Carlsen, Giri and Grandelius all win in Round 1 of the Tata Steel Masters 2021

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83rd Tata Steel Chess 2021 (1)

Carlsen, Giri and Grandelius all win in Round 1 of the Tata Steel Masters 2021

Mark Crowther - Saturday 16th January 2021

Carlsen in action against Firouzja in Round 1 of the Tata Steel Masters 2021. Photo ©

Carlsen in action against Firouzja in Round 1 of the Tata Steel Masters 2021. Photo © | https://tatasteelchess.com

The 83rd Tata Steel Chess tournament got underway on January 16th 2021 in the De Moriaan sports centre in Wijk aan Zee against the background of the Coronavirus crisis. With precautions in place, and a number of invited stars not being able to make it in the end, the event did start with a full compliment of 14 players in the Masters Group. There were three decisive games and four draws in the first round. World Champion Magnus Carlsen took a few risks against Alireza Firouzja and was eventually rewarded with a mating attack just before first time control. Anish Giri beat Arjan Tari when he won a theoretical duel and then painstakingly set up a risk free win. Nils Grandelius beat Alexander Donchenko after the latter blundered in a rook endgame. Fabiano Caruana vs Jorden van Foreest, Pentala Harikrishna vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Radoslaw Wojtaszek vs David Anton and Andrey Esipenko vs Jan-Krzysztof were all drawn. A fuller summary is available in the body of the article.

Round 1 standings: 1st-3rd Carlsen, Giri, Grandelius 1pt; 4th-11th MVL, Duda, David Anton, Van Foreest, Caruana, Harikrishna, Wojtaszek, Esipenko 0.5pts; 12th-14th Firouzja, Donchenko, Tari 0pts.

Round 2 pairings Sunday 17th Jan 1pm GMT: MVL-Firouzja, David Anton-Carlsen, Tari-Wojtaszek, Van Foreest-Giri, Donchenko-Caruana, Duda-Grandelius, Harikrishna-Esipenko.

Tata Steel Masters 2021 Round 1 Summary

Magnus Carlsen was pleased to win his first round game against Alireza Firouzja even if it involved a pretty calculated gamble to achieve this. Carlsen looked happier and fitter than at any time during his previous tournament the online Airthings Masters at the end of December where he did not play well.

"It was a typical first round. I think too much, and take too big risks. Luckily he became very nervous, just like in Stavanger. That saved me." Tarjei J. Svensen @TarjeiJS quoting Carlsen on #2sjakk

"When I played d5 and sacced the pawn instead of for instance repeating moves that was already a gamble, I felt like I would have decent compensation - it was sort of a trend - I knew in my heart that once I'd taken that decision I wasn't going to back down later on and look for equality - so I knew at that point that at least mentally I'd already burned some bridges."

"What I did was probably not correct but I thought I would have some decent chances and then at some point I'd almost given up because I thought it wasn't working and then suddenly - I don't know if 32...a4 was a huge mistake but at any event it was unbelievably impractical and I think that was the problem..."

Firouzja was under tremendous pressure throughout, instead of 32...a4 32...Qe7 seems better, but the losing move was 35...Bf7? - here only 35...Kh8 works when with best play from both sides there could have been a draw. Carlsen drew his first 7 games last year - he was pleased that wasn't going to be a problem this year.

"I think 1st rounds are always very difficult. I am super happy to win this. A great start." Carlsen

Nils Grandelius beat Alexander Donchenko in an endgame that should probably have finished in a draw. Grandelius correctly identified 36...Rd2? as the decisive mistake (36...Rd3 or 36...f4 are good enough for a draw), Donchenko probably missed the 37.Re1+ Kd3 38.Re3+ resource.

Anish Giri got a winning position out of the opening when Arjen Tari played a sacrifice previously played my Magnus Carlsen against Hikaru Nakamura in the Lindores Abbey online rapid tournament. Giri had examined this in depth even before this and quickly got a winning position. Giri then tortured his opponent for many moves as he had no need to play for a direct win as he faced no counter play whatsoever. Giri infiltrated his opponent's position with his Queen and won with a mating sacrifice.

Jorden van Foreest held Fabiano Caruana to a draw with the black pieces. The games was a very complicated and tactical - van Foreest thought that the rook endgame should be quite straightforward but it was far more complicated than he envisaged - computers think Caruana should have played 41.Ra8 instead of 41.f5 and after that black did escape "by the skin of his teeth" to a draw.

Esipenko thought he was a bit better out of the opening (a Petroff) against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but that 15.Ne5 was a mistake allowing equality after 15.. Nxe5 16. dxe5 Ne4.

Radoslaw Wojtaszek was a pawn up in an endgame against David Anton but it was a theoretical draw which Anton proved quite precisely with 59...f6.

Pentala Harikrishna got a nice advantage against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and pushed for a long time but MVL eventually found a way to escape into a drawn bishops of opposite colours endgame.

83rd Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 15-31 i 2021																cat. XIX (2725)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2862	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
2.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2764	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
3.	Grandelius, Nils	g	SWE	2663	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2823	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	½	2671
5.	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2784	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2732
6.	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	g	POL	2743	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2677
7.	Harikrishna, Pentala	g	IND	2732	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2784
8.	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2705	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2679
9.	Esipenko, Andrey	g	RUS	2677	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2743
10.	Anton Guijarro, David	g	ESP	2679	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2705
11.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2671	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	½	2823
12.	Firouzja, Alireza	g	FID	2749	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Donchenko, Alexander	g	GER	2668	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Tari, Aryan	g	NOR	2625	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 16, 2021)
Carlsen, Magnus	- Firouzja, Alireza	1-0	40	D37	QGD 5.Bf4
Giri, Anish	- Tari, Aryan	1-0	47	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Grandelius, Nils	- Donchenko, Alexander	1-0	47	C50	Giuoco Piano
Caruana, Fabiano	- Van Foreest, Jorden	½-½	56	D32	Tarrasch Defence
Harikrishna, Pentala	- Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	½-½	64	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	- Anton Guijarro, David	½-½	67	E10	Blumenfeld Counter Gambit
Esipenko, Andrey	- Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	½-½	30	C42	Petroff's Defence