Nils Grandelius leads the Tata Steel Masters 2021 alone on 2 out of 2

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83rd Tata Steel Chess 2021 (2)

Nils Grandelius leads the Tata Steel Masters 2021 alone on 2 out of 2

Mark Crowther - Sunday 17th January 2021

Nils Grandelius leads the Tata Steel Masters alone on 2/2. Photo ©

Nils Grandelius leads the Tata Steel Masters alone on 2/2. Photo © | https://chess.com

Nils Grandelius won his second game in a row to lead the Tata Steel Masters with a perfect 2/2 score, he defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda with the black pieces. Fabiano Caruana was the only other winner of the day winning a sharp Slav Defence against Alexander Donchenko. Magnus Carlsen looked to be a little better against David Anton but his opponent defended really well, similarly Anish Giri, the other round one winner had some advantage against Jorden Van Foreest but it wasn't enough.

Harikrishna-Esipenko, MVL-Firouzja and Tari (who had a winning position)-Wojtaszek were all drawn.

A more detailed summary in the article below.

Round 2 Standings: 1st Grandelius 2pts; 2nd-4th Carlsen, Giri, Caruana 1.5pts; 5th-10th Harikrishna, Anton Guijarro, MVL, Wojtaszek, Esipenko, Van Foreest 1pt; 11th-13th Firouzja, Duda, Tari 0.5pts; 14th Donchenko 0pts.

Round 3 Pairings Monday 18th Jan 1pm GMT: Esipenko-MVL, Grandelius-Harikrishna, Caruana-Duda, Giri-Donchenko, Wojtaszek-Van Foreest, Carlsen-Tari, Firouzja-Anton.

Tata Steel Masters 2021 Round 2 Summary

Jan-Krzysztof Duda lost to Nils Grandelius. Grandelius won an attractive game where he eventually managed to snag a piece. Grandelius felt Duda played too aggressively for a win out of the opening whilst not being very accurate. Grandelius also was very familiar with the pawn structure even if the position itself was quite unusual. Grandelius thought that Duda's Ne1-c2 followed by Qd2 was very slow and after that he was already doing well, giving him time for the powerful f5-f4-f3 that eventually won material. The computer thinks that 24.Qa5 is the only, but sufficient, move for Duda and that after his 24.Qd1 he was lost. Grandelius was short of time and felt the game got "too complicated" when it shouldn't have but once time control was reached on move 40 Duda resigned.

Fabiano Caruana scored his first win of the event in defeating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces. Donchenko played a novelty 12.g4 against the Slav but one that had been known as it was a computer suggestion, Donchenko seemed to forget the details and fell into long thinks over the next few moves, 19.e5 was not a good move as 19...c4 was probably winning for black according to the computer. Caruana's 19...Nb6 allowed 20.Qe4 which was white's last chance to get a playable game, after 20.e6? Qd5! it was black who took over the attack and won handily.

Carlsen felt that he was "somewhat better" as black out of the opening against David Anton Guijarro but it "wasn't so easy" and "after a while I think he equalised completely". Then according to Carlsen his opponent "missed this little trick with 45...Kg5" and Carlsen got "real chances". Carlsen thought Anton might have been lost but in fact the computer thinks white was fine throughout, but over the board Anton had to play really accurately and well to earn his draw.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a novelty against Alireza Firouzja with 13.Na3. Eventually MVL got an advantage following 17...Bxf6 (17....Rxf6 was probably better) and 22...Rf5 (which the computer really doesn't like). The situation remained very complicated and after 30.Nc4?! (30.Bd4) the computer evaluation suddenly became equal again and the game was quickly agreed drawn.

Pentala Harikrishna vs Andrey Esipenko finished in a draw in 47 moves. The opening was a Caro-Kann which Esipenko says he "loves" and today he managed to get the advantage with black, he felt his 32...a4 was a mistake after which the position was just equal.

Jorden Van Foreest vs Anish Giri draw. Van Foreest turned down a draw by repetition but just a couple of moves later he was worse, however according to Giri the "margin for a draw" was still "very big" and that whilst he was on the good side of a draw he didn't feel he had real chances for more.

Aryan Tari was pushing hard for a win against Radoslaw Wojtaszek but in the end had to settle for a draw after he didn't play so accurately after move 40, even then Tari came very close to the full point.

83rd Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 15-31 i 2021																cat. XIX (2725)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Grandelius, Nils	g	SWE	2663	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1	2
2.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2862	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1½	2907
3.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2764	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1½	2841
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2823	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1½	2862
5.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2671	.	.	½	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2793
6.	Anton Guijarro, David	g	ESP	2679	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	2783
7.	Harikrishna, Pentala	g	IND	2732	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	2730
8.	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2784	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	2740
9.	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2705	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	1	2652
10.	Esipenko, Andrey	g	RUS	2677	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	1	2737
11.	Firouzja, Alireza	g	FID	2749	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	2630
12.	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	g	POL	2743	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	½	2477
13.	Tari, Aryan	g	NOR	2625	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	½	2541
14.	Donchenko, Alexander	g	GER	2668	0	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 2 (January 17, 2021)
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Giri, Anish	½-½	43	C42	Petroff's Defence
Anton Guijarro, David	- Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	69	B34	Sicilian Defence
Harikrishna, Pentala	- Esipenko, Andrey	½-½	47	B12	Caro Kann Advanced
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	- Firouzja, Alireza	½-½	35	B12	Caro Kann Advanced
Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	- Grandelius, Nils	0-1	40	A30	English Symmetrical
Tari, Aryan	- Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	½-½	68	B51	Sicilian Rossolimo
Donchenko, Alexander	- Caruana, Fabiano	0-1	32	D12	Slav Defence