Tata Steel 2024 R3: Divya Deshmukh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov set the board on fire
IM Divya Deshmukh scored her first win at Tata Steel Challengers 2024 against GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP). She could not have asked for a better win as she sacrificed her bishop and rook to launch a devastating attack on her opponent's kingside. Sure, the Spanish GM could have saved it but practically it was not easy to find. In the Masters section, Vidit Gujrathi drew against Ian Nepomniachtchi comfortably. R Praggnanandhaa also shared the point against Wei Yi (CHN). D Gukesh suffered a loss against Ding Liren (CHN). The world champion stated that he is getting back into his shape after two warm-up games. Round 4 pairings: Liren v Praggnanandha, Giri v Gukesh, Jorden van Foreest v Vidit, Liam Vrolijk v Harika Dronavalli, Leon Luke Mendonca v Erwin L'Ami and Hans Niemann v Divya Deshmukh. The fourth round starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024
Giri joins Firouzja in the early lead
"Every win count has a one point, so no matter how you win" - Ding Liren on his thoughts about winning the game by chasing his opponent's king. He added, "Yeah I am quite happy about this game. At first I was on the defensive side. I was a pawn up but my queen was not so well placed but suddenly I turned the table by sacrificing the pawn on b7. I think he might have missed my move 32...Qg1. After that maybe it's already lost for him."
Divya - Jaime: 1-0
IM Divya Deshmukh (2420) faced GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP, 2615) for the first time in a Classical rated game. She made a beautiful bishop and rook sacrifice to win the game.
Position after 30...Re8
30...Re8 allowed White to launch a thunderous attack 31.Bxf6! Nxf6 32.Rfxf6 gxf6 33.Rxh6+ Kg8 34.Qg3+ Kf8 35.Qh4 b5?? 36.d6+- and it's over for Black. Divya mentioned in the post-game interview that she was not sure if 31.Bxf6 works or not. She went for it anyway as she was getting a pawn as a minimum.
Solve questions posed by IM Sagar Shah in an interactive format on ChessRanga.
Vidit - Nepomniachtchi: 0.5-0.5
Vidit Gujrathi (2742) quite possibly faced Ian Nepomniachtchi (2769) for the last time in a Classical rated game before FIDE Candidates 2024. They had played six Classical rated games against each other. Vidit lost only two of them and his last occurred at the same event nearly five years ago. It goes without saying that Vidit has evolved and improved a lot since then.
Gukesh - Ding Liren: 0-1
D Gukesh (2725) faced Ding Liren (CHN, 2780) only once in a Classical rated game, last year at the very same event. The color and result turned out to be same. The teenager took an ambitious approach against the world champion and castled on the queenside in Italian opening.
White's best choice was to pick up an exchange 19.Bd3 Qg7 20.Ng6 Nxg3 21.Nxf8 Kxf8 22.fxg3 Nxd4 White is not in any kind of danger. 19.Rd2 Bd7 and now Black is no longer losing an exchange as the f8-rook has plenty of safe squares. 20.Bd3 Qg7 21.Bf5 Bxf5 22.Nxf5 Qg5 23.Qb5 Rfe8 24.Re3 Ng7 White's position deteriorated and Black went on to win the game. In a post-game interview, the world champion shared, "I was out of preparation when he played 9.Na3. After that I was on my own. Yes 11...g5 I intended to play Nh5 after g5. I just suddenly saw that he can take on d6 and it's just losing a pawn. Fortunately, I still had castle..."
Parham - Abdusattorov: 0-1
The sharpest game of the day was played between Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2740) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2727).
There is nothing concrete for Black. 19...Qxa2! was played keeping in mind of the fact that the white king is exposed and Black can make the most out of it, despite his pieces lagging in the development department. Instead of 19.Qc2, Qa3 would have been for White which both realized when they analyzed it after the game. One must try to calculate and figure out why the knight sacrifice works and do check out the exciting game.
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Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
Round 4 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.
