Tomashevsky -- Eljanov, Tata Steel 2016

Blogging Round Five

Through the first four rounds of this year's Tata Steel Chess Tournamnet, I started my blog post each day the previous night and scheduled it to post at 3:30 am. The games begin at 4:30 am my time; 1:30 pm in the Netherlands. Today, the games are being played in Amsterdam, instead of Wijk aan Zee, and start half an hour later. For me, that made it possible to have my iPad on following the moves before play reaches the middle game.

Due to a gift on Monday and a nice trap on Tuesday, Pavel Eljanov is one of the players currently in second place. Evgeny Yomashevsky has shown in previous events that he plays interesting chess. I decided a couple of nights ago that I would concentrate on their game today.

Tomashevsky,Evgeny (2728) -- Eljanov,Pavel (2760) [E00]
Tata Steel Chess Amsterdam, 21.01.2016

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Nd2 

I was happy to see this position in the game that I decided to follow because White's play looks like a set-up that I often find myself in. I have had good games on both sides of the Catalan.

4...c5 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 cxd4 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bg2 Bb7 

Black's Bogo-Indian set-up strikes me as a smart choice against the Catalan. So often, normal Queen's Gambit Declined moves seem to give White a nice position and Black little play.

9.0–0 Bxf3 10.Bxf3

Black to move

Knights against bishops!

Tomashevsky has been on the Black side of this position after Black's ninth move. His opponent, however, played 10.exf3.

Volkov,Sergey (2615) -- Tomashevsky,Evgeny (2707) [E00]
RUS-ch Higher League 64th Taganrog (7), 22.06.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Nd2 c5 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 cxd4 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.0–0 Bxf3 10.exf3 Nc6 11.f4 0–0 12.b4 Rc8 13.Bb2 d6 14.Bxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 Qc7 16.Rfc1 Rfd8 17.Qe3 Qd7 18.Qd4 Qc7 19.Qe3 Qd7 20.Qd4 ½–½

10...Nc6 11.b3

Played in one prior game that can be found in my database.

11...0–0 12.Bb2 Rc8N

12...e5 was played in the sole remaining reference game.

Mikhalevski,Alexander (2485) -- Sturua,Zurab (2595) [E00]
Biel MTO op Biel (10), 1998

1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ 3.Nd2 c5 4.a3 Bxd2+ 5.Qxd2 cxd4 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.g3 b6 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.0–0 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Nc6 11.b3 0–0 12.Bb2 e5 13.e3 e4 14.Bg2 d5 15.exd4 Na5 16.Qc2 dxc4 17.bxc4 Rc8 18.c5 Qd5 19.Bc3 Nb3 20.Rab1 Nxd4 21.Bxd4 Qxd4 22.c6 Qc5 23.Qxc5 bxc5 24.Rb7 Rxc6 25.Rxa7 Rfc8 26.Re7 Kf8 27.Re5 Ra6 28.Bxe4 Rxa3 29.Rc1 c4 30.Rc2 c3 31.Bf3 g6 32.Kf1 h5 33.Re3 g5 34.Rd3 g4 35.Bg2 h4 36.gxh4 Nh5 37.Rd4 Re8 38.Bc6 Ra1+ 39.Kg2 Ree1 40.Rxg4 f5 41.Rc4 Nf6 42.R2xc3 Ng4 43.Rf3 Rg1+ 44.Kh3 Ra3 45.Rc2 Rxf3+ 46.Bxf3 Kg7 47.Bg2 Ne5 48.Kg3 f4+ 49.Kxf4 Nd3+ 50.Ke3 Rxg2 51.Kxd3 Rxh2 52.f4 Rxh4 53.Ke4 Rh5 54.Rc7+ Kf6 55.Rc6+ Kf7 ½–½

13.Bxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 Rc5 15.b4 Rc7 16.e4

Black to move

What's going on here?

White has a bishop for a knight and more space. Six minor pieces and one set of pawns have come off the board. It is not surprising that the two reference games both ended in draws. Despite the imbalance in the pawn structure and minor pieces, this position must give bothe sides equal chances. In order to win such a position, a player must take some risks.

16...d6 17.Rfd1 e5 18.Qd3 Qc8 19.Be2 Rd8 20.Qe3 g6 21.Rd2 Kg7

White to move

The broadcast today is lively with Yasser Seirawan and FM Tex de Wit sitting on a stage in the NEMO Museum in front of a live audience. The banter between them is interesting, as is the discussion of chess in the Netherlands.

Seirawan and de Wit are looking at several exciting games, analyzing possible variations. If they have mentioned the game that I am following, it was when I was inattentive. Tomashevsky -- Eljanov seems a bit sedate compared to Ding Liren's queenside castling against Anish Giri or Hou Yifan's nice position on the Black side against Fabiano Caruana.

On the other hand, sedate play is the bread and butter of a Grandmaster's existence. Moreover, learning to play seemingly even positions is necessary for the improving club player. Tomashevsky and Eljanov could make a few more moves, risking nothing, and agree to a short draw. On the other hand, both are systemically improving the position of their pieces.

22.Rad1 Qe6 23.Kg2 h6 24.f3

These little pawn moves and the quiet position reminds me of a tournament game that I played in 2012. In my game we exchanged queens and most minor pieces early leaving rooks, one knight each, and most of the pawns on the board. we brought our rooks to the only open file, kept our kings on adjacent files, deprived one another's knights of certain squares, and then repeated the position. I would have been happy with a draw. My opponent, rated about 200 Elo higher than me did not want to share second place in the tournament with as many as half a dozen other participants, so he struck with a pawn break that convinced me that the game was likely to be decisive and that I was a little worse.

Then, the knights came off the board and I had a pawn structure that looked weak. During a nine minute think after exchanging one set of rooks, I discovered that the mutual zugzwang that our kings would find themselves in after the other rooks came off actually favored me, despite initial appearances to the contrary. I won the game and finished the tournament in sole second place behind IM John Donaldson, winning $250 (see "Pawn Wars").

In this game, however, there is a minor piece imbalance and the queens are still on the board. Jeremy Silman, in his popular How to Reassess Your Chess and other books, asserts that with an imbalance, one should play so as to make your minor piece better than your opponent's minor piece. For Tomashevsky, that means looking for a way to open up the position. On the other hand, a knight often works better with a queen, while a bishop works better with rooks. Seeking to swap queens also could be a long-term strategic goal for White.

24...Rdd7 25.Bf1 Qe7 26.Kg1 Qe6

Moving towards the time control, or avoiding risk? Tomashevsky has 23 minutes; Eljanov has 45.

27.Kg2 Qe7

I predict a draw in this game.

Navara -- So ended in a draw after 46 moves. All other games are continuing.

28.Kg1Qe6 29.Re1

29.Kg2 would draw by repetition: the same position occuring with Black to move after 25.Bf1, 27.Kg2, and 29.Kg2. I believe that under FIDE rules, the proper method of claiming such a draw is to write the move on one's scoresheet and notify the arbiter.

Black to move

29...Rd8

Maybe there is yet a battle brewing in this quiet game.

30.Qf2

Perhaps Tomashevsky has decided to play against the backwards d-pawn, the most glaring weakness in the pawn structure. I can see Re1-e3-d3 and Qf2-e2-d1. Black, however, has plenty of time to meet this threat.

30...Kh7

I suddenly noticed that my plan to build up on the d-file hangs White's c-pawn, White's most vulnerable point.

31.Ra1 Qe7 32.Re1 Qe6 33.Ra1 Qe7 34.Qe3

Loek van Wely is playing on the increment in a difficult position against Magnus Carlsen. It is hard to attend to Tomashevsky -- Eljanov.

34...Rc6 35.Rad1 Rcc8 36.Qf2 Kg7 

White to move

37.Qe3 Nh7 38.Rd5 1/2-1/2.

My chosen game ends with a quiet draw while there are fireworks on other boards. Even so, it is not without instructive value.

Standings after five rounds.

Tata Steel Chess 2016, Round Two

When was the last time that two Americans shared the lead with a Chinese player in Wijk aan Zee? After the first round, they do.

Disappointing Chess Fans

Loek Van Wely and Sergey Karjakin had four draws at Wijk aan Zee before Karjakin's win in 2012. Karjakin then won again in 2013 and 2014. Their overall record together stands at two wins for Van Wely, the latest in 2005, seven wins for Karjakin, and six draws. After Van Wely missed a clear win against Shakhryar Mamedyarov yesterday, he will be hard-pressed to end Karjakin's streak of wins since 2012.

Van Wely played a Dragon and reached an interesting position analyzed in some depth by Yasser Seirawan and Lawrence Trent.

Karjakin,Sergey -- Van Wely,Loek [B76]
Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee, 17.01.2016

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0–0 8.Bb3 d6 9.f3 Bd7 10.h4 h5 11.Qd2 Qa5 12.0–0–0 Rfc8 13.Kb1 Ne5 14.Bg5 Kf8 15.f4 Neg4 16.Rhe1 Rc5 17.f5 gxf5 18.Nxf5 Bxf5 19.exf5

Black to move

19...Re8 

In their analysis, Trant and Seirawan concluded that 19...Re8 was Black's only non-losing move, and then learned from their researchers that it had been played before.

20.Nd5N

20.Bf4 was played in the reference game that I was able to locate. 20...Rxf5 21.Rxe7 Rxe7 22.Bxd6 Rfe5 23.Qf4 Kg8 24.Bxe7 Rxe7 0–1 Guempges,P (2076) -- Wisskirchen,A (2266) Germany 2004.

Apparently Karjakin offered a draw with the move's novelty. ½–½

Fighting Draws

Mamedyarov leads Evgeny Tomashevsky 3-5-1 (W-D-L) in their encounters. However, Tomashevsky's win in February 2015 was their most recent battle at classical time control. That win came in the fourth round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi, an event that Tomashevsky won. In August 2015, Tomashevsky won the Russian Championship, which pushed him to his peak rating of 2758.

Among amateurs, there would still be some play in the position where Tomashevsky and Mamedyarov agreed to a draw, but I sense that the position is completely equal for Grandmasters. Black has a bishop pair and rook against White's bishop, knight and rook. Black also has an extra pawn, although two pawns are threatened.

In August 2014, Wei Yi lost to Pavel Eljanov in their only game prior to today. After a battle, the players reached a queen and minor piece ending with fourteen pawns still on the board. Maybe White's knight is a little better than Black's bishop according to the theory that knights work well with bishops. On the other hand, White's queen must guard the first rank or Black's queen and bishop will create checkmate threats. After a repetition of moves, the game was drawn.

White to move

Assuming that my database is complete, Magnus Carlsen leads Fabiano Caruana 16-10-7. In 2014, Caruana's astounding success, especially at the Sinquefield Cup where he beat Carlsen, created expectations that he was on the verge of challenging Carlsen's reign at the top of the rating charts. His results since then have not been as strong, although he defeated Carlsen again in 2015. It was Carlsen's second loss in the first two rounds of Norway Chess in Stavanger (see video). The two played seven games in 2015 with Carlsen winning three, Caruana winning one, and three draws.

Their game today was an intense battle.

Carlsen,Magnus -- Caruana,Fabiano [A00]
Tata Steel Chess Wijk aan Zee, 17.01.2016

1.g3 g6 2.Bg2 Bg7 3.e4 e5 4.Ne2 c5 5.d3 Nc6 6.Be3 d6 7.Qd2 Nd4 

7...Nge7 has been reached in at least four games with three White wins.

8.c3 Nxe2 9.Qxe2 Ne7 10.h4 h6 11.h5 g5 12.f4 exf4 13.gxf4 gxf4 14.Bxf4 Nc6 15.Na3 Be5 16.Be3 Be6 17.Nc4 Bg3+ 18.Kd2 Qd7 19.d4 cxd4 20.cxd4

Black to move

20...Ne5

Seirawan and Trent thought this move was forced. Caruana, in his postgame interview with Seirawan thought so as well.

21.Nxe5 dxe5 22.d5 Bg4 23.Bf3 Bxf3 24.Qxf3 Qb5 25.Rac1 Qxb2+ 26.Kd1 Bf4 27.Bxf4 exf4 28.Qxf4 Rg8 29.Rf1 Qd4+ 30.Ke1 Qb4+ 31.Kd1 Qd4+ 32.Ke1 Qb4+ ½–½

Navara's Activity Level

David Navara has two draws and four losses against Michael Adams. He played well yesterday against Carlsen. It seems that Navara's level of activity has increased in the past year or two. He also is currently at his peak rating. Perhaps he will score his first victory against Adams.

He did not win. The game was a battle that ended when the players reached a knight and pawn ending after 31 moves.

Ding Liren and Anish Giri tied for second in last year's Tata Steel Chess tournament, along with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Giri won their individual encounter with an instructive endgame of knight and bishop against rook with three pawns each. Ding had won their first encounter in 2012 and the two have had three draws, two of them at the Bilbao tournament in 2015.

Ding is the highest rated Chinese player ever and the second to break into the FIDE top ten.

After Black's 33rd move, the knights are coming off the board and the resulting queen ending with five pawns each should be objectively drawn. The players agreed to a draw vefore exchanging knights.

Hou Yifan surpassed Judit Polgar as the top rated woman in 2015. Polgar had been the top rated woman for 26 years. Her five prior encounters with Wesley So have all ended in draws, typically fifty moves or more. Their shortest draw was in Dortmund last year and lasted forty moves.

At the time that I needed to turn my attention to the Seattle Seahawks and their effort to return to a third Super Bowl appearance in three years, this game was at its 49th move. So seemed to have the upper hand earlier, but now Hou seems better.

At the end of the first quarter, the Seahawks were already in a hole and I saw that after five more moves, Hou -- So ended with a draw.

Tata Steel Chess 2016, Round One

Last night, in preparation for today's opening round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, I reviewed previous encounters for each of the pairs of contestants. Although the overall strength of this year's event is down from prior years, there will be some interesting match-ups. In the Tata Steel Masters, there are three players from China and only two from Russia. The future is thus well represented.

Hou -- Karjakin

I found one game in the database between these two players, and it was a game that I remember watching live three years ago. It was played during the Tata Steel Chess tournament. Hou Yifan played the French Defense and chose an obscure line of the Steinitz variation designed to immediately swap off her bad bishop. Against a player of Sergey Karjakin's caliber, this strategy was fatal. Too much time was spent in the exchange. Karjakin built up his attack and forced the Black king to remain in the middle of the board. That was enough for a lasting advantage.

Today's game was drawn after both players reached the time control. Each had two rooks and four pawns remaining.

So -- Giri

Anish Giri had White in his first meeting with Wesley So in the Corus C-Group of the 2009 Wijk aan Zee tournament. That game was agreed drawn after it was reduced to a pawn ending. Both players were elevated to the B-Group the following year. Giri won with the Petroff. Later in 2010, Giri beat So again in Biel. Their next two encounters were draws, one in the 2014 Tata Steel Masters. In last year's Tata Steel Masters, Giri won a marathon battle of 111 moves. So then scored a win against Giri in the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in April. They played six more games against one another in 2015, with So winning one of the blitz games and the others all drawn.

So won a symmetrical English that left Black's minor pieces inferior to White's.

Ding -- Adams

The only prior encounter between these two players in my database was at the 2013 Alekhine Memorial. Ding Liren played 4.f3 against Michael Adams' Nimzo-Indian Defense. Most of the pieces came off in a tactical melee, and the players agreed to a draw in a balanced endgame.

Ding Liren won an ending that featured a knight, rook, and pawns on each side. Eventually, Adams lost his knight with a stalemate trap that Ding easily saw through.

Navara -- Carlsen

According to my database, David Navara has an even score against Magnus Carlsen, but all but one of these games were played before Carlsen ascended to the top of the rating list. Navara was over 2700, and ranked above Carlsen when he beat the future World Champion with a Grunfeld Defense at Wijk aan Zee 2007. The previous year, they drew their game in the B-Group. Carlsen's win against Navara came in 2008 at the Dresden Olympiad. Two other games, most recently in 2012, ended as draws.

David Navara gave a nice interview with Yasser Seirawan where he described how he avoided the sort of strategic complications that would have favored the World Champion. In the end, Carlsen forced a draw by repetition.

Caruana -- Eljanov

All of the games between these two players have been decisive with Pavel Eljanov leading 3-2. Two games were played in the World Blitz Championship in 2010. Caruana won with White, but lost in three moves from the Black side. There must have been an illegal move or some other irregularity. The only clue that I could find in ten minutes of searching was Mark Crowther's comment (The Week in Chess, theweekinchess.com, 18 November 2010) that some games were incomplete. Perhaps the game score is incomplete due to problems with the DGT boards. Fabiano Caruana's sole classic time control win against Eljanov came against the Berlin Defense in 2011. Later that year, Eljanov opted for the Caro-Kann and won. Will Eljanov opt to test Caruana in the Berlin once again?

Caruana told Seirawan that he was worse early on in this Queen's Gambit, but his attack began to gain ground after a coupld of time wasting moves by Eljanov. The score between these two players is now even.

Wei -- Tomashevsky

If Wei Yi and Evgeny Tomashevsky have played one another prior to today, the game is not in my database. Nor do any games from the usual online database appear via a Google search.

This 23 move draw was the shortest game of the round.

Mamedyarov -- Van Wely

These two have seventeen prior encounters at my fingertips. Shakhryar Mamedyarov leads Loek Van Wely 7-7-3 (W-D-L). Two of these games were played at Wijk aan Zee.

If you showed this position to any Grandmaster and mentioned that Black has a win, he or she would find it in under two minutes. Alas, there is no such voice of assistance in a tournament game and Loek van Wely missed his chance. The game was drawn after a long ending where White was unable to convert a small advantage.

Black to move