Wednesday 18 January 2023

It's not the 11 O'clock News

 As reported earlier today, both Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren (the Worlds top 2 rated players) both lost in Round 4 of the Tata Steel event. This is a rare event, although i suspect it has probably happened more recently that we think. 

Carlsen lost to Anish Giri for the 2nd time in his career (at standard time controls). Apparently the first time was 12 years ago, on the same day, during the same tournament. Ding losing to Praggnanandhaa is also pretty big news, with Ding possibly becoming the next world champion.

Nonetheless the game I want is not either of these. It is the Abdusattorov v Maghsoodloo clash, which Abdusattorov won. There was a particularly interesting position at move 30, where White had a discovered check, which could not be played due to the rook being pinned. The tactical jousting to deal with this was interesting (from both sides), but eventually there was enough in the position to give White the win

Abdusattorov,Nodirbek (2713) - Maghsoodloo,Parham (2719) [C84]
Tata Steel Masters chess24.com (4.4), 17.01.2023


No comments: