Ta-ta, Tata!

John B. Henderson • February 3, 2023

As we conclude our final report on the 85th Tata Steel Masters with a fond au revoir, we can at least console ourselves that this historic super-tournament is now one of the few remaining Chessic constants and the countdown has started with now "just" 342 days to the 86th edition that will once again take place in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, running 12-28 January 2024.


So what is it that makes the first major of the year so special, not only for the players, but also the fans? On a technical level, it is always impeccably run by Jeroen van den Berg and his very experienced organising team, with excellent playing conditions inside the hallowed 'De Moriaan' playing venue. 

That helps, but the truth more often than not can be found in the camaraderie of it not being just one single super-tournament, but rather a whole raft of subsidiary events, going right down to sections for club players and juniors - and this more than anything creates a genuine buzz all under the one roof.


After all, there’s very few venues where wannabe teenage world title aspirants, grandmasters, amateurs and chess enthusiasts from all around the world can play in the same playing hall as Magnus Carlsen & Co. And while all eyes are rightly firmly fixed on the Tata Steel Masters, there’s also a Challengers and ‘C’ tournament that have traditionally become a showcase for tomorrow’s stars.


That's because this is an event built on a true egalitarian spirit, with each winner qualifying for promotion to the higher section the following year - the most famous to have risen through the ranks is unquestionably Carlsen, who shot to overnight back fame in 2004 by winning the ‘C’ tournament. The rest is history, as they say.


The Challengers has an added cache therefore, as it comes with the hottest ticket on the elite circuit, with a coveted seat for the winner into the next year’s Masters - and this is what makes it a formidable event in its own right, with the battle to take the title being very keenly-contested, leading to many interesting games, and invariably the race going down to the wire of a nervous final round.


As ever, play was extremely fierce throughout, but this year there was a runaway winner in Alexander Donchenko of Germany. Despite Donchenko trailing in the first half, he rallied with an astonishing winning streak - that also included a remarkable 5.5/6 with the black pieces! - going down the home stretch to secure total victory with a round to spare and a final tally of 10/13, a full point clear of nearest rival Mustafa Yilmaz.

IM Thomas Beerdsen - GM Alexander Donchenko

Tata Steel Challengers, (12)

Caro-Kann Defence, Advance variation

1.e4 c6 Every time I see a Caro-Kann on the board, I am reminded of the great Bent Larsen’s words of wisdom to a promising pre-teen who played it religiously: “If you play the Caro-Kann when you’re young, what are you going to play when you’re older?” 2.d4 d5 3.e5 The Advance variation is a byword for double-edged play on both sides; a variation that - very fittingly - came to fame with the rise of Mikhail Tal. 3...Bf5 4.h4 h5 5.c4 e6 6.Nc3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 Nd7 8.Nge2 Be7 9.g3 A long-time devotee of the Advance is leading English GM Michael Adams, who usually prefers here 9.Ng3 though after 9...Bg6 10.Nge4 Nh6 11.Bxh6 Rxh6 White has next to nothing but did go on to grind out a win in Adams - Keymer, Karlsruhe 2020. 9...Nh6 10.Bf4 The usual preference in the Advance is Bg5, but as the bishop can't go to g5, the options now are few and far between.10...Qb6 And also a common Advance motif when the dark-squared bishop moves. 11.0-0 Rd8 12.Qc1 Rightly getting off the problematic d-file before Black can hit in the centre with ...c5 - not that this stops Donchenko in the game! 12...a6 It is far too early now for 12...c5? with 13.d5! busting the game open to White's big advantage. 13.Be3? With the natural intentions of stopping ...c5 - but this is a blunder that only encourages it to be played! More sensible was 13.Bb3 Ng4 (If 13...c5 and again 14.d5 is good for White.) 14.Bg5 but Black has some enterprising play with 14...Bxg5 15.Qxg5 0-0!? 16.Qxh5 Nh6 17.Qf3 c5 and excellent counterplay. 13...c5! It was probably only about now that the young Dutch IM would have been seeing the error of his ways, by thinking he'd prevented the very move that has now been played! The remarkable thing, though, is just how quickly White's position now implodes. 14.Rd1 White is well and truly up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. If 14.dxc5 Bxc5 15.Bxc5 (Alas 15.Na4? runs into 15...Bxe3!) 15...Qxc5 and Black will easily pick-off the e5 pawn. And also no use is 14.d5? Nxe5! with a material and big positional advantage. And you know it is bad when even the engine is beginning to suggest supine alternatives such as 14.b3. 14...Ng4! [see diagram] All the tactics are now winning for Black - if only all Caro-Kann's were as easy as this! 15.Bb3 Again the engine was waving the white flag with the suggestion of 15.b3. 15...0-0 16.dxc5 Bxc5 17.Na4 What else is there? If 17.Bxc5 Nxc5 18.Bc2 Nd3! hits like a thunderbolt with a multi-piece mating attack on f2. 17...Bxe3 18.Nxb6 Bxc1 19.Nxd7 Bxb2! 20.Nxf8 Rxf8 21.Nd4 Bg6 Played with what I can only imagine was a serene sense of calmness, knowing that Black is going to win back the sacrificed material - and then some! 22.Rac1 White can't even salvage something from the wreckage, as he's about to be hit by a game-winning knight fork on f3. 22...Nxe5! 0-1

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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