29. ... Bxb4 30. Rxc6 Re8 31. f6 Rd4 32. Re6, Black resigned.
International Events / 2016 Wijk aan Zee The position is roughly equal and after 18.
“The final trick is 32. Re6 gxf6 33. Nxf6+
Kf7 34. Nxe8 Kxe6 35. Ng7+! Kxe7 36. Nf5+ and I pick up his rook,” explained Caruana.
Wesley So was, along with Carlsen, unde feated “He had to try 26. ... Bxf5,” Caruana, who
was originally intending 27. Ne3 Bxh3 28. Rfe1? having overlooked 28. ... b3! However Caruana soon realized that 28. Rf2 Be6 29. f5 Bf7 30. f6! Rxc6 31. fxg7 was the way to play, wth the idea 31. ... Kxg7 32. Rxf7+! Kxf7 33. Rf1+ and White wins.
27. Nf2 Rd5 “27. ... Rg3+ 28. Kh2 Rf3 29. Nxe4 Rxf1 30.
Rxf1 Rxc6 31. Rd1 is the same story,” said Caruana.
28. Nxe4 Bxc6
and could be reasonably satisfied with his tie for fourth place. So seemed to be suffering a hangover from his exciting super-tournament debut at the 2015 Sinquefield Cup, where his risk-taking style had won fans but not many games. In Wijk aan Zee So started impressively by
beating local hope Anish Giri but then began a sequence of 12 consecutive draws. Some of these games were, however, far from uneventful but So seemed to lack the finishing technique to put away such strong opposition. For exam - ple, had So won the following sixth round game he would have been leading the tournament.
AND SO FORTH GM Wesley So (FIDE 2773, USA) GM Fabiano Caruana (2787) Tata Steel Chess 2016 (6), Wijk aan Zee, North Holland, 01.22.2016
Sad but necessary. After 21. ... Nxe4 22. Ne5!
(Not 22. dxc5 Nxc5 when Black has the extra pawn Caruana had wanted.) 22. ... Qd5 23. Rxe4! was the trick that So had missed, after which Black would be forced to resign. “It’s good I had a way to hold on,” admitted Caruana, “but it was very unpleasant, possibly lost at some point.” The game continued ... 22. a5! Rac8 23. d5 exd5 24. exd5 Qd6
29. Bxb4! “The cleanest,” said Caruana.
AFTER 18. Ree1
25. Re6 when White had all the chances. However Caruana hung tough and eventually drew a pawn down endgame on move 80.
Tata Steel Chess 2016 — January 13-29, 2016 Rating Country
1. GM Magnus Carlsen 2. GM Fabiano Caruana 3. GM Liren Ding 4. GM Wesley So 5. GM Anish Giri
6. GM Pavel Eljanov 7. GM Yi Wei
2844 NOR 2787
USA USA
2798 NED 2760 UKR
8. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2747 9. GM Sergey Karjakin 10. GM David Navara
11. GM Evgeny Tomashevsky 12. GM Yifan Hou
13. GM Michael Adams 14. GM Loek Van Wely
2769 2730 2728
... Nh5, Caruana would have few worries. However the older American thought for 20 minutes and became optimistic about his chances in a long tricky line he had calculated ...
18. ... Qc6? 19. Nc5! “The main move I had been considering,”
said Caruana. 19. ... dxc5 20. Qxc4 exd4 21. cxd4
Caruana had calculated this far and had expected to be able to capture the pawn on e4. At the last moment he realized his error ...
21. ... Nd7!
1
2
x ½ ½ x
3 4 5 6 7 8 ½
½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1
9 ½ ½
10 11 12 ½
1 1
13 1
1 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1
14 1 1
2766 CHN ½ 0 x ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 2773
1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1
2706 CHN ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ x ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ AZE RUS CZE RUS
½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ x ½ ½ ½ 1 ½
2673 CHN 2744 ENG 2640 NED
½ 0
½ ½ ½ x 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 x ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 0 ½ ½ x ½
1 ½
½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ x ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ x ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ x ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ x ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ x ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ x
For more games and information, see the official website:
http://www.tatasteelchess.com/.
www.uschess.org 43
Score 9 8 8 7 7 7
6½ 6½ 6
5½ 5½ 5 5 5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76