Anand’s Trainer Floors Carlsen

Anand’s Trainer Floors Carlsen
By Arvind aaron

Opening theoretician Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland beat world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in an important third round game of the Tata Steel Grand Master Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The next five rounds will be played at Rotterdam and the last four rounds at The Hague.

Wojtaszek surprised Carlsen as early as move four in the Dutch defence. He won a pawn and then trapped a bishop of Carlsen to win with perfect play in 52 moves. It was his first memorable win over a world champion. Wojtaszek is a qualifier into this event from the ACP Tour events. Wojtaszek, 28, is ranked World No.15 in the January 2015 rating list. He has been a trainer of Viswanathan Anand right from the Anand v Kramnik match of 2008.

The earliest idea of staging the event in various cities came from FIDE when the Karpov-Kasparov, 1987 match started in London and then moved to St Petersburg for the second and final leg. Then FIDE President Florencio Campomanes took the sponsorship money from the west and the pressure from the Soviets with that masterly move. The 1990 match between the same players was also held in New York and Lyon. Also, the Linares Tournament was held in Mexico and Spain. This hop step and jump venue has been initiated by FIDE in the Karpov v Timman, 1993 World Championship matches held in the Netherlands at Zwolle, Arnhem and Amsterdam and at Jakarta (former Dutch colony). Multiple venue helps to promote the game in all regions and also bring in sponsor consortiums into funding side of mega events.

In the first four rounds at Wijk aan Zee, white has won eight and surprisingly black has won five games. Thirteen decisive games in the 28 played is also a very high ratio for this super category 20 (Elo 2746) contest. This 14-player event runs from January 8-25, 2015. Looking at the points table, oldest competitor (1969-born) Vassily Ivanchuk is leading with 3.5/4. His tournament rating performance is flying high at 3057! Caruana is having a roaring time at 3/4 after starting with two wins. Ding Liren of China won three and lost to Caruana. Chess is not a drawish game for this Chinese debutant! Philippine born Wesley So who is in the World top 10 has beaten Aronian and is also on 3/4, undefeated.

Standings after four rounds: 1 V Ivanchuk (Ukr) 3.5/4; 2-3. Ding Liren (Chn), Fabiano Caruana (Ita) 3 each; 4-5. Wesley So (USA), Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) 2.5 each; 6-9. Anish Giri (Ned), Magnus Carlsen (Nor), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra), Ivan Saric (Cro) 2 each; 10-11. Levon Aronian (Arm), Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 1.5 each; 12-13. Loek Van Wely (Ned), Hou Yifan (Chn) 1 each; 14 Baadur Jobava (Geo) 0.5.