Chessable Lowenthal Sicilian

82nd Tata Steel Chess 2020 (2)

Four white wins on day two of the Tata Steel Masters

Wesley So beat Viswanathan Anand in a sharp Italian Game. Photo © Michiel Abeln.

Wesley So beat Viswanathan Anand in a sharp Italian Game. Photo © Michiel Abeln. | http://michielabeln.tumblr.com/post/189316573931/where-to-buy-the-anand-files

The second round of the Tata Steel Masters saw four decisive games, all wins for those with the white pieces. Wesley So beat Viswanathan Anand, Jeffery Xiong beat Jorden Van Foreest, Daniil Dubov beat Vladislav Kovalev and Vladislav Artemiev beat Nikita Vitiugov. World Champion Magnus Carlsen easily equalised as black against Yu Yangyi and Alireza Firouzja had good chances for a win against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but in the end offered a draw just before first time control.

Rauf Mamedov and Jan Smeets were winners in the Challengers Group. Mamedov, Eljanov, Ganguly, Smeets and L'Ami all share the lead on 1.5/2.

Round 2 Standings: 1st-5th Xiong, So, Artemiev, Dubov, Firouzja 1.5pts 6th-10th Caruana, Giri, Duda, Carlsen, Jorden Van Foreest 1pt, 11th-13th Anand, Vitiugov, Yu 0.5pts, 14th Kovalev, 0pts

Round 3 - Monday 13th Jan 2020 12:30pm GMT: Van Foreest - Dubov, Carlsen - Xiong, Caruana - Yu, Anand - Giri, Vitiugov - So, Firouzja - Artemiev, Kovalev - Duda

Vladislav Artemiev's played a Reti System and his preparation succeeded in getting him the advantage against Nikita Vitiugov, he was critical of Vitiugov's 12...a5 after which he felt he could set his opponent problems. White was already winning by move 32 and he increased that advantage steadily after that to win in 50 moves.

Wesley So seemed to catch out Viswanathan Anand in preparation in an Italian game. So's play provoked Anand to sacrifice a piece with 12...Bxf2+, he didn't expect Anand to play the sacrifice but knew it shouldn't be dangerous. Anand found a lot of good moves for some time but his 22...Raf8 just lost (22...Nxg2 is the draw) and after So played 24.b4 the game was as good as over. Jeffery Xiong beat Jorden Van Foreest in a deeply prepared Sicilian Moscow Variation. Van Foreest went wrong almost as soon as he was on his own and 30...Bh4 just loses, he had to find 30...Kf8 with near equality. Daniil Dubov's tricky opening play helped inflict Vladislav Kovalev's second defeat of the event. His 7.Qf4 was highly unusual. 22...Kh8 giving up a pawn (22...Nd8 maybe) was already a serious mistake and Dubov won very smoothly from then on in.

Yu Yangyi didn't play the most critical variation against Magnus Carlsen's Najdorf Sicilian and already by move 19 there was a very drawish heavy piece endgame on the board. They repeated to draw on move 31.

Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana will no doubt be keeping their best weapons for the Candidates tournament in March. Giri played 5.e4 in a Classical Nimzo Indian a move that's not terribly dangerous but is regarded as a bit of a memory test for black. They quickly reached an endgame where Giri was a pawn up but his winning chances at this level were fairly minimal, the game ended in 63 moves in a draw.

For some time it appeared that Alireza Firouzja would be the sole leader on 2/2 as he was winning against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but he frittered this advantage away and offered a draw on move 39 which was accepted. The opening was a Queen's Gambit Accepted where Duda struggled to get his pawn back, he did however fight his way back to equality before playing the incredibly careless 23.Kc4? (23.Bc7!=) allowing 23...Nc2 and white is pretty close to being busted. 25...g5 or 26...g5 were better than played and 28...Na3? was already back to equality again.

82nd Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee (NED), 10-26 i 2020 cat. XX (2741)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
1. Xiong, Jeffery g USA 2712 * . . ½ . . . . . 1 . . . . 2856
2. So, Wesley g USA 2765 . * . . . ½ . . . . 1 . . . 2983
3. Artemiev, Vladislav g RUS 2731 . . * . . . . . . . ½ 1 . . 2945
4. Dubov, Daniil g RUS 2683 ½ . . * . . . . . . . . . 1 2879
5. Firouzja, Alireza g FID 2723 . . . . * . . ½ . . . . . 1 2902
6. Caruana, Fabiano g USA 2822 . ½ . . . * ½ . . . . . . . 1 2766
7. Giri, Anish g NED 2768 . . . . . ½ * . ½ . . . . . 1 2847
8. Duda, Jan-Krzysztof g POL 2758 . . . . ½ . . * . . . ½ . . 1 2735
9. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2872 . . . . . . ½ . * . . . ½ . 1 2747
10. Van Foreest, Jorden g NED 2644 0 . . . . . . . . * . . 1 . 1 2719
11. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2758 . 0 ½ . . . . . . . * . . . ½ 2555
12. Vitiugov, Nikita g RUS 2747 . . 0 . . . . ½ . . . * . . ½ 2551
13. Yu, Yangyi g CHN 2726 . . . . . . . . ½ 0 . . * . ½ 2565
14. Kovalev, Vladislav g BLR 2660 . . . 0 0 . . . . . . . . * 0
Round 2 (January 12, 2020)
Xiong, Jeffery - Van Foreest, Jorden 1-0 36 B52 Sicilian Rossolimo
So, Wesley - Anand, Viswanathan 1-0 26 C53 Giuoco Piano
Artemiev, Vladislav - Vitiugov, Nikita 1-0 50 A06 Zukertort Opening
Dubov, Daniil - Kovalev, Vladislav 1-0 39 A19 English Opening
Giri, Anish - Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ 63 E32 Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Duda, Jan-Krzysztof - Firouzja, Alireza ½-½ 39 D20 QGA
Yu, Yangyi - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ 31 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
82nd Tata Steel GpB Wijk aan Zee (NED), 10-26 i 2020 cat. XV (2602)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
1. Mamedov, Rauf g AZE 2659 * . . . . . ½ . . . 1 . . . 2789
2. Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2650 . * . . . . . ½ . . . . . 1 2765
3. Ganguly, Surya Shekhar g IND 2636 . . * . . ½ . . . 1 . . . . 2703
4. Smeets, Jan g NED 2585 . . . * . ½ . . . . . 1 . . 2772
5. L'Ami, Erwin g NED 2606 . . . . * . . . . ½ . . 1 . 2744
6. Van Foreest, Lucas g NED 2523 . . ½ ½ . * . . . . . . . . 1 2610
7. Saduakassova, Dinara m KAZ 2519 ½ . . . . . * . ½ . . . . . 1 2676
8. Nihal, Sarin g IND 2618 . ½ . . . . . * . . ½ . . . 1 2661
9. Anton Guijarro, David g ESP 2694 . . . . . . ½ . * . . ½ . . 1 2577
10. Warmerdam, Max m NED 2498 . . 0 . ½ . . . . * . . . . ½ 2428
11. Grandelius, Nils g SWE 2673 0 . . . . . . ½ . . * . . . ½ 2445
12. Abdusattorov, Nodirbek g UZB 2635 . . . 0 . . . . ½ . . * . . ½ 2446
13. Smirnov, Anton g AUS 2604 . . . . 0 . . . . . . . * ½ ½ 2373
14. Keymer, Vincent m GER 2527 . 0 . . . . . . . . . . ½ * ½ 2434
Round 2 (January 12, 2020)
Mamedov, Rauf - Grandelius, Nils 1-0 51 C58 Two Knights Defence
Eljanov, Pavel - Nihal, Sarin ½-½ 54 B47 Sicilian Paulsen
Van Foreest, Lucas - Ganguly, Surya Shekhar ½-½ 33 B47 Sicilian Paulsen
Saduakassova, Dinara - Anton Guijarro, David ½-½ 28 A85 Dutch
Warmerdam, Max - L'Ami, Erwin ½-½ 66 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek - Smeets, Jan 0-1 41 C42 Petroff's Defence
Smirnov, Anton - Keymer, Vincent ½-½ 38 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation

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