5 February 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Here is a video report from Europe-Echecs of the last round and closing ceremony of the recently concluded Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 held at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The tournament Group A was won by Hikaru Nakamura.
The Norwegian former Boy Wonder played white in an advance Caro-Kann against China’s Wang Hao (see picture), who complained afterwards that he “couldn’t focus on the game. I just felt too tired.” The opening led to the kind of closed position in which white typically mounts an attack on the K-side while black looks for counter play on the other side of the board. In this game, white came first. “In fact, Wang didn’t get any counter play at all,” Carlsen said. “He should have taken counter measures before I castled, playing Qb6 for instance, but he never got round to it. The resulting position with the bishops’ pair and a clear plan just favoured white.”
“After he actually even closed the position with 17…c4, I got an automatic attack for free. I guess he missed my idea with 19.Bg4. I think he probably expected he could defend against my intentions along the h-file. He couldn’t.” After (see diagram) 29.Bf6 Wang resigned in view of 29…gxf6 30.exf6 Rxf6 31.Qh8+ Kf7 32.Rh7+ Kg6 33.Qg8+ Kf5 34.Rh5+ Ke4 35.Qg4+ Kd3 36.Qd1+ Ke4 37.Qb1 mate.
The Tata Steel Chess website reported that Hikaru Nakamura of the U.S. (see picture) took the smallest possible lead on India’s Viswanathan Anand in the dash to the finish of the 73rd annual Tata Steel Chess Tournament Friday. While the world champion settled for a draw with black against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in eleventh-round action, the American grandmaster, also playing black, handed in a victory against Russian national champion Ian Nepomniashchi. That meant that, with just two more rounds to go, Nakamura was back on top of the standings with 8 points for a tournament record of six wins, four draws and one loss. Anand, unbeaten with four wins and seven draws to his name, followed at half a point.
Nepomniashchi sacrificed a pawn with (see diagram) 17. Ne2, where 17. exf6 would have given him equal play, but, Nakamura said, “that was not enough for him, apparently. People may say I’m an aggressive player but it was clear ‘Nepo’ was the one out for a kill today.“
where, according to Nakamura, he should have played 24.Qe3 Bd5 25.h5 0-0-0 26.Nc3 with an unclear position. “He seems to have missed that after 24…Rh7 he could not go 25.Bxb6 because 25…Bxh4+ would have lost him his queen,” Nakamura explained. As the game went, Nepomniashchi tried 25.Qe5 but that led to an ending in which Nakamura coasted to victory on his 44th, an exchange and two pawns up.
Global Chess League: Carlsen’s Pipers Take the Lead
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The Alpine APL Pipers, with Magnus Carlsen on the icon board, took sole
lead in the standings on day three of the Global Chess League in Bengaluru.
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