Tata Steel 2014 Wijk aan Zee

[IM Jack Rudd]

PS. Nice to see the most recent round take place at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. I wonder what sort of museums or similar places in London (or anywhere in the UK) would be on a wishlist of places to hold a round of a top international chess tournament in?

The World Museum in Liverpool was a nice venue to play in.

[Simon Brown]

Colin

I have been watching but haven't found the chess too inspiring to date, with the exception of Gelfand losing as White in a Budapest. But today has Brunello - Reindermann, which was appropriately enough a Dutch, completely random and as I write at move 40, I have no idea what is going on. Engines say +1 for what it's worth.

[Angus French]

I have been watching but haven't found the chess too inspiring to date, with the exception of Gelfand losing as White in a Budapest. But today has Brunello - Reindermann, which was appropriately enough a Dutch, completely random and as I write at move 40, I have no idea what is going on. Engines say +1 for what it's worth.

Also today: a second outing for the Budapest and a second spanking for a 2700 White player - see Wojtaszek vs. Jobava.

[David Robertson]

Dominguez Perez v. Caruana (rd 4)

Can someone please take a look at this game, and tell me what is going on? I thought I understood something about chess. But this game (it's long too) completely baffles me. At times, it resembles draughts!

@Jack Rudd: yes, the World Museum, Liverpool was a lovely venue (2006 & 2008 internationals)

[Roger de Coverly]

Dominguez Perez v. Caruana (rd 4)

Can someone please take a look at this game, and tell me what is going on? I thought I understood something about chess. But this game (it's long too) completely baffles me. At times, it resembles draughts!

There's a certain amount of repetition, or near repetition. I would imagine this is one or both of the players trying to gain time on the clock using the increments. Beyond that, much of the ending is an attempt by White to force Zugswangs on Black to gain concessions. Earlier in the game I'd also agree that a test to establish whether it was played by a pair of beginners or super GMs might struggle outside of the tactical phases.

http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/livegames contains the games (they call it round 5) and they are using a viewer with an engine assessment at each move.

It reminded me marginally of my draw with James Cobb from the recent Shropshire Open. Once we had reached the ending with same coloured Bishops, there were three ways I could lose. One would be to get cheapoed, secondly I could run short of time and thirdly I could run into a Zugswang.

http://www.shrewsburychessclub.org/Tour ... d2/tfd.htm

[MartinCarpenter]

White was clearly bent on demonstrating the well known positional principle that doubled, isolated pawns are towers of strength

[Colin S Crouch]

We have now gone past the first time contra in round 5 (or round 6 in the B section. Often this is about the time of tournament when player have sized up the opposition, and have noticed the strength and weaknesses by the opponent, and asked themselves perhaps whether some of the players might be starting to get tired in a long battle.
Play started to get intense today. Perhaps the most interesting battle, in terms of chess psycology, was So – Gelfand. Check it out on the internet. Play looked equal after move 17, and no doubt had Anand been White against Gelfand, they would have found a good way to reach a technically sound draw at about move 30, with nothing to reproach themselves about.
Wesley So, only just turned 20, had more ambitious ideas. Instead of quietly castling, he set up some minor tactics, to open up the pawn structure, and bascally to create imbalace. It worked! Gelfan was unable to find effective lines, and had to resign aat move 29.
The computer engine suggsts that with best play, Gelfand could have kept a slight edge, which might or might not be true (further analysis is required), but it is clear that So played far more creatively over the board.
Later, long wins after the first time control by Aronian (Naiditsch wilted after a mistake on move 41), Caruana (Van Wely nervously offered a queen exchange on move 40, and also got ground down), and Giri (some ground lost by Harikrishna before first time con trol, and more breakthroughs later). Also, do not forget, an apparently almost effortless crush by Dominguez, when Rapport whimsic]allly tried a mixture of the English and the Grob, and soon got hammered by the king in the centre.
A very lively day.
Aronian +3; Giri, So +2; Caruana, Karjakin, Dominguez +1.

[LawrenceCooper]

Impressive performance from Aronian so far.

[Simon Brown]

Looks as if Nakamura will be shedding a few more points today.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Lots of decisive games, possibly five wins for White. Well, until van Wely missed a corker of a move against Naiditsch. Try and find the winning move for White here:

5qk1/1r1n1pp1/2N4p/2nBPQ1P/3N4/6P1/2R2PK1/r7 w - - 0 1

Looks like van Wely will still win, with only Aronian holding with Black today.

EDIT: Oops! Diagram corrected.

[Simon Brown]

For those you who think Nb8 looks quite good, it is, but the rook was on b7. And technically it should been winning moves, as I think the second move is the hard one to find!

[Ian Thompson]

Lots of decisive games, possibly five wins for White. Well, until van Wely missed a corker of a move against Naiditsch. Try and find the winning move for White here:

5qk1/1r1n1pp1/2N4p/2nBPQ1P/3N4/6P1/2R2PK1/r7 w - - 0 1

Looks like van Wely will still win, with only Aronian holding with Black today.

The computer reckons there are two different ways to win in this position. The first move of the line that the computer thinks is the slightly better of the two is glaring obvious. The second move, though, is so unlikely that Van Wely would probably have been suspected of getting help from Borislav Ivanov if he'd played it (although the reason it wins is obvious enough once you've seen the idea).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Do you think it would help to give the other winning line and maybe even the first move of the line in question?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

So, with 5.5/6 for White, I wonder what the Chessbase headline will be? "Five White Wins" would be a bit boring.

[LawrenceCooper]

Not one of Naiditsch's better games