The Week in Chess

16 year old Alireza Firouzja leads the Tata Steel Masters alone on 5 points after 7 of the 13 rounds. Can it really be that this young player will be able to win his first super-tournament? He has certainly already shown himself to be a very, very special talent.

Firouzja outplayed Jeffery Xiong on the white side of a Berlin showing fine technique in bringing the full point home. Wesley So was very comfortable on the black side of a Reti against Vladislav Artemiev and they drew in 41 moves. Fabiano Caruana won the final game to finish beating Daniil Dubov in a fine endgame where in spite of being a pawn down he was the one who was pressing. Jorden Van Foreest joined those tied on 4.5 points half a point off the lead beating Nikita Vitiugov on the black side of a French Defence. Vitiugov plays the French as black but went completely wrong with the careless 10.Bd3? which loses material. Van Foreest was completely winning later being three pawns up but falling for a tremendous cheapo that won a piece, however his material advantage of five pawns for a piece was still enough to win. This is the first win for the black pieces in the Masters Group.

Magnus Carlsen's travails continued against Viswanathan Anand. His opening seemed a little odd but it was later he was critical when he got into real trouble after playing 25...d4 overlooking that 26. Nxd4 Nxd4 27. Bxd4 Rxd4 28. cxd4 Qxc2 29. Qf3 wins. Anand allowed Carlsen back in the game with 28.Rb4? (28.Bh6) and even at one stage in Anand's time trouble it briefly looked like Carlsen might win, however after first time control Carlsen had to find a way to draw which he did.

Anish Giri played a sideline of the Marshall Gambit of the Ruy Lopez which was absolutely good enough for a draw. Vladislav Kovalev and Yu Yangyi drew in 33 moves.

Pavel Eljanov continues to lead the B-Group with 5/7.

Round 7 Standings: 1st Firouzja 5pts, 2nd-4th So, Caruana, Van Foreest, 4.5pts 5th-10th Carlsen, Duda, Anand, Giri, Dubov, Artemiev 3.5pts 11th Xiong 3pts, 12th-13th Vitiugov, Yu, 2.5pts 14th Kovalev 1.5pts

Round 8 Sunday 19th Jan 12:30GMT Dubov - So, Giri - Artemiev, Yu - Duda, Xiong - Kovalev, Van Foreest - Firouzja, Carlsen - Vitiugov, Caruana - Anand.