Magnus rocks Wijk!

     The Tata Steel Chess Festival has come to an end. It's been two weeks of uncompromising fight and I really enjoyed watching it, as the most of us, I suppose.
     The star of the "A" group- Magnus Carlsen- scored a fantastic +7 (10p out of 13)-  more than enough for claiming the win in the tournament.

     It's interesting that his games were not that spectacular (the one against Nakamura might be an exception). Let's take Fischer or Kasparov for example- they could simply crush their opponents in an "all in" style,not necessarily correct- but surely spectacular.They had such an energy bursting out, they were driven by chess. I don't see much of it in Carlsen's play, it seems for me that he doesn't like to take risks, no poker bluffing,no emotions, just machine's precision.

    Aronian finished the tournament in 2nd and Anand in 3rd. Aronian was unlucky to lose by preparation from Vishy and then to miss the chance of winning against Magnus. I think that with some more luck, he could challenge Magnus for the 1st place.

      It was nice to see the World's Champion-Anand- come back. It seemed that he didn't have a good period lately, not scoring more than 50% in any major event. I think his win over Aronian inspired him and brought more life into his play.

     The "B" group's 1st place was shared by 2 players- Naiditsch Arakadij and Rapport Richard, both scoring 9p out of 13.

A very talented Hungarian player, one of the youngest GM's in the World-Rapport Richard

     An Italian GM- Brunello Sabino won the "C" group with an amazing +9 (11p out of 13) and a 2764 performance!

Brunello Sabino

     My congratulations to the winners and I hope that the tradition of Wijk aan Zee will continue to offer us the same thrill for many more years!

Mysterious rook moves

     Wijk is such an interesting chess festival! There are too many games worth being followed. The game Giri-Caruana has caught my eye today. I think it deserves to be the game of the day! Here you can see it:


     The sacrifice of the 2 pawns followed by two amazing rook maneuvers were a masterpiece!

Anish Giri

     Ten rounds have been played by now, and Magnus Carlsen is the clear lider, having 8p. Here you can see the standings.

		Score	Rating	TPR	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1	Carlsen, M.	8.5 / 11	2861	2929		½	½		1	½	1		1	½	½	1	1	1
2	Anand, V.	6.5 / 10	2772	2860	½		1	½	½	½	½	½	1		1			½
3	Aronian, L.	6.5 / 10	2802	2827	½	0			½	1	½		½	1		1	½	1
4	Nakamura, H.	6.5 / 10	2769	2822		½			½	½		½	½	1	1	1	½	½
5	Karjakin, S.	5.5 / 10	2780	2775	0	½	½	½			½	½		1	½	1	½
6	Leko, P.	5.5 / 10	2735	2782	½	½	0	½			½	½		½	1		½	1
7	Harikrishna, P.	5.0 / 10	2698	2741	0	½	½		½	½		1	1		½	0		½
8	Giri, A.	5.0 / 11	2726	2679		½		½	½	½	0		½	½	1	0	½	½
9	van Wely, L.	5.0 / 10	2679	2728	0	0	½	½			0	½		1		½	1	1
10	Wang, H.	4.5 / 11	2752	2665	½		0	0	0	½		½	0		½	1	1	½
11	Caruana, F.	4.5 / 11	2781	2661	½	0		0	½	0	½	0		½		½	1	1
12	Hou, Y.	3.5 / 10	2603	2638	0		0	0	0		1	1	½	0	½		½
13	L'Ami, E.	3.0 / 10	2627	2600	0		½	½	½	½		½	0	0	0	½
14	Sokolov, I.	2.5 / 10	2667	2565	0	½	0	½		0	½	½	0	½	0

Magnus Carlsen- World's Nr.1

     Magnus has had an amazing tournament so far and he's gaining 10 Elo points. I think he might get to 2900 by the end of the year.

     There are 2 more rounds to go, but I don't think that anyone will be able to challenge Carlsen for the 1st place.

Anand-Caruana

     Here's an interesting game from the yesterday's 3rd round in Wijk aan Zee. I hope you'll enjoy the analysis I've done :)

Anand-Caruana

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2013

     The Tata Steel Chess Tournament starts today in Wijk aan Zee. It will be 2 weeks of exciting chess, I can't  wait to follow it! There are 14 players in the A group, with Magnus Carlsen as the top-seed.  Here's the list of participants:

Garry Kasparov awarding Alexandra with the Gold Medal

GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2861
GM	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2802
GM	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2781
GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2780
GM	Anand, Viswanathan	IND	2772
GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2769
GM	Wang, Hao	CHN	2752
GM	Leko, Peter	HUN	2735
GM	Giri, Anish	NED	2720
GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	IND	2698
GM	van Wely, Loek	NED	2679
GM	Sokolov, Ivan	NED	2663
GM	L'Ami, Erwin	NED	2627
GM	Hou, Yifan	CHN	2603

     The average rating of the tournament is 2732, which makes it a 20 category one. As a premier, we can see Hou Yifan, the former Women's World Champion playing in the A group.
     Another ineteresting player to follow is the 14 yo Alexandra Goryachkina who's the G18 World Champion and who already has an impressive 2402 Elo. She plays in the C group of the festival.
     The World Junior Champion- Ipatov Alexander (2587) participates in the B group of the event.
     It is very cool to see so many talented juniors being given the opportunity to play in such strong tournaments,I hope to be able to play there some
day too :)

Typical view of Wijk an Zee when winter 

     I hope we will see some amazing chess, and I will definetely free my tomorrow's afternoon in order to follow the Aronian-Carlsen encounter!