Tata Steel Chess 2022 R9: Carlsen Regains Sole Lead With Giri Trailing

GM Magnus Carlsen defeated co-leader GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on Tuesday to regain the sole lead at the 2022 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. GM Anish Giri is the only player trailing the world champion by half a point after scoring his fourth full point in a row. GM Arjun Erigaisi, who also won again, pushed his performance rating over 2900 and now leads by two points in the Challengers.

After the second rest day, we once again saw quite an exciting round with four decisive games. Like in 2018 and 2019, the main contenders at this point are Carlsen and Giri—a scenario the local organizers cannot complain about.

Giri said about this (with Carlsen talking to Norwegian TV in the background): "So far it's like in the good old days, when I had those races with Magnus. I had them twice in a row. I'm definitely happy where I am and somehow, from what I remember, when Magnus plays so well, even though he is interrupting my interview now, it does motivate me to do really my best and that's when I play my best chess, so I am looking forward to the end of the tournament and to the next games."

Giri was the first to win today, in what was only his second classical game with GM Sam Shankland. Many fans will still remember their first encounter in 2019 when the American GM resigned in a drawn position.

The Dutch GM played what was like a Pirc with colors reversed and got a tiny edge out of the opening when the queens were already gone. "I think I was slightly better after his operation where he traded bishops and gave up his bishop," explained Giri. "I see where he's coming from: I do have a bad bishop, but I could also keep the pair of knights on the board. I mean, I have some pressure, somehow his knight on c6 is misplaced, just like in the Italian, the pawn on c3 dominates that knight on c6. So that's a bit of an issue for him, I think."

Shankland ended up with a passive knight and rook, and his pawn sacrifice on move 21 made sense, according to his opponent: "I think it was actually a pretty good try at that point because I was really wondering what his idea was so far. If he doesn't follow up with 21…d5 I am much better, I thought."

The decisive mistake for Shankland was 24...b6, after which he didn't have enough time to set up a good defense anymore. Another excellent win for Giri, who can once again dream about tournament victory on home soil.

Just minutes later, Mamedyarov resigned what was his 28th classical game with Carlsen. They first met in 2005 in the Wijk aan Zee B group, when the main sponsor was still called Corus. Today, Carlsen improved his score to 7-2 (with 19 draws).

From the black side of a Catalan, Mamedyarov played an interesting exchange sacrifice for which he got the bishop pair and a pawn majority on the queenside. It was playable but also risky.

"The exchange sacrifice was quite expected; it was also his style 100 percent, but maybe in hindsight there were other options there," said Carlsen. "It was very understandable that he chose to sort of be on the active side there, sacrificing material. To be fair, he had already offered the exchange once there which I didn't take. I think after that, he had reasonable compensation, but he probably went wrong pretty early."

According to the engine, 18...h6 was too slow. Carlsen: "I thought that when I managed to establish the rooks on the a-file, the queen back to d1, I had very good coordination. 21.b3 was nice; 21...c3 was, I think, capitulation."

Lennart Ootes, who impressively combines photography and interviews (as the organizers are forced to work with a smaller crew than intended), noted that, so far, Carlsen hasn't won yet with any of his trademark endgame grinds. According to the world champion, that's probably because he is profiting from his world championship match preparation:

"It's a bit back to what was working really well for me in 2019 in that, after the match, I got very interesting positions from the opening and I could sort of win in a dynamic style, so it's really something that I've missed and, yeah, it's going well."

Carlsen also commented about Giri being his main rival again, sort of suggesting that Giri had declined an offer to play his game with GM Daniil Dubov on the rest day. (In reality, this is not what happened. Although it could have been an elegant solution, the organizers never seriously considered this option.)

"He's playing really, really well, the last few days," Carlsen started nicely, but then continued, smiling: "He's also showing a tremendous will to win, picking up free points instead of playing games on free days, for instance, which shows that he really, really wants to win the tournament!"

GM Nils Grandelius and GM Fabiano Caruana played their seventh classical game today, with the American GM improving his plus score even further, to 4-0 (with three draws). Caruana's choice of playing the French was interesting, but he should probably double-check this line in the Advance variation. What was a reasonably normal middlegame position was evaluated quite positively for White after 16 moves, where Grandelius should have gone full attacking mode with moves like g4, h5, and Kh1 in any particular order.

Instead, he went for a knight maneuver that is known from the King's Indian Attack but which turned out too slow here. Caruana slowly but surely took over and outplayed his opponent in the remainder, although not flawlessly; there was one moment where Grandelius could have drawn the game tactically.

The fourth winner was GM Sergey Karjakin, who fought himself toward a plus score for the first time in the tournament, in what was his first classical game with GM Praggnanandhaa R. The young Indian GM played the opening quite interestingly, showing that the London System doesn't always need to be boring.

Pragg soon sacrificed an exchange and held sufficient compensation until deep into the endgame, which became more and more complicated. It was tough luck for him that he had to make the key decision of this game on move 40.

"I had no idea what was going on in this game," said Karjakin. "It was a completely crazy game."

Of the three draws, we're picking out the clash between GM Richard Rapport and GM Vidit Gujrathi, who defended impressively and instructively after being slightly worse throughout the game.

Round 9 Standings Masters

With the risk of sounding like a broken record, we can report that Erigaisi... won another game. The Indian grandmaster now leads by two full points and is almost certain of promoting to the Masters group next year.

Round 9 Standings Challengers

All games round 9

Previous reports:

• Tata Steel Chess 2022 R8: Mamedyarov Catches Carlsen Before Clash After Rest Day
• Tata Steel Chess 2022 R7: Carlsen Grabs Sole Lead; Dubov Forfeits Game
• Tata Steel Chess 2022 R6: Carlsen Joins Leaders, Caruana Blunders Tragically
• Tata Steel Chess 2022 R5: Mamedyarov, Rapport Catch Vidit
• Tata Steel Chess 2022 R4: Mamedyarov, Praggnanandhaa Score
• Tata Steel Chess R3: Vidit Defends Brilliantly To Grab Sole Lead
• Tata Steel Chess R2: Carlsen Gets 1st Win, Rapport Beats Van Foreest
• Tata Steel Chess R1: Duda, Van Foreest, Vidit Start With Win