Carlsen misses a chance against Vidit in Round 11 of the Tata Steel Masters - Dubov has Covid-19 - 11

Magnus Carlsen retained his half point lead in the Tata Steel Masters eleventh round but it could have been better as he missed a single chance against Vidit Gujrathi to win. Vidit had in fact done a very good job of equalising but the careless 28...Re8? (28...Nf6) gave Carlsen chances again. Carlsen in fact missed the critical moment playing 36...d7? too quickly and not seriously considering 36...Re7+ which was the win - although Carlsen thought it difficult to find he expressed disappointment he didn't even spend the time trying.

The other major story of the day was that Daniil Dubov is out of the event after testing positive for Covid-19. He defaulted today against Richard Rapport and will not play Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen in the final rounds. It's to be hoped that he doesn't get too sick and that he will be able to play the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin which starts very soon on 3rd February - that looks too soon to me. Rapport moved into second place as Anish Giri went down to defeat against Jorden van Foreest in the game of the day. Carlsen and others were full of praise for van Foreest's play in the Saemisch Nimzo Indian. Fabiano Caruana also had a nice win today against Praggnanandhaa, it's already long past the point where he can rescue his tournament, he said that even his wins were bad so far, but added he was very happy to play a decent game today at his normal level.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin are good friends who rarely play a proper game against each other - today was no exception, drawn quickly in 23 moves. Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Sam Shankland agreed a draw in 10 moves, also disappointing but neither really have anything to play for.

Round 11 Standings Masters: 1st Carlsen 7½pts; 2nd Rapport 7pts; 3rd= Giri, Mamedyarov 6½pts; 5th= Esipenko, Karjakin, Vidit, Caruana 6pts; 9th Van Foreest 5½pts; 10th Duda 5pts; 11th Shankland 4½pts; 12th= Dubov, Grandelius, Praggnanandhaa 3½pts;

Round 12 Saturday 29 January 2022 Shankland-Karjakin, Vidit-Mamedyarov, Caruana-Carlsen, Esipenko-Rapport, Giri-Grandelius, Duda-Van Foreest.

Dubov 0-1d Praggnanandhaa

Round 11 Standings Challengers: 1st Erigaisi 9pts; 2nd= Bjerre, Nguyen 7½pts; 4th Jumabayev 6½pts; 5th Warmerdam 6pts; 6th= Van Foreest, Murzin, L'Ami, Ganguly 5½pts; 10th Dardha 4½pts; 11th Maurizzi, Shuvalova 4pts; 13th= Vogel, Zhu Jiner 3pts;