The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen beat joint Tata Steel Masters leader Alireza Firouzja in round 9 with black in a Berlin Defence to move within striking distance of the lead. Fabiano Caruana leads the event alone after a drew with the black against Nikita Vitiugov in one of three quick draws in the Masters, the others being Anand-Dubov and So-Giri.

Carlsen chose the Berlin Defence as black and must have been pleased to see a complex variation appear on the board rather than the drawish variations he himself has used at times with white. Firouzja seemed to go wrong fairly early on, it has been suggested 13.a3 doesn't mix well with 14.d5. Around move 24 it's possible Carlsen was already strategically winning and after a long thought at move 34. where he had the luxury of a number of winning continuations Carlsen decided just to win a piece. Funnily Carlsen's final move 39...Bxf1 (39...Ng4+) that brought resignation wasn't at all accurate and the game should really have continued although Carlsen was still probably winning.

Jorden Van Foreest was probably winning in a big tactical skirmish against Vladislav Kovalev (18....Nxd1 for instance) and eventually had to settle for a draw. Vladislav Artemiev won a pawn against Yu Yangyi but couldn't break through. Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Jeffery Xiong was the final game to finish with Duda trying to convert an extra pawn.

Erwin L'Ami beat Rauf Mamedov and David Anton Guijarro beat Nils Grandelius, Nils to catch Pavel Eljanov in the lead in the Challengers on 6/9.

Round 9 Standings: 1st Caruana, Fabiano 6pts, 2nd-5th So, Carlsen, Van Foreest, Firouzja 5.5pts, 6th Duda 5pts, 7th-9th Giri, Dubov, Artemiev 4.5pts, 10th Anand 4pts, 11th Xiong 3.5pts, 12th-14th Vitiugov, Kovalev, Yu Yangyi 3pts.

Round 10 Pairings Wednesday 22nd Jan 2020 12:30 GMT: Dubov - Giri, Yu - So, Xiong - Artemiev, Van Foreest - Duda, Carlsen - Kovalev, Caruana - Firouzja, Anand - Vitiugov.