Wei Yi and Caruana keep themselves in contention after wins in Round 8 of the Tata Steel Masters - 8
Today the leaders Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh drew a Berlin Ruy Lopez in 33 moves. A game not without interest but also not that thrilling either. Fabiano Caruana beat Vincent Keymer on the black side of an Exchange Queen's Gambit. Caruana had a chance after 27.Bc1? but played 27...Qe7 instead of 27...Nd6! Caruana had to wait for another mistake 36.Rf4? before he was winning. Keymer has been a big fighter in the tournament but has made far too many serious errors. The other leader Abdusattorov and fourth placed Fedoseev drew a Petroff that seemed to be deeply prepared by both.
Max Warmerdam got a perfectly acceptable position against Wei Yi in a Scotch but the position gradually became harder for him to play and after 50.Nc4? (50.Be5 getting his bishop out of the way was needed) 50...e5! it suddenly became clear Wei Yi was winning material and the game.
The remaining games were drawn, these were: Harikrishna against Giri (who now has the cold that's been going round), Arjun Erigaisi against Alexei Sarana (a Queen's Gambit where Erigaisi took a quick draw), Mendonca against Van Foreest (Mendonca would had a much better position after 14.h3 but miscalculated and played the bad 14.d5? after which they reached a very complicated and difficult to evaluate endgame which finished in a draw).
In the Challengers Thai Dai Van Nguyen beat Miaoyi Lu to take sole lead with 6/8 half a point clear of Erwin L'Ami.
My thanks to Michiel Abeln for the photos and annotated games.
Masters Standings Round 8: 1st= Gukesh, Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa 5.5pts, 4th Fedoseev 5pts, 5th= Sarana, Wei Yi, Caruana 4.5pts, 8th Harikrishna 4pts, 9th Giri 3.5pts, 10th= Keymer, Van Foreest, Warmerdam 3pts, 13th Mendonca 2.5pts, 14th Erigaisi 2pts.
Rest day Monday 27th January
Round 9 Jan 28 at 13.00 GMT Wei vs Erigaisi, Van Foreest vs Warmerdam, Gukesh vs Mendonca, Giri vs Praggnanandhaa, Fedoseev vs Harikrishna, Caruana vs Abdusattorov, Sarana vs Keymer.
Challengers Standings Round 8: 1st Nguyen 6pts, 2nd L'Ami 5.5pts, 3rd= Bok, Suleymanli, Nogerbek 5pts, 6th= Lu, Vaishali, Svane 4.5pts, 9th= Gurel, Yakubboev 4pts, 11th Pijpers 3pts, 12th Faustino Oro 2.5pts, 13th Divya 1.5pts, 14th Bulmaga 1pt.
Round 9 Jan 28 at 13.00 GMT L'Ami vs Yakubboev, Oro vs Gurel, Lu vs Suleymanli, Nogerbek vs Nguyen, Vaishali vs Divya, Svane vs Pijpers, Bulmaga vs Bok.
Tienkamp Standings Round 3: 1st Grutter 2.5pts, 2nd= Kobe Smeets, Panesar 2pts, 4th= Lohia, Holzke, Sofronie, Zwirs 1.5pts, 8th= Slagboom, Tudor 1pt, 10th Beukema 0.5pts.
There is no rest day on Monday for the Tienkamp.