Tata Steel, Rounds 6-8

Three lead with +3 scores.

Monday saw the players take their second rest day, so let’s use the hiatus to catch up on the last three rounds. There hasn’t been a huge amount of blood spilled, with only one decisive game in round 6 and multiple short draws in round 8. Still, there has been enough action overall to keep the spectators interested, and without any clear leader the tournament seems destined for an exciting finish.

Vladimir Fedoseev was the star of rounds 4 and 5, defeating Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana in back-to-back games. So what happens in round 6? He loses to one of the lowest-rated players in the event, Alexey Sarana. Sarana played well, while Fedoseev’s 16…f5 proved to be a gift that kept giving.

A game that should have been decisive was the clash between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh Dommaraju. Abdusattorov was better almost throughout the game, and he definitely should have won. His final error came on move 59, when h6 would have maintained a decisive plus. That left Praggnananda Rameshbabu tied with Abdusattorov for first, and kept Gukesh within half a point.

In round 7, that half a point deficit disappeared when Gukesh won a fairly easy game against one of his countrymen, Pentala Harikrishna. That brought him into a tie with Abdusattorov and Pragg for first, half a point ahead of the resilient Fedoseev, who bounced back from his loss in round 6 to defeat Vincent Keymer. The day’s other victor was Max Warmerdam, who exploited Erigaisi’s ridiculous 7…g5 to win in crushing style. That seemed to be a clear case of tilt, and now Erigaisi is on -4, alone in last place.

Finally, in round 8 Warmerdam returned the point, losing on the white side of a safe Scotch to Wei Yi. Caruana got his first win since round 2, grinding out a long victory over Keymer.

(The games for all three rounds, with my comments, are here.) Here are the pairings for round 9:

Wei Yi (4.5) - Erigaisi (2)

Van Foreest (3) - Warmerdam (3)

Gukesh (5.5) - Mendonca (2.5)

Giri (3.5) - Praggnanandhaa (5.5)

Fedoseev (5) - Harikrishna (4)

Caruana (4.5) - Abdusattorov (5.5)

Sarana (4.5) - Keymer (3)