Tata Steel Chess 2022 Jan 15-30

[Scott Colliver]

Which Firoujza, Alireza or his father? The tournament director was quoted "asked for much more money..." That is not a demand and the money may have been negotiable.I have not seen anything that said the event or organiser could not afford the money requested.
BTW I don't want to derail this thread.

Nakamura has said that money is quite tight for the organisers and players do not get paid a huge amount of money to play anyway. They play because of the reputation of the tournament not because of the money they receive.

[Metro]

        Standings 
1	Carlsen, Magnus    5½/8	 2865
2	Mamedyarov, Shak   5½/8	 2767
3	Giri, Anish        5/8	 2772
4	Vidit, Santosh G   5/8	 2727
5	Rapport, Richard   4½/8	 2763
6	Esipenko, Andrey   4/8	 2714
7	Caruana, Fabiano   4/8	 2792
8	Karjakin, Sergey   4/8	 2743
9	Van Foreest, J     4/8	 2702
10	Duda, Jan-K        3½/8	 2760
11	Shankland, Sam     3½/8	 2708
12	Dubov, Daniil      3/8	 2720
13	Praggnanandhaa R   2½/8	 2612
14	Grandelius, Nils   2/8	 2672

Rest day follows and in round 9 Magnus plays Shak.This is the one you want.They are the only 2 to have not lost a game.

[Desmond]

Erigaisi Arjun continues to tear apart the Challengers on 7/8. According to the tournament website this equates to TPR of 2898!

[MichaelBaron]

Erigaisi Arjun continues to tear apart the Challengers on 7/8. According to the tournament website this equates to TPR of 2898!

He is already too strong for the B Group. Also the B tournament this year is considerably weaker than the last one.

[Desmond]

A remarkable position from Round 7, Grandelius - Karjakin. The tripled c-pawns are quite striking, but also the trapped knight on h7, in turn keeping the black king in a tight box. After a bit of shuffling, a draw followed.

FEN Viewer

[MichaelBaron]

Magnus defeated his co-leader and is now in sole lead!

[Scott Colliver]

Magnus defeated his co-leader and is now in sole lead!

Anish Giri is half a point back and arguably has an easier finish to the tournament so maybe it is not all over.

[MichaelBaron]

Anish Giri is half a point back and arguably has an easier finish to the tournament so maybe it is not all over.

Indeed and he got lucky against Dubov. Pity that Carlsen allowed a couple of wins slip away.

[MichaelBaron]

Karjakin played for a draw as white against Magnus....as expected from him .

[Desmond]

Cute little "help mate" in the challengers, Dardha-Shuvalova:

PGN Viewer

 

[Capablanca-Fan]

Magnus defeated his co-leader and is now in sole lead!

And found a whole lot of far-from-obvious "only moves" to win, according to supercomputer.

[MichaelBaron]

And found a whole lot of far-from-obvious "only moves" to win, according to supercomputer.

Real Pity that Magus sometimes relaxes his grip. I guess lack of close competition makes him lose focus at times. E.G. against Van Forrest

[Desmond]

Erigaisi Arjun continues to tear apart the Challengers on 7/8. According to the tournament website this equates to TPR of 2898!

ChessBase India 6:37 AM · Jan 27, 2022
@ChessbaseIndia
Magnus Carlsen on Arjun Erigaisi:
"He is going to be 2700 soon. He is by far the best player in the Challengers section. He plays chess in a way that I enjoy! You can just sense it that he knows how to play! He has a good tactical eye and he can switch styles easily."

[Scott Colliver]

High praise from Carlsen. I wonder whether he can make the big step to being one of the elite players.

[Scott Colliver]

Dubov has tested positive for covid-19 and will forfeit his last three games. Most notably that means Carlsen gets a forfeit victory in the last round.