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Abdusattorov keeps the lead while Carlsen is rising at the Tata Steel Masters 2023

Round 10 of the Tata Steel Masters 2023 is over with Magnus Carlsen achieving his fourth win, this time against Parham Maghsoodloo, to tie with Wesley So for the 3rd place. The tournament’s leader, 18-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and the runner-up Anish Giri drew against Ding Liren and Wesley So respectively to keep the Top.2 untouched.

Photos: Nodirbek Abdusattorov & Magnus Carlsen by Lennart Ootes, Anish Giri & Wesley So by Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

After giving Magnus Carlsen his second loss in a row since 2015 in Round 5 of the Tata Steel Masters 2023, the 18-year-old GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew against World No.2 Ding Liren in Round 10. The game started with the Berlin and despite Nodirbek’s 7-hour encounter with Vincent Keymer the day before, the Uzbek GM initiated a very energetic play. Ding played conservatively and slowly developed his pieces to end up in a position with no weaknesses for both players. After 27 moves the game ended in a drew by repetition.

“I have 5 pretty winnable games left, so I’ll just try and keep going!” Magnus Carlsen said after beating Fabiano Caruana in Round 8, and as it seems he went with this spirit in Round 10 against Parham Maghsoodloo. After playing the Queen’s Gambit Declined and creating some tension in the middlegame, the players traded pieces and went for the endgame. Once more, Magnus used his excellent endgame technique, gave a pawn for hyper-active pieces to eventually take it back plus 2 and win the game.

“I’m realizing that there are possibilities [of winning the tournament], but most of all, I’m taking a further step to playing a decent tournament. I’ve turned it around in a good way, and I’m happy with that.” Carlsen said at his post-game interview.

The second decisive game of Round 10 was Gukesh-Praggnanandhaa. Gukesh spiced up this Indian super-battle with 11.g4!?, turning the symmetrical English opening to a strangely-aggressive one! Keeping up this sharp play, Pragg miscalculated and sacrificed a bishop to open up White’s king, but the compensation wasn’t enough. Gukesh defended accurately and won the game to achieve his second win in the tournament.

“He went for an interesting piece sac, but fortunately I could calculate it off. The main point was after 24…Rad8 I had to spot 25.gxf5 Qb3 26.Rxg7+ Kxg7 27.Qg3+ and what he missed was that after 27…Kh8 28.Qe5+ Kg8 I have 29.Bc4+ with a mating attack.” Gukesh said after the game.

Elsewhere, the two most solid competitors, Anish Giri and Wesley So, faced each other and comfortably drew an equal rook endgame. Also Richard Rapport and Levon Aronian agreed to a draw in 31 moves after reaching a symmetrical king and pawn ending in less than an hour.

Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi might have ended their game in a draw by repetition but it was a rather complicated one. Fabiano initiated the d3 Ruy Lopez and Arjun went for a kingside attack. After a knight exchange both players were guarding their weak spots and couldn’t make progress to create problems to their opponent, so they left Round 10 with half a point each.

The last game to finish was Van Foreest-Keymer. It was another game that Keymer had the advantage but couldn’t make it a point with the players agreeing to a draw after 96 moves.

Round 11 will take place on Friday the 27th with Giri facing Abdusattorov and Carlsen going against So to clear the Top3 standings.

Watch Round 11

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