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Home » Chess News » Events » 85th Tata Steel 2023 » Abdusattorov leads by a point after 7 rounds of the Tata Steel Masters

Michiel Abeln reports from Wijk aan Zee on Tata Steel Round 7 21st Jan

There was massive interest today from spectators on this Saturday, at the start of the round about 200 people were waiting outside in the freezing weather because the maximum capacity in the playing hall had been reached. But at the end of the day we had another win for the star of the tournament so far: Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Abdusattorov defended with the Petroff against Erigaisi. White emerged from the opening with a nice advantage, but 18.h4 was not precise because Black has the nice move 18…,Qa6 preparing to push his d-pawn. White neglected this d-pawn a bit, for example he played 21.h5 where 21.Re3 was required. On move 26 White really had to play Rd3 to avoid the dangers from the game. Black had no problem in converting to a full point.

Magnus Carlsen won his game without too much effort: Carlsen left main line theory soon in a Petroff opening against Rapport. Black decided not to exchange queens and went for the sharp 11….,Nb4. Instead of taking on d3 on move 14, Black decided on an incorrect piece sacrifice with 15…,Ne4+. Magnus had an easy afternoon after this, scoring a full point.

Wesley So is slowly but steadily moving up; today winning with black against out of form Gukesh. Gukesh played 4.d3 against So in a Spanish opening. Black equalized out of the opening and could have gone for interesting complications with 17…,Bxh3 followed by Qxh3, Ng4 and Kh8 to prepare f7-f5. Instead he played a bit passively and White got a nice advantage.So mentioned afterwards he had missed White’s Nh4 idea. On move 22 White should have defended his knight with g3 followed by Bxe6 and d3-d4 with a clear advantage. On move 24 White should first have taken on d6 before playing Nf5. The problem was that the position was complicated but Gukesh had little time left on his clock and with 28.Rd2 he blundered a pawn and the game.

Praggnanandhaa played in the Slav against van Foreest the rare 6.Bd2 7.Qb3 combination which he had done before against Firouzja. Van Foreest deviated with 7…,b5 and a few moves later he sacrificed a pawn. When Black closed the center with 15…,e4 White’s advantage increased. Praggnanandhaa had the feeling he could have won easier, but it wasn’t obvious how and in the game there was never any doubt about the result.

Maghsoodloo and Caruana played a Ragozin, an opening with which Caruana won on the white side earlier in this tournament. Main line theory was left when Black went for 9..,Qe7 where normally dxc4 is played. White had a small edge after the opening but the concept of Ne1-Nd3 followed by f3 wasn’t great. Black started to push a bit, but the game remained balance until Black gambled a bit on move 37: he sacrificed a pawn with 37…,Qf6 where 37..,Qd6 would have won back the pawn with a small edge for Black. Now after the time control on move 40 White had some advantage. On move 44 White had a nice opportunity with 44.Ra1 but instead without too much thinking White took on e5 and the game was level again. Although objectively ok, White took some risk by bringing his king to g4 and he had to sacrifice his bishop. The position was still equal, but at least now Caruana could suddenly hope for more. White should have kept his king close to his g-pawn but instead he went up the board and then was surprised by the nasty 66…,Ba2+! Now there was a queen endgame with an extra pawn for black and the white king was in the wrong location. Caruana was close to a win if for example he would have played 83…,h3 or 87…,h3 but with little time on the clock for both players the game transposed to a known drawn endgame that ended with stalemate.

Keymer opened with 1.Nf3 and 2.e3, something he has done many times before. Ding deviated from a previous Keymer game with 9…,Ba6, but White got a nice opening advantage that increased further when queens were exchanged on move 18. Throughout the endgame White kept some advantage but it was not enough to avoid the draw.

The final game in this report was the first game to finish: Aronian and Giri made a quick draw without any adventures.

Tata Steel Chess Commentary Round 7

85th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 13-29 i 2023																cat. XX (2741)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2713	*	½	.	½	.	.	1	.	1	1	1	.	.	½	5½	2975
2.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2684	½	*	½	.	.	½	.	1	.	½	.	½	1	.	4½	2833
3.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2764	.	½	*	½	.	½	½	.	1	½	.	.	.	1	4½	2846
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2766	½	.	½	*	½	.	½	.	.	.	½	.	1	1	4½	2830
5.	So, Wesley	g	USA	2760	.	.	.	½	*	½	.	.	.	½	½	1	½	1	4½	2825
6.	Aronian, Levon	g	USA	2735	.	½	½	.	½	*	.	½	½	½	.	1	.	.	4	2806
7.	Maghsoodloo, Parham	g	IRI	2719	0	.	½	½	.	.	*	½	.	.	½	½	1	.	3½	2738
8.	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2811	.	0	.	.	.	½	½	*	½	½	.	½	.	1	3½	2734
9.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2859	0	.	0	.	.	½	.	½	*	.	1	1	½	.	3½	2734
10.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2722	0	½	½	.	½	½	.	½	.	*	.	½	.	.	3	2687
11.	Rapport, Richard	g	ROU	2740	0	.	.	½	½	.	½	.	0	.	*	.	½	½	2½	2644
12.	Keymer, Vincent	g	GER	2696	.	½	.	.	0	0	½	½	0	½	.	*	.	.	2	2597
13.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2681	.	0	.	0	½	.	0	.	½	.	½	.	*	½	2	2592
14.	Gukesh, D	g	IND	2725	½	.	0	0	0	.	.	0	.	.	½	.	½	*	1½	2517

Round 7 (January 21, 2023)
Praggnanandhaa, R	- Van Foreest, Jorden	1-0	64	D12	Slav Defence
Aronian, Levon	- Giri, Anish	½-½	21	C50	Giuoco Piano
Maghsoodloo, Parham	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	106	D38	QGD Ragozin
Carlsen, Magnus	- Rapport, Richard	1-0	36	C42	Petroff's Defence
Erigaisi, Arjun	- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	0-1	43	C43	Petroff's Defence
Keymer, Vincent	- Ding, Liren	½-½	58	A06	Zukertort Opening
Gukesh, D	- So, Wesley	0-1	34	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin

Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 13-29 i 2023																cat. XIV (2580)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Donchenko, Alexander	g	GER	2627	*	½	1	.	.	.	½	½	.	1	.	.	1	1	5½	2787
2.	Sindarov, Javokhir	g	UZB	2654	½	*	.	½	.	.	½	½	.	1	.	.	1	1	5	2708
3.	Yilmaz, Mustafa	g	TUR	2609	0	.	*	½	½	1	.	.	1	.	1	½	.	.	4½	2704
4.	Ivic, Velimir	g	SRB	2585	.	½	½	*	.	.	½	.	½	1	½	1	.	.	4½	2687
5.	Beerdsen, Thomas	m	NED	2515	.	.	½	.	*	.	½	½	.	½	.	1	1	½	4½	2646
6.	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	g	IRI	2686	.	.	0	.	.	*	½	½	1	.	.	½	½	1	4	2623
7.	Adhiban, Baskaran	g	IND	2610	½	½	.	½	½	½	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	0	3	2539
8.	Supi, Luis Paulo	g	BRA	2608	½	½	.	.	½	½	.	*	½	0	½	.	.	.	3	2542
9.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2627	.	.	0	½	.	0	.	½	*	.	1	1	0	.	3	2524
10.	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	m	IND	2425	0	0	.	0	½	.	½	1	.	*	.	.	.	1	3	2555
11.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2616	.	.	0	½	.	.	.	½	0	.	*	½	½	1	3	2519
12.	Mishra, Abhimanyu	g	USA	2559	.	.	½	0	0	½	.	.	0	.	½	*	1	.	2½	2469
13.	Roebers, Eline	m	NED	2361	0	0	.	.	0	½	.	.	1	.	½	0	*	.	2	2454
14.	Pechac, Jergus	g	SVK	2637	0	0	.	.	½	0	1	.	.	0	0	.	.	*	1½	2360

Round 7 (January 21, 2023)
Donchenko, Alexander	- Yilmaz, Mustafa	1-0	47	D38	QGD Ragozin
Sindarov, Javokhir	- Roebers, Eline	1-0	42	C07	French Tarrasch
Beerdsen, Thomas	- Mishra, Abhimanyu	1-0	58	B99	Sicilian Najdorf
Tabatabaei, M. Amin	- L'Ami, Erwin	1-0	61	E04	Catalan
Adhiban, Baskaran	- Pechac, Jergus	0-1	36	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Vaishali, Rameshbabu	- Supi, Luis Paulo	1-0	36	B94	Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5
Warmerdam, Max	- Ivic, Velimir	½-½	73	B15	Caro Kann

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