Magnus Carlsen takes a half-point lead into the final round of the Tata Steel Masters, but penultimate round wins for Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren, over Loek van Wely and Pavel Eljanov, have ensured there’s still plenty to play for. Ding Liren is a point behind but plays Magnus and could tie him for first place, while Caruana could potentially consign the World Champion to second place if he wins while Carlsen loses. Don’t miss all the action 90 minutes earlier than usual!
With Tata Steel Chess 2016 about to end the pressure was on Magnus Carlsen's rivals to try and make something happen | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Tata Steel Chess Masters Round 12
Rewatch the four hours of live commentary by Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson (you may want to skip the first few minutes of audio artwork!):
When Anish Giri was asked for his betting tips for the Candidates Tournament he had one overriding recommendation:
Don’t put money on the Candidates Tournament. Put some money on a tournament where Carlsen plays and put money on him – that’s a safe bet!
It’s hard to argue with that assessment, not only because Magnus Carlsen is supremely gifted at chess, but because of his pragmatism - doing whatever it takes to win an event. He was never going to go all-out for a win against Vladimir Kramnik in the last round of the Qatar Masters and he had no need to do anything dramatic against Wesley So in the penultimate round in Wijk aan Zee. Wesley also saw no reason to spoil his sequence of 10 draws in a row, so what we got was an early exchange of queens, a harmless near-novelty on move 14 and a careful draw by repetition in 28 moves.
Magnus talked briefly about the game afterwards and noted that after his many visits to Wijk aan Zee he feels “kind of committed” to the tournament:
Other games also ended not in a bang but a whimper. Wei Yi was “attempting to revive a line for many years considered a playable but completely harmless sideline” (Svidler) against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but against the odds the Breyer Ruy Lopez remained closed until, short on time, Wei Yi took a draw on move 33.
Kindred attacking spirits? | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
David Navara and Evgeny Tomashevsky engaged in an intriguing middlegame wrestling match but found a way to exchange off all the pieces to a harmless 32-move draw. Hou Yifan and Michael Adams broke the unwritten Tata Steel code of conduct by playing a Berlin Wall, which ended in a draw after active play by both sides.
Anish Giri, about to be surprised on move 1 | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
The most promising opening was Sergey Karjakin’s 1.b3 against Anish Giri! There were various theories behind why he did it:
His score against Giri in classical
games is 4 wins to 0!Alas, the excitement didn’t last long, with Anish revealing he’d prepared an antidote to such swashbuckling play from the likes of Richard Rapport:
I felt comfortable today. He played not very critical in the opening and I played a rather simple variation. I played very solid. I think I intended to play it a couple of years ago against Richard Rapport – to bore him to death with it!
Sure enough, the 30-move draw won’t be featuring in any best game collections. Giri explained there was no problem motivating himself despite not being in contention for first place:
I’m too often in such situations so it’s not a problem for me. I don’t win so many tournaments, to put it very, very, very mildly, so the situation that I’m not fighting for first place makes me feel at home! I’m very comfortable and I’m just playing. I have different objectives than many players. I count each Elo point and each game I try to do my best.
Watch his post-game interview in full:
Thankfully, though, we still have Loek van Wely, who can be relied upon to entertain the crowd - even if it’s to his own detriment...
Loek van Wely already entertaining Alina l'Ami and the other photographers | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Loek played the Najdorf, and it was a flashback to the glory days of the opening. Until move 13 he was following a game he played, and drew, against Garry Kasparov back in 2000:
Garry had gone for 14.Kb1, but Fabiano Caruana thought for 24 minutes before playing the computer’s recommendation 14.Rh3! A mere six moves later Svidler “had no words” to describe how badly things had gone for Black, but there were some glimmers of hope for the Dutchman. Fabiano has a terrible – for a player of his calibre – record against the Najdorf and there was mutual time trouble, which Loek felt he would be more comfortable with.
It seems objectively Fabiano may have rushed the final assault, but a single slip from Loek was enough to signal game over:
30.f6+!! was the “one little move” (his own words) Loek had missed. Fittingly, the game ended with Fabiano queening the g-pawn seven moves later.
The players analysed together afterwards, with Loek explaining:
I was curious simply how Fabiano was thinking about the game. Normally when I lose the game I’m more interested to analyse than when I win the game… A lot of my colleagues don’t like to analyse after losing a game - they don’t want to learn from their mistakes. I know for me it’s maybe too late to learn from my mistakes, but still I’m curious about the truth.
So the one man we most needed to win to maintain tournament intrigue had done it, and the other in with an outside chance also managed!
Ding Liren had a briefly winning position against Magnus in the penultimate round of the 2015 event - can he go one better this year? | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Ding Liren scored a second win in a row with an oddly effortless performance against Pavel Eljanov. The Ukrainian grandmaster sacrificed a pawn on move 17 but never managed to rustle up sufficient compensation.
That leaves Magnus the clear favourite, but both Ding Liren and Caruana are still in with a real shot of at least sharing first place (there are no playoffs in Wijk aan Zee):
In the Challengers, meanwhile, there was real drama, with Adhiban pulling off a great escape against Nino Batsiashvili, who lost her way in a forest of winning continuations.
There's little doubt Baskaran Adhiban will provide enjoyable games to watch if he qualifies for next year's Masters | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
That meant he stayed locked on 8.5/12 with Aleksey Dreev, with Eltaj Safarli still half a point behind. It was also another bad day for the youngsters, with Sam Sevian getting all but mated against Erwin l’Ami…
...and Jorden van Foreest getting literally mated by Ju Wenjun.
Ju Wenjun is not to be underestimated, as Nigel Short also recently found out to his cost | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
So on Sunday it's Carlsen-Ding Liren and Tomashevsky-Caruana in the final round of the Tata Steel Masters. Don't forget to tune in to Jan Gustafsson and Peter Svidler's live commentary 90 minutes earlier than usual at 12:00 CET. It's your last chance to catch Peter before he returns to his Candidates Tournament preparation cave!
You can also watch the games in our free mobile apps:
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