Tata Steel Chess: Anand, Nepo retain lead after short but sharp draws

Dutchmen seek revenge

The second round of the Tata Steel Masters once again saw two decisive games and five draws. The two Dutchmen in the fray, Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest, who had both suffered defeats in their opening game, came back with a vengeance in round two.

“Yesterday, I played like drunk Tal. Today, I played like drunk Petrosian,” exclaimed a joyful Anish Giri after his second round win over Vladimir Kramnik. In the previous round, the Giri had braved giving up a full piece against Ian Nepomniachtchi and had paid the price for his bout of madness. This time around, he offered material again – not a piece, but an exchange – in a Petrosian-like manner against Vladimir Kramnik.

Kramnik, who had the white pieces in the game, had his attack mode on in the English Opening, which, as GM Danny King pointed out, looked a lot like the King’s Gambit eventually.

“After yesterday’s disaster, today was another one,” said Giri, referring to white’s kingside initiative. But things soon began to turn around after Kramnik’s played 19.e5 – when Giri said he had already begun to see the contours of the Petrosian exchange sacrifice.

“I think e5 was a very bad move because I have all these ideas of having the light squares. Actually, after e5, he should have gone for material, either with Bd3 first, which I was actually very worried about because he picks up a pawn potentially,” Giri added.

The second victor of the day, Jorden van Foreest, took a page from Vishy Anand’s book as he essayed the Caro-Kann Defence, an opening which the former five time world champion had essayed against Van Foreest himself in the previous round. Jorden’s opponent, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, had a kingside initiative in the middle game but this never really transpired into much. A time scramble soon followed and, in the end, Van Foreest had come out on top.

“Many of the crucial moments happened in time trouble, so I don’t really know exactly what happened there,” Van Foreest said after the game. But the ticking clock took a larger toll on Duda than on van Foreest. Failing to find the best attacking resources, the Polish number one, slowly began to crumble. “After the time trouble was over, I was much better if not winning,” Van Foreest said.

Tournament’s co-leader, Viswanathan Anand, kept his shared lead with a draw against Vladmir Fedoseev while the other tournament leader, Ian Nepomniachtchi held Magnus Carlsen. Fedoseev chose the Petroff against Anand’s 1.e4. The game turned sharp very soon but none of this was unknown to either player.  

After 11…Nxc3 12.Bxf5 Qxf5 13.Qxb7 Qd7, white exchanged queens and the fireworks burned out immediately.

Meanwhile, Nepomniachtchi had to play black in his second straight game, and this time, his opponent was Magnus Carlsen. The game opened with a Benoni in which Nepo seemed very well prepared and was seen blitzing out his moves.

Carlsen gave up an exchange on his 15th turn (diagram), allowing black to pin and win the rook with 15…Bd4 but said after the game that he didn’t remember much “apart from that the exchange sac was supposed to be playable”. Nepomniachtchi found his way through the complications without much trouble and signed peace after 32 moves. Carlsen, too, wasn’t unhappy with the outcome and described the game as “short but exciting” in the post-game interview.

Talking of short and exciting games, Vidit Gujrathi’s game against Ding Liren could not remain left out. With the white pieces, the Chinese super-GM uncorked a novelty just 6 moves into an English opening and caught his opponent off-guard.

“He played a new move in the opening and I was out of the opening book. After a while it got very complicated when I pushed the pawns d4 and c4, and I had no clue what was happening,” Vidit admitted after the game. He won a pawn after the trade of queens but Ding had enough compensation due to his active pieces. By the 33rd move, a draw was agreed via repetition.

All games

Standings

Challengers

Like the Masters’, the Challengers’ segment also saw two decisive games: Vincent Keymar defeated Stefan Kuipers to hop into the tournament lead while, Parham Maghsoodloo beat Elizabeth Paehtz to recover from his first-round loss.

Paehtz had gone toe to toe with the reigning World Junior Champion until the final move of the first time control when she fumbled and lost a pawn.  

40...b5 is necessary here but Paehtz, perhaps under time pressure, missed white’s threat and retreated her bishop with 40…Bf8. Maghsoodloo immediately plunged in with 41.Nxb6. The knight is immune from capture as, after 41…Nxb6 42.Bxb6, Black cannot recapture with the queen due to the threat of 43.Qd7+. Soon, Maghsoodloo won one more pawn and finished the game off with a nice knight fork trick.

The only Indian in the Challengers, R Praggnanandhaa played a very complex game against Vladislav Kovalev where the latter gave up two exchanges but had four extra pawns as compensation. Pragg gave up one exchange in the endgame and managed to hold his opponent’s extra pawns in a 64 move long battle.

All games

Standings

Related news:

	Anish Giri - The Indian connection @ 05/02/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Anand on Wijk: "It's a bit like coming home" @ 04/02/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess 2019: Carlsen wins his seventh title @ 28/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess: Giri's win stands out among the rest @ 26/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess: Vidit crushes Vladimir Kramnik in merely 29 moves! @ 24/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess: Nepo joins Anand and Carlsen at the top @ 23/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	टाटा स्टील 2019 - भारत के लिए आनंद ही आनंद ! @ 22/01/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Tata Steel Chess: Anand beats Kramnik and joins the lead! @ 20/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Vidit Gujrathi: "I, like everyone else, want to perform well" @ 18/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess: Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri join Anand and Ding in second place @ 16/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess: Vidit stands strong against Carlsen's trademark grind @ 15/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Tata Steel Chess 2019 Round 1: Anand and Nepomniachtchi open with wins @ 13/01/2019 by Aditya Pai (en)