Sweden’s Nils Grandelius took the lead in the Tata Steel Chess Masters Tournament at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, after scoring an upset win over an adventurous Jan-Krzysztof Duda in Round 2 of the Category 19 (average Elo: 2724) event.
Grandelius’ co-leaders after the opening round, Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri, were both held by David Anton Guijarro and Jorden van Foreest, respectively. The only other winner of the round was Fabiano Caruana, who handed Alexander Donchenko his second straight loss. The rest of the Round 2 matches ended in draws, with Aryan Tari nearly nailing down, but allowing 34-year-old veteran campaigner Radoslaw Wojtaszek to escape with a draw after some unfortunate lapses. Meanwhile, the Pentala Harikrishna vs Andrey Esipenko and the Maxime Vachier-lagrave vs Aliresa Firouzja matches were also drawn.
Standings after Round 2: 1. Grandelius, 2; 2-4. Carlsen, Giri, Caruana, 1½; 5-10. Van Foreest, Anton Guijarro, Harikrishna, Vachier-Lagrave, Wojtaszek, Esipenko, 1; 11-13. Firouzja, Duda, Tari, ½; 14. Donchenko, 0.
Anton Guijarro, D (2679)-Carlsen, M (2862) [B34]
Wijk aan Zee (2.1) 2021
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nb3 d6 8.f3 Be6 9.Qd2 d5 10.Bb5 dxe4 11.Qxd8+ Rxd8 12.fxe4 Bd7 13.0-0-0 Ng4 14.Bc5 Bxc3 15.bxc3 b6 16.Bg1 Nce5 17.Bd3 Ba4 18.Bd4 Nxd3+ 19.cxd3 Rxd4 20.cxd4 Nf2 21.Kd2 Nxh1 22.Rxh1 e6 23.Nc1 Ke7 24.Ne2 Bd7 25.a4 Rc8 26.Nc3 f5 27.Rb1 fxe4 28.dxe4 e5 29.Kd3 exd4 30.Kxd4 Rc5 31.Nd5+ Kf7 32.Rf1+ Kg7 33.Nc3 Be6 34.Nb5 Rc2 35.Ke5 Bg8 36.Rg1 a5 37.Nd6 Bb3 38.Rb1 Bxa4 39.Rxb6 Rxg2 40.h4 Rh2 41.Ra6 Rxh4 42.Rxa5 Bd1 43.Ra1 Rh1 44.Ne8+ Kh6 45.Nf6 Kg5 46.Ra7 h5 47.Nh7+ Kh6 48.Nf8 Rf1 49.Rh7+ Kg5 50.Ne6+ Kh4 51.Rg7 Rg1 52.Nd4 g5 53.Nf5+ Kh3 54.Ne3 Bf3 55.Kf5 Kh4 56.Ke5 Bg4 57.Kd4 Bh3 58.e5 Ra1 59.Rg6 Ra4+ 60.Kd5 Ra5+ 61.Kd4 Ra8 62.e6 Re8 63.Ke5 Bg4 64.Kd6 Rxe6+ 65.Rxe6 Bxe6 66.Kxe6 Kg3 67.Kf5 Kf3 68.Kxg5 Kxe3 69.Kxh5 ½-½
Vachier-Lagrave, M (2784)-Firouzja, A (2749) [B12]
Wijk aan Zee (2.2) 2021
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Ne7 6.0-0 c5 7.c4 Nbc6 8.dxc5 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Ng6 10.Be3 Be7 11.Bb5 0-0 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.Na3 Qb8 14.Nc4 Be4 15.Nd6 Bd5 16.b3 f6 17.exf6 Bxf6 18.Rc1 Qb4 19.Nc4 Be7 20.Ne1 Rad8 21.Qe2 Qb8 22.Nd3 Rf5 23.f3 Nh4 24.Rf2 Kh8 25.f4 Ng6 26.Nce5 Nxe5 27.Nxe5 Qb4 28.Qc2 Kg8 29.Rd1 Bf6 30.Nc4 Bxc4 31.bxc4 Rxd1+ 32.Qxd1 Be7 33.Qb3 Qe1+ 34.Rf1 Qxe3+ 35.Qxe3 Bxc5 ½-½
Donchenko, A (2668)-Caruana, F (2823) [D12]
Wijk aan Zee (2.3) 2021
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Bd2 Be7 9.Nxg6 hxg6 10.Qc2 Nbd7 11.0-0-0 a6 12.g4 dxc4 13.Bxc4 b5 14.Be2 c5 15.d5 Nxd5 16.Nxd5 exd5 17.f4 b4 18.e4 d4 19.e5 Nb6 20.e6 Qd5 21.exf7+ Kf8 22.h4 Qxa2 23.Qxg6 b3 24.Be1 c4 25.Rxd4 Na4 26.Qb1 Ba3 27.Qxa2 bxa2 28.Kc2 Rb8 29.Rd8+ Rxd8 30.bxa3 c3 31.Bg3 Rd2+ 32.Kb3 Nc5+ 0-1
Duda, J-K (2743)-Grandelius, N (2663) [A30]
Wijk aan Zee (2.4) 2021
1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.b3 e5 4.Bb2 d6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 Nge7 8.0-0 0-0 9.d3 Rb8 10.Ne1 Be6 11.Nd5 Qd7 12.Nc2 Bh3 13.Qd2 Bxg2 14.Kxg2 f5 15.b4 f4 16.bxc5 dxc5 17.e4 f3+ 18.Kh1 Nd4 19.Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.Ne3 Qd7 21.Bxd4 exd4 22.Nd5 Rbe8 23.Rg1 Qg4 24.Qd1 Re5 25.Nf4 g5 26.h3 Qd7 27.Qxf3 Re7 28.Rg2 Qc7 29.Qh5 gxf4 30.gxf4 Qxf4 31.Qxc5 Qh4 32.Rg3 Kh8 33.Rag1 b6 34.Qd5 Qf4 35.c5 bxc5 36.Qxc5 Qe5 37.Qc6 Ref7 38.Rg5 Qf4 39.e5 Qxf2 40.Qe4 Re7 0-1
Van Foreest, J (2671)-Giri, A (2764) [C42]
Wijk aan Zee (2.5) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 Nc6 8.Bc4 Bf5 9.Qd2 Qd7 10.0-0-0 Be6 11.Bxe6 Qxe6 12.Kb1 0-0-0 13.Nd4 Qd7 14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Qe3 Bf6 16.Qxa7 Qxg2 17.Qa8+ Kd7 18.Qa4+ Kc8 19.Qa8+ Kd7 20.Qa4+ Kc8 21.Rhe1 Qc6 22.Qxc6 bxc6 23.c4 Kb7 24.c3 c5 25.Kc2 Ra8 26.Ra1 g5 27.Bd2 Rhg8 28.Re3 g4 29.h3 h5 30.hxg4 hxg4 31.Rg3 Be5 32.f4 gxf3 33.Rxf3 f6 34.a3 Rg4 35.Kd3 c6 36.Raf1 d5 37.Bf4 dxc4+ 38.Kc2 Rd8 39.Bxe5 fxe5 40.Rf7+ Kb6 41.Re7 Rf4 42.Rxf4 exf4 43.Rf7 Rh8 ½-½
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Ke5!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Kc5 2.Rxc7#; 1…Ra4/b3/b2/b1 2.Sd4#; 1…Rb5+ 2.cxb5#; 1…Rxc4 2.Qxc4#./PN
