Wins for Carlsen and Rapport in Tata Steel Masters Round 2

Home » Chess News » Events » 84th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 » Wins for Carlsen and Rapport in Tata Steel Masters Round 2

84th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 (2)

Wins for Carlsen and Rapport in Tata Steel Masters Round 2

Mark Crowther - Sunday 16th January 2022

Magnus Carlsen beat Anish Giri in round 2. Photo ©

Magnus Carlsen beat Anish Giri in round 2. Photo © | https://chess.com

The second round of the 84th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee only saw two decisive games but it could have been more and there were several striking games. Magnus Carlsen beat Anish Giri in a sharp Catalan where he was able to set problems the Dutchman couldn't deal with almost straight after the opening phase. Richard Rapport defeated Jorden van Foreest in a game where he got a small edge which led to pressure and a decisive error in the endgame. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played a strikingly aggressive game against Andrey Esipenko but eventually they just called a stop to it and agreed a draw. The remaining games were drawn with Sam Shankland missing a number of opportunities to put his opponent Nils Grandelius away. A deeper summary of the round in the body of the article.

Round 2 Masters Standings: 1st-3rd Duda, Carlsen, Vidit, 1½pts; 4th-11th Caruana, Esipenko, Mamedyarov, Rapport, Karjakin, Dubov, Praggnanandhaa, Van Foreest 1pts; 12th-14th Giri, Shankland, Grandelius ½pts;

Round 3 pairings: Monday 17 January 2022 Caruana-Shankland, Dubov-Vidit, Esipenko-Karjakin, Giri-Mamedyarov, Duda-Carlsen, Van Foreest-Praggnanandhaa, Grandelius-Rapport.

Round 2 Standings Challengers: 1st Murzin 2pts, 2nd-4th Nguyen, Erigaisi, Ganguly 1½pts; 5th-10th Van Foreest, Jumabayev, Bjerre, Vogel, L'Ami, Shuvalova 1pt; 11th-13th Warmerdam, Dardha, Maurizzi ½pts 14th Zhu Jiner 0pts;

Round 2 Summary

Magnus Carlsen defeated Anish Giri for the first time in Wijk aan Zee leveling their score here. Carlsen managed to set some serious problems with white in a Catalan, especially after the exchange sacrifice 16.Rxc6. 18...Nb6 would have been equal according to the computer and after missing this Giri was in severe danger, he spent a long time after 20.Bxd5 (the computer recommends the finesse 20.Be4 g6 21.Bxd5) choosing 20...exd5 and a dire position where his second rank and position fell apart quickly. No doubt he tried to make 20....Qxd5 work which the computer prefers but it doesn't look very nice either.

Richard Rapport defeated Jorden van Foreest when his opponent played an idea that simply did not work late in an endgame. Rapport as white had been surprised by the choice of the Slav by his opponent and felt it was even he that had to be careful. At some point he felt dxc4 was the right choice for black and when this didn't happen van Foreest had to defend a slightly unpleasant if objectively rather equal endgame. After 35.e4 dxe4 black should hold but in time trouble 35...Nd7? was played instead and black quickly lost material and the game.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g4!? has never been played at a decent level before. Carlsen commenting on the game said he would have "snapped" the pawn off and indeed this has to be the critical test. Andrey Esipenko was doing fine against further aggression from his opponent and perhaps had opportunities to be much better but they called it all off on move 26 with a draw in a roughly balanced position.

The remaining games were drawn too. Vidit Gujrathi against Fabiano Caruana was a theoretical Semi-Slav where pieces disappeared at a steady rate and the game finished on move 27 with a draw by repetition. Sergey Karjakin's social media comments about Daniil Dubov's decision to work for Carlsen in his World Championship match against fellow Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi might have set this up as a grudge match, as it was the game was a theoretical duel ending up in no time in a drawn Rook and Pawn endgame. Praggnanandhaa and Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew a Semi-Tarrasch which was roughly balanced throughout. Sam Shankland blew a winning advantage against Nils Grandelius in an English. 32.Rh1 or 35.Rd7 or 36.Rd7 would have got the job done.

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	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1½	2880
2.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2865	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1½	2936
3.	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	g	IND	2727	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1½	2943
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2792	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2735
5.	Esipenko, Andrey	g	RUS	2714	.	½	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2816
6.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2767	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	2717
7.	Rapport, Richard	g	HUN	2763	0	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1	2731
8.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2743	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	2756
9.	Dubov, Daniil	g	RUS	2720	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	1	2755
10.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2612	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	1	2766
11.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2702	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	*	.	.	1	1	2717
12.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2772	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	½	2545
13.	Shankland, Sam	g	USA	2708	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	½	2506
14.	Grandelius, Nils	g	SWE	2672	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	.	½	*	½	2512

Round 2 (January 16, 2022)
Carlsen, Magnus	- Giri, Anish	1-0	36	E06	Catalan
Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	27	D45	Anti-Meran Variations
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	- Esipenko, Andrey	½-½	26	E00	Catalan
Rapport, Richard	- Van Foreest, Jorden	1-0	47	D11	Slav Defence
Karjakin, Sergey	- Dubov, Daniil	½-½	23	D33	Tarrasch Defence
Praggnanandhaa, R	- Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	½-½	40	D41	Semi-Tarrasch Defence
Shankland, Sam	- Grandelius, Nils	½-½	45	A37	English Symmetrical

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.	Murzin, Volodar	m	RUS	2519	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1	.	.	2
2.	Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	g	CZE	2613	.	*	.	.	.	½	1	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1½	2801
3.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2632	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1½	2766
4.	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	g	IND	2627	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1½	2713
5.	Van Foreest, Lucas	g	NED	2539	.	.	½	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2629
6.	Jumabayev, Rinat	g	KAZ	2631	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	1	2557
7.	Bjerre, Jonas Buhl	g	DEN	2586	.	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	1	.	.	.	.	.	1	2617
8.	Vogel, Roven	m	GER	2452	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	½	.	.	1	2569
9.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2622	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	1	2532
10.	Shuvalova, Polina	m	RUS	2516	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	1	1	2498
11.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2607	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	2349
12.	Dardha, Daniel	g	BEL	2532	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	2292
13.	Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	g	FRA	2502	.	.	.	0	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	2436
14.	Zhu, Jiner	wg	CHN	2478	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	*	0

Round 2 (January 16, 2022)
Murzin, Volodar	- Shuvalova, Polina	1-0	41	C88	Ruy Lopez Closed
Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	- Bjerre, Jonas Buhl	1-0	50	A35	English Symmetrical
Van Foreest, Lucas	- Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	½-½	30	E04	Catalan
L'Ami, Erwin	- Zhu, Jiner	1-0	42	B31	Sicilian Rossolimo
Warmerdam, Max	- Erigaisi, Arjun	0-1	25	E06	Catalan
Dardha, Daniel	- Vogel, Roven	½-½	62	D11	Slav Defence
Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	- Jumabayev, Rinat	½-½	28	D35	QGD Exchange