Wijk aan Zee, Rounds 12 & 13 (Updated)

Giri wins, half a point ahead of Abdusattorov and Carlsen.

The last two rounds of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament were full of drama, and as many as four different players had a shot at first place going into the last round. To recap the leading standings after round 11, Nodirbek Abdusattorov was in first with 7.5 points, half a point ahead of Anish Giri and a point clear of Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So.

The relevant pairings for the penultimate round were So vs. Abdusattorov, Jorden Van Foreest vs. Giri, and Carlsen vs. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Abduattorov’s prep was terrific, and not only was he in no danger, he might have even been a tiny bit better. He drew comfortably.

The other two games were a different matter entirely. Giri walked into some dynamite preparation from Van Foreest (I’m guessing the two countrymen aren’t exactly buddies), and was soon lost. Van Foreest had a winning attack, but had to find some subtleties on move 26 to prove it. He erred, but got another opportunity on move 29 to prove a winning advantage. He missed out on that opportunity as well, and while he maintained an initiative throughout the rest of that long (79 move) game, Giri’s dogged defense saved the day.

As for Carlsen, his best chance came early on, when 22.Nxf7! would have given him a significant advantage. Even after that he kept Pragg under heavy pressure, but to the youngster’s credit he defended incredibly well, holding a difficult queen ending like a machine. (I’m legitimately praising him, it’s not a wink-wink, nudge-nudge suggestion that he cheated.) Carlsen was very disappointed after the game, but aside from the one concrete opportunity mentioned above, the draw was far more to Pragg’s credit than Carlsen’s failures.

The round’s other games: Fabiano Caruana-Vincent Keymer and Dommaraju Gukesh-Levon Aronian were drawn, while Richard Rapport defeated Ding Liren - making Ian Nepomniachtchi the world’s #2 player - and Parham Maghsoodloo defeated Arjun Erigaisi.

On to round 13. Abdusattorov had White against Van Foreest, Giri had White against Rapport, Carlsen had Black against Erigaisi, and So had Black against Praggnanandhaa.

Taking the games in reverse order: So more or less equalized against Pragg, but that’s as far as he got. The game went to bare kings: a draw.

Carlsen was more successful, and won in typical style: a slightly offbeat opening made sure that Erigaisi couldn’t dry things up, a complicated middlegame, and then continued pressure until the opponent cracked. Interestingly, the position was still equal when the players made the time control (equal, but very complex), and it was only over the next moves that he collapsed. Looking at the time usage, it would seem that he moved far too quickly, and it cost him.

Unfortunately for Carlsen, Giri also won to stay half a point ahead. He had the advantage against Rapport from early in the opening, and while at the key moment on move 34 the position was “officially” equal, Giri still enjoyed the initiative. Rapport’s task remained challenging, and after his 34th move it was hopeless. He missed a nice but simple tactic - a one-mover - and Giri spotted it and finished things off before the time control.

It all came down to Abdusattorov. A win would give him clear first, a draw a playoff with Giri, and a loss would drop him into a tie for second with Carlsen. But what could go wrong? He had gone undefeated to that point and had White against one of the lowest-rated players in the tournament. Of course he couldn’t count on a win, but at least a draw, right?

As you’ve no doubt guessed from my very heavy-handed foreshadowing, the answer is “wrong”. He tried to keep Van Foreest bottled up at the cost of some serious concessions to his pawn structure, and when he failed to find the right moves to justify those strategic risks his pawns started dropping. By the end of the game he was three pawns in arrears, and there was nothing to do but resign. Kudos to Van Foreest for fighting to the end. Although he was well out of the race for first, he played a major role nevertheless, very nearly defeating Giri in the penultimate round and then beating Abdusattorov at the end.

In the other games, Maghsoodloo won with Black against Aronian, while Ding-Caruana and Keymer-Gukesh were drawn.

Games from the two rounds, with annotations, are coming later today (Monday).

**UPDATE**: Here are the games from those rounds, with my annotations.