Magnus Carlsen, the world number one from Norway, has won the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament with one round to spare. He took care of Hikaru Nakamura in spectacular fashion, and in 
short order. Nakamura resigned when he was unable to defend against the destructive (see diagram) 32.f7. As Levon Aronian was easily held to a draw by Anish Giri, Carlsen increased his lead to a point-and-a-half and will face Giri tomorrow in an effort to break Garry Kasparov's record of 10/13, set in 1999.
short order. Nakamura resigned when he was unable to defend against the destructive (see diagram) 32.f7. As Levon Aronian was easily held to a draw by Anish Giri, Carlsen increased his lead to a point-and-a-half and will face Giri tomorrow in an effort to break Garry Kasparov's record of 10/13, set in 1999.
Viswanathan Anand joined Levon Aronian in second place after defeating Erwin l'Ami (see picture). Even though the Dutchman got a better endgame with black out of the opening, the World Champion showed his true mettle this time, and outplayed his opponent gradually. In the battle 
for Best Dutchman of the tournament, Loek van Wely again took the lead recovering from a loss in the previous round, as he had done already twice before in this tournament. His opponent Fabiano Caruana had his back against the wall all afternoon, and eventually lost a race for checkmate: (see diagram)45...Qe4 46.f3 Rc2?! 46...Qc2 47.Kg3 Qc7 48.Qxc7 Rxc7 leads to a lost rook endgame,47.Kg3 Qe5 48.f4 Qxe3 49.Kh4 g5 50.Kxg5and Black will be mated soon.
Ivan Sokolov's trouble is only increasing, and for the remaining Dutchman the end of the tournament can't come too soon. In a better position against Hou Yifan (see picture), he self-pinned his knight only to find out that keeping the piece out of harm's way cost him a pawn and the position. The games Harikrishna-Wang Hao and Leko-Karjakin ended in a draw from uneventful endgames.
Whereas the fight for first in the A-Group proved to be a bit anti-climatic, the heat is on in Group B. Arkadij Naiditsch and Sergey Movsesian (see picture) could only draw their games and Richard Rapport took advantage of this by beating Jan Timman, thus joining them in the lead with 8 out of 12. The three leaders will all face players from the bottom of the standings tomorrow. Sabino Brunello and Fernando Peralta again won their game in Group C and are now in first place with 10(!) points out of 12 games. In round 13 Brunello has the easier pairing, playing with black versus Miguoel Admiraal, while Peralta will face 2nd seed Alexander Kovchan, also with black.
Source : http://www.tatasteelchess.com/
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