Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

[jaydeep]

This year tata steel is sponsoring Wijk aan Zee tournament ... Anand startd with win over Ruslan Ponomariov in 52 moves playing with Black ... He is currently joint leader with Hikaru Nakamura and Jan Smeets.

In Group B match, Suryashekhar Ganguly lost his first round game playing with Black against Gabriel Sargissian.

In Group C match, Tania Sachdev scored win with Black over Ivan Ivanisevic to be joint leader.

In second round Anand is facing Vladimir Kramnik.

Group A - Round 1

Ruslan Ponomariov - Viswanathan Anand 0-1
Erwin l'Ami - Anish Giri ½-½
Jan Smeets - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Alexander Grischuk 1-0
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Wang Hao ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½

Group B - Round 1
Gabriel Sargissian - Surya Ganguly 1-0

Group c - Round 1
Ivan Ivanisevic - Tania Sachdev 0-1

[jaydeep]

Only 1 game produced in Group A when Nepomniachtchi joined the leaders with victory over Chinese GM Hao ... Other most of games ended in quick draw ... Anand and Kramnik match ended in just 23 moves.

In Group B, Suryashekhar Ganguly bounced back after Round 1 match ... He defeated Jon Ludvig Hammer playing with White ... But in Group C, Tania lost with White against Katherina Lahno.

Group A - Round 2

Viswanathan Anand - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Wang Hao - Ian Nepomniachtchi 0-1
Alexander Grischuk - Max. Vachier-Lagrave ½-½
Levon Aronian - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Anish Giri - Jan Smeets ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Erwin l'Ami ½-½

Group B - Round 2
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Jon Ludvig Hammer 1-0

Group c - Round 2
Tania Sachdev - Katherina Lahno 0-1

[jaydeep]

Another quick draw in 31 moves for Anand ... Nakamura scored win over Shirov to take sole lead ... In shocking result teenager Anish Giri take full advantage of opening blunder from Magnus Carlsen to beat him in just 22 moves ... In other match Ponomariov scored his first win of the tournament.

In Group B, Ganguly managed to hole his opponent playing with Black ... In Group C, Tania showing tremdous form in playing with Black ... She scored her second win with Black after yesterday's loss with White.

Group A - Round 3

Erwin l'Ami - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Jan Smeets - Ruslan Ponomariov 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Anish Giri 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Levon Aronian ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alexander Grischuk ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Wang Hao ½-½

Group B - Round 3
Zahar Efimenko - Surya Ganguly ½-½

Group c - Round 3
Dariusz Swiercz - Tania Sachdev 0-1

[prasen9]

Not that shocking. Giri is a prodigy.

[akmohanty]

wow, that's quite a result - are we seeing the next anand here !

[prasen9]

Giri was the youngest GrandMaster. At the Chess Olympiad he played around 2720 rating. He helped Anand prepare for the WC. If Carlsen made an opening blunder, he is human after all, it is not surprising that Giri swept him off the board. Get ready to hear about Giri more often. The kid is for real. He was born in 1994, I believe. 16 or 17 years old. Wonderful talent. Half Russian, half Nepali by origin. Lived in Russia, Amsterdam, and Japan. Lovable kid, or shall I say future champion?

[jaydeep]

Anand scored win playing with White against Chinese GM Wang Hao in 33 moves ... This win helped him to move with Nakamura as joint leader ... But Ganguly and Tania lost their matches in respective groups.

Group A - Round 4

Viswanathan Anand - Wang Hao 1-0
Alexander Grischuk - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Levon Aronian - Ian Nepomniachtchi 1-0
Alexei Shirov - Max. Vachier-Lagrave 0-1
Anish Giri - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Erwin l'Ami - Jan Smeets ½-½

Group B - Round 4
Laurent Fressinet - Suryashekhar Ganguly 1-0

Group c - Round 4
Tania Sachdev - Ilya Nyzhnyk 0-1

[ajay]

It is high time Anand wins a tournament. GO Anand! The standings after 4th round are:

1. V. Anand, H. Nakamura 3
3. L. Aronian, A. Giri, M. Vachier-Lagrave 2½
6. V. Kramnik, E. l'Ami, I. Nepomniachtchi, R. Ponomariov, J. Smeets 2
11. M. Carlsen, A. Grischuk 1½
13. W. Hao 1
14. A. Shirov ½


This tournament has all the top 3 ranked chess players who are separated by only few points. In recent tournaments these three have not played together in the same tournament. So it is interesting to see how they perform here. The #4 Karamnik is also here, but he is quiet behind the top 3.

Two wins and two draws for Anand against one loss and three draw for Carlsen puts Anand once again on Top in (unofficial) live ratings.
Aronian (three draws and a win) has also gone ahead of Carlsen.

[Sandeep]

This year tata steel is sponsoring Wijk aan Zee tournament

A nice reminder that Tata steel bought Corus . The tournament was called Corus chess tournament till last year, we all know that Corus steel is now merged with Tata steel. Nice to see an Indian company's name in the sponsor's list of a premiere world tournament. It is also interesting to know that the tournament has a single sponsor (the steel company Hoogovens to Corus to Tata Steel) right from the beginning (1938) till date though the names have changed. Seems to be very popular in Netherlands.

Getting back to the results, it is high time Anand has to win a tournament. He has won it 5 times here (highest) and hopefully he will add the sixth this time. Anand has a slew of records here, apart from winning the tournament 5 times he also hold the record for the number of games played without losing (70). He is a phenomenon here, go Anand

[SaniaFan]

This tournament has all the top 3 ranked chess players who are separated by only few points. In recent tournaments these three have not played together in the same tournament. So it is interesting to see how they perform here. The #4 Karamnik is also here, but he is quiet behind the top 3.

In fact Carlsen is the one who is behind. Anand, Aronian and kramnik are close together. In fact all of them have diferent points and with difference of 1/2 point.
Carlsen+1/2 = Kramnik + 1/2 = Aronian+1/2= Anand.

[ajay]

This tournament has all the top 3 ranked chess players who are separated by only few points. In recent tournaments these three have not played together in the same tournament. So it is interesting to see how they perform here. The #4 Karamnik is also here, but he is quiet behind the top 3.

In fact Carlsen is the one who is behind. Anand, Aronian and kramnik are close together. In fact all of them have diferent points and with difference of 1/2 point.
Carlsen+1/2 = Kramnik + 1/2 = Aronian+1/2= Anand.

Yes, Carlsen is quite behind in this tournament standings. I guess you do realize that I was talking about world ranking and not the tournament standings.

The live ratings (unofficial) after the 4th round are:

Rank Name Ratings Change
01 Anand 2815,2 +5,2
02 Aronian off 2807,1 +2,1
03 Carlsen off 2804,9 -9,1
04 Kramnik off 2782,8 -1,2

And Kramnik is way behind. By the way, in the official ratings, that will remain in force until March 2011, Anand is #2 and Kramnik is #4 and way behind.

1 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2814
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2810
3 Aronian, Levon ARM 2805
4 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2784

[Sandeep]

Anand will play Smeets today. Go Anand

[jaydeep]

All other board matches r ended in a draw .. Only Anand with Smeets and Carlsen with l'Ami matches r going on.

Edited - Anand played excellent attacking endgame to won match in 65 moves ... With that Anand take a sole lewad after 5th round with 4 pts, he is ½ pt ahead of American GM Hikaru Nakamura ... Carlsen scored his first win of the tournament in marathon match after 94 moves with White over Erwin l'Ami ... All other board matches were ended in a draw.

In Group B Ganguly lost another match with White ... In Group C Sachdev managed draw against Kampen with Black.

Group A - Round 5

Jan Smeets - Viswanathan Anand 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Erwin l'Ami 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura - Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Anish Giri ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alexei Shirov ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Levon Aronian ½-½
Wang Hao - Alexander Grischuk 1-0

Group B - Round 5
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Wesley So 0-1

Group c - Round 5
Robin van Kampen - Tania Sachdev ½-½

Today Anand is playing with White against Alexander Grischuk.

[Sandeep]

Excellent win from Anad

[ajay]

Yes, another good win for Anand. Its good to get these points now before he plays the consecutive tough matches against Carlsen, Aronian, and in form Nakamura. So far he has played matches against players who are mostly in the middle or bottom half. Tomorrow Anand with white plays against Grischuk who is once again 2nd to the last. So another good opportunity to extend the lead. Go Anand!

Here are the points

1. V. Anand 4
2. H. Nakamura 3½
3. L. Aronian, A. Giri, M. Vachier-Lagrave 3
6. M. Carlsen, V. Kramnik, I. Nepomniachtchi, R. Ponomariov 2½
10. W. Hao,E. l'Ami, J. Smeets 2
13. A. Grischuk 1½
14. A. Shirov 1