Chess - The Scotsman 09/01/2012

How does Black win?

THE first major of the new year is the Tata Steel tournament in the Netherlands, which starts on Saturday. It will boast the strongest field in its long history, featuring 10 grandmasters from the top 15 players in the world.

The average rating of the 14-player ‘A’ group is an impressive 2752; and, remarkably, at least half of the field is capable of winning the tournament. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen is top seed and favourite, but he’ll face stiff competition from the Leveon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk, and last year’s surprise winner Hikaru Nakamura, who is back to defend his title.

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The full line-up (from the September 2011 rating list) is: Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Vugar Gashimov, Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, Teimour Radjabov, Boris Gelfand, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, David Navara and Loek van Wely.

As one major event gets ready to start, another has just ended. The 54th Reggio Emilia tournament in Italy ended in a dramatic victory for the young Russian-born Dutch star Anish Giri, 17. Will 2012 be his breakthrough year into the higher echelons of the elite circle? Many believe it could be, and see Giri – along with Karjakin – as the two most likely to mount a serious challenge to Carlsen in the future.

H Nakamura - A Giri

54th Reggio Emilia, (9)

Petroff’s Defence

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Nc3 Nxc3 6 dxc3 Be7 7 Be3 Nd7 8 Qd2 0–0 9 0–0–0 c6 10 h4 Re8 11 Bd3 d5 12 Ng5 Nf8 13 h5 Bf6 14 Nf3 Bg4 15 Rde1 Bxf3 16 gxf3 Ne6 17 f4 h6 18 a3 Qa5 19 Qd1 Nc5 20 Bf5 Na4 21 Qd3 Nc5 22 Qd1 Qb5 23 Qe2 Qa4 24 Qd1 Ne4 25 Bxe4 Rxe4 26 Rhg1 Rae8 27 Rg3 Kh8 28 Reg1 Qc4 29 Kb1 c5 30 Qd3 b6 31 Qxc4 Rxc4 32 Rd1 d4! 33 cxd4 cxd4 34 b3 dxe3 35 bxc4 exf2 36 Rf3 Re1 37 Kc1 Bd4 38 c3 Be3+ 39 Kc2 f5 40 a4 a5 41 c5 Bxc5 0–1

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