Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are the two best players in classical chess. They have been at the top of the FIDE rating list for the last few years, taking first prizes most of classical chess tournaments in recent history and faced each other in the last World Championship match. In Round 10 of Tata Steel Masters Magnus and Fabiano proved their toughness winning key games and forging into the lead in Wijk aan Zee.
Caruana had White against a tournament sensation Alireza Firouzja right after the latter lost his game versus Carlsen – the tournament schedule wasn't kind to the youngster. Firouzja didn't seem to be shaken though - he surprised Caruana twice, first time with a double-edged King's Indian and then with a very rare move 6...Nc6. Fabiano was out of the book quickly and felt a bit worried as his opponent kept blitzing moves. It looks like only 11...b6 was a novelty, and the key moment occurred on move 14 when Caruana boldly played 14.g5 provoking a tempting piece sacrifice by Black. Engines approve on this and agree with Caruana who felt that he was at least not worse in the arising position with a bishop against 4 pawns. American GM puzzled out the secret of the position – Black’s pawn on d6 was a clog for his rooks, and it was very important not to take it with the queen. Caruana also was right that Black’s advancing his pawn army would expose the king. This exact scenario happened in the game and White's attack was short and convincing. Firouzja probably could have played better around move 30 (30...h5! preventing h3-h4 was worth considering), but in general, he has nothing to blame himself for. He gambled a bit, and Caruana was just a better player tonight.
Magnus Carlsen had a much easier task today as he was practically winning against Vladislav Kovalev right after the opening. Spectators and opponents started to forget how dangerous the World Champion could be after the first 7 games/draws, but the lion is back now. 13...a6 was definitely too slow, and after that Carlsen was unstoppable. When he broke through in the center with 18.e4! we could start writing this part of the report as the World #1 is ruthless in these positions.
After 10 rounds the order is restored in the chess kingdom. Caruana is leading with 7 points - actually, it's already his best score in Wijk aan Zee, and there are still three rounds to go. Carlsen is in clear second and only half a point behind. There is practically no doubt that one of them will lift the trophy on Sunday when the event is over.
Apart from two Big C's, Jeffery Xiong was the only winner today as he kind of recovered after his mid-tournament troubles. He got a classical endgame advantage against Vladislav Artemiev as his rook was much more active - his opponent from Russia sacrificed a pawn to activate his rook, but White managed to get connected passed pawns on "a" and "b" files and the game got beyond the point of no return for Black.
In a few drawn games today the curtain fell a bit too early. Daniil Dubov was slightly better against Anish Giri and could have tortured him for a while without any risk but decided against testing the Dutchman's legendary defensive technique. Nikita Vitiugov is probably very disappointed with his performance in Tata Steel as he missed several very good opportunities and made a horrible blunder against van Foreest - that is the reason he probably didn't believe himself when he got a clear edge playing with Black against Vishwanathan Anand. He got an extra pawn with no compensation for White in sight, but just forced a draw by repetition. Yu Yangyi also had an extra pawn for the biggest part of the game against Wesley So and tried everything to get his first tournament win but Wesley So is just too good of a defender to let this happen.
As always, Jorden van Foreest played one of the most entertaining games of the round - this time with a clear help of his adversary, Jan-Krzystof Duda. The Dutchman played 2.c3 against the Sicilian, but Duda had no troubles equalizing and then securing some advantage thanks to the pair of bishops. Feeling that something went wrong van Foreest sacrificed a pawn with 27.b4!? but if Duda had reacted with 30...a5 the 20-year-old from Utrecht would still have had serious problems. 30...Kh7 allowed White to escape with a nice queen sacrifice that lead to a perpetual check.
Thursday will be the last day off; the tournament will continue on Friday. Both leaders will have Black - Caruana versus Kovalev and Carlsen is facing Duda.
Official site: https://www.tatasteelchess.com/
Photo: Alina l’Ami
Tata Steel Masters 2020 Standings after Round 10:
1. Caruana - 7;
2. Carlsen - 6.5;
3-4. Van Foreest, So - 6;
5-6. Duda, Firouzja - 5.5;
7-8. Dubov, Giri - 5;
9-11. Artemiev, Anand, Xiong - 4.5;
12-13. Vitiugov, Yu Yangyi - 3.5;
14. Kovalev - 3