The Week in Chess

Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja lead the Tata Steel Masters on 4/6 after the event returned to Wijk aan Zee after the only away day of this year's event in Eindhoven.

Wesley So played the rare 8.a4 in a main line Catalan System which was followed by 8...Bd6 which was a novelty from his opponent Jan-Krzysztof Duda. A difficult and fairly non-standard game followed where it looked like So should have the upper hand but after heavy pieces were traded a draw was quickly agreed. Yu Yangyi got a nice opening advantage against Firouzja and looked to be pushing until almost the first time control when the inaccurate 34.Na4?! (34.Bb6 needed to be played) instantly led to equality and a quick draw.

Anish Giri completely out prepared his opponent Vladislav Kovalev in a Giuoco Piano blasting out moves until his opponent played 21...Bxf3 when he had his first long think. After 22.gxf3 Kovalev played 22...f5 which the computers didn't like but which served to complicate things. Giri's 26.Nf5 didn't seem the best and 36...Rg8 was close to equality. A difficult endgame arose where Giri was close to winning, 44...Kg6? was the final error (44...Kg7) leading to a quick loss for Kovalev.

The other decisive game saw Daniil Dubov's win against fellow Russian Vladislav Artemiev. For the most part Dubov was pressing although his opponent missed a couple of chances to simplify, in the end white broke though to the back rank with a rook to force the win.

The match up of the day was between World Number 1 and 2 Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, this was a heavyweight Queen's Gambit which ended in total equality and a draw in 28 moves.

Jeffery Xiong pushed a little in the Giuoco Piano against Nikita Vitiugov but it didn't amount to very much. Viswanathan Anand sacrificed two pawns as black against Jorden Van Foreest's Four Knights with Bb5 and put his opponent under sustained pressure, in the end there was material equality and a draw.

Pavel Eljanov beat Max Warmerdam to take the sole lead in the Challengers Group.

Round 6 Standings: 1st-2nd So, Firouzja 4pts, 3rd-5th Caruana, Van Foreest, Dubov 3.5pts, 6th-11th Xiong, Carlsen, Duda, Anand, Giri, Artemiev 3pts, 12th Vitiugov, 2.5pts 13th Yu 3pts, 14th Kovalev 1pt

Round 7 Pairings Sat 18th Jan 12:30GMT: Caruana- Dubov, Anand - Carlsen, Vitiugov - Van Foreest, Firouzja - Xiong, Kovalev - Yu, Duda - Giri, Artemiev - So