The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lead the Tata Steel Masters after 8 of the 13 rounds. They lead by half a point from Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi going into the second rest day.

Carlsen drew with the black pieces against Sam Shankland. Carlsen played the Von Hennig-Schara Gambit but things didn't get too crazy, after 13...Nd5 the key point is that 16.Rc1 Nxa2 is winning for black, something missed by Shankland initially. The game was balanced after that although the engines think black has a tiny something after 31...Qd5 - as played the game was quickly drawn. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov meanwhile won a sharp English against R Praggnanandhaa that left known theory very early on after his interesting 4.Qa4. 10...Bxh3?! (10...Nd7=) was the start of Praggnanandhaa's problems 16...Nb6? (16....Qb5! was better) continued them and he was just lost. Mamedyarov's technique wasn't perhaps that convincing but he won in 46 moves. Mamedyarov faces Carlsen with the black pieces after the rest day.

Anish Giri moved up to joint third place after his third win in a row - an unconvincing win against Caruana and a default against Dubov - was followed today with a theoretical duel in a Giuoco Piano via a Two Knights move order against Andrey Esipenko which finished in an unbalanced endgame where Giri had three pawns for a piece which was a type of endgame he'd published material on for a Chessable course, his conclusion was that it should be slightly better for white but he thought Esipenko then didn't play the most critical ideas. Then it looked much easier to play with the pawns and although the computer wasn't too worried Esipenko had a very difficult defence. After the mistake 45.Nd2? (45.Rc8) Giri was winning and made no mistake. Vidit Gujrathi got back to winning ways to be tied in third after beating Nils Grandelius in a very tactical battle. 6.g4 was Vidit's preparation, he was a little coy as to how deep this went. Grandelius started to go wrong (perhaps 12...Qa5+) and was under pressure 21...Kf7? (21...fxg4) led to a more or less lost position, perhaps 23.Rd2 was inaccurate (23.Bh1) and the tactical shot 23...Bxf5 was Grandelius's final chance.

The remaining games were drawn, Daniil Dubov was forced to defend a rook and pawn endgame a pawn down against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but held in the end. Fabiano Caruana and Jorden van Foreest drew an Open Lopez in 27 moves.

Round 8 Standings Masters: 1st-2nd Carlsen, Mamedyarov 5½pts; 3rd-4th Giri, Vidit 5pts; 5th Rapport 4½pts; 6th-9th Esipenko, Caruana, Karjakin, Van Foreest 4pts; 10th-11th Duda, Shankland 3½pts; 12th Dubov 3pts; 13th Praggnanandhaa 2½pts; 14th Grandelius 2pts;

Rest Day Monday 24th January 2022.

Round 9 Tuesday 25 January 2022 Giri-Shankland, Duda-Esipenko, Van Foreest-Dubov, Grandelius-Caruana, Rapport-Vidit, Praggnanandhaa-Karjakin, Carlsen-Mamedyarov.

Round 8 Standings Challengers: 1st Erigaisi 7pts; 2nd-3rd Jumabayev, Nguyen 5½pts; 4th-7th Van Foreest, Warmerdam, Murzin, Bjerre 4½pts; 8th-9th L'Ami, Ganguly 4pts; 10th Dardha 3½pts; 11 Shuvalova, Zhu Jiner 2½pts; 13 Vogel 2pts; 14 Maurizzi 1½pts;