The Week in Chess

The Dutch players were the only winners in the second round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. In round one Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest lost with white and in the second round won with black. Giri defeated Vladimir Kramnik in a strange game where, at least according to the computer the evaluation swung around a bit, 22.g3? Rc8 should have been good for black but 22...fxg3 was only equal but 25.Qf5 seems to have been the decisive error (25.Qd2) and after 25...Bc4 black's advantage increased move by move and Kramnik resigned on move 42. Jorden van Foreest was down on the clock against Jan-Krzysztof Duda on the run up to first time control but went from about equal to winning in the space of 10 moves, 30.Re2?! seemed to be the start of white's troubles and 40.Rc3? left black completely winning and resignation followed 10 moves later.

The other games were drawn. Magnus Carlsen seemed to lose a theoretical battle against a fast moving Ian Nepomniachtchi which left the Russian comfortable as black and the players agreed a draw on move 32. Richard Rapport was a pawn down in a delicate Knight and Pawn endgame against Sam Shankland, computers tell me 74...h5? "threw away" the win and that he might have had with 74...h6. Of course it's all very difficult for humans. Vidit's position looked a bit suspicious against Ding Liren but they didn't find anything concrete after the games. Anand didn't get a lot vs Fedoseev's Petroff. Mamedyarov and Radjabov drew also.

Round 2 Standings: 1 Anand 1.5pts, 2 Nepomniachtchi 1.5pts, 3 Carlsen 1.0pts, 4 Fedoseev 1.0pts, 5 Rapport 1.0pts, 6 Mamedyarov 1.0pts, 7 Shankland 1.0pts, 8 Ding Liren 1.0pts, 9 Radjabov 1.0pts, 10 Vidit 1.0pts, 11 Giri 1.0pts, 12 Van Foreest 1.0pt, 13 Duda 0.5pts, 14 Kramnik 0.5pts,

Round 3 - Monday 14th Jan 12:30 GMT Vidit- Carlsen, Van Foreest-Ding Liren Fedoseev-Duda, Shankland-Anand, Radjabov-Rapport, Giri-Mamedyarov, Nepomniachtchi-Kramnik