What Is It About Carlsen and Tata Steel?

We all have certain tournaments where we consistently perform well: something about the environment puts us in a better mood, improves our focus, or gives us an ideal rhythm. For Magnus, that tournament is Tata Steel. Is it the seaside town setting? The restday soccer? The village-wide fascination with chess? Whatever it may be, Wijk aan Zee is consistently the site of several of Carlsen’s most convincing tournament victories. Leading into this year’s event, Carlsen had already won Tata Steel four times. Additionally, Wijk aan Zee was the site where Carlsen set the current record for the highest FIDE rating ever: 2872. Last year, Carlsen won the tournament outright after winning six consecutive games against top grandmasters. This year followed suit: Halfway through the tournament, Carlsen had a three game winning streak, took over the lead, and  finished the tournament undefeated and plus five. Best Victory: His double-edged win against Pavel Elijanov, where he uncorked the bold 10…g5!?, a forgotten idea by Botvinnik in 1963.

[pgn]
[White "Pavel Eljanov"]
[Black "Magnus Carlsen"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E10"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2016.01.15"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O Nbd7 8.
Qc2 Ne4 9. Bf4 c6 10. Nc3 g5 $5 11. Be3 Nd6 12. b3 Nf5 13. g4 Nxe3 14. fxe3 b5
15. e4 b4 16. exd5 bxc3 17. dxc6 Nb8 18. Qe4 f5 19. gxf5 exf5 20. Qd5+ Qxd5 21.
cxd5 Na6 22. Rac1 Nc7 23. Ne5 f4 24. Nc4 Rd8 25. Rxc3 Nxd5 26. c7 Nxc7 27. Bxa8
Nxa8 28. e3 Bb4 29. Rc2 Bb7 30. h4 Be4 31. Rh2 Nb6 32. Ne5 fxe3 33. hxg5 Rxd4
34. Ng4 Nd5 0-1[/pgn]

This year's victory gives Carlsen the record for the most outright Tata Steel wins ever. How did the other grandmasters fare in this 13 round super-tournament? The great part of a longer tournament is that you get to see a more substantial view of a player’s abilities and character.

The Chasers

Fabiano Caruana

Caruana was in excellent form for most of the tournament. He remained in contention for first throughout as he chased Carlsen by  half a point.

"...the race for first in the 2016 Tata Steel Masters appears to be a two Car (get it?) race." -Sam Copeland, Chess.com News

The tragedy for Caruana was the last round, when, needing a victory to tie with Carlsen, he lost a turbulent game to Tomashevsky.

Best Victory: His stellar victory over wunderkind Wei Yi

[pgn]
[White "Fabiano Caruana"]
[Black "Wei Yi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C83"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "2016.01.15"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5
Be6 9. c3 Be7 10. Bc2 Bg4 11. h3 Bh5 12. g4 Bg6 13. Nd4 Qd7 14. f4 Nxd4 15.
cxd4 f5 16. Be3 O-O 17. Nc3 c6 18. Bxe4 dxe4 19. d5 b4 20. dxc6 Qxd1 21. Nxd1
Rfd8 22. Rc1 Rd3 23. Bc5 Bd8 24. e6 Rc8 25. e7 Ba5 26. gxf5 Be8 27. Nf2 Rd5 28.
Nxe4 Bxc6 29. Bxb4 Bxb4 30. Rxc6 Re8 31. f6 Rd4 32. Re6 1-0[/pgn]

Ding Liren

Ding showed an impressive level of resilience: After losing to Caruana, he didn’t allow one loss lead to second and even made a dash towards the top of the scoreboard during the last few rounds, ultimately tying for second.

Best Victory: His positional win against Sergey Karjakin

The Peaceful

Wesley So

So was the only player other than Carlsen to go undefeated. Although he did it in a far more peaceful fashion with twelve draws, his fourth place result is very respectable against this field. Best Victory: So claimed a rare victory over Giri, a feat not even Carlsen has accomplished.

 The Whiz Kid

Wei Yi

There was much anticipation as to how Wei Yi would perform in his first super-tournament. The answer turned out to be: not bad at all. He had only one loss in the entire tournament (to Caruana, who was in fine form), held his own against Carlsen, defeated the more experienced David Navara, and performed 45 points above his rating. Best Victory: His sacrifice-laden attacking victory over David Navara

[pgn]
[White "Wei Yi"]
[Black "David Navara"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C65"]
[WhiteElo "2706"]
[BlackElo "2730"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2016.01.15"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. Nc4 Nd7 8.
Qe2 Re8 9. Bd2 Bd6 10. h4 c5 11. h5 h6 12. O-O-O Nb8 13. Rdg1 Nc6 14. g4 f6 15.
g5 fxg5 16. Nxg5 Nd4 17. Qd1 hxg5 18. Bxg5 Be7 19. Be3 Bf6 20. h6 Re7 21. hxg7
Rxg7 22. Qh5 Be6 23. Bh6 Bf7 24. Bxg7 Bxh5 25. Bxf6+ Kf8 26. Bxd8 Ne2+ 27. Kb1
Nxg1 28. Bxc7 1-0[/pgn]

Houdini

Anish Giri

Giri didn't have an ideal performance for the second seed, especially with his first round loss. However, he refused to accept another defeat in the event, escaping lost positions against David Navara, Fabiano Caruana, Michael Adams, and Hou Yifan.

Best Victory: His dynamic win against Loek Van Wely

The Fearless

David Navara

"A number of truly spectacular games have been played in Wijk aan Zee so far, and it seems that David Navara has been involved in almost all of them." -Peter Doggers, Chess.com News

Throughout the tournament, David Navara demonstrated the ups and downs of creative, dynamic chess: He found himself on the losing side of numerous raging attacks, on the winning side of a fantastic endgame, and on equal footing in a sacrifice-abundant draw against Loek Van Wely. Best Victory: His technical endgame win over Fabiano Caruana   All games and cross tables are available at the Tata Steel Official Website.