Carlsen secures Tata Steel first place with a round to spare

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75th Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 2013 (12)

Carlsen secures Tata Steel first place with a round to spare

Mark Crowther - Saturday 26th January 2013

Another win for Magnus Carlsen. Photo ©

Another win for Magnus Carlsen. Photo © | http://www.tatasteelchess.com

Magnus Carlsen made short work of Hikaru Nakamura in the 12th round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament moving to 9.5/12 and after Aronian only drew this means he has cannot be caught for first place alone with a round to spare. "I've never scored +7 that is if I draw tomorrow. In a top tournament. I'm obviously thrilled about that." Carlsen summed up the course of play against Nakamura "I thought it was one of my better games. I felt that I faced some fresh problems at the board and I dealt with them pretty confidently. But obviously it wasn't his best day and that contributed to the fact that the game wasn't so competitive. Carlsen needs a draw with black against Giri to match Kasparov's 1999 score, a win would break yet another of the great man's records. Levon Aronian tried to test Anish Giri in an unusual variation of the English but conceded he made a couple of early inaccuracies and after 15...e6 Giri was already pretty much equal. Game drawn in 34 moves. "Magnus played a wonderful tournament and he deserves the win, absolutely." was Aronian's comment afterwards, this draw ensured Carlsen cannot be caught. Viswanathan Anand looked in a small amount of trouble against Erwin L'Ami (22...Nd4 23.Bxa4 Bh4!) but once L'Ami missed this he quickly lost the thread and Anand won reasonably easily. It's hard to know what causes the wheels to come off a player in a tournament but Fabiano Caruana lost yet again. Loek Van Wely got an opening he likes to play as white and slowly got the better of things with a winning position on the run up to first time control which he finished off in 50 moves. Ivan Sokolov's miserable tournament continues with yet another loss. Sokolov couldn't put his finger on what had gone wrong, in particular he felt his opening preparation had gone well. Even today he found a rare continuation to surprise Hou Yifan and was doing fine until a simple miscalculation put his knight on e5 in grave danger and cost him a pawn and eventually the game. Hou Yifan moves on to -2 and gains more rating points. Peter Leko and Sergey Karjakin drew an interesting game in the Open Catalan in 38 moves. Pentala Harikrishna and Wang Hao drew a Reti in 49 fairly balanced moves. Leading R12 Standings: Carlsen 9.5/12, Anand, Aronian 8, Leko, Karjakin 7, Nakamura 6.5 etc. Round 13 Sun 27th Jan 11am GMT: Karjakin-Van Wely, Hou Yifan-Leko, L'Ami-Sokolov, Wang Hao-Anand, Nakamura-Harikrishna, Giri-Carlsen, Caruana-Aronian.

Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen made short work of Hikaru Nakamura who played a risky opening first played by Nigel Short against John Nunn in the same event in 1990. Nakamura was out of form and didn't put up much resistance when things went wrong. Carlsen needs a draw in the final Round 13 to match Kasparov's 1999 score of 10/13, a win would exceed it. He plays Anish Giri with black.

Carlsen,Magnus - Nakamura,Hikaru [B32]
75th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee NED (12.4), 26.01.2013

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.g3

"I didn't expect him to play this opening at all. I suspected when I went 6.g3 that he might go 6...h5. I thought we'll have to take it from there. I wasn't particularly nervous about facing it." - Carlsen.

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 6...h5

6...h5

"I think h5 is reasonable." - Carlsen.

[6...a6 0-1 Berzinsh,R (2478)-Bator,R (2403)/Panormo GRE 2001/The Week in Chess 360 (52)]

7.N1c3

"Just force him to weaken his queenside a little bit." - Carlsen.

7...a6 8.Na3 b5N

[8...h4 9.Bg2 h3 10.Bf1 b5 11.Nd5 Nce7 12.Bg5 f6 13.Be3 Nxd5 14.Qxd5 Rb8 15.0-0-0 Ne7 16.Qxd6 Qxd6 17.Rxd6 Nf5 18.Rb6 Rxb6 19.Bxb6 Nd6 20.f3 Be6 21.Bc5 Be7 22.Be2 Nb7 23.Bxe7 Kxe7 24.b3 Nd6 25.c3 g6 26.Nc2 a5 27.Rd1 f5 28.exf5 gxf5 29.Bf1 f4 30.gxf4 exf4 31.Nd4 Bd7 32.Ne2 Bc6 33.Nxf4 Bxf3 1-0 Nunn,J (2600)-Short,N (2635)/Wijk aan Zee 1990/CBM 017]

9.Nd5 Nge7 10.Bg2

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 10.Bg2

"It seemed to me that with the weaknesses here on the Kingside that I should be a little bit careful to go 10.c4 immediately. So I went 10.Bg2" - Carlsen.

10...Bg4

[10...Nxd5 "Frankly I thought he was just going to take here." - Carlsen. 11.exd5 Ne7 "I mean compared to what he got in the game this seems like a pretty good deal." - Carlsen who suggested a couple of possible continuations for white but he thought "Black is doing quite reasonably there." 12.c4 (12.c3 "followed by Nc2 and to play for either a4 or f4 at some point." - Carlen.) 12...Bd7]

11.f3 Be6

"He went 11...Be6 which I felt was fairly strange. I think black is still OK as there is quite a lot of margin for error in the opening in general. " - Carlsen.

[11...Bd7 was the move Carlsen expected. "Just to have the opportunity to take on d5 at some point." 12.c4 was Carlsen's probable continuation. 12...Nxd5 13.cxd5 Nd4 14.Be3 h4 15.0-0 "It seems to me that I would be a little bit better." - Carlsen.]

12.c3 h4 13.Nc2 Bxd5

"This is not pretty but I think it's the best way to play right now." - Carlsen.

[13...h3 14.Bf1 which actually supports a4 for white.; 13...Na5 14.Nce3]

14.exd5 Na5 15.f4

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 15.f4

15...Nf5

[15...hxg3 "I think he definitely needed to take on g3." - Carlsen 16.hxg3 Rxh1+ 17.Bxh1 Qd7 "Threatening Qh3". 18.Bg2 exf4 19.Bxf4 Ng6 "and Be7 to at least develop some pieces. Although I think white is definitely for choice." - Carlsen. ]

16.g4 h3 17.Be4 Nh4

[17...Qh4+ "The check on h4 is just not dangerous at all." - Carlsen. 18.Kf1 Nh6 19.g5 (19.Rg1 "I think just Rg1 here and I don't see what he can do." - Carlsen.) 19...Ng4 20.Qe2 "and this is just bad [for black]" - Carlsen.]

18.0-0

"Here I just castle and all the pieces come into play. Here I thought I was just much better." - Carlsen.

18...g6 19.Kh1

"I thought there was no reason to prevent f5 since I felt it would only weaken his position." - Carlsen.

19...Bg7

[19...f5 20.Bd3 e4 21.Be2 "He has no attack whilst the h3 pawn is weak, I'm going to push a4 at some point, Nd4-e6 is threatened." - Carlsen.]

20.f5 gxf5 21.gxf5

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 21.gxf5

21...Ng2?

"Probably he just missed f6, I don't know." - Carlsen.

22.f6 Bf8

"White is just totally dominating. Now it's not so much fun anymore [for him]. For me it's fun for him not so much." - Carlsen.

[22...Bxf6 23.Qf3 Rh4 24.Bg5 Rf4 25.Bxf4 but it's still pretty bad for black, I just go b3 and keep the knight on a5 and although he has one nice piece on f4 he doesn't really have much else going for him." - Carlsen.]

23.Qf3 Qc7 24.Nb4 Nb7 25.Nc6 Nc5 26.Bf5 Nd7 27.Bg5 Rg8 28.Qh5 Nb6 29.Be6

Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 29.Be6

"Here I'm threatening Ne7 amongst other things I suppose." - Carlsen.

29...Rxg5 30.Qxg5 fxe6 31.dxe6

"This was nice to finish with, with the mate [with f7+]" - Carlsen.

1-0

Viswanthan Anand beat Erwin L'Ami

Anand,Viswanathan - L'Ami,Erwin [B90]
75th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee NED (12.5), 26.01.2013

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.h3 Be7 9.Qf3 0-0 10.0-0-0 Qc7 11.g4 Rc8 12.Kb1

[12.g5 Ne8 13.Kb1 a5 14.a4 Na6 15.h4 Nb4 16.h5 Rab8 17.Rd2 Qd8 18.g6 Nf6 19.Nc5 Bg4 20.gxf7+ Kh8 21.Qg3 Qf8 22.Bc4 d5 23.exd5 Bxc5 24.Bg5 Bd6 25.Bb3 e4 26.Qh4 Bf3 27.Bxf6 gxf6 28.Qxf6+ Qg7 29.Qxd6 Bxh1 30.h6 Qg5 31.Qe6 Bf3 32.d6 Bg4 33.Qxe4 Qxh6 34.d7 Rd8 35.Qe5+ 1-0 Fedorchuk,S (2662)-Bajarani,U (2437)/Nakhchivan AZE 2011/The Week in Chess 859]

12...a5!?

A new idea that works out very well.

13.a3 a4 14.Nc1 b5 15.N1a2 Bxa2+ 16.Nxa2 Qxc2+ 17.Ka1 Nc6 18.Rc1 Qxe4 19.Qxe4 Nxe4 20.Bxb5 Nc5 21.Bxc5 dxc5 22.Rc4 Na5?!

[22...Nd4 23.Bxa4 Bh4 is with an advantage for black. Anand "saw it [Bh4] quite late." 24.Nc3 Bxf2 25.Ne4 was Anand's plan with "reasonable compensation."]

23.Rxa4 Rcb8 24.Bc4

Erwin L'Ami

Viswanathan Anand

Position after 22.Rc4

22...e4

Erwin L'Ami

Viswanathan Anand

Position after 24...e4

"Then he slowly lost the thread. He started putting all his pawns on light squares, it was very difficult to hold them, my bishop on d5 is dominating his knight, and the tactics he was trying didn't work." - Anand.

25.Bd5 Bf6 26.Nc3 Ra6 27.Rc1 c4 28.Ka2 Nb3 29.Rc2 Nc1+ 30.Kb1 Rxa4 31.Nxa4 Nd3 32.Bxc4 h5 33.Bxd3 exd3 34.Rd2 hxg4 35.hxg4 Re8 36.Rxd3 Re4 37.Nc3 Rxg4 38.b4 g5 39.Nd5 Be5 40.Kc2 Kf8 41.a4 Rc4+ 42.Kb3 Rd4 43.Rxd4 Bxd4 44.f3 f5 45.Kc4 Bf2 46.Kd3 g4 47.Ke2 Bd4 48.Ne3 g3

Erwin L'Ami

Viswanathan Anand

Position after 48...g3

["When we got to this knight and bishop I was very worried I would mess this one up as well but then I found Ne3 and I knew that 48...gxf3+ 49.Kxf3 "I wil take the pawn on f5 and then bring the king and knight back so then I knew I had probably made it." - Anand]

49.f4 Kf7 50.Kf3 Ke6 51.b5 Bb6 52.Nc4 Bc5 53.a5 Bd4 54.a6 1-0

Official Round 12 Video summary

Tables

75th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee (NED), 12-27 i 2013																cat. XX (2732)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2861	*	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	.	½	1	½	1	1	9½	2951
2.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2772	½	*	1	½	½	½	½	1	½	.	½	1	1	½	8	2851
3.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2802	½	0	*	1	½	1	½	½	½	1	1	.	½	1	8	2846
4.	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2735	½	½	0	*	½	½	½	1	½	½	.	1	½	1	7	2799
5.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2780	0	½	½	½	*	½	½	.	½	1	1	½	½	1	7	2788
6.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2769	0	½	0	½	½	*	.	½	½	1	1	1	½	½	6½	2760
7.	Harikrishna, Pentala	g	IND	2698	0	½	½	½	½	.	*	1	1	½	0	½	½	½	6	2731
8.	Van Wely, Loek	g	NED	2679	0	0	½	0	.	½	0	*	½	1	½	1	1	1	6	2731
9.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2720	.	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	*	½	0	1	½	½	5½	2692
10.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2752	½	.	0	½	0	0	½	0	½	*	1	½	1	½	5	2669
11.	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2603	0	½	0	.	0	0	1	½	1	0	*	½	½	1	5	2685
12.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2781	½	0	.	0	½	0	½	0	0	½	½	*	1	1	4½	2634
13.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2627	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	0	½	0	*	.	3½	2588
14.	Sokolov, Ivan	g	NED	2663	0	½	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	0	0	.	*	2½	2516

Round 12 (January 26, 2013)
Carlsen, Magnus	- Nakamura, Hikaru	1-0	31	B32	Sicilian Labourdonnais
Anand, Viswanathan	- L'Ami, Erwin	1-0	54	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Aronian, Levon	- Giri, Anish	½-½	34	E60	King's Indian without Nc3
Leko, Peter	- Karjakin, Sergey	½-½	38	E06	Catalan
Harikrishna, Pentala	- Wang, Hao	½-½	49	A05	Various
Van Wely, Loek	- Caruana, Fabiano	1-0	50	D11	Slav Defence
Sokolov, Ivan	- Hou, Yifan	0-1	52	D38	QGD Ragozin

75th Tata Steel GpB Wijk aan Zee (NED), 12-27 i 2013																cat. XV (2620)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2708	*	½	1	1	½	½	1	0	1	0	½	1	1	.	8	2743
2.	Movsesian, Sergei	g	ARM	2688	½	*	0	½	½	1	½	½	1	1	1	½	.	1	8	2742
3.	Rapport, Richard	g	HUN	2621	0	1	*	0	½	1	1	1	½	½	.	½	1	1	8	2745
4.	Smeets, Jan	g	NED	2615	0	½	1	*	½	1	0	½	.	½	1	1	½	1	7½	2714
5.	Dubov, Daniil	g	RUS	2600	½	½	½	½	*	0	1	1	0	.	1	½	½	1	7	2682
6.	Edouard, Romain	g	FRA	2686	½	0	0	0	1	*	.	1	½	1	½	1	1	0	6½	2648
7.	Timman, Jan H	g	NED	2566	0	½	0	1	0	.	*	½	½	0	1	1	1	1	6½	2648
8.	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2655	1	½	0	½	0	0	½	*	½	1	1	.	1	0	6	2621
9.	Turov, Maxim	g	RUS	2630	0	0	½	.	1	½	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	1	6	2619
10.	Van Kampen, Robin	g	NED	2581	1	0	½	½	.	0	1	0	½	*	0	0	½	1	5	2568
11.	Nikolic, Predrag	g	BIH	2619	½	0	.	0	0	½	0	0	½	1	*	1	0	1	4½	2533
12.	Grandelius, Nils	g	SWE	2572	0	½	½	0	½	0	0	.	½	1	0	*	1	0	4	2496
13.	Ipatov, Alexander	g	TUR	2587	0	.	0	½	½	0	0	0	½	½	1	0	*	½	3½	2459
14.	Ernst, Sipke	g	NED	2556	.	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	½	*	3½	2460

Round 12 (January 26, 2013)
Movsesian, Sergei	- Grandelius, Nils	½-½	52	A20	English Opening
Rapport, Richard	- Timman, Jan H	1-0	46	E21	Nimzo Indian 4.Nf3
Edouard, Romain	- Naiditsch, Arkadij	½-½	60	E53	Nimzo Indian
Tiviakov, Sergei	- Smeets, Jan	½-½	63	C24	Bishop's Opening
Turov, Maxim	- Dubov, Daniil	1-0	52	A07	Barcza System
Van Kampen, Robin	- Nikolic, Predrag	0-1	38	C92	Ruy Lopez Chigorin
Ernst, Sipke	- Ipatov, Alexander	½-½	52	A13	Reti Opening

75th Tata Steel GpC Wijk aan Zee (NED), 12-27 i 2013																cat. X (2476)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Brunello, Sabino	g	ITA	2572	*	½	½	1	1	1	½	1	½	.	1	1	1	1	10.0	2753
2.	Peralta, Fernando	g	ARG	2617	½	*	1	½	.	1	½	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	10.0	2728
3.	Swinkels, Robin	g	NED	2508	½	0	*	½	½	.	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	7.5	2570
4.	Mekhitarian, Krikor Sevag	g	BRA	2543	0	½	½	*	½	0	1	1	0	1	½	.	1	1	7.0	2529
5.	Kovchan, Alexander	g	UKR	2579	0	.	½	½	*	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	1	7.0	2512
6.	Klein, David	m	NED	2445	0	0	.	1	½	*	½	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	7.0	2532
7.	Burg, Twan	m	NED	2492	½	½	0	0	½	½	*	0	.	½	1	1	½	1	6.0	2480
8.	Gretarsson, Hjorvar Steinn	m	ISL	2516	0	0	½	0	½	0	1	*	1	½	1	½	.	1	6.0	2478
9.	Bitensky, Igor	m	ISR	2400	½	0	½	1	0	1	.	0	*	½	½	½	1	0	5.5	2451
10.	Admiraal, Miguoel	f	NED	2321	.	0	½	0	½	1	½	½	½	*	0	½	0	½	4.5	2393
11.	Romanishin, Oleg M	g	UKR	2521	0	0	½	½	½	0	0	0	½	1	*	1	½	.	4.5	2400
12.	Van Der Werf, Mark	m	NED	2450	0	½	0	.	½	0	0	½	½	½	0	*	½	0	3.0	2279
13.	Goryachkina, Aleksandra	wg	RUS	2402	0	0	0	0	0	0	½	.	0	1	½	½	*	½	3.0	2285
14.	Schut, Lisa	wm	NED	2295	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	½	.	1	½	*	3.0	2294

Round 12 (January 26, 2013)
Brunello, Sabino	- Romanishin, Oleg M	1-0	60	E16	Queens Indian
Peralta, Fernando	- Klein, David	1-0	52	A88	Dutch Leningrad
Swinkels, Robin	- Admiraal, Miguoel	½-½	54	C00	French Defence
Mekhitarian, Krikor Sevag	- Gretarsson, Hjorvar Steinn	1-0	71	C84	Ruy Lopez Centre Attack
Bitensky, Igor	- Van Der Werf, Mark	½-½	76	C55	Two Knights Defence
Goryachkina, Aleksandra	- Kovchan, Alexander	0-1	58	A15	English counter King's Fianchetto
Schut, Lisa	- Burg, Twan	0-1	31	B17	Caro Kann