Tata Steel 2014 Wijk aan Zee

[John Moore]

Ah not really

[Colin S Crouch]

Still a fantastic win by Aronian, even though some of the gloss has been dimmed by his last round loss against Van Wely. A point and a half ahead of the rest is however an indication of his world championship class.
Big time scrambles can often lead to almost random results, with neither player having the time to calculate accurately. By move 25, Aronian had a winning position, but each player made clearly identifiable mistakes on moves 28 and 32. Aronian was fortunate to escape from these mishaps, and still keep a winning advantage.
Look at the position at Black's 34th. There is no way, one would think, that Black could ever set up a winning tactic with ...Bd4, with two pawn and a couple of pieces covering that square. Even 35.exf4 is good enough, aiming for a quiet positional win. Aronian however went straight for the attack against Black's king, found that he could not find checkmate, left his major pieces misplaced for defence, and made 38.exf4?? Bd4+! the losing move. Play through this game closely!
Aronian will not have much time to reflect on his tournament. He soon has to go to another really big event, and to play Carlsen twice.

[PeterFarr]

Credit to Van Wely too though, for playing aggressively with Black against a stronger player in great form; pretty much a perfect 'Chess for Tigers' technique. Also worth pointing out that both players were in quite a bit of time trouble at the end.

Apart from that, Aronian was pretty cool throughout the whole tournament, with hardly an awkward moment it seems.

[Colin Patterson]

Great event as usual. Really enjoyed the commentary provided by Lawrence and Erwin l'Ami, but I suppose the real highlight is the willingness of the players to engage in creative, fighting chess. Fortunately, it seems to happen at Wijk on a regular basis.

One slight grumble would be that they've stopped inviting English players, at least temporarily. But surely this missing English interest could easily be remedied for the good of our national players and for the added interest of the fans too. We have a history of collaborating with the Dutch on these things, for instance at the Staunton Memorial tournaments of a few years ago.

So my question would be - could Malcolm P. promise to give conditions to a Dutch player in both his A and B group London Classic events, in return for a corresponding invite to English players in the A and B of the Tata Steel? Then just make it a standing arrangement for as long as they both survive, in the spirit of past cooperation, and to the benefit of both sets of players and fans.

If this isn't an entirely daft suggestion, would there be someone who could possibly mention it to Malcolm, or perhaps to Andrew Paulson, who I believe is already working with Malcolm on a number of other initiatives?

[Colin S Crouch]

But why would the Wijk organisers want to bother with this?

[Colin Patterson]

Well, I'm assuming most organizers would have a secondary interest in promoting chess and chess excellence in their own country. Certainly, Malcolm does. So I don't see why it would hurt the Wijk event to have (say) Adams or Short (A) and Jones or Howell (B) playing. Indeed many of the top English players have participated/won there in the past - and if this gives an opportunity for the likes of Giri, Van Wely, L'Ami, Smeets, Tiviakov, and Sokolov to rub shoulders with the elite players in London, then that would be helping their professionals to earn a better living, continue to develop, and add strength to the national team.

Are you thinking that they might see this as a possible impairment of the quality of their tournament, not having a completely free hand to pick who they see as the largest crowd pullers and/or most exciting, creative players?

[MartinCarpenter]

They'd have to drop the corresponding English players from the London tournament though, which is a bit illogical really
(Well that or compromise that tournament a fair bit.).

[Colin Patterson]

Well ... I'm not sure you'd need to do either. Looking at the last 'proper' Classic, replacing Polgar with Giri would only increase the strength of the top group.

[Colin S Crouch]

I get the feeling that Colin P has missed the point of my brief comment.
I agree with Colin P that the Wijk/Tara was a superb event. What baffles me is his suggestion that Wijk should have closer links with the London Classic, and Malcolm Pein. Compared with Wijk, London was not a classic. Right from the start, Pein was moaning that without Carlsen playing, the whole event was decidedly less interesting , and so he decided on a rapidplay. This seemed decidedly retrograde.
The Dutch were also faced with the problem that the new World Champion was not playing in the next winter event event. No problem. They invited young and ambitious players,who still had thought of improving, and even trying to overtake Carlsen. A fascinating battle, and it is all the more noteworthy that Aronian, in his early thirties, outpaced the youngsters of the early twenties.
I doubt that the Dutch will need to learn much from the English. It seems much more the case that the English should learn from the Dutch.

[Colin Patterson]

I'm still missing your point in that case, Colin C.

Your last post implies that I want the Dutch to learn something from the London Classic, but I said nothing of the sort. Your comparison of how the two tournaments were run last time out is of course interesting to me and I wouldn't disagree with much of it, but again, I don't see why it is relevant - it certainly doesn't preclude a friendly spirit of cooperation between two countries.

I won't waste any more time on it, but it struck me as a simple suggestion (without any agenda) that the parties may, or may not find mutually beneficial. Quite why you find it baffling is beyond me.