Tata Steel (Corus) Chess - 2013-14

[prashanthm]

First time ever, 2 Indians at the Wijk aan Zee 'A' tournament......

and Boy, what a start we had..... Hari won his debut 'A' game against Giri and sustained that with some close games against Caruana & Aronian and is 2.0/3. He is scheduled to face the super boy Carlsen today in R4 before the first rest day..... Hopefully Hari will come out of this unscathed.....

Vishy missed some prep against Naka in R1, couldn't take advantage against Giri, but plundered on when Caruana blundered and is set to go up against Aronian in R4 with 2.0/3...

Both Hari & Vishy are joint 2nd along with Carlsen half-a-point adrift of a hot Karjakin...... It's an interesting draw too based on the numbers Hari & Vishy probably drew, because of which the player who plays Hari in this round plays Vishy in the next. I know this happens in all the Round-Robin schedules, but interesting that it is a sequential thing for the 2 Indian players......

Vishy & Hari are set to meet each other in Rd 6 on Friday.......

[ajay]

Anand beats Aronian. A good win for him that will also boost his confidence as he has been sort of quality wins lately. However, not surprisingly, Harikrishna could not hold Carlsen and lost. At the end of 4th round, Carlsen, Anand and Karjakin jointly at 3 pointd lead with two wins each. Harikrishna is 4th and 1 point behind.

[ajay]

It seems Anand's victory over Aronial is being hailed as a classic and it made the whole chess world start talking about it. Carlsen termed it as "mind blowing" and even Anand said that it will rank quiet high among his best games. So, is Anand back? Looks like Anand do have some solid ideas or tricks up his sleeves that he can roll out from time to time. Today being the rest day, Anand next plays Carlsen. Good luck Anand.

Harikrishna also played a good match and Carlsen was not sure of whether he can pull off this till the last move of the time control. Harikrishna made a mistake right at the 40th move which Carlsen took advantage of to ultimately finish off the match.

[prashanthm]

Anand's victory over Aronian is going to be an all-time classic, alright! But, all of it is home prep, which Vishy prepared for someone else and he mentioned that in the post match analysis.......

Today in Rd 5

Vishy drew against Carlsen in petroff.......

Hari is in the middle of a very very tactical battle against van Wely, he may end up winning it..... Also, it will probably be judged as the game of the day

[Prashant]

Hari beats van Wely!

[sameerph]

Wow, Hari seems to be getting into top bracket now.

It seems Anand's victory over Aronial is being hailed as a classic and it made the whole chess world start talking about it. Carlsen termed it as "mind blowing" and even Anand said that it will rank quiet high among his best games.

Is the archieved game available online somewhere ?

[Prashant]

Yes - all games are available at http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/livegames

Use the pulldown menu at top right to select Round 4 & then look for Anand-Aronian.

[prashanthm]

@sameer, you can find it here...... http://www.chessdom.com/tata-steel-2013-live/

Great win for Hari as expected earlier. He has been handling his first foray into the top echelon tournament very well and concentrating on his chess.... Wonderful to see...... Hari is at 2706.3 after this win........

Vishy, Magnus & Karjakin leading with 3.5/5, while Hari, Naka, Wang are half-a-point adrift......

Hari-Vishy tomorrow will be interesting.......

[ajay]

Hari and Anand drew their encounter. Carlsen at 4.5 point takes the tournament lead with yet another victory. Anand and Karjakin are 1/2 points behind at 4, followed by Harikrishna, along with Aronian and NAkamura. Scores are :

[prashanthm]

Vishy won a dominating game against van Wely and is back on top along with Carlsen at 5.0/7....
Hari drew his game with Sokolov and is at 4.0/7 at joint 5th with Aronian...

[prashanthm]

Vishy drew as white with Sokolov, but Carlsen won his game to jump into sole lead leaving Vishy half-a-point behind in sole 2nd...
Hari drew with Leko and is joint 5th with a +1 score going into the 2nd rest day after 8 rounds......., pretty respectable for a first-timer... He is yet to play L'Ami and Hou and he could get a plus score there....

[prasen9]

Maybe Anand sees Aronian as a potential challenger. Hence, he pulled out the stops to gain some early psychological advantage. FIDE on Aronian-Anand. This article gives some analysis. Amazing chess brilliance. Aronian is world #2. Anand acknowledged that he had prepared this variation during his last world championship play. Why did Anand use it now against Aronian instead of saving it for the future? Did he think someone else would come up with this one? One explanation is that Anand genuinely hates losing and he was forced into revealing this. Maybe.

The other interesting thing is that his seconds knew about this variation much before but did not play it until he did. So, in a sense the seconds sacrifice for their #1 and do not play many variations though they may have come up with some of these ideas. These are some very loyal guys.

I am a novice. So if anyone else has other insights or if I am wrong and I have no clue about what is going on, I would be glad to be corrected. But, I find the event intriguing and so put down my amateur thoughts here. If I were Anand, I would have saved these for the future. But maybe Anand thought that given the situation, even if he did not play this, someone would analyze this match and come up with similar lines anyway once Aronian forced things. So, he played his best.

[prashanthm]

Usually, players prepare whole lines in a particular variation and won't even go near the lines if they do not intend to use their home cooked moves. So, Vishy was probably intending to use that move when he went into that line rather than being forced to use it. Not all post-game analysis can reveal these moves. Sometimes, may be, but not all the time.

Not sure if Aronian can be the fav for the challenger role ahead of Carlsen though.


And it will ONE HECK OF A CHAMPIONSHIP Match, if Carlsen can qualify in as the challenger. Anand may have his own disadvantages and weakness in an RR format, but in a ONE-ONE championship format, he has the best group around him to come in with the best prep and has the mental toughness to go with it. The only thing is his physical fitness, which could prove to be an important factor as Carlsen will not let him go with a 30-move draw. So, his endurance will definitely be a point of contention........

[prashanthm]

@Prasen, I think you forgot Kramnik there. Aronian is #3 behind Carlsen & Kramnik.......

[prasen9]

Sorry. It was late. Or that is my excuse. Or in this late stage in my life ... Talking of late stages, the mind slows down or is not as sharp when one ages. The great ones can avoid that to a degree but at some time nature catches them too. Physical fitness, at least what is required for chess, can be maintained longer. I think you are talking of mental stamina and exhaustion. Yes, Carlsen - Anand will be mouth-watering. But, I hope Anand meets a (relatively) weak opponent next time around too so that he can remain the WC easily.