Magnus Carlsen won his fourth game in five, and his sixth in eight against Mickey Adams, to move a full point clear of the Tata Steel Chess Masters field with four rounds to go. The star of the round, though, was 16-year-old Wei Yi, who after eight draws played a trademark attacking masterpiece against David Navara, following up a blockbuster sacrifice with an exquisite quiet move. The other games were drawn, but not without a real fight.
Can Wei Yi continue his progress and challenge Magnus Carlsen for the very top spot? | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Tata Steel Chess Masters 2016 (click a game to replay it with computer analysis)
Wei Yi’s long drawing sequence in Wijk aan Zee had dampened some of the excitement surrounding his potential, but it’s worth comparing his debut in the top tournament with that of 16-year-old Magnus Carlsen back in 2007:
With his win in Round 9 Wei Yi has outscored Magnus, even if he were to go on and lose the next four games. That was something of a blip in Carlsen’s career – a year later he tied for first – but it’s ample illustration of how impressive a talent the young Chinese player is. And then there’s his latest game…
David Navara continues to be involved in absolutely stunning games, sometimes to his regret | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Jan Gustafsson has now analysed the game:
The opening saw one of those classic situations, where a new
idea appears on two boards simultaneously, with the novelty 10.h4 in an
anti-Berlin played by both Fabiano Caruana against Sergey Karjakin and,
slightly later (though there’s no reason to doubt it was preparation!), by Wei
Yi against Navara:
It’s probably not too early to conclude that Karjakin came up with the right plan by playing 10…Nf8 11.h5 Ne6, taking firm control of the g5-square. He faced long-term pressure and had to defend an unpleasant knight vs. bishop ending, but it was nothing compared to the debacle Navara suffered. It’s interesting to speculate whether Navara’s hyper-correct behaviour was his downfall. Jan Gustafsson recalled an amusing incident:
I once offered him a draw... and he declined, as he should have, but he didn't just decline - he said, "I am very sorry, Grandmaster Gustafsson, but if you don't mind too much I would like to continue the game for a little bit", which is the politest turning down of a draw offer I've ever received!
Was Navara reluctant to keep repeating moves he’d seen played first on another board? In any case, he aimed to put the knight not on e6, but c6, playing 10…c5 11.h5 h6 12.0-0-0 Nb8 13.Rdg1 Nc6 14.g4 f6:
And now, as Peter Svidler had foreseen in our live commentary, Wei Yi released the hounds with 15.g5! fxg5 16.Nxg5!! Nd4 17.Qd1 hxg5? 18.Bxg5 Be7:
And here came the star move of the game – not the obvious aggression of 19.Bh6, but the retreat 19.Be3!!, played after 1 minute and 12 seconds. Peter Svidler was deeply impressed:
I’m happy I found the g4-g5 idea before it was played, but 19.Be3 would maybe eventually occur to me once I figured out why Bh6 is not winning, but to play it as instantly as he did is very, very impressive. He does understand how to attack, because having given up a piece for a pawn you generally want to start immediately taking some of your opponent’s pieces, but he’s saying, “your position is so uncoordinated, your pieces on the queenside are so far away from the main theatre of action, that I can even continue with quiet moves and you still won’t be able to do anything. A tremendously interesting idea by him!
After the game Wei Yi told Yasser Seirawan that he simply wanted to keep more pieces for the attack. Although the young star isn’t yet a fluent English talker, you can see the sheer joy he takes in beautiful moves shine through as he shows some spectacular winning lines:
What followed in the game itself was a massacre, as desperate time trouble compounded what was already an impossible defence. The crushing defeat was a shame for David Navara, who as Svidler mentioned, “keeps on producing games that are an absolute pleasure to watch.” It wasn’t all praise, though. Wei Yi still has an opportunity to better Svidler’s 11 draws in 13 Wijk aan Zee games in 1999:
I have to say I'm slightly disappointed in him. He really doesn't understand where his priorities are in chess. He was four draws away from beating a long-standing record and after today I think he's in grave danger of not getting anywhere near.
Watch the whole of the Round 9 commentary with Peter Svidler
and Jan Gustafsson below:
If Wei Yi is playing like a young Kasparov, the reembodiment of the young Karpov still reigns supreme in world chess for now. Magnus Carlsen’s slow start is a distant memory, and after four wins in five games he’s back above 2850 on the live rating list. Mickey Adams had held a draw in his last two games against the World Champion, but lost the five before that, and if there’s one player he wouldn’t have wanted to face with Black while on -3 in a supertournament it was Magnus.
In a World Championship year Magnus seems to have hit top form | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
The game followed a familiar scenario. Despite playing the innocuous Giuoco Piano, Carlsen gradually upped the pressure until a black pawn fell for no real compensation. Mickey sacrificed an exchange to muddy the waters and began what looked like a threatening pawn storm on the kingside but, as in his game against Eljanov, Magnus saw no ghosts and calmly picked up material, pawn by queenside pawn. His sangfroid almost seemed to go too far:
Objectively it seems 49.Rd7 was the best move here, but Magnus decided to cut the Gordian Knot by giving up a knight and rook for a black knight and the kingside pawns: 49.b4!? g2+ 50.Nxg2 hxg2+ 51.Rxg2 Nxg2 52.Kxg2. Mickey had a piece for three pawns and suddenly some hopes of completing the kind of great escape he’d managed against Eljanov before the rest day, but for that he’d need to play at least as precisely as the world champion – which is easier said than done. Instead Magnus cruised to victory, as a tablebase-armed Norwegian supercomputer soon started counting down the moves to mate.
No-one else could keep pace with Magnus. Some stellar opening preparation was enough for Ding Liren to draw against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with Black, but no more. Anish Giri won a pawn against Pavel Eljanov, but it seems the Ukrainian had correctly judged he could hold the position.
A tough day at the office for Anish Giri - and Magnus Carlsen is up next! | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
Two games were mildly disappointing. Our commentary team felt Evgeny Tomashevsky had little to lose if he’d taken a few more risks to try and beat Hou Yifan, while Wesley So was in some strategic trouble against Loek van Wely when a well-timed draw offer saved the day. Loek admitted, “I’m not very happy that I was a coward today,” but noted he’d just committed an inaccuracy and had lost the last four games against his opponent:
So Magnus Carlsen is now a full point clear with four rounds to go:
Our intrepid reporter Fiona Steil-Antoni is now on the scene to give us some first-hand impressions of Wijk aan Zee...
See Wijk aan Zee and die! | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
...while the closest you can get to being there so far is this video by Sopiko Guramishvili and Anna Rudolf:
The Challengers, meanwhile, now has co-leaders, since Adhiban lost to 16-year-old Jorden van Foreest – who showed playing Peter Svidler during Banter Blitz was the correct way to spend the rest day!
It seems Adhiban had overlooked in advance that 16.Nxf5 Bxf5 17.Rxf5 is hit by 17…Nxd4! exd4 18.Qd4+, picking up the bishop. The Indian firebrand reacted to that setback with pure aggression – 16.Bd3 g6 17.Nxf5?!, but the sacrifice was unsound, as Jorden explained:
Eltaj Safarli drew with Erwin l’Ami and is now in the joint lead.
Will Azerbaijan's Eltaj Safarli be playing Magnus and co. next year? | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
On Wednesday the venue is the Railway Museum in Utrecht and it’s Anish Giri who’s tasked with stopping Magnus’ runaway train. As Giri has White the odds must be on a draw, but Carlsen would no doubt dearly love to put an end to his minus score against his young rival. Another intriguing clash is Caruana-Wei Yi, with the Chinese player commenting:
Tomorrow's game is not so easy. Fabiano with Black.
Don’t miss live commentary with Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson, at the slightly later time of 14:00 CET!
You can also watch the games in our free mobile apps:
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