The Week in Chess

The twelfth and penultimate round of the Tata Steel Masters saw 5 decisive game and 7 players can walk away with the title tomorrow. Santosh Vidit did himself and almost half the field a favour by defeating the leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final game to finish. The opening was a Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian and black was fine but 11...Bc4? instead of 11...Bb7 was a serious mistake. Vidit's 19.e6? (19.0-0) reduced his advantage quite a bit but white was a solid pawn up. Vidit ground away and without risk he found his way to the win.

Anish Giri has a Chessable course on the French but he has only very rarely played it himself. Jorden Van Foreest hasn't had a good event and he chose the Exchange Variation, presumably he didn't expect the French at all. Although there have been various recent attempts to tout the French as a decent winning try for white more often than not it rebounds, and today Black was fine straight out of the opening and had to recognise the fact by playing 21.Rxe4 with a likely draw, instead 21.Qc3? was a horror show leading to an almost immediate loss.

Gukesh had the chance to lead the event alone, Praggnanandhaa was highly critical of his own play throughout and after 31...Rxc3 32.Rxe5 white won two minor pieces for a rook which should have been decisive. Gukesh in mild time pressure looked at his scoresheet but miscalculated and played a draw by repetition (many moves win 40. Bg3, 40.Rh4, 40.e4). Praggnanandhaa is tied with Alireza Firouzja half a point off the lead, they meet tomorrow. Firouzja beat Ian Nepomniachtchi today, it just looks like the Russian played an attacking idea that didn't work starting with 18...Be5? and had to resign 10 moves later.

Wei Yi also moved into a share of the lead when he beat Ju Wenjun. Wei Yi played the Stonewall Dutch and looked to equalise quite quickly. The innocuous looking 22.Nf2 was the start of trouble for white and her position collapsed alarmingly quickly after that. Ding Liren would have felt obliged to play for a win against a man struggling even more than him. 30.b4? was the start of trouble for white and black was winning by move 40 and eventually converted. Parham Maghsoodloo had the better of a draw against Alexander Donchenko.

So going into the final round Santosh Vidit, Anish Giri, Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Wei Yi have 7.5/12 and Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa 7 points. There will be a blitz tie-break amongst anyone tied for the lead at the end of Round 13, the format depending on how many players this turns out to be (PDF file of the Tie-break regs).

In the Challengers leader Marc'Andria Maurizzi was beaten by Daniel Dardha and was caught by Leon Luke Mendonca, Dardha and Erwin L'Ami are half a point behind.

Round 12 Standings: 1= Abdusattorov, Giri, Gukesh, Vidit, Wei Yi 7.5pts 6= Praggnanandhaa, Firouzja 7pts 8 Nepomniachtchi 6pts 9 Ding Liren 5.5pts 10= Donchenko, Maghsoodloo 4.5pts 12= Ju Wenjun, Warmerdam, Van Foreest 4pts

Round 13 Pairings: Praggnanandhaa-Firouzja, Maghsoodloo-Gukesh, Abdusattorov-Donchenko, Wei Yi-Vidit, Ding Liren-Ju Wenjun, Giri-Warmerdam, Nepomniachtchi-Van Foreest.