Four rounds are played at the Tata Steel Chess 2024 and the players had their first rest day today.
Heading to the free day, Anish Giri defeated Indian prodigy Gukesh D to emerge as the sole leader of the event with an impressive score of 3.5/4 points. Alireza Firouzja played a quick with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, holding clear second position with 3/4 points. Lots of interesting games marked the fourth round of the 2024 Wimbledon of chess and three games finished with a decisive result!
Anish Giri vs Gukesh D | 1-0
Anish Giri opened the game with 1.c4, slightly surprising the spectators and fans. The game took a positional course and it seemed it will be a quick draw, but Giri pulled out a miracle. In the endgame with Queens, Rooks, Opposite color Bishops and 4 pawns vs 4 pawns on the same side, Anish punished all minor mistakes by Gukesh, improving his advantage step by step. The positional advantage and Giri’s perfect technique eventually transformed into the material advantage, and Anish won the game after exhausting 77 moves.
Ding Liren vs Praggnanandhaa | 0-1
The reigning World Chess Champion came back to classical chess after a 250-day pause. He suffered a loss to Praggnanandhaa who once again showed he will be one of the favorites to qualify for the next World Championship match. Pragnnanadhaa earned a clear advantage after the opening and held it all the way through the pawn-up endgame. Ding Liren defended, but blundered a transposition to the knights ending and Praggnanadhaa scored his first win in the tournament.
Wei Yi vs Parham Maghsoodloo | 1-0
The Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi claimed a victory against Parham Maghsoodloo. It was an unclear Caro Kann where Wei Yi took an exchange for two pawns with very unclear evaluation. Maghsoodloo needed to be highly precise to hold a draw, but he made a mistake with 44…Be4? The position practically fall apart which Wei Yi used to score his second win in the event.
The fifth round starts tomorrow (January 18, 2024) at 14:00 with exciting pairings in the Masters group:
- Ju Wenjun vs Alireza Firouzja
- Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs Max Warmerdam
- Alexander Donchenko vs Jorden Van Foreest
- Gukesh D vs Ian Nepomniachtchi
- Praggnanandhaa vs Anish Giri
- Parham Maghsoodloo vs Ding Liren
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Wei Yi
The complete schedule and pairings of all rounds can be found here. Live games of the event are available on the following link, and live video coverage of the event is available here.
