The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen defeated Michael Adams to extend his lead in the Tata Steel Masters to a full point. Carlsen played a quiet Giuoco Piano but gradually outplayed Adams and had a decisive advantage at first time control. Adams continued to resist in a miserable position and Carlsen decided to give up material to produce a favourable endgame but Adams could dream of drawing again. Carlsen brought home the full point in 66 moves.

Fabiano Caruana was held to a draw by Sergey Karjakin after obtaining a substantial advantage but could not overcome his opponents tough defence.

Wei Yi scored his first win of the event after 8 draws with a controlled sacrificial attack on David Navara's king.

The remaining games were drawn. Pavel Eljanov didn't make the best of the white pieces but hung on a pawn down to draw against Anish Giri. Loek van Wely had a nice opening against Wesley So but a couple of inaccurate moves encouraged his opponent to offer a draw which was accepted. Ding Liren's fine opening preparation seemed to go straight to a drawn endgame against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Hou Yifan defended well to hold an inferior position against Evgeny Tomashevsky.

Eltaj Safarli caught Baskaran Adhiban in the lead on 6.5/9 after the later was defeated by Jorden Van Foreest. Alexei Dreev is half a point further back.

Round 9 Standings 1st Carlsen 6.5, 2nd Caruana 5.5, 3rd-6th Wesley So, Wei Yi, Giri, Ding Liren 5 7th-9th Karjakin, Eljanov, Mamedyarov 4.5, 10th-11th Navara, Hou Yifan 4 12th-13th Tomashevsky, Van Wely 3.5, 14th Adams 2.5

Round 10 (Utrecht 27th Jan 2016 13:00 GMT) Karjakin-Adams, Giri-Carlsen, Hou-Eljanov, So-Tomashevsky, Ding-Van Wely, Navara-Mamedyarov, Caruana-Wei Yi.