Games from Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

80th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Jan. 12-28, 2018

Final Standings 1-2. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2834, Anish Giri NED 2752, 9.0/13

3- 4. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2787, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2804, 8.5/13

5-6. Viswanathan Anand IND 2767, Wesley So USA 2792, 8.0/13 7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2753, 7.5/13 8. Peter Svidler RUS 2768, 6.0/13 9. Wei Yi CHN 2743, 5.5/13 10-12. Gawain Jones ENG 2640, Fabiano Caruana USA 2811, Maxim Matlakov RUS 2718, 5.0/13

13. Baskaran Adhiban IND 2655, 3.5/13

14. Hou Yifan CHN 2680, 2.5/13

Ave Rating 2750 Category 20

Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves then 15 minutes playto-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

The pride of the Netherlands Anish Giri didn’t do too badly in the 80th Tata Steel Masters SuperGM tournament held in Wijk aan Zee. Of course it was World Champion Magnus Carlsen who was declared the winner of the event after the first place tie with Giri and then winning the blitz tie-break match 1.5-0.5. However, as I mentioned last week the prize money was split equally and the match was simply to determine who gets bragging rights as the winner of Tata Steel.

This need to have a solo champion was just introduced last year — before that the two would have been declared co-winners. And even after they decided to have a solo champion they could have used the usual mathematical tie-breaks to declare the winner without the need to call the players back to play. What are the usual methods of breaking ties?

The most common first criteria is to use the result of the direct encounter between the two players. If they had, this wouldn’t have worked either for Carlsen vs Giri from round 4 was a draw.

After that they usually apply the Sonneborn-Berger system, which means adding the sum of the conventional scores of the players he has defeated to half the sum of the conventional scores of those he has drawn against. If they had used this then Anish Giri would have won since his victims included Kramnik and Mamedyarov who are tied for 3rd place. The highest ranked player Carlsen beat is Wesley So, tied for 5th.

Department of useless trivia: using the name Sonneborn- Berger to describe the system is a huge misnomer. Hermann Neustadtl was the one who proposed this system in 1882. William Sonneborn and Johann Berger were actually strong critics of the system — problem is they wrote about their objections so much that their names were forever associated with the system.

Number of Black games. On the assumption that it is harder to win or draw with Black than with White, the player with more games as Black is declared winner. This would not have worked either as both protagonists had 6 games with that color.

Anyway, despite the disappointment of not being champion Giri still has much to be happy for — he was undefeated with 5 wins (against Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Matlakov, Adhiban and Hou Yifan), gained 24.7 ratings points and rejoined the world top 10 list.

It is not general knowledge but Anish Giri is not a native of Holland. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia to a Russian mother (Olga Giri) and a Nepalese father (Sanjay Giri) in 1994. The Giri family then moved to Sapporo, Japan from 2002 to 2008 and after that settled in the Netherlands. His first chess steps were at the age of 6 when he joined a local youth sports club in St. Petersburg. He continued playing in Japan but it was in Holland where he made his quantum leap from a promising junior to a 2672 world beater.

Some quarters have suggested that Giri’s recent resurgence in form could be because he returned to his old coach Vladimir Chuchelov. This Muscoviteturned-Belgian International Grandmaster is well known as one of the world’s top trainers — Aside from Anish he has coached Van Wely, Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana.

Around three years ago Giri started working with another famous coach — Vladimir Tukmakov. No doubt the GiriTukmakov tandem had some successes, but in Wijk aan Zee the Dutchman showed up with GM Chuchelov once again. And his result here was inspiring.

Here is my favorite Giri game from Wijk aan Zee. Giri, Anish (2752) — Adhiban, Baskaran (2655) [A40] 80th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee NED (12.2), 27.01.2018

GM Baskaran Adhiban qualified for last year’s Tata Steel main event by winning the previous year’s Challengers. He was the lowest rated player then (2653) and was expected to get a horrible spanking, and indeed started with two draws and two losses in the first four rounds. However, in the 5th round he decided to forget that his opponents were the best players in the world and just attacked them. It worked like a dream — he crushed Sergey Karjakin in the 5th round in only 31 moves and he went on to win three more times with 5 draws. He even trotted out the King’s Gambit against Wesley So!

Adhiban played exciting chess and for that he was invited again to this year’s event, but it didn’t go so well. His opponents had adjusted their mind-set by expecting offbeat openings and played accordingly. Here is one example. 1.c4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 d6 5.e4 e6 6.Bd3 exd5 7.cxd5 Bg4

The idea behind this move is to followup with ...Nd7, then ...Bxf3 and ...Ne5.

8.Nbd2

In the post-game interview Giri said that he did not play the opening in the best way and this is probably it. A strong move is 8.Qa4+ Nd7 9.Nfd2 and suddenly Black’s bishop is in danger of being trapped from what I see the only way to save the piece is 9...Kf8 (in Zhao Xue vs Elina Danielian from 2012 Beijing Black really did lose the piece after 9... a6 10.h3 b5 11.Qc2 c4 12.Bf1 Bh5 13.g4 Black could only drag out the game until move 46) 10.h3 Ne5 11.Qb3 Bd7 but even then Black’s opening is obviously not a success.] 8... Nf6 9.0– 0 0– 0 10. h3 Bxf3 11.Nxf3 c4!

Anish Giri: “I realized I am suddenly not better. I was afraid I will not pose him any problems.” 12.Bxc4 Nxe4 13.Re1 Re8 14.Qc2 Nf6 15.Rxe8+ Nxe8 16.Bg5 Nf6

According to Giri this is a mistake. Better was 16...Bf6 and after 17.h4 Nd7 (Perhaps 17...a6 was better, preventing White’s next move) 18.Bb5! Giri’s lightsquared bishop did not have much scope and he wanted to exchange it. 17.Nd4

There is a hidden trap here. 17...Nbd7 is met by 18.Ne6! 17...Qb6 18.Be3 Ng4

Black is still having problems developing his pieces. He still cannot play 18... Nbd7 because of the aforementioned 19.Ne6. 19.Qe4! Nf6

Giri explained that 19...Nxe3 is met by 20.Qe8+ Bf8 21.fxe3 Qc7 22.Ne6! fxe6 23.dxe6 Qe7 24.Qc8 “when Black is completely paralyzed and helpless.” 20.Qe7 Nbd7 21.Nb5

Winning at least a pawn.

21... Bf8 22. Bxb6 Bxe7 23. Bxa7 Ne5 24.b3 Nxc4 25.bxc4 Rc8 26.Re1 Bf8 27.Bd4 Nd7 28.Rc1 Ra8 29.Rc2 Ra6 <D> POSITION AFTER 29...RA6 Now Anish Giri hits upon the winning idea. 30.Re2! Ra4 31.Re8 Rxc4 32.Rd8 Ne5 33.f4 Nd3

Where else can the knight go?

34.Bf6! Now Be7 is curtains. 34...Re4 35.Nxd6 Re1+ 36.Kh2 Nf2 37.Bg5 Making its way towards h6.

37...h5 [37...Kg7 does not work: 38.Ne8+ Kg8 39.Nf6+ Kg7 40.d6 h6 41.Bh4 Re2 42.d7 Rd2 43.Re8] 38.Bh6 h4

Just in case White falls for ...Rh1 mate. 39.g4 Kh7 40.Rxf8 Nd3

[40...Kxh6 41.Rxf7 followed by g4– g5+ and Rh7 mate] 41.Rxf7+ Kh8 42.Rf8+ 1–0

Adhiban never survived the opening.

***** On another matter, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) had its national convention and election last Jan. 30th at the Golden Bay Fresh Seafood Restaurant, Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, Pasay City.

The new Board of Directors of NCFP to serve for the next four years are: Cong. Prospero Pichay, Jr. Cong. Abraham Tolentino Atty. Ruel Canobas Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares Atty. Cliburn Anthony Orbe Judge Gonzalo Mapili Atty. Edmundo Legaspi Cong. Jesulito Manalo Atty. Tonisito Umali Louie Ramos Erwin Bollozos Waldo Geli Jonathan Amon Cesar Tan, Jr. Binky Gaticales Congressman Pichay ( Surigao del Sur) was reelected as NCFP chairman/ president while Cavite Representative Abraham Tolentino remained the secretary general. Atty. Cliburn Anthony Orbe became the new treasurer of the federation.

Congratulations to all!