Caruana & Wei Yi win, three share lead @ Wijk aan Zee
World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana and defending champion Wei Yi won their games even as lead position remained unchanged in the 8th round of the 87th edition of the Tata Steel Masters Chess 2025, at Dorpshuis De Moriaan, Wijk aan Zee here today. Sharing the lead with 5.5 points were world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Abdusattorov Nodirbek and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu respectively. Like yesterday, Fedoseev Vladimir remained behind the leaders at 5.0 points.
Thanks to their win today, former Tata Steel champions Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi kept themselves in the race for the title. Caruana, playing with black pieces, put it across Keymer in a Queen’s Gambit Declined game lasting 60 moves. Until the first time control the game appeared to going on even scale, when little before the 40 move Caruana went an exchange ahead. Keymer seemed to have enough compensation to pull off a draw when his defence went awry, giving Caruana the full point.
After a high of defeating a 2800+ player in the earlier round Warmerdam got squeezed by Tata Steel 2024 Champion Wei Yi. The Scotch game appeared even, before Warmerdam gave an exchange for activity. Further down, the game looked balanced after the first time control, when Wei Yi the grinder, started working. With deft maneuvers the Chinese went a second exchange up and wrapped up the game after 63 moves. A win after seven games kept Wei Yi on track for a realistic shot on the title. With just five rounds remaining, he’d need to drop his safety first attitude to climb the peak.
Games between Harikrishna Pentala – Giri Anish, Praggnandhaa Rameshbabu – Gukesh Dommaraju, Erigaisi Arjun – Sarana Alexey, Mendonca Leon Luke – van Foreest Jorden ended in lukewarm draws.
The Petroff game between joint leader Abdusattorov Nodirbek and Fedoseev Vladirmir was played out for 76 moves until only the bare kings remained. The much expected Ruy Lopez battle between Indian stars Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh ended without result in 33 moves. With Caruana and Wei Yi closing in on the lead today, the Indian duo along with Uzbek Abdusattorov would need to push harder in the rounds to come.
In the Challengers section, top seed Nguyen Thai Dan Van (6/8) went into sole lead defeating the 14 year old Chinese talent Lu Miaoyi. Joint leader in the previous round, L’Ami Erwin was held to a draw by Ediz Gurel and kept his second place at 5.5 points.
After a day of rest, the ninth round starts Tuesday 28th January at 8 AM ET / 2 PM CET / 6:30 PM IST.
Keymer Vincent (2733) – Caruana Fabiano (2803) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 c6 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. Nge2 Nf8 9. Qc2 Ne6 10. Bh4 g6 11. Rd1 O-O 12. O-O a5 13. Nc1 Ng7 14. f3 Be6 15. N1e2 Rc8 16. Kh1 Nd7 17. Bf2 b5 18. Nf4 Nb6 19. e4 Bg5 20. Be3 dxe4 21. fxe4 Bg4 22. Nce2 f5 23. exf5 Nxf5 24. Qb3+ Nc4 25. Bxc4+ bxc4 26. Qxc4+ Rf7 27. Bc1 Qe7 28. Rde1 Bh4 29. Ng3 Qb4 30. Qxb4 axb4 31. Nxf5 Bxf5 32. g3 Bf6 33. d5 Bd7 34. Nd3 cxd5 35. Nxb4 Bb5 36. Rf4 Re7 37. Bd2 Rxe1+ 38. Bxe1 Be5 39. Bc3 Bxf4 40. gxf4 Kf7 41. Nc2 Bc4 42. a3 Re8 43. Nd4 Re4 44. f5 gxf5 45. Kg2 Rf4 46. a4 Ke8 47. a5 Kd7 48. h3 Rf1 49. Nf3 Ba6 50. h4 h5 51. b4 f4 52. Nd4 Bc4 53. Bb2 Rb1 54. Bc3 Rd1 55. Nf3 d4 56. Bb2 Bd5 57. Kf2 d3 58. Bc3 Bxf3 59. Kxf3 d2 60. Ke2 f3+ 0-1
Warmerdam Max (2646) – Wei Yi (2751) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Bd3 d5 7. exd5 cxd5 8. O-O Be7 9. h3 O-O 10. Re1 c5 11. b3 Bb7 12. Nc3 c4 13. Bf1 d4 14. Nb5 Bb4 15. Bd2 Bc5 16. Re5 Ne4 17. Rxc5 Qf6 18. Be1 Nxc5 19. Qxd4 Qxd4 20. Nxd4 Rfd8 21. Nf5 cxb3 22. axb3 a6 23. Bc4 Ne6 24. Bxe6 fxe6 25. Ne3 Rac8 26. Ra4 Rc5 27. Bb4 Re5 28. Bc3 Re4 29. Ra2 Rf4 30. Ra5 h6 31. Kf1 Bc6 32. Kg1 Bb7 33. Kf1 Kh7 34. Ke2 Rf7 35. f3 Rc7 36. Be1 Rcd7 37. Bb4 Rb8 38. Bc3 Rc8 39. Bb4 Rc6 40. Bc5 Bc8 41. Ba3 Rb7 42. Bb2 Bd7 43. Ra3 Be8 44. Bd4 Bf7 45. Ra2 Rb4 46. Bb2 Bg6 47. Kd2 Rb5 48. Ra4 Rb7 49. Bd4 Be8 50. Nc4 e5 51. Nxe5 Rd6 52. Rc4 Bb5 53. Rb4 a5 54. Rxb5 Rxb5 55. Ke3 Rbd5 56. Bc3 a4 57. bxa4 Rc5 58. Bd4 Rxc2 59. g4 Ra2 60. f4 Rxa4 61. Bc5 Rd5 62. Be7 g5 63. Nd3 gxf4+ 0-1
Masters (Round 8 results): Warmerdam Max (3.0) lost to Wei Yi (4.5), Harikrishna Pentala (4.0) drew with Giri Anish (3.5), Abdusattorov Nodirbek (5.5) drew with Fedoseev Vladimir (5.0), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (5.5) drew with Gukesh Dommaraju (5.5), Erigaisi Arjun (2.0) drew with Sarana Alexey (), Keymer Vincent (3.0) lost to Caruana Fabiano (4.5), Mendonca Leon Luke (2.5) drew with van Foreest Jorden (3.0)
Challengers (Round 8 results): Pijpers Arthur (3.0) drew with Vaishali Rameshbabu (4.5), Gurel Ediz (4.0) drew with L’Ami Erwin (5.5), Bok Benjamin (5.0) drew with Svane Frederik (4.5), Nguyen Thai Dan Van (6.0) bt Lu Miaoyi (4.5), Suleymanli Aydin (5.0) bt Oro Faustino (2.5), Divya Deshmukh (1.5) lost to Nogerbek Kazybek (5.0), Yakubboev Nodirbek (4.0) bt Bulmaga Irina (1.0)
Picture courtesy: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess 2025
Official Site: https://tatasteelchess.com/en
