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Michiel Abeln reports from Wijk aan Zee on Round 2 15th Jan

Giri faced the solid Ragozin from Gukesh. They followed one of the main lines until Giri took on d4 with his e-pawn where 13.Qxd4 is the standard move. Still, exd4 has been played before by Mamedyarov, Bu and Korobov and Giri had done some deep preparation. He knew that 16...Bb6 is imprecise and although 17...Kh8 was new for him, it is a bad move and the refutation, 18.Neg5, is a thematic move that Giri had seen in his preparation in similar lines. But converting to a full point should not have been this easy, Gukesh could have defended stronger with 23...Re8 24.h4 Nd7 25.hxg5 Rxe6 26.Qxe6 and White has a clear advantage but not won yet. Gukesh has had an unfortunate start and will be a clear target for the other players.

Praggnanandhaa decided to follow his countryman Vidit who played the same opening line against Aronian in a blitz game in the Tata tournament in Kolkata in 2019 and then he came with the novelty 14...Be6. Black solved his opening problems and the players quickly reached an equal endgame that ended in a draw.

Wesley So obtained a small advantage after a reversed Gruenfeld opening where Erigaisi was less precise with 12...Be6. On move 18 White could have increased his advantage by kicking the rook with a2-a3, a move Erigaisi was afraid of (18.a3 Rc4 19.Qd3). On move 21 So had another improvement with e4 which he missed, but it is not easy to see that sacrificing the exchange after 20...Bg4 brings White a clear advantage. Erigaisi defended correctly and could have made a draw if he had played 26...h4 but after 27.Qb2 he didn’t look at 27...Qxc5 thinking he would lose the rook on h8, but this is actually perpetual check: 28.Qxh8 Qc1+ 29.Kg2 Bd5+ 30.Kh3 Be6+. In the game Black was suffering a bit but still managed to make the draw.

Carlsen managed to surprise Keymer by playing 7...c6 in a well-known line of the Grunfeld and Keymer played the somewhat strange looking 12.Bg5. During the game it felt like Keymer was playing against himself, cracking under mental pressure that any game against Carlsen brings. The setup White chose with e4 and d5 gave Black a free game (Carlsen mentioned he thought Black was much further ahead than in a normal Grunfeld) and on move 20 Carlsen had already a clear advantage. White’s knight maneuvers with 23.Nd4 and ending with 27.Nd5 only helped Black. Magnus had a large advantage which he spoiled a bit by trading queens on move 40 (40...Qd4 was stronger). He traded queens because he thought the rook ending was easily winning but once he had reached it, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He said afterwards he calculated precisely and although not sure, he didn’t see a draw for White.

Ding Liren and Maghsoodloo played a main line Spanish that was, among others, played by Anand in 2010 against Shirov here in Wijk aan Zee. The big question was whether Black should play 15..,Re7 or 15...Rf8, the engine approves Parham’s choice in the game and he confirmed afterwards he was still in his preparation. In the press room Anand, Piket and Aronian discussed for White the option 20.Bxf7+ Kxf7 21.Qd5+ Kf8 22.fxg7+ Kxg7 23.e5 dxe5 24.Qe4 and they thought they remembered from some old preparation that this is clearly better for White, but the engine says 0.000. The game continued with 21...Kxg7 where Parham afterwards said that 21...Re8 was stronger because than White doesn’t get the chance to play e4-e5. Perhaps Black should have kept things closed with 24...d5, Parham said he missed that White could go 27.g4. Ding got some initiative and went for it by sacrificing material with 35.Kh5 followed by giving up his rook. His three pawns looked very dangerous and maybe he missed a win somewhere [Svidler in commentary predicted the sacrifice and was surprised 37.Ra7 wasn't played pinning the bishop and hoping to exchange rooks too, this he thought was winning - perhaps also finding a way to play cxb4 too MC] but the players couldn’t find it afterwards and the engine is also not clear.

Another Ragozin was played in the game between Abdusattorov and Caruana where White played the rare move 9.Ne5 and even more rare 10.Be2. Caruana played the imprecise 10...cxd4 followed by Qb6 when White started the endgame with a small plus. His best chance was on move 22 when he should have played 22.Bf5 Ra1+ 23.Rb1 Ra7 and White can continue to press. In the game Caruana managed to trade off to a rook endgame that is well-known to be a draw, in fact an easier draw with the double-pawns than if Black’s structure would still have been normal.

Van Foreest played against Rapport a move that has only been seen once before at top level: Caruana played 12.Qh3 against Gelfand in Biel 2009. A move that Rapport may not be familiar with, but then they deviated on move 15 when White exchanged queens on c8. Van Foreest admitted afterwards he was mixing up different lines from his preparation. Subsequently White was under some pressure but White defended well and the game ended in a draw.

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.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2859	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1½	2908
2.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2713	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1½	2946
3.	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2811	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	1½	2915
4.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2764	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1½	2938
5.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2766	.	½	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	2738
6.	Aronian, Levon	g	USA	2735	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	2771
7.	So, Wesley	g	USA	2760	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	2701
8.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2722	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	2722
9.	Maghsoodloo, Parham	g	IRI	2719	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	1	2753
10.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2684	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	2728
11.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2681	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	1	2750
12.	Rapport, Richard	g	ROU	2740	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	½	2504
13.	Keymer, Vincent	g	GER	2696	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	½	2596
14.	Gukesh, D	g	IND	2725	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 2 (January 15, 2023)
Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	54	D38	QGD Ragozin
Ding, Liren	- Maghsoodloo, Parham	½-½	79	C78	Ruy Lopez Moeller Defence
Giri, Anish	- Gukesh, D	1-0	27	D38	QGD Ragozin
Aronian, Levon	- Praggnanandhaa, R	½-½	32	C80	Ruy Lopez Open
So, Wesley	- Erigaisi, Arjun	½-½	48	A35	English Symmetrical
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Rapport, Richard	½-½	55	C42	Petroff's Defence
Keymer, Vincent	- Carlsen, Magnus	0-1	65	D91	Gruenfeld 5.Bg5

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.	Mishra, Abhimanyu	g	USA	2559	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1½	2678
2.	Donchenko, Alexander	g	GER	2627	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1½	2732
3.	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	g	IRI	2686	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1½	2816
4.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2616	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	1½	2815
5.	Sindarov, Javokhir	g	UZB	2654	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	2606
6.	Adhiban, Baskaran	g	IND	2610	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	1	2600
7.	Yilmaz, Mustafa	g	TUR	2609	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	1	2572
8.	Supi, Luis Paulo	g	BRA	2608	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	1	2621
9.	Ivic, Velimir	g	SRB	2585	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	1	2631
10.	Beerdsen, Thomas	m	NED	2515	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	1	2517
11.	Roebers, Eline	m	NED	2361	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	1	.	.	1	2593
12.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2627	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	0	*	.	.	½	2291
13.	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	m	IND	2425	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	½	2378
14.	Pechac, Jergus	g	SVK	2637	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 2 (January 15, 2023)
Adhiban, Baskaran	- Beerdsen, Thomas	½-½	59	D43	Anti-Meran Gambit
Yilmaz, Mustafa	- Mishra, Abhimanyu	½-½	30	D44	Anti-Meran Gambit
Supi, Luis Paulo	- Warmerdam, Max	½-½	25	C50	Giuoco Piano
Ivic, Velimir	- Sindarov, Javokhir	½-½	58	D86	Gruenfeld Simagin
Roebers, Eline	- L'Ami, Erwin	1-0	46	C95	Ruy Lopez Breyer
Vaishali, Rameshbabu	- Donchenko, Alexander	0-1	31	B84	Sicilian Scheveningen
Pechac, Jergus	- Tabatabaei, M. Amin	0-1	45	C34	Kings Knight Gambit

Tata Steel Chess Round 2 Commentary

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