Tata Steel 2022 gets underway with a lively first round

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84th Tata Steel Chess 2022 (1)

Tata Steel 2022 gets underway with a lively first round

Mark Crowther - Saturday 15th January 2022

Playing hall during Round 1 of the Tata Steel tournament 2022. Photo ©

Playing hall during Round 1 of the Tata Steel tournament 2022. Photo © | https://tatasteelchess.com

The first round of the Tata Steel Masters saw wins for Jan-Krzysztof Duda against Richard Rapport, Jorden van Foreest against Nils Grandelius and Vidit Gujrathi against Sam Shankland. There were also escapes for Daniil Dubov against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin against Fabiano Caruana. World Champion Magnus Carlsen had a comfortable draw against Andrey Esipenko with black. All in a all an exciting start. Brief summaries of all the games in the masters group below.

Round 1 Masters Standings: 1-3 Duda, Vidit, Van Foreest 1pt 4-11 Carlsen, Caruana, Giri, Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Dubov, Esipenko, Praggnanandhaa 0.5pts, 12-14 Rapport, Shankland, Grandelius 0pts

Round 2 pairings Sunday 16 January 1pm GMT Shankland-Grandelius, Rapport-Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa-Duda, Carlsen-Giri, Mamedyarov-Esipenko, Karjakin-Dubov, Vidit-Caruana.

Round 1 Challengers standings: 1-4 Ganguly, Bjerre, Murzin, Shuvalova 1pt; 5-10 Erigaisi, Jumabayev, Nguyen, Warmerdam, Van Foreest, Vogel 0.5pts; 11-14 L'Ami, Dardha, Maurizzi, Zhu Jiner 0pts.

Round 1 Summary

Jan-Krzysztof Duda won a very sharp duel against Richard Rapport in the fashionable London system. The players were out of known theory by move 7 and initially Rapport, if anyone, seemed to have the best of it. Starting with 26...c5 Rapport chose the wrong plan, pushing the Queen side pawns was just a bad idea, instead he should have continued with his Kingside attack with 26...f5 or 26...Qh2+ with at least equality.Only a few moves later black's queen side pawns were blockaded and white was launching his own decisive kingside attack.

Last year's shock winner Jorden van Foreest picked up where he left off with a win against Nils Grandelius. This was a fluctuating struggle, 15.c4!? Nb4?! left white better but around move 30 it got very messy and about equal, 32...Bc4? turned out very badly for Grandelius and by move 40 van Foreest had a decisive advantage.

Santosh Gujrathi Vidit got a small initiative out of the opening against Sam Shankland and in the subsequent double rook and knight endgame starting on move 21 Shankland's task was tricky even though he was close to equality at various stages, 33...f6 seems to have been bad and by move 40 Vidit entered the conversion phase, eventually winning on move 73, although allowing rather more counterplay than he should have.

Praggnanandhaa's energetic play secured him a draw with the black pieces against Anish Giri's English in 44 moves.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the black pieces let Daniil Dubov off the hook in a sharp Semi Slav. 14.e4 from Dubov is just bad and 26...Be3 would have rounded off a fine game by Mamedyarov, instead his 36...Rd8? - probably missing that white's Bd6 can cover g3 in some lines - allowed Dubov near equality. Sensing he'd just got out of jail Dubov offered a draw which was accepted.

Magnus Carlsen lost to Andrey Esipenko last year and was certainly respectful today. Esipenko felt that Carlsen was starting to outplay him and hoped - but did not expect - that with 20.Ba5 he would get a draw by repetition. Carlsen didn't think he had any better than to accept.

Fabiano Caruana surprised Sergey Karjakin with a Queens Gambit sideline and gradually outplayed his Russian opponent, computers think the super weird 22.f4 is winning for white, more realistically while Karjakin was very happy to get in 29...c5 his position would have been rather bad after 30.bxc5. Instead Caruana played 30.dxc5 with instant equality.

84th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 14-30 i 2022																cat. XX (2737)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	g	POL	2760	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
2.	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	g	IND	2727	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
3.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2702	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
4.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2865	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2714
5.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2792	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2743
6.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2772	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	½	2612
7.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2767	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2720
8.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2743	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2792
9.	Dubov, Daniil	g	RUS	2720	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2767
10.	Esipenko, Andrey	g	RUS	2714	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2865
11.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2612	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	2772
12.	Rapport, Richard	g	HUN	2763	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Shankland, Sam	g	USA	2708	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Grandelius, Nils	g	SWE	2672	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 15, 2022)
Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	- Rapport, Richard	1-0	41	D02	Queen's Pawn Game
Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	- Shankland, Sam	1-0	73	D35	QGD Exchange
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Grandelius, Nils	1-0	44	C77	Ruy Lopez Anderssen
Caruana, Fabiano	- Karjakin, Sergey	½-½	50	E10	Blumenfeld Counter Gambit
Giri, Anish	- Praggnanandhaa, R	½-½	44	A20	English Opening
Dubov, Daniil	- Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	½-½	30	D43	Anti-Meran Gambit
Esipenko, Andrey	- Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	21	D45	Anti-Meran Variations

Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 14-30 i 2022																cat. XIII (2561)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	g	IND	2627	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
2.	Bjerre, Jonas Buhl	g	DEN	2586	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
3.	Murzin, Volodar	m	RUS	2519	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
4.	Shuvalova, Polina	m	RUS	2516	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
5.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2632	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2539
6.	Jumabayev, Rinat	g	KAZ	2631	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2613
7.	Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	g	CZE	2613	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2631
8.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2607	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2452
9.	Van Foreest, Lucas	g	NED	2539	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2632
10.	Vogel, Roven	m	GER	2452	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2607
11.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2622	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
12.	Dardha, Daniel	g	BEL	2532	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	g	FRA	2502	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Zhu, Jiner	wg	CHN	2478	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 15, 2022)
Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	- Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	1-0	39	A06	Zukertort Opening
Bjerre, Jonas Buhl	- L'Ami, Erwin	1-0	59	D11	Slav Defence
Erigaisi, Arjun	- Van Foreest, Lucas	½-½	39	D02	Queen's Pawn Game
Jumabayev, Rinat	- Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	½-½	43	E06	Catalan
Vogel, Roven	- Warmerdam, Max	½-½	24	E10	Blumenfeld Counter Gambit
Dardha, Daniel	- Murzin, Volodar	0-1	44	D45	Anti-Meran Variations
Zhu, Jiner	- Shuvalova, Polina	0-1	52	C88	Ruy Lopez Closed