Another round at the Tata Steel Chess 2024 and another confirmation that the event holds a second name “Wimbledon of Chess” for a good reason! The seventh round saw three decisive results in the Master section with thrilling games and several brilliancies by the world’s top players.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated Anish Giri to join him in the lead of the Masters event. In the meantime, 17-year-old Indian prodigy Gukesh D won a tough endgame against Max Warmerdam to score 4.5 points just as Abdusattorov and Giri, and we have a three-way tie on the top after seven played rounds.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Anish Giri | 1-0
Anish Giri decided to go with a Petroff defense today against Abdusattorov and the evaluation bar was in the equality range for quite some time. However, Giri had some issues with a weak pawn structure while Nodirbek focused on his better knight versus Giri’s passive Bishop. Step by step, the young Uzbekistani grandmaster improved his position and showed real masterpiece maneuvers. The final touch came with 34.c4!! and Black’s position simply fell apart afterwards.
Gukesh D vs Max Warmerdam | 1-0
Dommaraju Gukesh defeated Max Warmerdam pulling off a win from a drawish Rooks endgame. The game opened with always-interesting Tarrasch defense, when Gukesh grabbed a free pawn. However, the Dutch grandmaster had a clear compensation and very quickly got the pawn back. The position transposed into a drawish Rooks endgame and the evaluation was mostly around equal, until 53…Rg1? which was a fatal mistake by Warmerdam. It appeared that he had only one option to hold a draw and it was not easy to find it. After this move, Gukesh easily brought the game to an end.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs Alireza Firouzja | 1-0
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi scored his first victory in the event after six consecutive draws. It was a brilliant game against Alireza Firouzja which will be written in the books! Alireza opted for sharp Najdorf and sacrificed a piece in the 12th move. As Vidit confessed in the post-game interview, the Indian grandmaster didn’t calculate and bluffed his opponent with an immediate retake. The position seemed really dangerous for White’s King, but Vidit found impressive 15.Kd3!! keeping his King safe in the center of the board. When the dust had settled, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi had a clear material advantage and Firouzja resigned in the 42nd move.
Standings at the Tata Steel Masters 2024 after seven played rounds:
| 1 | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 4ยฝ/7 | 2727 |
| 2 | Giri, Anish | 4ยฝ/7 | 2749 |
| 3 | Gukesh | 4ยฝ/7 | 2725 |
| 4 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 4/7 | 2742 |
| 5 | Praggnanandhaa | 4/7 | 2743 |
| 6 | Firouzja, Alireza | 4/7 | 2759 |
| 7 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 3ยฝ/7 | 2769 |
| 8 | Ding Liren | 3ยฝ/7 | 2780 |
| 9 | Wei Yi | 3ยฝ/7 | 2740 |
| 10 | Warmerdam, Max | 3ยฝ/7 | 2625 |
| 11 | Ju Wenjun | 3/7 | 2549 |
| 12 | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2ยฝ/7 | 2682 |
| 13 | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2/7 | 2740 |
| 14 | Donchenko, Alexander | 2/7 | 2643 |
The 8th round starts on Sunday, 21st of January, at 14:00 CET and the pairings are:
- Alireza Firouzja vs Ding Liren
- Anish Giri vs Wei Yi
- Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov
- Jorden Van Foreest vs Parham Maghsoodloo
- Max Warmerdam vs Praggnanandhaa
- Ju Wenjun vs Gukesh D
- Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs Alexander Donchenko
Live broadcast of the games with the computer analysis is available here, and live video broadcast of the event can be found on the following link.
Photos by: Tata Steel Chess / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
