Magnus Carlsen wins Tata Steel Masters 2015 Magnus Carlsen won the 77th Tata Steel Masters with 9/11 half a point clear of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Wesley So and Liren Ding. Magnus Carlsen secured a draw in his final round game against Ivan Saric that proved enough for him to take first place alone in the 2015 Tata Steel Masters. Carlsen was not happy with the quality of the final round game where he just blundered a pawn he was unhappy with his play even after this but eventually the game swapped down to a dead draw. This is Carlsens 4th win in the event. The 78th Tata Steel Chess takes place 15th to 31st January 2016. Carlsen didnt guarantee a return but thought it not unlikely. There were some pluses which Carlsen outlined on twitter as First tournament win since April, first gain of rating since February, and my longest winning streak ever. Anish Giri could have caught Carlsen with a final round win over Radoslaw Wojtaszek but instead a complex Gruenfeld traded off to a dull draw. Giri thought at various points he may have had chances but the tactics led to an equal position. Giri has moved to 2797 and 6 in the world and his progress is obvious. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played perhaps the most impressive game of the day to also share second place. He defeated Fabiano Caruana with a creative pawn sacrifice that almost immediately led to consessions by white. Vachier-Lagrave finished the game with a very nice mating flourish too. Liren Ding defeated Levon Aronian in a very strange Kings Indian. Aronian must have forgotten his preparation because he thought for 15 minutes over 16.g5 which is just losing after 16...Ne8! Aronian extended the game for a very long time but he never came close to recovering. Wesley So defeated Loek van Wely in a Benoni. It didnt look like Van Wely had much patience to defend and once his aggression finished white simply broke through in the centre. Baadur Jobava at least finished a catastrophic event for him with a win. It was a very odd game which started as a Kings Indian and went into Benko style play. Rajdabov missed the winning sacrifice 20.Nxf3+! and the game looked to be heading for a draw. 46.Rb4? was a bad error (46.Rb3+ first saves the game) and then was practically losing. However Jobava gave Radjabov at least some hope with the crude 50.Nxb2 giving up a piece (50.Nd2 is wining) but 51....Ke7? (51.Bxe5 and if white is still winning it is tricky) led to a white win. Hou Yifan was better against Vassily Ivanchuk out of the opening but they locked the position up after which a draw was the natural result.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:38:44 +0000
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