GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are tied for first place after eight rounds at the 2022 Tata Steel Chess Tournament and happen to be playing each other in the next round on Tuesday. GM Anish Giri and GM Vidit Gujrathi both won on Sunday and are half a point behind the leaders.

Half an hour before the start of the round, the good news was brought that both of GM Daniil Dubov’s Covid tests had negative results, which meant the Russian GM could play his game with GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in round eight without a face mask, like before.

The game seemed to be heading to a draw out of the opening, until some slight inaccurate play by Dubov forced him liquidate to a pawn-down rook endgame. Although there are practical examples of Black winning very similar positions, here Duda never really had a chance as Dubov found a great setup with his pawns on the kingside. Instructive!

Mamedyarov and Praggnanandhaa were supposed to meet at the Gibraltar Masters in 2020, but the Azerbaijani grandmaster wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t appear for that game. Therefore, today was their first-ever classical game and it was a not a good one for Pragg.

The young Indian’s opening moves were OK, but after move 10 he started to drift a little. It seems the unorthodox position in this English opening, stemming from the interesting early queen sortie 4.Qa4, suited Mamedyarov more. The latter could have won the endgame a bit quicker perhaps, but he was always in control.

“Of course it’s not a very good move, but it is an interesting move to play for a win,” said Mamedyarov about 4.Qa4 and he felt he had “an absolutely winning position” by move 10-11.

Mamedyarov denied that he changed his style when playing against (much) younger players. “It’s not easy to change my style. My style is every time to play interesting chess, and fighting chess!”

After their draw three years ago in Wijk aan Zee, GM Sam Shankland and Carlsen also drew their second game in this tournament, and therefore Mamedyarov’s win was good enough to catch Carlsen in the lead.

Although it quickly fizzled out at some point, the Shankland-Carlsen game was still interesting for its opening phase. The world champion, for the first time in his career, played the Schara-Hennig Gambit, a line in the Tarrasch Queen’s Gambit that was popularized in the first half of the 20th century by the Viennese amateur player Anton Schara and the German marine officer Heinz von Hennig.

The Schara-Hennig Gambit arises after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4. cxd5 cxd4.

Only two other world champions have ever tried this gambit in tournament practice: Alexander Alekhine and Boris Spassky. (The former was wild enough try it while he already held the crown, in 1931; the latter was still young and foolish enough, in 1956!)

“I didn’t expect it at all,” said Shankland. “I wouldn’t have played so terribly in the opening I guess!”

Carlsen quickly won back the sacrificed pawn and with it the bishop pair, at which point Shankland said he “already felt a bit uncomfortable” but because his opponent took with the bishop on c3, Shankland could become a bit more active. After that, it was hard for Carlsen to avoid the liquidation that came on the board.

Vidit and GM Nils Grandelius had drawn all their previous four games, but today the Swedish GM wasn’t as sharp as he needed to be against an aggressive-playing Vidit.

The Indian GM was pleased with his opening play (6.g4, 9.Nf5) and said Black has to be accurate to get a good game, which Grandelius failed to do. However, Vidit also didn’t make the most out of his chances, but this went sort of unnoticed.

“I for sure knew I was better, but I had so many choices and it was not easy to pick the best move,” he said.

Interestingly, there were two moments where the move …Bf5 could have solved Black’s problems, but it turned out to be a blind spot for the Swedish GM.

Giri and GM Andrey Esipenko played their third game, after a win for Giri in 2017 and a draw last year in Wijk aan Zee. This time, Giri managed to win again, and it was a big one. Scoring his third full point in as many rounds, the Dutchman now finds himself just half a point behind the leaders.

The two grandmasters played quite a theoretical Italian opening, which Giri had played three times with the white pieces but never as Black yet. Esipenko’s 20th(!) move was the first that deviated from a 2016 correspondence game, and soon an endgame with a knight for three pawns was reached.

“You get this endgame in many variations in that line,” said Giri, who also recommended it for white players in an online course recently. “I’ve seen these ideas before. Generally, if I trade the right pieces and if White doesn’t jump quickly on my king with something like Ng4, maybe Rg1, some quick attack, then I think long-term I’m safe. Whether Black can play for a win I was not sure but it’s kind of a nice question to be asking yourself already.”

The more pieces got traded, the more pleasant it became for the Dutch number one, who was indeed playing for two results by that point. In the end, Giri finished the game tactically.

After two draws in the same venue in 2020 and 2021, GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Jorden van Foreest split the point for the third time after another interesting opening phase. The Dutchman followed in the footsteps of his great predecessor, the fifth world champion Max Euwe, who liked to play the Open Ruy Lopez as well, as does Van Foreest’s second GM Sipke Ernst.

For this clash with the world number four, the two Dutchmen had prepared the old Dilworth variation (never tried by Euwe, by the way!), named after the English correspondence player Vernon Dilworth. It is characterized by Black giving two minor pieces for a rook and a pawn, and getting a nice pawn center. The line was always known to be somewhat speculative, but with the help of modern engines it seems to be playable.

On move 15, Van Foreest deviated from a Carlsen-Mamedyarov online encounter from last year but still followed correspondence play. At some point, Black was just doing OK and Caruana decided to repeat moves, which Van Foreest didn’t mind.

Round 8 Standings Masters

#	Fed	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	Pts	SB
1		Carlsen	2865	2850			1		1	½			½	½	½		1	½	5.5/8	20.5
2		Mamedyarov	2767	2851			½		½	½			1	1		½	1	½	5.5/8	19.25
3		Giri	2772	2831	0	½		½		1	1	½				1	½		5.0/8	19.5
4		Vidit	2727	2818			½			½	½		0	½	1	1		1	5.0/8	16.75
5		Rapport	2763	2772	0	½						½	1	0	½		1	1	4.5/8
6		Esipenko	2714	2761	½	½	0	½			½	1			½	½			4.0/8	17.25
7		Caruana	2792	2731			0	½		½		½	½	1	½	½			4.0/8	15.25
8		Karjakin	2743	2737			½		½	0	½		1	½		½		½	4.0/8	15
9		Van Foreest	2702	2742	½	0		1	0		½	0					1	1	4.0/8	14.25
10		Duda	2760	2705	½	0		½	1		0	½				½	½		3.5/8	14.5
11		Shankland	2708	2690	½			0	½	½	½					½	½	½	3.5/8	12.75
12		Dubov	2720	2660		½	0	0		½	½	½		½	½				3.0/8
13		Praggnanandhaa	2612	2614	0	0	½		0				0	½	½			1	2.5/8
14		Grandelius	2672	2546	½	½		0	0			½	0		½		0		2.0/8

Aftter “dropping” half a point in the previous round, GM Arjun Erigaisi got back to his winning ways in the Challengers group. This time, his opponent helped him a lot after becoming victim of the touch-move rule.

Erigaisi explained afterward: “”Actually, he was intending to play 13…Bb4 instead of 13…Bf6, but it turns out to be a blunder because of 14.Bxg7. He realized it only after he touched the bishop, so it was unfortunate for him that he had to move the bishop, and it was already much worse.”

The Indian GM’s performance rating is now one point shy of 2900 and more than anyone’s in the Masters group. He remained modest, saying: “I’m just glad.”

A game that cannot be missed is the one below, where the Belgian GM Daniel Dardha got the chance to play a textbook (or Puzzle Rush-like) two-move combination that led to a smothered mate.

Dardha: “After I played Qa4, I was looking at the live board and I was literally looking, ‘if she plays like a normal-looking defensive move like 19…Nb8 I get this smothered mate,’ so it was quite nice to see that it actually happened!”

Round 8 Standings Challengers

#	Fed	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	Pts	SB
1		Erigaisi	2632	2899		½		½	1	1	1		1	1			1		7.0/8
2		Jumabayev	2631	2699	½		½	1	½				1	1			½	½	5.5/8	22.25
3		Nguyen	2613	2686		½		½		½	1	½			½	1		1	5.5/8	19
4		Van Foreest	2539	2631	½	0	½				½	1	½		1	½			4.5/8	18.25
5		Warmerdam	2607	2611	0	½					½	½	½		1	1	½		4.5/8	15
6		Murzin	2519	2605	0		½					½	½	1	1		½	½	4.5/8	14.5
7		Bjerre	2586	2606	0		0	½	½			1		½			1	1	4.5/8	13.75
8		L’Ami	2622	2545			½	0	½	½	0				1	1		½	4.0/8	13
9		Ganguly	2627	2552	0	0		½	½	½				½			1	1	4.0/8	12
10		Dardha	2532	2512	0	0				0	½		½		1	1	½		3.5/8
11		Shuvalova	2516	2415			½	0	0	0		0		0		1		1	2.5/8	6.75
12		Zhu	2478	2411			0	½	0			0		0	0		1	1	2.5/8	5.75
13		Vogel	2452	2386	0	½			½	½	0		0	½		0			2.0/8
14		Maurizzi	2502	2320		½	0			½	0	½	0		0	0			1.5/8

All games round 8

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