Tata Steel, Round 5

Pragg, Abdusattorov lead; Gukesh and Fedoseev catching up.

The players took Thursday off, so your blogger did too. Catching up on Wednesday’s round 5 action, we all got to enjoy another lively round with a healthy number of decisive games.

A game that was not decisive featured the leader. Praggnanandhaa entered the round with a half-point lead, and facing off against bottom seed and near-tailender Max Warmerdam one might have thought he’s finish the round in clear first as well. It didn’t happen. Warmerdam, with White, played well, and used an almost corny version of the Exchange French to make a comfortable draw.

This allowed Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who had co-led with Pragg after round 3, to catch him by beating Jorden Van Foreest on the black side of a Caro-Kann. White was clearly better, but the game started turning in Black’s favor after 17.b5?! White pushed his pawns on both flanks beyond his ability to protect them, and when his attacking chances dried up he was just lost, down two pawns for nothing.

So Pragg has company in first; moreover, two more players are nipping at his heels only half a point back. One is the new World Champion, Gukesh, who defeated Vincent Keymer - one of his seconds in the match. With Black, Keymer had no trouble in the opening, but the overly ambitious 22…f4 opened up the board to White’s advantage. The resulting position was much easier for Gukesh to handle, and while the game lasted 72 moves in total the momentum over the last 50 moves or so was steadily in White’s favor.

Also half a point behind the leaders is the surprising Vladimir Fedoseev, who won his second straight game - and again, against a 2800. He defeated Arjun Erigaisi in round 4, and now - ho hum - he defeated Fabiano Caruana for good measure. He defeated Magnus Carlsen in the Olympiad, so whatever he’s doing seems to be working. He has reached a new career rating high, too, so maybe he has found a new and special gear at the “advanced” age of 29. The game with Caruana was surprising, as the world’s #2 (at least before the game) made some questionable decisions in an equal ending and then missed a nice but relatively simple tactical idea. Perhaps it’s better to say that Caruana lost the ending rather than Fedoseev winning it, but it comes to the same thing.

The other games were drawn, with Mendonca vs. Erigaisi a somewhat strange affair as White had a serious advantage when he forced a repetition.

All the games, with my commentary, are here. Here are the pairings for round 6, starting in a few hours:

Erigaisi (1) - Caruana (2.5)

Sarana (2.5) - Fedoseev (3.5)

Keymer (2.5) - Giri (2)

Abdusattorov (4) - Gukesh (3.5)

Harikrishna (3) - Van Foreest (1.5)

Praggnanandhaa (4) - Wei Yi (2.5)

Mendonca (1) - Warmerdam (1.5)