The Week in Chess

Carlsen scores sixth win in a row to extend lead Tata Steel Masters after 9 rounds Magnus Carlsen scored his sixth win in a row in beating Teimour Radjabov in the ninth round of the Tata Steel Masters. Carlsen exploited Radjabov's time trouble and poorly placed bishop on b6 to launch a kingside attack. Radjabov didn't defend the best and his position collapsed quickly. Carlsen now faces Vasil Ivanchuk in Round 10 to go for a seventh win in a row.

Wesley So played a variation of the Gruenfeld as white first played by Levon Aronian. So got some advantage against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave although his Na3 was very poorly placed. A miscalculation with 28.Re7? left So struggling for a draw and put in danger an undefeated record of over 50 games since April last year. Vachier-Lagrave may have missed a chance to push his a-pawn and after he lost it he simply traded to a draw.

Levon Aronian won his first game of the event taking advantage of some very creative play from Baadur Jobava. The computers thought things were balanced for some time but Aronian thought his Nb4 was very badly placed. 20...Qh4 was a very bad mistake after which Aronian quickly launched a decisive attack.

Anish Giri and Liren Ding played a sharp King's Indian. 26.g4 was a brilliant move that gave Giri a huge advantage which he turned into a Bishop, Knight and Pawn vs Rook ending (three more pawns each) which looked winning but proved more tricky than it looked. Giri eventually found the right plan which was giving up the c and h-pawns to break through. Even then it was not so simple but in the end the defensive task was too much for Liren Ding and Giri won.

Fabiano Caruana missed a win with 39.a6 in time trouble against Hou Yifan but this was generally against the run of play and it was the women's world champion who seemed to be pressing. In the end Hou Yifan forced a draw by perpetual check.

Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Vasil Ivanchuk drew in 36 moves in a complicated position, no doubt both were quite happy to draw after losses in the previous round.

Ivan Saric had a huge advantage against Loek van Wely but lost it all in a few moves and the game ended in a draw.

Round 9 Standings: 1 Carlsen 7pts/9 2-3 So, Vachier-Lagrave 6, 4-5 Ivanchuk, Ding Liren 5.5, 6-7 Giri, Caruana 5, 8-9 Wojtaszek, Radjabov 4.5, 10 Aronian 4, 11.Hou Yifan, Saric 3, 13 Van Wely 2.5, 14 Jobava 1.5

Round 10 Pairings 21st Jan 2015 in Den Haag 1pm (half an hour later) GMT: Van Wely-Hou Yifan, Jobava-Caruana, Radjabov-Aronian, Ivanchuk-Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave-Wojtaszek, Ding Liren-So, Saric-Giri.