In the Masters group of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, there is a five-way tie for first place following a thrilling round on Saturday. There is a good likelihood of a tiebreak tomorrow with GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Anish Giri, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and GM Wei Yi all on 7.5/12.
Vidit overcame leader Abdusattorov in the pivotal round 12 match, and as a result of that victory, he took the top spot in the live ratings for India.
The drama also exists with the Challengers, as general manager Marc’Andria Maurizzi dropped a game that put GM Leon Luke Mendonca ahead of him. There won’t be a tiebreak in this group.
Standings – Masters Round 12
Results – Masters Round 12
Everything came down to the final round last year, and things will become much closer this year. Everything will be decided on the last Sunday of the tournament, which will see five players competing (or even seven, if none of the leaders win), following another great day of chess in Wijk aan Zed. Although Abdusattorov’s defeat on Saturday reminds him of 2023, at least he is still competing.
The Tata Steel Masters of 2024 have been outstanding! Amazing fight chess with many wins almost in every game. Five players who are tied for first place are fighting for gold tomorrow. Bravo to the producers for selecting such a fantastic combination of new, hungry talent and seasoned experts.
— Maurice Ashley
It’s interesting to see how many matches there are among fellow citizens this final weekend. In the final round, GM Ju Wenjun, who defeated GM Ding Liren on Saturday, will square off against the two current world champions. On Saturday, Gukesh took on GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Giri was completing his campaign against the other two Dutch players.
He was greatly assisted by the first of his citizens, GM Jorden van Foreest, who made a terrible mistake in an equal middlegame position, giving his opponent an unexpectedly simple win.
Surprising his opponent, Giri replied to 1.e4 with 1…e6. He continued: “I played the French just to promote my Chessable Lifelong repertoire, of sure.”
The players arrived at a situation that is also known from the Petroff (1.e4 e5) with 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6. 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. Nxe5 D6, 4. Nf3 Nxe4, and now 5.d3 Nf6, 6.d4.)
Giri went with the interesting side 6…Be7!?, which showed his drive by avoiding an early queen trade, after 5.Bd3 Bd6 6.Qe2+.
He said, “It’s kind of a funny idea.” “You sometimes lose two tempi because sometimes you go with the bishop back to d6, but this move Qe2, which is extra, is maybe also bad because maybe the queen has to go back to d1.”
Unfortunately for Giri, the middlegame remained quite drawish. Van Foreest, however, took just 48 seconds to consider his 21st move, a queen move that turned the eval bar completely black. Amazingly, Black was winning right away.
A horrible blunder on the part of Jorden van Foreest. Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess is the photo.
“I saw this trick from very far away, in fact at the start of the pattern where I went 16…Re4,” stated Giri. “I did all of the calculations. The presence of a strategy in the role is almost amazing.”
Strangely enough, the all-India match between Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa ended in a draw. After playing an excellent game and making a brilliant exchange sacrifice to put himself in a winning position, Gukesh ran out of time, repeated moves heavily, and suddenly allowed a triple repetition. Rather than being the only leader, he is now one of the five leaders.
Despite having a perfectly winning position against Pragg, Gukesh causes a draw by repeating a position in time risk three times!
Gukesh must have believed that he had only made the same moves twice, but in terms of this rule, positions are more important than moves. Gukesh was about to leave after recording his fortyth game when it suddenly occurred to him. Returning to his chair, he studied his score sheet and realized what he had done at the same moment Praggnanandhaa stopped the clock and called the judge.
After the game, Pragg remarked, “I was just very lucky because I played quite badly from the start.” “I performed illogical moves. I believe that at some time he had to have been pushed to win.”
His statement after the match was, “I didn’t see a forced win yet, but it should be dead lost.” This author was able to figure out how White wins with the help of the engine:
Wei with the black pieces similarly defeated Ju after his amazing game the other day, if a little more subtly. The 24-year-old grandmaster from Yancheng, in the Chinese state of Jiangsu, advanced to the top of the scoreboard with that victory.
His use of a (comparatively contemporary) Stonewall made Wei’s goals clear. Afterward, he remarked, “I just wanted to try and win today.” “She performed well in the opening, and our queen exchange was fairly balanced, but after that, she made a few blunders. Perhaps after eleven games, she was worn out.”
Wei remarked matter-of-factly when faced with the unexpected possibility of winning the tournament: “I think I will try to fight for a win and a good place, but more important for me is I just want to play high quality.”
In the end, Vidit’s well-earned victory over Abdusattorov allowed him to finish on 7.5 points as well. By completing this, the 2023 Grand Swiss champion broke into the world’s top 10 and, for the first time, took the top spot in the Indian live rankings.
The top 15 in the live ratings after round 12.
When his opponent put his bishop on c4, Vidit won a Ragozin, a significant advantage in the opening. GM Daniel Naroditsky, a commentator, believed that Abdusattorov had overlooked 15.Qd4 and the Uzbek GM did pause for thought at that point.
In the end, Vidit found himself in an endgame where he had an additional pawn, and it took him hours to win. It was a combination of Abdusattorov’s fierce defense and his opponent giving him some unfair chances.
Vidit: “It took me years to win this, even though I had a won position.” I’m not sure why I… The issue is that I ran out of time, so I was unable to sit down at the board and calculate my route to win. However, I soon realized that I only needed to exchange one rook to win—exchanging all the rooks would have taken much more time than necessary.”
Vidit said, “It won’t make any sense to predict anything right now because there are so many people, so many permutations, combinations, and I’ve done my share of calculation today so I’ll just now eat food and, you know, get ready for tomorrow.” About playing Wei on Sunday and all the possible outcomes that might or might not result in a tiebreak.
GM Alireza Firouzja’s journey through the tournament was nothing short of a wild ride, and on Saturday, he started to trend higher. He started with an odd move, 1.Nc3, and went on to upset GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. Firouzja smiled as well, and Nepo, who appeared at the board a few seconds later, smiled at it.
It turned out to be extremely motivating. Firouzja bemoaned, smiling, “It’s really difficult; he made all the openings work until a draw.” “It felt strange—I prepped all day. I just arrived at the board and took the action. Sometimes things work out, as it did here.”
The opening quickly gave way to what is now more often known as the Jobava London, but which years before I had nicknamed the Neo-Veresov. Nepomniachtchi played a reasonably good setup, but on the queenside, he came out swinging. His pieces were quickly pushed back again, and Firouzja thought to lead.
Then, on move 18, Nepo made an odd blunder in a threatening position, lost an exchange, and was eliminated almost without a struggle. It was likely his worst game of the tournament.
The tournament has become GM Max Warmerdam’s worst dream. The 23-year-old Dutchman suffered a heartbreaking defeat in another encounter. It makes perfect sense that he was angry with himself this time.
Although spending most of the match on the defensive, Warmerdam battled like a lion. At one point, he was losing, but he was able to hold on and afterward found a brilliant play that was based on stalemate to reach a drawn endgame, which he then destroyed a few moves later. For a moment, Caissa appeared to be back on his side, but alas, she was the cruel mistress once more.
Results – Challengers Round 12
Maurizzi lost his game right after I said that he has been beating the Challengers this year. Have I cursed his tournament? On Sunday, we’ll have to see.
GM Daniel Dardha summarised, saying, “I played the Najdorf actually because I wanted some complications, but more like in a positional way, and I think I succeeded at getting this.” “I didn’t feel like risking it,” Dardha added. I believe it was very positional. I started in a favorable position. He later tried to create a few things because I was in such a good position. He had to add some difficulty. He gave up a discussion, and to be honest, I think I made a lot of mistakes during the game, but in the end, I believe my calculations were fairly accurate overall, and I paid close attention when it mattered most, so that helped.”
Mendonca won once more, and on Saturday, he shared the lead with his five-and-a-half point total from his previous six games. In their difficult match, GM Salem Saleh appeared to be a very well-prepared and protected Indian.
When asked if he was worried when his rival attacked his king, Mendonca replied, “Not, you know, I just like snatching stuff.” I mean, as long as there is material, it’s all good. I had a pawn and soon a piece. If not, it’s not good!”