Tata Steel 2024 R8: Firouzja fabulous against Ding Liren, joins the lead with Gukesh and Giri
Alireza Firouzja (FRA) scored a fantastic win against Ding Liren (CHN) in Round 8 of 86th Tata Steel Masters 2024. The world no.6 sacrificed an exchange after which the world champion blundered. His opponent proclaimed that it is a dangerous line for Black and he had to know a lot to defend. Ian Nepomniachtchi scored the only other win in the Masters against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB). R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi drew against Max Warmerdam (NED), Wenjun Ju (CHN) and Alexander Donchenko (GER) respectively. Gukesh, Anish Giri (NED) and Alireza Firouzja (FRA) are currently the three leaders at 5/8 each. Leon Luke Mendonca swindled Anton Korobov (UKR) to move to 5/8. Marc' Andria Maurizzi (FRA) is the new sole leader 5.5/8 after he defeated the previous one - Salem Saleh (UAE). Today is a rest day. Round 9 starts tomorrow Tuesday 23rd January at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024
Leon and Divya win, Harika draws
"Yeah, for sure. I played him in Romania after his (World Championship) Match and I also beat him there. I think I have decent score against him but he beat previously in World Cup (2019). Yeah it was a very interesting game." - Alireza Firouzja after winning against the world champion, Ding Liren. "I risked a lot myself. Yesterday, he didn't even do anything special. I blundered very immediately. I just missed Kd3. That was it. I was very upset, but what can you do? I have a lot of experience after losing on how you should come back." Firouzja on how he deals with losses and makes a comeback.
Firouzja - Ding Liren: 1-0
Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 2759) has never lost a Classical rated game against the world champion - Ding Liren (CHN, 2780). In fact, Firouzja won their last Classical encounter last year after Liren became world champion.
Sacrificing a pawn 11.d5 was part of White's preparation. He was trying to recollect it. "This is a very dangerous line for Black. He has to know a lot to defend." - Firouzja. White went for an interesting exchange sacrifice 17.Rxe7 Nxe7 18.Rxd4 Qc7?? White figured out that Qc7 was a mistake. It surprised him. Afterwards, it was easy for him to convert his advantage into a full point.
Korobov - Leon
GM Anton Korobov (UKR, 2663) was winning for the better part of the game against GM Leon Luke Mendonca (2608). He could have won the game even in the above position if he went 28.dxc6 Rgxh7 29.Rd2. Instead, White went 28.Nh2? Qg3 29.Rb3?? Qxe5 and Black went on to win the game.
Divya - Eline
IM Divya Deshmukh (2420) decided to go for 22.f5! as she could not find a way for her opponent to defend the attack after 21...Nb8. 22....gxf5 23.Nxf5 exf5 24.Qxf5 Rg7 25.e6 and it was over for Black.
Replay live stream
Replay Round 8 Masters games
Replay Round 8 Challengers games
Round 8 results
Standings after Round 8
Round 9 pairings
Schedule
Starting from Saturday 13th to 27th January, all round starts at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Only Sunday 28th January, the final round will start at 12 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Rest days are same for both Masters and Challengers section - 17th, 22nd and 25th January 2024.
Time Control
100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.
