News
Caruana, Wei Yi Join Tata Steel Chess Title Race
Wei Yi and Faustino Oro look on as Fabiano Caruana takes over against Vincent Keymer.

Caruana, Wei Yi Join Tata Steel Chess Title Race

Avatar of Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
Staff
| 37 | Chess Event Coverage

GMs Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi kept alive their hopes of winning a second Tata Steel Chess Masters title with late wins with Black to move within a point of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Caruana pounced on a time-trouble mistake by GM Vincent Keymer, while Wei overcame GM Max Warmerdam only deep into the second session of play. The remaining games were drawn.

GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen has taken over as the sole leader of the Tata Steel Chess Challengers, half a point ahead of GM Erwin l'Ami, after IM Lu Miaoyi went astray in a tricky endgame. There were also wins for GMs Aydin Suleymanli, Kazybek Nogerbek, and Nodirbek Yakubboev.

Round nine, after a rest day, starts on Tuesday, January 28, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST.

Masters: Caruana, Wei Yi Strike As Leaders Draw

Tata Steel Chess Masters: Round 8 Results

For a long time it looked as though all seven games would end in draws in the Masters for the first time in this year's event, but ultimately we had two wins.

That meant that Caruana and Wei moved within a point of the leading trio with five rounds to go.

Tata Steel Chess Masters: Standings After Round 8

Although round eight began quietly, potential action was always bubbling away beneath the surface. Just two games were almost entirely uneventful—GM Pentala Harikrishna vs. GM Anish Giri, where 14 of the last 16 moves were captures to liquidate to a 30-move draw, and GM Arjun Erigaisi vs. GM Alexey Sarana, which was over in 23 moves. It was what has to count as a good day for Arjun at this year's Tata Steel, though his rating loss for the event grew to over 30 points.

The last round before the second rest day was a slow burner. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess.

GM Leon Luke Mendonca vs. GM Jorden van Foreest was also over in 30 moves, but only after Mendonca had missed the key move after what he called Van Foreest's "kamikaze" 12...Ng4!?. After 13.Bd2 e5 he could have seized a big advantage with 14.h3! but pushed his d-pawn instead.

Mendonca said afterward that he was trying to regain his confidence after his Masters debut took a turn for the worse when he became "quite sick" after the first game.

One seeming candidate for a very short draw was co-leader Abdusattorov vs. GM Vladimir Fedoseev, since the players blitzed out their first 30 or so moves in 15 minutes.

The endgame looked innocuous, but things slowed down and we went from White pressing to Fedoseev eventually having the moral victory of an extra pawn before all the pieces vanished with a draw on move 76.

The most anticipated game of the round, meanwhile, was the clash of the leaders, Praggnanandhaa vs. Gukesh, which featured Praggnanandhaa thinking for a minute after the clocks were started before finally playing 1.e4.

He told WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni after the game, "It’s just my routine, I do it every game. I do pray for some 30 seconds, then try to get in the zone."

I do pray for some 30 seconds, then try to get in the zone.

—Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu on his routine at the start of a game 

The game was tense, with Praggnanandhaa revealing he deviated from his preparation as Gukesh seemed well-prepared, only to get into a slightly worse position. There was one moment where Gukesh might have really taken over, but it was hard to spot for either player.

A great Indian rivalry. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess.

The draws by the leaders gave a chance to the chasing pack and, somewhat surprisingly given the glacial speed of the action, two players snatched the opportunity!  

Keymer 0-1 Caruana

Both players were down to just 15 minutes for 18 moves, when Caruana was able to use his f-pawn to break open an already chaotic position. Time trouble was inevitable, and one chance for the U.S. star had already slipped away when 36.Rf4? by Keymer, played with just seven seconds on the clock, proved to be the losing mistake.

36...Re7!, targeting White's weak back rank, was the correct response, and there was just one more precise move Caruana needed to find in time trouble to gain a completely winning position.

Keymer is incredibly tenacious and fought on to the bitter end, but that only forced Caruana to find an esthetically-pleasing finish.

That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao takes a detailed look at below.

Keymer's second, Peter Leko, joined the post-mortem. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess.

The win puts Caruana back on +1 (after earlier beating Van Foreest but losing to Fedoseev), and to a large extent he has his destiny in his own hands, since he plays co-leaders Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa with the white pieces and also faces relative underdogs Mendonca and Warmerdam in the last two rounds.

Caruana is joined on +1 by Sarana, and also Wei, who played a long game, in all senses of the phrase, against Warmerdam.

Warmerdam 0-1 Wei Yi

"I feel so happy after my first win after eight rounds," said the Chinese star, who had drawn his first seven games.

Both players were prepared for a hyper-sharp Scotch, though Wei was surprised Warmerdam rejected a chance to force a draw and went for an ending where only Black could be better. In the long grind that followed, Wei commented, "Maybe he calculated too much, like I did for the first seven rounds," since White was down to just three minutes when one mistake, 50.Nc4?, cost the game.

50...e5! suddenly left Warmerdam with no way to untangle his pieces.  

With just five rounds to go, things are heating up. After the rest day on Monday, it's Caruana-Abdusattorov, Gukesh-Mendonca, Giri-Praggnanandhaa, Wei-Arjun, and Fedoseev-Harikrishna on Tuesday.

Challengers: Nguyen Takes Sole Lead

There were four wins in round eight of the Challengers.

Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Round 8 Results

Those results saw Nguyen take the sole lead, with Suleymanli and Nogerbek moving within touching distance.

Tata Steel Chess Challengers: Standings After Round 8

Nguyen beat 11-year-old Oro in round seven and then beat the second-youngest player, 14-year-old Lu, in round eight to take the sole lead.

Nguyen was pressing in an endgame before Lu collapsed. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess.

It was a hard-fought game, but in a tense endgame, Lu suddenly had an idea that you could classify as "too clever"—46...Bc5?, seemingly winning the b4-pawn and sealing a draw. As it turns out, however, taking the bishop and giving up the rook on b1 simply wins on the spot.

In round nine, Nguyen will have Black against Nogerbek, who since losing to Lu in round one has beaten the three remaining female players and drawn the rest of his games.

Faustino Oro was busted in around 10 moves against Aydin Suleymanli but fought his way back before losing to the 19-year-old GM from Azerbaijan in 59 moves. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess.

A puzzle that flared up online over GM Nodirbek Yakubboev refusing to shake hands with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu in an earlier round was resolved.

Yakubboev responded to explain he doesn't shake hands with members of the opposite sex for religious reasons, though he also acknowledged that an awkward situation had occurred when he hadn't been able to inform players in advance of his intentions.

Second-seed Yakubboev is currently two points behind the leader after beating IM Irina Bulmaga in round eight.

How To Watch

You can watch the tournament on the Chess24 YouTube or Twitch channels, while GM Hikaru Nakamura is also streaming on his Kick channel. You can also check out the games on our dedicated events page.
IM Jovanka Houska and John Sargent hosted the broadcast.

The 87th edition of Tata Steel Chess takes place January 18-February 2, 2025, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The time control is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes to finish each game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Both the Masters and Challengers groups are 14-player round-robin tournaments.

Previous coverage:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

More from Colin_McGourty
Gukesh Catches Leaders; Arjun Suffers 4th Loss

Gukesh Catches Leaders; Arjun Suffers 4th Loss

Gukesh Pulls Off Great Escape Against Abdusattorov

Gukesh Pulls Off Great Escape Against Abdusattorov

News
Chess Event Coverage
Chess Players
Chess Politics
Editorials
Chess.com News
Misc
Authors
Chess Tournaments Calendar