Tata Steel, Round 1

Three lead after a day of missed opportunities.

Round 1 of the Tata Steel Masters was an exciting one, notwithstanding the opinions of certain ex-champions (Lasker, Capablanca, Fischer, maybe Kramnik, and Carlsen) about classical chess being played out or so close to it that we should focus on rapid and blitz time controls or turn to Fischerrandom (Chess960/Chess9LX/”Freestyle”) instead.

Three of the seven games finished with a winner, and at least two of the draws should have had a winner. Moreover, two of the games with a winner should have been won by the player who lost. The world’s best players are capable of some amazing chess, and it’s simultaneously true that they’re just not that good from a God’s-eye/”perfect computer” perspective.

The game of the round featured the new world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, who spent a great deal of time before deciding on a slightly bad sacrifice. Gukesh fans might object, saying that the result proved the legitimacy of his idea. Poppycock. He had a losing position many moves later and was considerably behind on the clock as well. The idea was interesting, but he could easily have lost the game. The star move was 26.Qf3!, which didn’t fix his problems but further randomized the position when Anish Giri was on the verge of making the win routine. Both players missed tactics in time trouble, but Gukesh saw more, and more significant ones, and not only survived but won. It was an impressive fighting game, and those who are skeptical of his status as the World Champion will underestimate his practical ability at their peril.

Leon Mendonca was never worse against against Vincent Keymer and winning (or at least clearly better) for a good chunk of the game. Then he played 31.Rc1??, losing on the spot.

The third winner was Pentala Harikrishna, who ground down Arjun Erigaisi to make Team Gukesh 3-0 in the first round. (Keymer and Harikrishna were among his seconds.) Coincidentally, the game also produced two 2700s: Hari went up from 2695 and Erigaisi fell from 2801.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov was probably winning against Praggnanandhaa, but Pragg escaped with a draw. As for the game between Jorden Van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev, both players escaped, as first Van Foreest and then Fedoseev squandered winning positions. Wei Yi vs. Fabiano Caruana was a non-game in the 5.Re1 Berlin, while Max Warmerdam vs. Alexey Sarana was a more interesting battle in which Sarana generally had the better chances.

The games are here; round 2 has these pairings:

Erigaisi (0) - Giri (0)

Fedoseev (.5) - Gukesh (1)

Caruana (.5) - Van Foreest (.5)

Sarana (.5) - Wei Yi (.5)

Keymer (1) - Warmerdam (.5)

Abdusattorov (.5) - Mendonca (0)

Harikrishna (1) - Praggnanandhaa (.5)