TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
87th Tata Steel 2025 (10)
Gukesh wins again in Round 10 of the Tata Steel Masters but so do Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa
Mark Crowther - Wednesday 29th January 2025
Max Warmerdam couldn't hold the World Champion Gukesh in Round 10. Photo © | https://tatasteelchess.com/en
Gukesh leads the Tata Steel Masters with 7.5/10 by half a point from Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 7 points, a further half point behind is Praggnanandhaa. It seems very likely the winner will be one of these three players and all of them won today. There is a rest day on Thursday followed by the final three rounds with the event finishing on Sunday.
Gukesh started the game as black with 1.e4 d6! the first time he'd ever played this, Max Warmerdam played 2.g3! a pre-event piece of prep and after 2...c5 they were in a Sicilian. Gukesh had the kind of complicated position he needed and after 24.Bf1? he was much better and after 28.Rc1? he launched a direct attack for the win. Abdusattorov probably was only half kidding when he described this as his worst game of the event, the sharp Sicilian quickly turned very tricky for him, especially after 14.0-0?! rather than going Queenside, he was so unhappy that he spent almost 30 minutes on move 23, eventually as time trouble approached he gambled with 27.f5, mostly because Sarana only had 15 minutes left. There were mutual mistakes before 39...Kf8? immediately cost Sarana the game. A bit lucky? Maybe but Abdusattorov knew only a win was really good enough. Praggnanandhaa was the other winner, he was the beneficiary of the dubious move 8...gxf6 which Vladimir Fedoseev made when he became confused about his opening. This led to a long term advantage but Fedoseev found some active play and the game became very complicated. Praggnanandhaa felt he had restored his advantage with 32.Bf3 and after Queen's came off he played a forcing winning variation.
The other games were drawn, Fabiano Caruana was winning against Pentala Harikrishna but it was one of those endgames where it was really hard to find the best moves, many of them looked the same value, and he was a bit unlucky in the end not to convert after finding many really good moves. Wei Yi seemed to quickly lose faith in his position against Jorden Van Foreest and repeated for a draw, Leon Luke Mendonca played very solidly for a draw against Anish Giri and Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer drew a Ruy Lopez which seemed pretty well played.
My thanks to Michiel Abeln for the photos and notes to the games. A shout out to Fiona Steil-Antoni for her post-game interviews on the official Tata Steel Chess YouTube channel. They've been excellent and to the point.
In the Challengers Group Thai Dai Van Nguyen leads by half a point from Erwin L'Ami, they were both winners today.
Masters Round 10 Standings: 1st Gukesh 7.5pts, 2nd Abdusattorov 7pts, 3rd Praggnanandhaa 6.5pts, 4th Fedoseev 6pts, 5th= Caruana, Wei Yi 5.5pts, 7th= Giri, Sarana 5pts, 9th= Harikrishna 4.5pts, 10th= Van Foreest, Keymer 4pts, 12th Warmerdam 3.5pts, 13th= Erigaisi, Mendonca 3pts,
Rest Day Thursday 30th January. All groups.
Round 11 Jan 31 at 13.00 GMT Van Foreest vs Erigaisi, Gukesh vs Wei Yi Giri vs Warmerdam, Fedoseev vs Mendonca, Caruana vs Praggnanandhaa, Sarana vs Harikrishna, Keymer vs Abdusattorov.
Challengers Round 10 Standings: 1st Thai Dai Van Nguyen 7.5pts, 2nd L'Ami, Erwin 7pts, 3rd= Suleymanli, Bok 6.5pts, 5th Svane 6pts, 6th= Lu, Gurel, Nogerbek 5.5pts, 9th= Vaishali, Yakubboev 5pts, 11th Pijpers 4.5pts, 12th Oro 2.5pts, 13th Divya 2pts, 14th Bulmaga 1pt
Round 11 Jan 31 at 13.00 GMT Oro vs Yakubboev, Lu vs L'Ami, Nogerbek vs Gurel, Vaishali vs Suleymanli, Svane vs Nguyen, Bulmaga vs Divya, Bok vs Pijpers,
Tienkamp Round 6 Standings: 1st= Slagboom, Panesar Grutter 4pts, 4th= Beukema, Tudor, Kobe Smeets 3pts, 7th= Zwirs, Sofronie 2.5pts, 9th= Lohia, Holzke 2pts.
Round 10 Summary
Warmerdam vs Gukesh Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Gukesh took some calculated risks with the black pieces against Max Warmerdam in a non-standard g3 Sicilian and the completely paid off. Warmerdam had a few chances to take off black's light squared bishop and he really should have done that. 24.Bf1 allowing the trade of white's light squared bishop was a wrong idea and 28.Rc1 (28.Nc3) allowed a winning attack which Gukesh played perfectly. Thus Gukesh kept the sole lead from Abdusattorov who also won.
Gukesh explains his game.
Abdusattorov vs Sarana Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Nodirbek Abdusattorov kept himself in contention for first place with a wild win against Alexey Sarana who lost his unbeaten record in the tournament. Abdusattorov played the really provocative 14.0-0 and the engines dislike many of the player's decisions in this very sharp position but it was 39...Kf8? that was the final definitive error in time trouble, 39...Kg8 was equal, as it was black's king came under a decisive attack and cost Sarana the game. Abdusattorov called it his "worst game" in the tournament so far, with a smile, but it was a "very nerve-wracking game".
Abdusattorov explains his game.
Harikrishna vs Caruana Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Fabiano Caruana was held to a draw by Pentala Harikrishna after failing to convert a winning advantage in the endgame. Caruana got a nice edge in a non-standard Sicilian but it was only on the run up to first time control that this became decisive after 38.Ra5? and 39.Be3? Although the engines were confidently stating it was a win this was in fact one of those endgames that's likely to make it into books of instruction, it was just hard. To summarise 46...Rg3? was equal, 48.Rd1? and Caruana was winning again and finally 49...Rg1? (49...Rf3) was drawing again and this time the assessment didn't change. This surely has been a frustrating event for Caruana.
Praggnanandhaa vs Fedoseev Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Praggnanandhaa kept in contention with a win over Vladimir Fedoseev in 46 moves. Fedoseev played a Tarrasch defence where he either forgot or confused his lines and played the very inferior 8...gxf6. This allowed Praggnanandhaa to get a nice long term advantage. Fedoseev is however a creative and dangerous player and as they entered time trouble things became very unclear. Whilst the play that followed wasn't engine perfect and Fedoseev may have been theoretically equal at one point it was probably a bit easier for Praggnanandhaa to play. After 32.Bf3 Praggnanandhaa thought he was better again and once Queen's came off he calculate a clean win. He had no explanation for his play the day before, except perhaps that he skipped breakfast.
Praggnanandhaa explains his win.
Mendonca vs Giri Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Leon Luke Mendonca didn't get anything against Anish Giri's Slav Defence and once 16...c5 equalised he traded pieces for a safe draw.
Erigaisi vs Keymer Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer drew a Ruy Lopez Anti-Marshall which nevertheless turned out to be a bit like a Marshall as black gave up his e-pawn for more than enough activity and the game was drawn in 38 moves.
Wei Yi vs Van Foreest Tata Steel 2025 Round 10 Photo © Michiel Abeln
Wei Yi and Jorden Van Foreest drew in 23 moves of a Two Knights Defence. Judging from the moves it seems like Wei Yi was the one who wasn't very interested in playing today, in spite of potentially still being in striking distance of a good result. He seemed to be offering a repetition starting on move 15 and then on move 20 he started the repetition that drew the game. There was a reasonably lengthy post-mortem so perhaps Wei Yi simply didn't like his position after the 14...a5 novelty.
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