Anish Giri ground down Radoslaw Wojtaszek in a slightly better endgame and took the lead as his main competitors Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja made a half-step forward. They are now tied for second place with Andrey Esipenko who bested David Anton. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scored his first victory in the event.
After an interesting and animated middlegame, Anish Giri and Radoslaw Wojtaszek ended up in a drawish-looking endgame with three vs. three pawns on one side. Nevertheless, the Dutchman little by little made huge progress by coordinating the pieces and advancing his pawn to h6 although not without some help from his opponent. Discouraged by this turn of events Radoslaw missed a simple but nice combination by White (49.Rxh7!) and resigned immediately.
The game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alexander Donchenko saw the most dramatic turnaround in Tata Steel 2021. After taking a strategically risky approach with White in a rare line of Caro-Kann the Frenchman found himself in a completely lost position but after the German missed several winning continuations White managed to transpose into an equal endgame. Maxim was gradually improving his position and eventually won a pawn but at cost of giving up his passer on the queenside. A queen ending three vs. two paws on one side was drawn but required some accuracy from Black, which Alexander did not demonstrate and suffered a painful defeat.
Andrey Esipenko and David Anton played a very complicated game in Ruy Lopez in which Black had better chances at some point. However, Anton seems to either overlook or underestimate White’s a3-b4 idea and fell under heavy pressure. With some simple but strong moves, Esipenko reached complete dominance and wrapped it up by breaking through on the kingside.
Fabiano Caruana tested Magnus Carlsen in the Catalan where he introduced a novelty 12.c5 followed by 13.e4. The World Champion did not react optimally, probably missing a temporary piece sacrifice 16.Nxd5. Caruana emerged with an extra pawn but did not manage to pose serious problems for Carlsen. The position quickly liquidated into an endgame in which Magnus reached a draw with relative ease thanks to his active pieces.
Pentala Harikrishna played somewhat passively on the white side of Ruy Lopez against Arian Tari and as a result, had to defend an inferior position for most of the game. The Indian GM was up to the task and even got a slight edge closer to the end but the Norwegian for his part found a couple of precise moves and maintained the balance.
Nils Grandelius obtained a slightly better position with White in the Rauzer Sicilian against Alireza Firouzja, but maybe relieved the tension a bit early as Black’s king was not completely safe. After the queens were traded the opponents quickly sealed a draw by repetition.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Jorden Van Foreest played a very complex game in the King’s Indian Defense. The Dutch jumped right out of the gate by sacrificing two pawns and got a great attacking position. However, having so many attractive options Black missed a couple of strong but very hard-to-find continuations on moves 16 and 17 and White sneaked out of danger. A draw by repetition was agreed on move 26.
Standings after Round 10: 1. Anish Giri – 7; 2-4. Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Andrey Esipenko – 6½; 5. Jorden Van Foreest – 6; 6. Magnus Carlsen – 5½; 7-8. Nils Grandelius, Pentala Harikrishna – 5; 9-11. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Arian Tari, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 4; 12-13. Radoslaw Wojtaszek, David Anton – 3½; 14. Alexander Donchenko – 3.
Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021
Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
