The first super tournament of the year, the Tata Steel Masers to be held in the historic seaside resort in Wijk aan Zee, will be starting today. Apart from the exciting chess that is always part of the Tata Steel tradition, this tournament will act as some sort of heat check on the participants who will be playing in the Candidates Tournament in March.
Five of the eight Candidates will be participating in Wijk aan Zee: Fabiano Caruana USA 2811, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2804, Wesley So USA 2792, Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2787 and Sergey Karjakin RUS 2753. Only Levon Aronian ARM 2797, Ding Liren CHN 2769 and Alexander Grischuk RUS 2767 will be absent.
The other players in Wijk are Peter Svidler RUS 2768, Vishy Anand IND 2767, Anish Giri NED 2752, Wei Yi CHN 2743, Maxim Matlakov RUS 2718, Hou Yifan CHN 2680, Baskaran Adhiban IND 2655 and England’s Gawain Jones 2640.
Wesley So is the defending champion here, by the way. You will recall this game from last year’s tournament. Before the last round Magnus Carlsen was half a point behind Wesley and the pairing were Carlsen vs Karjakin and Wesley vs Nepomniachtchi. The speculation was that Carlsen would beat Karjakin and Wesley-Nepom would end in a draw, setting up a tiebreak match between the two. That did not happen. Carlsen could only draw while Wesley crushed his opponent.
Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2767) — So, Wesley (2808) [D00]
79th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee (13.2), 29.01.2017
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.e4 h6 6.Bh4 dxe4 7.Qe2 Qa5 8.0–0–0?! Qxa2 9.Qb5+? Nbd7 10.c6 bxc6 11.Qxc6 <D>
POSITION AFTER 11.QXC6
11…Bb7!
Obviously overlooked by White.
12.Qxb7 Qa1+ 13.Nb1 Rb8 14.Qxb8+
[14.Qc6 Qxb2+ 15.Kd2 Bb4+ followed by 0–0 and Rfc8. The only reason White did not resign here is because he didn’t want to lose a game in 13 moves]
14…Nxb8 15.Bb5+ Nfd7 16.Ne2 Be7 17.Bxe7 Kxe7 18.Nd4
White still has traps. If Black is not careful then Nb3, Qa2, Nc3 traps the queen.
18…Nc5 19.h4 Rd8 20.Rh3
And now Ra3 once again traps the queen.
20…Nd3+! 21.Bxd3 Rxd4 22.Be2 Rxd1+ 23.Bxd1 Qa5 24.Nd2 f5 25.Rg3 Qe5 26.Ra3 Nc6 27.g3 Qd4 28.Re3 Nb4 0–1
The top two Dutch players usually play in this event but this year only Anish Giri is participating. Loek Van Wely declined his invitation this year. Too bad — he had played in the previous 25 (!!) editions.
Maxim Matlakov is the European Champion so his invitation here is no surprise. He is 26 years old and lately making a big push to join the elite chess invitation list to all these superGM tournaments. He is a power player — deep opening preparation and an active aggressive style to cash in on the advantages and/or initiative gained from that phase. Here is a representative sample from the 2017 European Club Championship. Playing Black is Evgeniy Najer, the 2015 European Champion and a tactical monster who is nicknamed “Moscow Magic.”
Matlakov, Maxim (2730) — Najer, Evgeniy (2699) [D26]
33rd ECCC Open 2017 Antalya (3), 11.10.2017
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0–0 Nbd7
[6…a6 7.a4 Nc6 8.Nc3 is the standard continuation]
7.Nc3 a6 8.e4 b5 9.Bb3 cxd4 10.Nxd4 b4
A new move, but it looks like Black should have completed his development first with 10…Bc5.
11.Na4 Bb7
It turns out that the e4 pawn cannot be taken. After 11…Nxe4 12.Bxe6! fxe6 13.Nxe6 Qa5 14.Bf4 Black is under a very strong attack.
12.Bxe6!
Nevertheless!
12…fxe6 13.Nxe6 Qa5
[13…Qb8 14.Bf4]
14.Bf4 Rc8 15.Qb3?
[15.Re1]
15…Nh5?
[15…Bxe4! 16.Rfe1 Bd5 hard to believe, but Black is doing ok here]
16.Ng5! Nxf4 17.Qf7+ Kd8 18.Qxf4 Rg8
[18…Qxa4? 19.Nf7+ Ke8 20.Nxh8]
19.Rad1! Bc6 20.e5!
Threatening to push this pawn to e6.
20…h6
[20…Be7 21.Nc5! Bxc5 (21…Qxc5 22.Ne6+) 22.e6 Rc7 23.exd7 Bxd7 (23…Rxd7? 24.Qb8+ Ke7 25.Rfe1+ with a mating attack) 24.Ne6+ Kc8 25.Qf7 Rh8 26.Nxc7 Qxc7 27.Qd5 White has a decisive advantage]
21.Nf7+! Ke8 22.Qf5 Be7 23.Qg6
Threatening a discovered check with Ng5 followed by Ne6 mate.
23…Qxa4 24.Ng5+ 1–0
Hou Yifan is the highest rated woman chessplayer and Baskaran Adhiban was invited back because of the fantastic chess he played in last year’s Tata tournament. Gawain Jones is the qualifier from the 2017 Challengers Group.
There was some question as to why Wei Yi was invited rather than his compatriot Ding Liren. After all Ding is a candidate and rated no. 1 in China. Also, he played here in Wijk aan Zee in the 2015 edition and did not do too badly, finishing just half a point behind world champion Magnus Carlsen.
There was some speculation that the Dutch organizers intended to invite Ding but due to the language barrier got Wei Yi instead, but I don’t believe that. Invitations to the tournament are routinely sent out months before the actual event and apparently no one thought that Ding would finish 2nd in the World Cup, which was held in September.
Nevertheless Wei Yi is a very strong player who some say has the potential to become world chess champion. In addition to that Wei Yi has a very aggressive style which is very entertaining for the spectators — any tournament he participates in is fortunate.
In the 2017 World Cup Wei Yi almost got knocked out in the first round by the Canadian GM Bator Sambuev. Faced with a “win or go home” 2nd game he delivers.
Wei, Yi (2753) — Sambuev, Bator (2522) [C19]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi GEO (1.2), 04.09.2017
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.a4 Qc7 8.Nf3 b6 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Bd3 Nbc6 11.0–0 h6 12.Re1 0–0 13.h4
More common is either Ba3 or Bf4. IM John Watson, who has written several books on the French, speculates that the idea behind this move is probably h4–h5 followed by the sacrifice Bxh6 and then Qd2.
13…c4
Closing the center is usually bad for Black. Watson recommended 13…f5 14.exf6 Rxf6 with a nice fight ahead.
To show you how dangerous White’s formation is II will show you the following game: 13…Na5? (the Black knight is out of the play here) 14.Nh2!? cxd4 15.cxd4 Nf5 16.Ng4 White is already winning 16…Nc4?! 17.Nf6+! gxf6 18.Qg4+ Kh7 19.Qh5 Kg8 20.Bxf5 exf5 21.exf6 Rfe8 22.Bxh6 1–0. Vovk,Y (2539)-Bobula,M (2393) Kosice SVK 2010.
14.Bf1 f6 15.h5 fxe5 16.dxe5 Rf7 17.Ba3 Raf8
[17…Nf5 to keep watch on d6 does not work, as White can simply play 18.g3 followed by Bh3]
18.Bd6 Qd8 19.Be2 Rf5 20.Nh4 Rf4
[20…Rxf2 21.Nf3 traps the rook on f2.]
21.Bg4 R8f7
This move is a prelude to …d5-d4 and …Nd5.
22.f3 d4
Sambuev’s idea. He wants White to “trap” his rook by 23.g3 when he has 23…Nd5 and White dare not take the rook because 24.gxf4 (repositioning the vulnerable knight on h4 by 24.Ng6 is met violently: 24…Rxg4 25.fxg4 Qg5 once again the Black pieces become very active) 24…Qxh4 25.Qd2 Rxf4 Black is clearly better.
23.Ng6 Nd5 24.Nxf4 Rxf4 25.cxd4 Rxd4 26.Qe2 Qg5 27.Qf2 Rd2 28.Re2 Rd4 29.Ree1 Rd2 30.Re2 Rd4 31.Qe1 g6 32.Re4 gxh5 33.Bh3 Rd2 34.Kh1 Rxc2 35.f4 Qg6 36.f5! exf5 37.Qd1
With an attack on c2 as well as d5. 37…fxe4?
Sambuev loses his control. Best is 37…Nc3 38.Qxc2 Nxe4 39.Qxc4+ Kg7 40.Re1 and it is still a game.
38.Qxd5+ Kg7 39.Rg1 Be8 40.Rf1 h4 41.Bf8+ Kh8 42.Ba3 Kg7 43.Rf6 e3 44.Rxg6+ Bxg6 45.Qd7+ Kh8 46.Bf8 1–0
Nice fight.
Looking forward to a great tournament!
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
