January 18, 2023 – In the fourth round of the Tata Steel Masters, two of the world's highest ranked players lost on adjacent boards, with Anish Giri and Pragna Nandha defeating Magnus Carlson and Ding Liren respectively. Giri now shares the lead with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who beat Parham Maghsoodloo. In the Challengers, four decisive results gave three players a 3/4-point lead.
Anish Giri, 16, defeated Magnus Carlsen in what would be his only victory in classical chess until today. Naturally, the tournament was played at Wijk aan Zee, the first time the traditional game was called "Tata Steel Chess" (from 2000 to 2010, "Krus" was the official name). The 20-year-old Carlson has won the tournament twice and will finish third in that edition, a full point behind champion Hikaru Nakamura. In Holland Stonewall fought for the initiative from the beginning. Let Erwin l'Ami take you on a fascinating journey to understand the depth and appeal of this unique opening ceremony. Finally, you'll get a new track to fight against 1.d4!
Exactly twelve years later, Gilly did it again. By beating the perennial hit, the Dutch climbed to fifth place in the live ratings charts. What's more, he continues to lead the standings and is now tied only with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who also scored a perfect score in the fourth round. Although Giri often excelled in Wijk, he never won a race. Notably, he tied for first place twice, but failed to win a championship in the fast playoffs, first in 2018 and then in 2021.
It's worth noting that this wasn't the only big surprise of this round. Not only did world number one Ding Liren lose to black, Ding Liren (the only player in the world other than Carlson to score more than 2800 points) was defeated by 17-year-old Pragna Nandeha on an adjacent board. Thanks to this stellar victory, Prager scored 6.7 points and climbed to third place. He and Fabiano Karuna trailed the two co-leaders by half a point as they entered the first break day of the Masters.
As mentioned above, Abdusatorov also received a perfect score on Tuesday. Another awesome child prodigy, the 18-year-old boy defeated Paham Magsodeglu with a white pawn. The Uzbek star will face Carlson in Thursday's fourth round against blacks.
Who is more powerful in world champion Carlson and China's first Ding Liren? We think Carlson has been going downhill, and Ding will reach the World Individual Men's Championship sooner or later, do you think this is correct?