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Home » Chess News » Events » 85th Tata Steel 2023 » Abdusattorov continues to lead the Tata Steel Masters after surviving lost position against Keymer in Round 9

Michiel Abeln reports from Wijk aan Zee on Tata Steel Round 9 24th Jan

The game of the day was between leader Abdusattorov who managed to make a draw against Keymer after having been lost multiple times. Besides this exciting draw there were wins for Anish Giri, also in a game with mixed chances, and Richard Rapport, who played a brilliant game. Abdusattorov continues to lead, but is now only half a point ahead of Giri and the two still need to play each other this coming Friday.

Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov played a Tarrasch defense. This opening is rarely seen at the highest level, but his coach Kasimdzhanov started playing it awhile ago. The move 8.a3 is rare and 10…,Bf5 is new compared to Bluebaum-L’Ami, Dortmund 2022. The position was equal until Black took some unnecessary risk with 18…,f5 (18…,h6 followed by b5 and a5 and Black has no problems). On move 21 White had perhaps a chance with 21.Rb1, instead in the game he only had a small edge, but Black played imprecise and ended up in a difficult endgame where both players went wrong multiple times. First of all Black should have played 45…,g5 because in the game White had the chance for a winning advantage with 47.Ra6+ Kg7 48.gxf5 Nxf5 49.Rg6+ Kh7 50.Rf6 Nh4+ 51.Kg4 Kg7 52.Rf7+ Kg8 53.Kh5. In the game the position was equal but not simple at all. Black should have played 59…,Ke6 (he went to g6) and a clear mistake was 62…,d3+ where 62…,f3 was the only move. Then White let the win slip again by not playing 67.Rh3 but Black immediately returned the favor. So White was winning again, but he missed 80.Rf8 winning and after that Black managed to escape to a draw.

Anish Giri won a game with ups and downs today against Ding. In the opening they followed a previous blitz game between Fedoseev and Giri in Warsaw 2021, but after 10 moves the players were on their own. Ding took some risk by playing 13.g4 and after 15.g5 Black should have sacrificed a piece. Now White achieved a clear advantage which would have been significant if he had continued with 20.Nc3, and on move 24 he made another error with 24.Rd2. and 28.Nf4 wasn’t great either. Black won two pawns and scored a full point.

Erigaisi and Rapport started with a slow Nimzo Indian that got wild when Rapport played the creative 13…,g5 followed by g4 and soon Black had a clear advantage which he easily converted in a full point. A beautiful game by Rapport, but it also seems that Erigaisi has a sort of mental breakdown after now his third loss in a row.

Carlsen and Gukesh left known theory in a Ragozin pretty soon, resulting in a lively but objectively still equal position. Afterwards Carlsen expressed not to be happy with his 11.e3 and instead wanted to go 11.Qc2. He thought that 14…,c5 was not necessary and 23…,Qf5 a loss of time (Qg6 is immediately). Still it wasn’t easy to breakthrough with White. One option the players discussed afterwards was 31.Qxa6 Rb8 32.Qxa6 Qxh4 with complicated play. They also discussed 37.R7d5 Re5 38.Qg6, but just like in the game Black is ok. In the game Gukesh secured the draw without too many problems.

Praggnanandhaa and Caruana also played a Ragozin where 7..,b6 was already rare and after 10…,Bd6 they were in new territory. Caruana was almost equal when he played the dubious 25…,Ng5. Now Praggnanandhaa had the better structure and he started pushing for a long time but had to settle for a draw in the end.

In a rare line of the Nimzo-Indian Maghsoodloo came with the new 8.Bg2 against So, but it didn’t look like a great novelty. After the game he admitted he had mixed up his preparation: his intention was to play 8.Bd2 d6 9.Bg2 Re8 10.0-0 e5 11.e4. In the game he was in some trouble till So missed a big chance with 22…,Rc4. Soon after the game ended in a draw by perpetual check.

Aronian and Van Foreest had a kind of main line of the Meran but with the black bishop on e7 where normally it is on d6. Aronian did not achieve anything in the opening and after some exchanges the players agreed on a quick draw.

Tata Steel Chess Round 9 Commentary

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