Abdusattorov Sole Leader At Tata Steel Masters; Wei Yi Wins Brilliancy

After beating GM Ju Wenjun in round 11, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov went into the final weekend of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament as the sole leader in the Masters group. A spectacular day of chess saw lots of fascinating games, including a brilliant win for GM Wei Yi against GM Max Warmerdam.

For the third consecutive round, both GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi and GM Leon Luke Mendonca won their games in the Challengers group. Maurizzi kept his full-point lead and is edging closer to tournament victory and promotion to next year's Masters.

Results - Masters Round 11

Standings - Masters Round 11

As if the third and final rest day gave the players all the new energy they needed, the 11th round in Wijk aan Zee was arguably the best so far, with sacrifices all over the place. For the local audience, the icing on the cake was the commentary provided by famous author GM Genna Sosonko, who turned 80 last year but seems as fit as ever.

When GM Ding Liren drew his game quickly with GM Jorden van Foreest, Sosonko immediately had an anecdote ready. He said that when the fresh new World Champion Emanuel Lasker came third in the famous 1895 Hastings tournament, behind Harry Nelson Pillsbury and Mikhail Chigorin, Siegbert Tarrasch wittily commented that with this result, Lasker "had proven that he is indeed a very strong player." Sosonko noted that Ding had not been able to show the same in Wijk aan Zee. 

80–year-old Genna Sosonko (right) still going strong, giving excellent commentary on today’s 11th round of #TataSteelChess at Cafe De Zon. pic.twitter.com/9nTZqlTOpu

— Peter Doggers (@peterdoggers) January 26, 2024

The game of the day was, this time, very likely the game of the tournament. It was sad to see Warmerdam lose his third game in a row, but at the same time, it was a joy to see Wei deliver a masterpiece.

The 24-year-old Chinese grandmaster repeated the Bishop's Opening that he had played in his previous white game, so Warmerdam came prepared and surprised his opponent with 4...c6!?. Wei played his next two moves fast but then spent a whopping 50 minutes on his seventh move.

Soon after, the board was on fire when he gave up a full rook. "I had some compensation because of two powerful pawns in the center," Wei explained, and evaluated it as equal — just like the engine.

Warmerdam initially defended resourcefully, but his 16th move was wrong.

The insane position where Warmerdam played 16...Bxf3.

Taking on a3 instead, as suggested by Wei, was not sufficient either, which shows how difficult this game was. In any case, White soon got a winning position, and Wei finished it off perfectly.

He enjoyed it as much as the spectators, but seemed to regret he did not have more time on the clock: "I was very excited, I mean, because I love to play such a kind of position but maybe the time was not enough for me." Wei also said he considered it "one of the most interesting games in maybe five years."

"It should be one of the most interesting games in maybe five years."
—Wei Yi

GM Rafael Leitao did his best to make sense of it all:

Last year, Abdusattorov gained the sole lead in the Masters as early as the fifth round. He maintained that position until the last day, when he lost dramatically and saw GM Anish Giri snatch away the trophy instead. This year, it took a bit longer for the young Uzbek grandmaster to be alone at the top, but he once again goes into the last two rounds with a half-point lead.

On Friday, Abdusattorov won a good game against Ju, who played a fine first half of the tournament but now lost two of her last three games.

About his novelty on move seven, the remarkable move c2-c4, Abdusattorov provided an interesting comment: "I knew that this was dubious but, you know, I just freestyled a bit there." Sometimes, you need to take some risks to obtain winning chances.

I knew that this was dubious but, you know, I just freestyled a bit there.
— Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Ju didn't respond in the best way, and after he could activate a lot of pieces, Abdusattorov sac'ed his knight on f7.

"When I got this position after 22...Qc7, I felt like there should be something because, you know, I have so many pins and her pieces are hanging everywhere, so yeah, something should work," he said.

There's always a sense of beauty when, in the middle of all the violence, the attacking player takes the time to play a small pawn move on the kingside to remove back-rank mates. 29.h3 was such a move. "Her position... She cannot move, she doesn't have any moves, so yeah, it's just completely winning for White," said Abdusattorov.

It's gonna be hard for Giri, now a point behind the leader after drawing with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, to repeat his success of last year. A more likely candidate is GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who might be cursing himself for grabbing neither of the two chances he got today to win his game against GM Alireza Firouzja.

It was an interesting Grunfeld that was about balanced until the middlegame, where Firouzja was the first to make a big mistake on move 25. There, Gukesh could have given his queen for a rook and a bishop, when a far advanced passed pawn would have given him a winning advantage. Five moves later, he also missed a second promising possibility.

The third winner of the day was GM Vidit Gujrathi, who defeated GM Parham Maghsoodloo convincingly. The Iranian grandmaster played creatively in the opening, putting his king on e2 on move 14 (called by some "the delayed Bongcloud").

"One of the good things about Parham is that [no] matter the tournament situation, he always goes for it and it created a very interesting game," said Vidit. "I was a pawn down, I had sacrificed it, his king is in the center, it was total chaos."

Maghsoodloo then took on h6 with his bishop, but Vidit was rightly proud of the move 21...Qe7 that he found. "I think it's one of the best moves I've ever found over the board," he said.

I think it's one of the best moves I've ever found over the board.
—Vidit Gujrathi

Vidit won an exchange, and just a few moves later, it was clear that he was technically winning, although he had to be precise till the end.

Vidit is still undefeated, and only one other player in the Masters can say that. With his draw against GM Alexander Donchenko, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is now undefeated for 44 consecutive games, one more than GM Hikaru Nakamura.

The program for the players at the top:

• Abdusattorov: Black vs. Vidit, White vs. Donchenko.
• Gukesh: White vs. Praggnanandhaa, Black vs. Maghsoodloo.

Results - Challengers Round 11

Standings - Challengers Round 11

By now, it's fair to say that 16-year-old Maurizzi is dominating the Challengers this year. He won his fourth game in a row, today against GM Liam Vrolijk, to reach the tremendous score of 8.5/11. 

All Mendonca can do is hope for Maurizzi to stop winning and continue winning himself. That's what he did:

"It's very bad, quite terrible," said GM Hans Niemann about his tournament so far, but today he won a smooth game that he could finish with a nice queen sac. His post-game interview was, once again, well worth watching.

The program for the players at the top:

• Maurizzi: White vs. Dardha, Black vs. L'Ami.
• Mendonca: Black vs. Salem, White vs. Deshmukh.

Pairings - Masters Round 12

Pairings - Challengers Round 12

The Tata Steel Chess tournament takes place January 13-28, 2024, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game with a 30-second increment. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.

Previous posts:

• Abdusattorov, Gukesh Lead At Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa Catch Leaders; Warmerdam Suffers Worst Nightmare
• Firouzja Joins Leaders; Abdusattorov Falls Behind In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Abdusattorov Beats Giri For Shared Lead With Gukesh In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• Firouzja Bounces Back In Tata Steel Chess Masters; Roebers Wins Again
• Women Ascendant In Tata Steel As Ju Wenjun Upsets Firouzja, Roebers Defeats Niemann
• Praggnanandhaa Defeats World Champion Ding, Passes Anand To Become #1 In India
• Giri Beats Donchenko, Catches Firouzja In 1st Place
• Firouzja Moves To 2/2 In Tata Steel Chess Masters
• 4 Black Wins In Tata Steel Chess Masters Opening Round
• Ding Liren Ready For Tata: 'I Feel Much Better Than Before'
• 2024 Tata Steel Chess: World Champion Ding Returns, Carlsen Missing