

TWIC Sponsor(s):

Clark St James Ltd - online advertising agency eg Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads