Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 15-31 January 2016

[Mick Norris]

Giri - Carlsen was a draw, so unless Caruana wins it begins to look like a procession

After the final rest day tomorrow, Magnus has white against Hou Yifan, black against Wesley So and while against Ding Liren

Fabiano has balck against Shak, white against Van Wely and black against Tomashevsky

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Hopefully a good win coming up for Mickey Adams. Will claw back some of the rating loss so far.

[Roger de Coverly]

Hopefully a good win coming up for Mickey Adams.

A nice example for anyone defending a London system with Nf6, e6, d5, c5 . If they throw the f pawn at you, you can play Nc6-e7-f5-d6. You've then got both Knights controlling e4. Obviously to use both e7 and d6, you have to shuffle the Bishop between d6 and e7.

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 d5 3. e3 e6 4. Nf3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bd3 b6 9. Ne5 Bb7 10. f4 Ne7 11. Qf3 Nf5 12. Bf2 Be7 13. g4 Nd6 14. g5 Nfe4 15. O-O-O c4 16. Bc2 b5 17. Qh3 b4 18. Nxe4 dxe4 19. Be1 Bd5 20. Rg1 b3 21. axb3 cxb3 22. Bb1 f5 23. gxf6 Bxf6 24. Rg4 Nf5 25. Kd2 Qa5 26. Ke2 Bxe5 27. dxe5 Rad8 *

[Christopher Kreuzer]

You would have thought Karjakin would be more familiar with that, or at least able to sense what was happening, but he fell headlong into it...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Giri - Carlsen was a draw, so unless Caruana wins it begins to look like a procession

Wei Yi imploded against Caruana, so no procession yet. I hope Caruana can keep things interesting and will keep trying to win.

[Mick Norris]

Hopefully a good win coming up for Mickey Adams. Will claw back some of the rating loss so far.

Yes, great win and a quarter of the rating ppoints recoved - let's hope for 3 more wins for Mickey

[Mick Norris]

Giri - Carlsen was a draw, so unless Caruana wins it begins to look like a procession

Wei Yi imploded against Caruana, so no procession yet. I hope Caruana can keep things interesting and will keep trying to win.

I'm sure he will try, Magnus remains favourite

[Mick Norris]

TWIC

Round 10 Standings: 1st Carlsen 7pts 2nd Caruana 6.5pts, 3rd-6th Giri, Wesley So, Ding Liren, Eljanov 5.5pts, 7th-8th Wei Yi, Mamedyarov 5pts 9th-10th Navara, Karjakin 4.5pts, 11th-13th Hou Yifan, Tomashevsky, Van Wely 4pts 14th Adams 3.5pts

Rest Day Thursday

Round 11 Pairings: Friday 29th Jan 2016 12:30pm Wei-Karjakin, Mamedyarov-Caruana, Van Wely-Navara, Tomashevsky-Ding, Eljanov-So, Carlsen-Hou, Adams-Giri.

Baskaran Adhiban defeated Eltaj Safarli in the battle of the leaders in the B-Group. Adhiban leads on 7.5/10 half a point clear of Aleksey Dreev.

[Mick Norris]

5000 visitors in Utrecht today, so chess obviously not dying in the Netherlands

[Barry Sandercock]

Magnus wins again. Amazing the way he wins these drawn positions !

[Roger de Coverly]

Amazing the way he wins these drawn positions !

The chessbomb stockfish may help explain.


This is immediately after the Queen exchange with Black to move.
[FEN "8/1p1k4/p1p4p/2Pp1p2/P4P2/1PK4P/2P5/8 b - - 0 45"]

The engine thinks that .. a5 rather than .. h5 was needed.

The final position is easy enough, because an eventual c6 wins. Again Black to move.

[FEN "8/1pk5/8/1KPp1p1p/5P1P/2P5/8/8 b - - 0 54"]

So how far back did Magnus see this? Was it when offering the Queen trade? It's bluff if playing .. a5 as advocated by the engine actually works.




1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3 Nc6 8. Qd2 Be6 9. O-O-O Qd7 10. b3 Bf6 11. h3 O-O-O 12. g4 h6 13. Bg2 Kb8 14. Rhe1 Rhe8 15. Kb2 a6 16. Re2 Qe7 17. Rde1 Qf8 18. Nd4 Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Bxd4 20. Qxd4 Bd7 21. f4 Rxe2 22. Rxe2 Re8 23. Rxe8+ Bxe8 24. Qb4 c6 25. Bf1 Kc8 26. g5 Qe7 27. gxh6 gxh6 28. Qd4 f6 29. Qa7 Bd7 30. a4 Qd8 31. Qg1 Qe7 32. Qg6 Qe1 33. Bd3 Qh4 34. Bf5 Bxf5 35. Qxf5+ Kb8 36. c4 Kc7 37. Qa5+ Kc8 38. Qd2 Kd7 39. c5 d5 40. Qe3 Qh5 41. Qg3 Qf7 42. Qg4+ f5 43. Qg3 Qf6+ 44. Qc3 Qxc3+ 45. Kxc3 h5 46. Kb4 Kc8 47. Ka5 Kc7 48. h4 Kb8 49. Kb6 Kc8 50. b4 Kb8 51. b5 cxb5 52. axb5 axb5 53. Kxb5 Kc7 54. c3 1-0

[Mick Norris]

Round 11 Standings:
1st Carlsen 8pts 2nd Caruana 7pts 3rd Ding Liren 6.5pts 4th-6th Giri, Wesley So, Eljanov 6pts 7th-8th Wei Yi, Mamedyarov 5.5pts 9th-10th Navara, Karjakin 5pts 11th Van Wely 4.5pts 12th-14th Hou Yifan, Tomashevsky, Adams 4pts

Round 12 pairings Saturday 30th Jan 2016 12:30pm GMT
Karjakin-Giri, Hou Yifan-Adams, Wesley So-Carlsen, Ding Liren-Eljanov, Navara-Tomashevsky, Caruana-Van Wely, Wei Yi-Mamedyarov.

[MartinCarpenter]

Not bluff as he's hardly risking anything - just what he felt was the best chance to get a mistake out of his opponent. He's supernaturally brilliant at it.

[Brian Towers]

This is immediately after the Queen exchange with Black to move.
[FEN "8/1p1k4/p1p4p/2Pp1p2/P4P2/1PK4P/2P5/8 b - - 0 45"]

The engine thinks that .. a5 rather than .. h5 was needed.

I don't see it. It still looks winning for white after a5.

After 1. b4 ab 2. Kxb4 Kc7 3. Ka5 white has an extra waiting move with c3 so is going to get access to b6. Then the a pawn is going to roll up the board and be exchanged on a6. After that black's c6 pawn stops him from keeping white out of the b6 square again. After that black's lack of access to d6 stops him saving the c6 pawn and it's curtains.

Or can black just ignore the b4 pawn allowing bxa5? Doesn't look to me that he can then cover the white entry point on e5 and the plan Kb4, a6, Ka5, Kxa6 etc. Something will have to give, surely?

[Ray Sayers]

Yes, black can cover the e5 and b6 entry points by allowing bxa5. Only just, but that is enough!
The real mistake was playing Qxc3+; with queens on, the draw is relatively easy. In the pawn ending, you must be absolutely accurate to draw.
Edit: Of course, the spectator has it easy, especially with an engine. But I did some work on pawn endings a little while ago for some junior coaching and boy they can be tricky! With a queen on, you always have the chance of a perpetual!