Wei Yi wins 86th Tata Steel Masters 2024 on tie-breaks with a 2820 performance, Gukesh second
D Gukesh defeated Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) in Round 13 to advance to the Playoffs. Anish Giri (NED), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) and Wei Yi (CHN) were the remaining three players to also score 8.5/13. Gukesh faced Giri in the Semifinals and Abdusattorov was up against Wei. Despite losing the first Blitz game, Gukesh bounced back by winning the must-win second game. Then he went on to win the sudden death to advance to the finals. Wei drew the first Blitz game against Abdusattorov and won the next. Against Gukesh also, he had same result. Wei Yi became champion of 86th Tata Steel Masters 2024. Gukesh, Giri and Abdusattorov shared second place. Vidit and Praggnanandhaa shared fifth place with Alireza Firouzja (FRA) 7.5/13 each. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024
Heartbreak for Gukesh
"I feel really excited and very happy to win this very strong event." - Wei Yi (CHN) on how he felt after winning 86th Tata Steel Masters 2024. "Of course because I think it's my biggest achievement in chess career." - Wei on becoming the first champion of Tata Steel Masters from China. "I feel really relaxed after the final Classical round. For Blitz, I didn't have so much confidence because my opponents were very strong at Blitz. I just want to keep playing my best. I think I was lucky because in my match with Abdusattorov, I think I was lost in two games. He had so many chances but it's Blitz, so it's possible to miss many chances. Finally I was lucky that I got the win." - Wei on remaining undefeated on the final day. Wei's 2820 performance and an increase of 14.8 Elo rating points brought him into World top 10 for the first time. He is now World no.9 in the live ratings with a live rating 2754.8.
Parham - Gukesh: 0-1
Last year at the very same event, D Gukesh (2725) defeated Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2740) in the eighth round. This time, he needed a win to get into the Playoffs. Parham made an interesting knight sacrifice 16.Nxf7!?
Gukesh mentioned that his plan of Bg7, Nf8 made a lot of sense. The game continued 16...Kxf7 17.h4 b5 18.h5 c4 19.Bf1 Bg7 20.e4 Nf8 21.hxg6+ hxg6 22.Be3 Rb8 23.Qh3 Rb7 the position became extremely unclear. No amount of computer evaluation can quantify what the players were going through and felt about the position. The game was full of crazy lines and Gukesh eventually went on to win the game.
D Gukesh became the third player to join the Playoffs after Anish Giri (NED) and Wei Yi (CHN). Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) became the fourth player after he defeated Alexander Donchenko (GER). All four players ended with the same score 8.5/13. Gukesh got white pieces and Abdusattorov got black in the tie-break semifinals. Gukesh lost the first game, won the must-win second game. Then he won the sudden-death game where white had 2 minutes 30 seconds and black 3 minutes with 2 seconds increment to both player. This win in sudden death helped Gukesh to advance to the tie-break finals. Wei drew the first game and defeated Abdusattorov in the second to secure his place in the finals.
In the finals of the tie-break, Gukesh drew the first game against Wei and lost the second. Thus, Wei became the champion and Gukesh shared the second place with Giri and Abdusattorov.
Vishy Anand congratulated Wei Yi and also applauded Gukesh for his fantastic performance
Replay live stream
Replay Round 13 and Tie-break games
Round 13 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | 2743 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | ½ - ½ | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 2759 | 14 | |
| 2 | 8 | 2740 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 0 - 1 | GM | Gukesh, D | 2725 | 6 | |
| 3 | 9 | 2727 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 1 - 0 | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | 2643 | 5 | |
| 4 | 10 | 2740 | GM | Wei, Yi | 1 - 0 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2742 | 4 | |
| 5 | 11 | 2780 | GM | Ding, Liren | ½ - ½ | GM | Ju, Wenjun | 2549 | 3 | |
| 6 | 12 | 2749 | GM | Giri, Anish | 1 - 0 | GM | Warmerdam, Max | 2625 | 2 | |
| 7 | 13 | 2769 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | ½ - ½ | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2682 | 1 |
Standings after Round 13
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | TB1 | TB2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | GM | Gukesh, D | IND | 2725 | 8,5 | 2821 |
| 9 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | UZB | 2727 | 8,5 | 2821 | |
| 3 | 10 | GM | Wei, Yi | CHN | 2740 | 8,5 | 2820 |
| 12 | GM | Giri, Anish | NED | 2749 | 8,5 | 2820 | |
| 5 | 4 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2742 | 7,5 | 2767 |
| 7 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | IND | 2743 | 7,5 | 2767 | |
| 7 | 14 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | FRA | 2759 | 7,5 | 2766 |
| 8 | 13 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | RUS | 2769 | 6,5 | 2708 |
| 9 | 11 | GM | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2780 | 6 | 2678 |
| 10 | 3 | GM | Ju, Wenjun | CHN | 2549 | 4,5 | 2615 |
| 11 | 5 | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | GER | 2643 | 4,5 | 2608 |
| 12 | 1 | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | NED | 2682 | 4,5 | 2605 |
| 13 | 8 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2740 | 4,5 | 2600 |
| 14 | 2 | GM | Warmerdam, Max | NED | 2625 | 4 | 2578 |
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.
