In Round 9 of Tata Steel 2021, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively, and caught up with Alireza Firouzja who drew his game with Andrey Esipenko. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen returned to a +1 mark after defeating the ex-leader Nils Grandelius.
Fabiano Caruana went for the King’s Indian Defense with Black against Radoslaw Wojtaszek exchanged both his bishops (13…Bxc3 was particularly impressive) for the knights and completely outplayed the opponent using his dominance on the dark squares. “I think these positions are a bit different than we knew in the past. The whole King’s Indian, I think has a lot of potential we did not realize” said the winner in a post-game interview. This fine victory allowed Fabiano to catch up with the leader.
Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had a discussion in a rare line of the Najdorf variation and stepped into uncharted territory as early as by move 10. Maxime correctly sacrificed an exchange in a dynamic position with opposite-side castling and got sufficient compensation but a couple of inaccuracies closer to the time control cost him the game. Anish swiftly transposed into an endgame with an extra pawn and gradually converted his advantage to score a full point. Giri is now sitting on 6 points sharing first place with Firouzja and Caruana.
Andrey Esipenko comfortably equalized in the London System with Black against the leader Alireza Firouzja and did not budge in the subsequent maneuvering. The opponents shook hands and split a point on move 41.
Nils Grandelius held his ground on the Black side of Najdorf against Magnus Carlsen for a while but missed an important subtlety on move 30 (30…с4!) and lost a pawn. The World Champion seized an opportunity to return into a plus zone and although his conversion was not optimal (in his own words) he pulled out an important victory.
Arian Tari had a slight edge in the game with Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the opening but after fixing the pawn structure Black solved all his problems. A draw was agreed in an absolutely equal position on move 32.
Jorden Van Foreest had a chance to test Alexander Donchenko in a good-knight-vs-bad-bishop type of position (21.Bxf6) but he played differently and Black safely reached a draw.
David Anton got a long-lasting positional advantage vs. Pentala Harikrishna thanks to a much more active bishop but did not find a way (if there was any) to transform it into something tangible. Closer to time control the opponents started repeating moves and halved a point.
Standings after Round 9: 1-3. Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana – 6; 4-5. Jorden Van Foreest, Andrey Esipenko – 5½; 6. Magnus Carlsen – 5; 7-8. Nils Grandelius, Pentala Harikrishna – 4½; 9-12. Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Arian Tari, David Anton – 3½; 13-14. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Donchenko – 3.
Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021
Official website: tatasteelchess.com/