Wijk aan Zee 2021

[JustinHorton]

Dubov has withdrawn and Donchenko replaces him

[Mick Norris]

Pity about Dubov

[Leonard Barden]

Interesting round one pairing......

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/ ... -wimbledon

Harikrishna (1) v MVL(14)
Esipenko(2) v Duda (13)
Grandelius (3) v Donchenko (12)
Caruana (4) v van Foreest (11)
Giri (5) v Tari (10)
Wojtaszek (6) v Anton (9)

.....plus the one mentioned in the Guardian article......

[Matthew Turner]

Appalling coverage to start us off with

[David Sedgwick]

Appalling coverage to start us off with

Yes, it is very unfortunate.

The tournament website is down and both Chess24 and ChessBomb, who must be using the same source, have moves from only three of the seven games.

My guess is that the number of would be hits on the website is substantially greater than in previous years and that the organisers didn't adequately allow for this.

Still, we must appreciate that it's remarkable that they have been able to put on the tournament at all.

[Matthew Turner]

Showing Giri having beaten Aryan with no moves played

[Matthew Turner]

They are here, so I guess say well done to Wijk for getting it sorted

[Matthew Turner]

Carlsen - Firouzja

OMG

[David Sedgwick]

Carlsen - Firouzja

OMG

If that is an out of form Carlsen ...

[John McKenna]

Watching the game intermittently I thought Carlsen was doing well... then on the way down to a loss, the position around the time he played 32.Qe3... looked, to me, like it was getting desperate, but there was something about the activity of his pieces that seemed to compensate for the pawns deficit.

[Chris Rice]

Carlsen, Magnus (NOR) - Firouzja, Alireza (FID)

1-0

Tata Steel Masters 2021 round 01

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. e4 Nxc3 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Bd3 c5 12. O-O cxd4 13. cxd4 b6 14. a4 Bb7 15. a5 bxa5 16. Rxa5 Nf6 17. Re1 Rfd8 18. Qa1 Qc7 19. h3 a6 20. Rc5 Qf4 21. Re5 Nd7 22. Ra5 Nf6 23. d5 exd5 24. e5 Ne4 25. Qd4 Rdc8 26. Raa1 a5 27. Rab1 Bc6 28. e6 fxe6 29. Ne5 Qf6 30. f3 Ng5 31. Rb6 Be8 32. Qe3 a4 33. Ng4 Qd8 34. Rxe6 Nxe6 35. Qxe6+ Bf7 36. Nxh6+ gxh6 37. Qxh6 Qc7 38. Qh7+ Kf8 39. Qh8+ Bg8 40. Qh6+ 1-0

[Matt Mackenzie]

40....Kf7 41 Bg6+ Kf6 42 Bh5+ Kf5 43 g4 mate - pretty finish.

[David Sedgwick]

40. ... Qg7 41. Qd6+ Kf7 42. Qe7# is the equally pretty alternative line.

On the commentary, it took Leko a little time to spot these variations, which indicates that the play was by no means as straightforward as Carlsen made it look.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"play was by no means as straightforward as Carlsen made it look."

He does that a lot!

[Mick Norris]

TWIC report on round 1

Pete Doggers

GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek said he felt "pretty safe" and probably summed up the general feeling among the players when he noted: "The will of playing again is higher than me being afraid that I might catch something."