Tata Steel Chess – Giri won his first title

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament took place from 13th to 29th January 2023 in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The format was a 14-player round-robin and the time control was 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game and with an increment of 30 seconds per move. Besides the super-tournament, there was a side tournament with a lot of promising players, the Tata Steel Challengers.

Masters

In the masters tournament the cream of the top gathered: GM Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2859), GM Ding Liren (China, 2811), GM Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2766), GM Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2764), GM Wesley So (USA, 2760), GM Richard Rapport (Romania, 2740), GM Levon Aronian (USA, 2735), GM Gukesh D. (India, 2725), GM Arjun Erigaisi (India, 2722), GM Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran, 2719), GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan, 2713), GM Vincent Keymer (Germany, 2696), GM Praggnanandhaa R. (India, 2684) and GM Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands, 2681).

The first rounds were quite equable, and the first big surprise came when Carlsen lost two rounds in a row in the fourth and fifth round, in which Giri and Abdusattorov took the precious win from him.

After beating Carlsen, Abdusattorov took the lead, with a great start – 5½/7. The fresh Olympic winner made five draws in a row. Before the last round, he was still leading the tournament with half a point ahead of Giri and one point ahead of Carlsen, who pulled together and fight for the medals even after a terrible start.

In the last round, Abdusattorov was playing with van Foreest with white and nobody was expecting him to lose this game after playing the whole tournament without a single loss. Jorden van Foreest played aggressively straight from the opening and played Sicilian, which ended up to be a good choice for him. Abdusattorov made some strategic mistakes in the middle game and his opponent took the advantage of them and scored a whole point. It was a brilliant tournament performance from Abdusattorov, and he cemented his status in the elite.

Giri won in the last round after Rapport blundered in the middle game. Giri won his first title in Wijk aan Zee and started the year in top form. Carlsen won as well with Arjun Erigaisi and caught Abdusattorov in points for a shared second place.

Final Standings – Masters

Challengers

In the Tata Steel Challengers, the participants were top talents who have the potential to become a 2700 rated players. The average rating of the participants was 2580.

The participants were: GM M. Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), GM Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan), GM Jergus Pechac (Slovakia), GM Alexander Donchenko (Germany), GM Erwin L´Ami (Netherlands), GM Max Warmerdam (Netherlands), GM Adhiban Baskaran (India), GM Mustafa Yilmaz (Turkey), GM Luis Paulo Supi (Brazil), GM Velimir Ivic (Serbia), GM Abhimanyu Mishra (USA), IM Thomas Beerdsen (Netherlands), IM Rameshbabu Vaishali (India), IM Eline Roebers (Netherlands).

In the beginning, Yilmaz took the lead by scoring 4 points in 5 rounds. One of the less expected results in the first rounds was when Roebers (who is only 16 years old) won against GM Erwin L´Ami (the reigning Dutch champion).

Yilmaz lost the leading position in the 7th round, when he lost against Donchenko. He also took the lead after this game and never let it go. Even though Donchenko blundered with L´Ami in the endgame in the 9th round, he took the first place in the tournament by winning the last four rounds. One point behind him was Yilmaz, and the third place was taken by Sindarov. Donchenko, with this result, qualified for the Tata Steel Masters in 2024.

Final Standings – Challengers

Author

LUCIA ŠEVČÍKOVÁ