Magnus Carlsen notched up his second win at Tata Steel Masters 2022 over Richard Rapport and joined the leaders Vidit Gujrathi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who drew their games. Sergey Karjakin scored his first victory in the tournament over Jorden Van Foreest, while Fabiano Caruana suffered a painful defeat in a dramatic turn of events.

Magnus Carlsen essayed a rare move 7.Be3 in the Catalan Opening (most likely prepared for the title match with Nepomniachtchi), but Richard Rapport found a logical sequence to reach an almost equal position. After the World Champion attacked the a7-pawn, the Hungarian GM struck in the center and snatched White’s d4 in return. It seems that Richard did not calculate all the consequences correctly as he almost immediately faltered with 20…Qe7? (missing very strong continuation 20…Ne5 with the idea of 21.Qxd4 Bxa3!) and then simply gave up a pawn. The rest was a smooth sail for Magnus, who deftly converted his material advantage.

Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri played an exciting, topsy-turvy game in the Double Fianchetto. As soon as the American started slowly regrouping his pieces for a kingside attack, the Dutchman timely ripped the position open on the queenside and grabbed the initiative. However, Anish did not play energetically enough and allowed Fabiano to launch a real onslaught with 24.f5, sacrificing a pawn. Caruana had a great chance to get there, but instead of going after Black’s king, he hastily snatched an exchange giving Black more than sufficient compensation. The opponents exchanged inaccuracies before the time control, but all of them pale compared to Fabiano’s 40.Rb6?? – the American tragically moved his rook to the square controlled by Black’s knight, lost an exchange and threw in the towel twelve moves later.

Sergey Karjaking scored a fine positional victory over Jorden Van Foreest in their first-ever classical game. The Dutchman introduced an interesting idea of transferring his dark-squared bishop to b8  in the Italian Opening, but it did not work out for Black as White advanced his c-pawn to stir into a Kings-Indian-Defense-like position with a space advantage. Karjakin was making steady progress, and after Van Foreest imprudently advanced his pawn to a4, White surrounded and eventually won it. Jorden might have had some chances for a fortress in a closed position, but Sergey opened it up with a4-a5, infiltrated the opponent’s camp and forced his capitulation.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ran into Nils Grandelius' excellent opening preparation and timely made his arguably strongest “move” in the game, offering a draw in an inferior position. The Swedish GM failed to resist the temptation of making a draw with Black against one of the leaders and took a half-point.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda demonstrated very deep opening preparation as Black in the Semi-Tarrasch Defense against one of the leaders Vidit Gujrathi. The moment White’s pieces started lurking around the Black’s king, the Polish GM reacted with a nice tactical sequence giving up two minor pieces for a rook and advancing his queenside pawns. Upon some reflection, the Indian GM decided to restore material equality, and the opponents agreed upon a draw by repetition.

Daniil Dubov missed good winning chances in his signature Catalan Opening against Andrey Esipeko. White obtained a substantial advantage but seeming innocuous move transposition allowed Black to wriggle out with a nice tactical blow 36…Rxa2! The position became equal and a few moves later Daniil forced a draw by perpetual check.

Sam Shankland and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa made just a few original moves in a sharp line of Sveshnikov Sicilian with 7.Nd5. The American GM introduced a novelty on the move 21, but the Indian youngster’s demonstrated that Black had no problem reaching a draw despite a two-pawn deficit.  

Standings after Round 6: 1-3. Vidit Gujrathi, Маgnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov  – 4; 4-5. Richard Rapport, Andrey Esipenko – 3½; 6-8. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin – 3; 9-13. Sam Shankland, Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, Jorden Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa R. – 2½; 14.Nils Grandelius – 1½.

Official website: tatasteelchess.com/

Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit and Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022