Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 15-31 January 2016

[Mick Norris]

opening ceremony report

chess by the numbers preview

[Christopher Kreuzer]

In round 1 of the Masters, So beat Giri (that is a surprise - So's knight went b5-c3-e2-c1-b3-a1 while Giri threw his pawns forward and the computer just sat there and said "White is now winning"!), Ding Liren beat Mickey Adams after a big blunder from Mickey. Eljanov also blundered horribly against Caruana. The rest drew.

(EDIT: After reading a few reports, I think I was uncharitable in referring to two of the losses as being due to blunders - all those who lost were under a lot of pressure and that probably explains the decisive mistakes rather than any blundering.)

No draws in the Challengers. Seven decisive results.

[Roger de Coverly]

, I think I was uncharitable in referring to two of the losses as being due to blunders - all those who lost were under a lot of pressure and that probably explains the decisive mistakes rather than any blundering.)

Which move do you think was the blunder in the Adams game? By some reasoning, the Chinese player employed a long term strategy in the manner attributed to Capablanca. The a6 move in the opening was likely to simplify later to a position where White had 4v3 on the King side and Black had a weak a pawn. The a pawn was duly captured leaving 4 v 3. This would have been drawn if it was a Rook ending, but the presence of Knights gave White additional chances to make progress, which he did.

[Mick Norris]

The a pawn was duly captured leaving 4 v 3. This would have been drawn if it was a Rook ending, but the presence of Knights gave White additional chances to make progress, which he did.

Is it the combination of R+N that matters, or would there be chances in a 4v3 with just knights and no rooks?

[Roger de Coverly]

or would there be chances in a 4v3 with just knights and no rooks?

Verdicts on Knight endings parallel those on pawn endings, so the side with the extra pawn should have good chances. It was the combination that gave the chances, but like the Rook only 4v3 ending, trading Rooks would not improve the defensive chances.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

, I think I was uncharitable in referring to two of the losses as being due to blunders - all those who lost were under a lot of pressure and that probably explains the decisive mistakes rather than any blundering.)

Which move do you think was the blunder in the Adams game? By some reasoning, the Chinese player employed a long term strategy in the manner attributed to Capablanca. The a6 move in the opening was likely to simplify later to a position where White had 4v3 on the King side and Black had a weak a pawn. The a pawn was duly captured leaving 4 v 3. This would have been drawn if it was a Rook ending, but the presence of Knights gave White additional chances to make progress, which he did.

The chess engines give 54...Nd8 as a blunder, and say that the immediate 54...Rxe3+ 54.Kf6 Nc7! leads to a draw. There is speculation that Mickey missed the move 58.f5 which was the only way for White to win in the game. 54.Nc7 and the resulting position is hard to find and assess, so not really a blunder, just missing a difficult chance to hold the position.

[Carl Hibbard]

The Livestream app on the Apple TV was showing both chess and chess24 coverage yesterday and were good.

[Roger de Coverly]

just missing a difficult chance to hold the position.

Earlier, the chessbomb Stockfish is scoring the position around +1. It doesn't like 52. Ne4 so much, presumably spotting the drawing idea.

[Barry Sandercock]

Magnus's game was an efficiently played draw, but as he often starts a tournament with a couple of draws, we can still expect some great chess from him to come.

[Mick Norris]

7 draws today, so everyone off the mark at least

2 draws only in the Challengers

chess.com report if you have a spare 20 mins, the Caruana video analysis of his game v Carlsen is worth a watch

[Roger de Coverly]

Carlsen - Caruana in round 2 was still trying to offer ideas to those who would rather not play the Open Sicilian. The position at move 9 looks as if it ought to have arisen in an English club, county, Congress or lower division 4NCL game, but I haven't traced any.

[FEN "r1bqk2r/pp2npbp/3p2p1/2p1p3/4P3/2PPB1P1/PP2QPBP/RN2K2R w KQkq - 1 10"]

If you want to reach that position from 1. e4 c5, I think you have to use the move order 2. Ne2 and 3. d3.
Otherwise when you play g3, you are liable to be met by .. d5. I once almost reached the position at move 6 with this move order except I had played O-O instead of Be3, which rules out Carlsen's later h4 idea.

Naturally there a lot of other ideas available to Black as well as the c5, e5 structure.


1. g3 g6 2. Bg2 Bg7 3. e4 e5 4. Ne2 c5 5. d3 Nc6 6. Be3 d6 7. Qd2 Nd4 8. c3 Nxe2 9. Qxe2 Ne7 10. h4 h6 11. h5 g5 12. f4 exf4 13. gxf4 gxf4 14. Bxf4 Nc6 15. Na3 Be5 16. Be3 Be6 17. Nc4 Bg3+ 18. Kd2 Qd7 19. d4 cxd4 20. cxd4 Ne5 21. Nxe5 dxe5 22. d5 Bg4 23. Bf3 Bxf3 24. Qxf3 Qb5 25. Rac1 Qxb2+ 26. Kd1 Bf4 27. Bxf4 exf4 28. Qxf4 Rg8 29. Rf1 Qd4+ 30. Ke1 Qb4+ 31. Kd1 Qd4+ 32. Ke1 Qb4+ ½-½

[Mick Norris]

Wei Yi - Carlsen well underway
live

[AustinElliott]

Good grief - did Mamedyarov just hang a whole Rook in a probably-winning position? And when he had 5 min to Eljanov's <1 min to make 3 moves?

Obviously one see that sort of stuff every week in club chess, but it is a shocker to see a super-GM do it when actually UP on the clock.

Shame for him, and likely to be one for the 'Epic Blunders' file. Presume he will struggle to recover from than mentally, at least in this tournament.

[JustinHorton]

Like Petrosian forgetting that his queen was en prise against Bronstein.

[Keith Arkell]

Or this

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1587326