Tata Steel Chess 2022: A quick draw by Magnus and he still leads.

Tata Steel Chess 2022: Magnus Carlsen leading by the end of 10th Round by half-point after a quick16 move draw against Sergey Karjakin.

A day that favored the Black pieced GM more as three decisive games of the total four were won by Black. A bush of excitement was seen as the 2014 title contenders meet again. However, they quickly ended their match.

Magnus Carlsen: “It’s quite alright considering the tournament standings; I’m still gonna be at least in the shared lead after this and I’ve got a couple of white games,” said Carlen. “I didn’t really know what to expect today. I thought he would probably be relatively satisfied with the way the last few rounds had gone and maybe not risk much, but on the other hand, he could have almost caught up with the lead if he’d won, so I expected him to at least try a little bit.”

A chance to tie with Magnus goes begging for Anish Giri as he too couldn’t get anything fruitful than a draw against Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Duda was very comfortable as the Mikenas variation of the English tried by Giri didn’t find the desirable advantage. Both players if had played loosely could have been in trouble but nothing of such sorts happened.

GM Fabiano Caruana‘s first two moves invited GM Richard Rapport to enter the Mikenas as well, but the Hungarian went for something more adventurous. With 3…c5!?, the second most popular move in the position, he didn’t mind having to play his king’s knight back to its starting square as early as move four, but that’s all theory and the database has 1,400 games with it.

A game moving like Giri and Duda’s but with the 21st move, Caruana played an inaccuracy that eventually can be called a blunder as he was lost from thereon.

It was Rapport’s first win ever vs. Caruana, having lost three (with two draws) before. “This is a new feeling. He’s an extremely strong player but also a very nice guy,” said Rapport, who added that he won “with a bit of luck.”

The Swedish GM, Nils Grandelius, is improving day by day as he knocks out Daniil Dubov in an intense game. Dubov was defending it like a champ but the clock had some juice left which proved a nightmare for Dubov.

Though, Dubov had a chance for a draw on the 76th move with 76…Nh8! but he missed it. Just 6 moves later the Russian resigned.

Grandelius: “The first two hours I was basically playing as bad as on all the other days and I don’t know if it’s lost, but it’s very bad for me, I think. But then he gave me some counter-chances, and in a very few moves it already turned.”

GM Andrey Esipenko defeated last year’s winner GM Jorden van Foreest in what was already their fifth classical game, and it was Esipenko’s second win after he beat the Dutchman in the B group in 2019 as well.

It seems this was a game Van Foreest didn’t need to lose, even though he had a rook hopelessly trapped by a knight on the kingside for much of the game. And, surprisingly, even in the endgame with heavy pieces, the engine points to very tenacious defense.

The all-Indian fight between Pragnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi went down to the wire. After battling for almost seven hours, Praggnanandhaa emerged victoriously.

Following the round 5 game played by Rapport against Pragg, Vidit deviated on the ninth move to castle opposite side. Gaining a slight but not definitive advantage, Vidit blundered on move 33 to lose control over the match.

It was extremely complicated for Black to find a winning combination, especially in time-trouble. Eventually, the 16-year-old Pragg shuffled to a pawn-up endgame where he showed good technique and strong nerves to score what was the second-biggest win of his career so far.