Tata Steel Chess Super-GM begins with nice wins by Anand, Nakamura, Smeets

Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi Everybody,

The Tata Steel Chess Super-GM began with nice wins by World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Jan Smeets and Hikaru Nakamura. This is just the first round. The tournament runs from January 15 to 30 at the traditional De Moriaan Center in Wijk aan Zee.

Ponomariov and Vishy Anand

There are three Grandmaster Groups, with 14 players each and each competitor playing against every other. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds/move increment starting with the first move of the game. Tata Steel 2011 was previously known as the Corus chess tournament.

Tournament hall for the Open tournaments.

Tata Steel B group saw GM David Navara beat GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek with black, GM Sargissian defeated GM Ganguly, while GM Efimenko won with black over GM Hammer.

Tata Steel C saw last seed Tania Sachdev win over second seeded Ivan Ivanisevic after the latter's blunder, Kateryna Lahno drew with GM Mark Bluvshtein but the youngest grandmaster in the world, Ilya Nyzhnyk defeated top seed Kazhgaleyev. Swiercz and Vocaturo also won their games. You can access the official website here.

Tata Steel A
Round 1 results:

Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2744 - Viswanathan Anand IND 2810 0-1
Erwin l'Ami NED 2628 - Anish Giri NED 2686 draw
Jan Smeets NED 2662 - Alexey Shirov SPA 2722 1-0
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2814 - Levon Aronian ARM 2805 draw
Hikaru Nakamura USA 2751 - Alexander Grischuk RUS 2773 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2721 - Wang Hao CHN 2731 draw
Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2715 - Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2784 draw

Round 2 pairings:
Viswanathan Anand IND 2810 - Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2784
Wang Hao CHN 2731 - Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2715
Alexander Grischuk RUS 2773 - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2721
Levon Aronian ARM 2805 - Hikaru Nakamura USA 2751
Alexey Shirov SPA 2722 - Magnus Carlsen NOR 2814
Anish Giri NED 2686 - Jan Smeets NED 2662
Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2744 - Erwin l'Ami NED 2628

Group B
Round 1 results:

V. Tkachiev - L. Fressinet ½-½
F. Nijboer - L. Chao ½-½
L. McShane - W. Spoelman 1-0
R. Wojtaszek - D. Navara 0-1
L. Liem - W. So ½-½
G. Sargissian - S. Ganguly 1-0
J. Hammer - Z. Efimenko 0-1

Group C
Round 1 results:

M. van der Werf - B. Bok ½-½
S. Siebrecht - R. Pruijssers ½-½
I. Ivanisevic - T. Sachdev 0-1
K. Lahno - M. Bluvshtein ½-½
D. Swiercz - J.W. de Jong 1-0
I. Nyzhnyk - M. Kazhgaleyev 1-0
R. van Kampen - D. Vocaturo 0-1

Here are some nice games for you to enjoy though you could track the entire lot at the official website and a host of other news sites.

Run the moves in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. e3 c5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. Rc1 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Nd4 Qxc5 12. Bd3 Ne4 13. Bf4 Nb6 14. Qc2 h6 15. f3 Nf6 16. g4 Re8 17. Kf2 Nc4 18. h4 Bxg4 19. Bxc4 dxc4 20. fxg4 Nxg4+ 21. Kf3 Ne5+ 22. Bxe5 Rxe5 23. Kf2 Rae8 24. Rh3 b5 25. Rg1 Re4 26. Qd1 b4 27. Qf3 Rxe3 28. Rxg7+ Kxg7 29. Qg4+ Kf8 30. Rxe3 Rxe3 31. Kxe3 bxc3 32. Ke2 Qe5+ 33. Kd1 Qh2 34. Ne2 Qd6+ 35. Qd4 Qxd4+ 36. Nxd4 Kg7 37. Nc6 a6 38. Nb8 a5 39. a4 Kf6 40. Nc6 Ke6 41. Nxa5 Kd5 42. Kc2 1-0



PGN: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Be3 Be6 10. Nd5 Nbd7 11. Qd3 Bxd5 12. exd5 Nc5 13. Qd2 Nfe4 14. Qb4 a5 15. Qb5 Qc7 16. Qc4 Rac8 17. Rfd1 f5 18. c3 Qd8 19. Qb5 b6 20. Nd2 Nxd2 21. Bxd2 Bf6 22. Rab1 e4 23. b4 Nd7 24. Rb3 Be5 25. a3 Rf7 26. c4 axb4 27. axb4 Ra8 28. Bc3 Bxc3 29. Rxc3 Ra2 30. Re3 g6 31. Bf1 Qf6 32. Rde1 Kg7 33. R3e2 Ra3 34. Qc6 h5 35. Re3 Ra7 36. h3 h4 37. Rb3 Ra2 38. Rbe3 g5 39. R3e2 Ra7 40. Qc8 Ne5 41. Rc2 Rf8 42. Qe6 Qd8 43. c5 bxc5 44. bxc5 Rf6 45. Qxe5 dxe5 46. d6 g4 47. hxg4 fxg4 48. g3 hxg3 49. fxg3 Qa5 50. Rec1 Qa3 51. Rc3 Qb2 52. R1c2 Qb4 0-1

PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. a4 Rb8 8. c3 d6 9. d4 Bb6 10. axb5 axb5 11. Na3 O-O 12. Nxb5 Bg4 13. Re1 Bxf3 14. gxf3 Nh5 15. Kh1 Qf6 16. Rg1 exd4 17. Bg5 Qe5 18. Bd5 dxc3 19. Bxc6 cxb2 20. Rb1 Bxf2 21. Rg2 Rb6 22. Bd7 Bc5 23. Na7 Ra8 24. Nc6 Rxc6 25. Bxc6 1-0

PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qe2 O-O 10. e4 Bg6 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3 Be7 15. Bd2 Nb8 16. a5 a6 17. Rfc1 Nc6 18. Ne1 Qd7 19. Bc2 Qd8 20. Qh3 Bg6 21. Bxg6 hxg6 22. Qg4 Rc8 23. Nf3 Qd7 24. Bg5 Bb4 25. Qh4 Ne7 26. g4 Rxc1+ 27. Rxc1 Rc8 28. Kg2 Nc6 29. Rd1 Bxa5 30. Rd3 Nb4 31. Rb3 Qb5 32. Be7 Nd3 33. Rxb5 Nf4+ 34. Kg3 Ne2+ 35. Kh3 Nf4+ 36. Kg3 Ne2+ 37. Kg2 Nf4+ 1/2-1/2

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