Tata Steel 2020, Rd 3: Firouzja Wins Again To Take Sole Lead.

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament will be held 12-28 January 2018 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. | photo © www.tatasteelchess.com — Wijk aan Zee in The Netherlands, again becomes the focus of the chess world, for the Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
photo © www.tatasteelchess.com

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2020, continued on Monday 13th January, with round 3. Things were a little quieter in the playing hall, with the weekend being over, but there was still the buzz of spectators, and of course the sound of clocks being pressed from the amateur groups.

Over at the top end of things, the Masters and Challengers arrived to continue the campaign for their respective 2020 title.

The Masters had seen a bloody day in round 2, and the chess world was treated to some exciting chess in this round also. I am not one for awarding ‘Game of the Day’ titles, but if I were, the tie between Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest, and Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov, would be a serious contender.

The thing is, I also feel that to call this a ‘game’ would be rather unfair to van Foreest, who was dictating things very soon after the opening. It seems to me, to have been an excellent bit of preparation, that saw Jorden in control throughout and netted him an almost perfect point.

  [Event "82nd Tata Steel, Masters"]  [Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]  [Date "2020.01.13"]  [Round "3.6"]  [White "Van Foreest, Jorden"]  [Black "Dubov, Daniil"]  [Result "1-0"]  [BlackElo "2683"]  [BlackFideId "24126055"]  [BlackTitle "GM"]  [ECO "B22"]  [EventDate "2020.01.11"]  [Opening "Sicilian defence"]  [WhiteElo "2644"]  [WhiteFideId "1039784"]  [WhiteTitle "GM"]   { Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com. } 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 { The Alapin Sicilian. More often that not, we see 2.c3 immediately. } 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bc4 { This bishop is going to get chased around a bit, but van Foreest obviously prefers this than 5.d4, which tends to see more straight-forward play. } ( 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 ( { or a bit sharper, with } 6.Bc4 Nb6 7.Bb3 d5 8.exd6 e6 { with White tending to continue cxd4 here, with things about equal after ...Bxd6. } ) 6...d6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb5 dxe5 9.Nxe5 Bd7 10.Bxc6 Bxc6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 { with equal chances. } ) 5...Nb6 6.Bb3 c4 7.Bc2 d5 8.exd6 Qxd6 9.O-O g6 10.Na3 Bg7 11.b3 cxb3 12.axb3 O-O { This is all known territory so far, so we can assume that both players are happy with things here. } 13.d4 Bg4 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 e5 { This move is quite mandatory, Black can not afford to neglect the centre of the board. } 16.Nb5 Qd7 17.Rd1 { This move was first seen in Pavasovic-Grosar, Bled 2002, which was a win for White in 26. } 17...a6 { This is new. The afore-mentioned game saw exchanges on d4, which left White with all the play. } 18.d5 { The idea behind Rd1 of course. And better than withdrawing the knight to a3, which would be rather uninspiring for White. } 18...Nb4 { Good. Taking advantage of the Bg7's prowess along the a1-h8 diagonal -- if cxb4 then ...e5-e4! This would be no catastrophe for White, but he wants to keep things tidy. } 19.Na3 Nxc2 20.Nxc2 Rac8 21.c4 f5 { ? This is a little mistimed and it gives White the chance to seize the initiative. As I said earlier, Black really had to compete in the centre -- now was the right time for ...e5-e4. } ( 21...e4 22.Qxe4 Rfe8 23.Qf4 Be5 24.Qd2 Bxa1 25.Nxa1 Qd6 { is about equal. } ) 22.Ba3 Rf7 23.Rac1 Re8 24.c5 { The whole idea behind White's play has been to get his pawns moving. They are the feature of his game, and a very nice one at that. } 24...e4 { It is really too late for this move now, White handles it calmly and there is no threat to the Ra1 now either. } 25.Qe2 Nc8 26.Qc4 { Bringing the Queen over to help with the hostilities, c4-c5 is now a very potent threat. If we look at the position, here, we see that the players have concentrated their efforts on opposite wings. But we also see that Black's effort is rather ineffective, while White's is appearing rather like a storm that is about to hit. And it is all centred around those two central pawns. } 26...Na7 { This illustrates what trouble Black is in, here. When players set up on opposite wings, the advantage will be with the side that forces the other to defend. Here, Black has to do everything to try to stop c5-c6. He would have loved to play ...f5-f4 instead, to try to get something happening on the Kingside, but he just does not have the time. It is rather like his forces on the Kingside are frozen in place, looking to the Queenside in horror. } ( 26...f4 { Normally, this kind of thing would be rather worrying for a player, but here, White does not bat an eyelid. } 27.c6 { ! The point, is that White's attack is arriving before Black's. } 27...Qd8 ( 27...bxc6 { this just gives White an open file. } 28.dxc6 Qf5 29.c7 { And if Black does not resign, here, he might soon wish he had. It is not a question of whether White has a huge position, here, but how huge. } ) 28.d6 { And all kinds of holy hell are hitting Black right now. } ) 27.Nd4 f4 28.Ne6 { I think it was Garry Kasparov, who said that a knight on the opponent's 3rd rank is worth about a rook? } 28...Nb5 29.Bb4 { This is fine, van Foreest has a great position and he is patient. He knows that he has time. In saying that, he could have continued with c5-c6 without too much trouble. } ( 29.c6 bxc6 { If ...Qc8, then Bb4. } 30.Nxg7 Kxg7 31.dxc6 { (or Bb2+) } 31...Qe6 32.Bb2+ Kh6 33.Rd5 { With a big advantage. Alternatively, Be5 was a nice move also! } ( 33.Be5 { Threatening Qxe6 then c6-c7. } 33...Rff8 34.Qxe6 Rxe6 35.Rd5 { Obviously, White is holding all the cards. } ) ) 29...e3 { The only chance that Black has is to get something going on the Kingside. Without it, he is just waiting for White to hammer down the door. } 30.Ng5 exf2+ { It is pointless to move the rook, c5-c6 would follow, along with d5-d6+. } 31.Kxf2 Qf5 32.Nxf7 Re4 33.c6 { ! Good. Keeping focussed. Qd3 was possible, but things get a little testy and Jorden probably decided that if it wasn't necessary to save the Queen, why bother? } ( 33.Qd3 Kxf7 ( { Clearly not } 33...Rxb4 { ?? } 34.Qxf5 gxf5 35.Nd6 { sees Black very much on the ropes. } ) 34.c6 f3 { ! A much better move than it appears at first sight. The question is now what White does about Black's threat of ...Bd4+. } 35.Rc2 { (either Qxf3, allowing ...Rf4, or gxf3, allowing ...Bd4+, would be a sickening blunder.) } ( 35.c7 { ?? This would be far too eager -- if Black has his head screwed on right, he should draw. } 35...Bd4+ { ! } 36.Kf1 fxg2+ 37.Kxg2 Rg4+ 38.hxg4 Qxg4+ { How quickly things can change in chess. Best play should see Black with a half point, a painful turn of events for White. } 39.Qg3 Qe2+ { is one way to achieve perpetual. } ) 35...Bd4+ 36.Kf1 fxg2+ 37.Kxg2 Qg5+ 38.Kh1 { And now, the Rc2 means that Black has no time to organise. } 38...Rf4 { (Not ...Rh4 due to Rf1+, when White would have his tail up.) } 39.Rg2 { And White is in control. } 39...Qxd5 40.Qg3 Rf6 41.c7 { With very good prospects. } ) 33...Kxf7 34.cxb7 { (Qc5!) } 34...Rxc4 35.bxc4 Qe5 36.cxb5 Qb2+ 37.Kf1 Be5 38.d6 { Things are coming together now for van Foreest, but Dubov is not quite done yet. } 38...f3 39.gxf3 Qb3 40.Ke2 Qe6 { The last trick and it might work against an over eager amateur, but van Foreest knows that Queening would fail due to ...Bxd6+. } 41.Rc7+ Kf6 42.b8=Q { A very deserved promotion. } 42...Bf4+ { ...Bxd6+ is useless now. After Kf2 Bxc7, Qxc7, Black is actually not far off being mated. Dubov must go in search of perpetual check instead. } 43.Kd3 Qd5+ 44.Kc2 Qa2+ 45.Kc3 Be5+ 46.Kd3 Qb3+ 47.Ke2 { And with perpetual check now being impossible, Daniil Dubov resigned here. A very nicely played game by Jorden van Foreest. } 1-0

The round also saw a point for Fabiano Caruana, who won the tussle of the Petrov players, against Yu Yangyi. The opening was indeed a Petrov, which saw Caruana playing White and always having the best of things by varying amounts. Yu’s 38…gxf5(?) magnified this, letting the American into the h6-square with his Queen. From here, Caruana took a very nice advantage into the endgame, which was over quite quickly.

The other point of the round went to Alireza Firouzja, who took White against Vladislav Artemiev and outplayed him in a Caro Kann. I have to say, I find it impossible to not be impressed with Alireza at the board. He may be a mere 16-years-of-age, but he plays like a seasoned pro. If he continues in this way, he is likely to be a real force for decades to come. He goes top of the standings in this group, can he make it his own?

The other games were drawn, and this included Magnus Carlsen taking White against Jeffery Xiong. I thought that Magnus looked quite up for it at the start of the round, and perhaps he was, (he could also just have been cranky), but Jeffery is no lightweight and coped with the World Champion’s 17.h4 and 19.g4 antics very well. Infact, the American was better when the Queen’s came off of the board.

It started to look a little like Carlsen may have over pushed things, but as he tends to do, he managed to throw enough spanners in the works of his opponent to survive. This kept his chances of passing Sergey Tiviakov’s run of 110 unbeaten games alive, as with this draw, he equalled it.

Interestingly, Magnus will play Jorden van Foreest in the next round. The Dutchman must be feeling good after his win against Dubov. Will he be feeling good enough to have a go at being spoiler to Carlsen’s attempt at 111 games unbeaten?

Masters Group, round 3 Results:

Van Foreest 1-0 Dubov
Carlsen ½-½ Xiong
Fabiano 1-0 Yu
Anand ½-½ Giri
Vitiugov ½-½ So
Firouzja 1-0 Artemiev
Kovalev ½-½ Duda

Masters Standings after Rd 3:

Firouzja — 2.5
Xiong, van Foreest, Caruana, So — 2.0
Dubov, Artemiev, Giri, Carlsen, Duda — 1.5
Anand, Vitiugov — 1.0
Yu, Kovalev — 0.5

All points were split in the Challengers Group, which sees things staying the same with a 5-way tie at the top of the standings.

Challengers Group, round 3 Results:

Anton Guijarro ½-½ Mamedov
Smeets ½-½ Saduakassova
Ganguly ½-½ Abdusattorov
L’Ami ½-½ Van Foreest
Keymer ½-½ Warmerdam
Sarin ½-½ Smirnov
Grandelius ½-½ Eljanov

Challengers Standings after Rd 3:

Smeets, Mamedov, Ganguly, l’Ami, Eljanov — 2.0
van Foreest, Saduakassova, Anton Guijarro, Sarin — 1.5
Abdusattorov, Grandelius, Warmerdam, Smirnov, Keymer — 1.0

Round 4, Tuesday 14th January, 13:30 local time.

Masters: Dubov vs Duda, Artemiev vs Kovalev, So vs Firouzja, Giri vs Vitiugov, Yu vs Anand, Xiong vs Caruana, van Foreest vs Carlsen.

Challengers: Mamedov vs Eljanov, Smirnov vs Grandelius, Warmerdam vs Sarin, van Foreest vs Keymer, Abdusattorov vs l’Ami, Saduakassova vs Ganguly, Anton Guijarro vs Smeets.