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Round 1

Wei Yi beat last year's Challengers winner Alexander Donchenko where he took advantage of the rather passive 4.e3 to enter a Benoni which seemed rather favourable. Top players such as Carlsen and Caruana have played 4.e3 in blitz but it has a poor score in classical chess and Wei Yi was soon much better, Donchenko gave up the exchange with 19.Rxd4 which maybe was OK, at least he certainly had saving chances until later on 32.Bf6? (32.Rd1) was the decisive mistake after which black's d-pawn was decisive.

Alireza Firouzja played a Classical French and Jorden van Foreest replied with 6.Nxf6+ trading two sets of minor pieces off which at least used to be regarded as harmless. If Van Foreest was playing for a draw then he certainly got equality but it remained perhaps trickier for him, 36.Nd4? rather than the obvious 36.Kd3 led to an immediate loss.

Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Max Warmerdam on the black side of a Vienna style Queen's Gambit. After a balanced opening 20.g3? (20.Qe4 or Rd4) was already a serious mistake and following h5 21.Rd4 Qc6 24.Rh4? it was already lost for white and Nepomniachtchi could already afford the slightly inaccurate 22...Nxe3 (22...Rg4 straight away was much better) 23.fxe3 Rg4 and still be winning.

Defending champion Anish Giri was the last to finish when he ground out a win in a Rook and Pawn endgame against Ju Wenjun. Ju played in King's Indian Attack style against Giri's Sicilian and was quite a bit better when she won the exchange. 27.Qd3 was perhaps an inaccuracy (27.Nxb3 Qxc3 28.Qf3! was the precise sequence that had to be found) but she was better again a couple of moves later, 35.Re2?! (35.Nc5) Rd3 was definitely a mistake but still things were complicated and maybe only a tiny bit better for black. The losing error was 53.Kf3? (53.Kh3! hiding the King was necessary) after which it was only a matter of time before Giri won.

Santosh Vidit didn't get a lot against Ding Liren's Nimzo-Indian and the game was drawn in 37 moves. Gukesh against Abdusattorov was a Two Knights with 4.d3 that saw spirited play from both players that ended in a draw in 37 moves. Praggnanandhaa didn't seem to get very much against Maghsoodloo's Najdorf and the game was drawn in 44 moves.

In the Challengers Group there were wins for Leon Luke Mendonca against Eline Roebers, Saleh Salem beat Anton Korobov, Jaime Santos Latasa beat Mustafa Yilmaz and Hans Moke Niemann beat Liam Vrolijk.

86th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 12-28 i 2024																cat. XIX (2712)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Firouzja, Alireza	g	FRA	2759	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
2.	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2769	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
3.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2749	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
4.	Wei, Yi	g	CHN	2740	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
5.	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2780	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2742
6.	Gukesh, D	g	IND	2725	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2727
7.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2743	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2740
8.	Maghsoodloo, Parham	g	IRI	2740	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2743
9.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2727	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2725
10.	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	g	IND	2742	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2780
11.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2682	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
12.	Donchenko, Alexander	g	GER	2643	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2625	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Ju, Wenjun	g	CHN	2549	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 13, 2024)
Gukesh, D	- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	½-½	37	C55	Two Knights Defence
Praggnanandhaa, R	- Maghsoodloo, Parham	½-½	44	B95	Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5
Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	- Ding, Liren	½-½	38	E20	Nimzo Indian
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Firouzja, Alireza	0-1	37	C11	French Defence
Donchenko, Alexander	- Wei, Yi	0-1	38	E60	King's Indian without Nc3
Warmerdam, Max	- Nepomniachtchi, Ian	0-1	29	D37	QGD 5.Bf4
Ju, Wenjun	- Giri, Anish	0-1	80	B40	Sicilian Classical

Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 12-28 i 2024																cat. XIII (2570)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Niemann, Hans Moke	g	USA	2692	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
2.	Salem, A.R. Saleh	g	UAE	2630	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
3.	Santos Latasa, Jaime	g	ESP	2615	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
4.	Mendonca, Leon Luke	g	IND	2608	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
5.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2627	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2602
6.	Dardha, Daniel	g	BEL	2602	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2627
7.	Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	g	FRA	2572	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2500
8.	Dronavalli, Harika	g	IND	2500	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2572
9.	Beukema, Stefan	m	BEL	2428	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	½	2420
10.	Divya, Deshmukh	m	IND	2420	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	½	2428
11.	Korobov, Anton	g	UKR	2663	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
12.	Yilmaz, Mustafa	g	TUR	2665	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Vrolijk, Liam	g	NED	2573	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Roebers, Eline	m	NED	2381	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 13, 2024)
Niemann, Hans Moke	- Vrolijk, Liam	1-0	29	C50	Giuoco Piano
Salem, A.R. Saleh	- Korobov, Anton	1-0	56	B94	Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5
Dardha, Daniel	- L'Ami, Erwin	½-½	38	B13	Caro Kann Exchange
Maurizzi, Marc'Andria	- Dronavalli, Harika	½-½	57	E06	Catalan
Divya, Deshmukh	- Beukema, Stefan	½-½	23	D10	Slav Defence
Yilmaz, Mustafa	- Santos Latasa, Jaime	0-1	40	D38	QGD Ragozin
Roebers, Eline	- Mendonca, Leon Luke	0-1	40	B94	Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5

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