Abdusattorov Leads Carlsen, So, Narayanan As Tata Steel Chess India Begins

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov is the sole leader of the 2024 Tata Steel Chess India Open Rapid after beating GMs Vincent Keymer and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu on day one to score 2.5/3 in Kolkata. GMs Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, and Narayanan S.L. are just half a point behind.

The 2024 Tata Steel Chess India Women's Rapid is led by GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, GM Kateryna Lagno, and IM Vantika Agrawal on 2/3, though things could have been very different since GM Alexandra Kosteniuk was winning the position she lost to Goryachkina, but escaped a lost position against Vantika. 

Day two starts on Thursday, November 14 at 3:30 a.m. ET/09:30 CET/2 p.m. IST.

• Magnus Carlsen Returns To Kolkata
• Open Rapid: Abdusattorov Survives Tricky Start To Lead
• Women's Rapid: Goryachkina, Lagno, Vantika Lead

Magnus Carlsen Returns To Kolkata

Tata Steel Chess India has returned for its fifth edition in Kolkata, India, with a new venue this year, the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium. Once again, there are two 10-player Open and Women's fields, with five Indian stars taking on five players from around the world.

India's importance in the chess world has grown immensely since the event was first held in 2018, with 15th World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who joined the live broadcast, commenting, "The tournament is growing in importance along with the importance of the players who are playing in it!"

The highlight this year, however, is a return for world number-one Carlsen, who played the event once, and won it, in 2019. His biggest rivals may be world numbers four and six, GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Abdusattorov.

At the opening ceremony, Carlsen talked about facing some of the leaders of the young generation:

"I always enjoy getting to test myself against a younger generation and I’m always very curious to see how much they’ve improved since the last time we’ve played. Usually it turns out they’ve improved a lot but not always enough, but apart from that I’m very much looking forward to seeing all the Indian chess fans. It’s quite chaotic, so that’s one of the reasons why I don’t do it every single year, but every time it happens it’s fun."

I always enjoy getting to test myself against a younger generation and I’m always very curious to see how much they’ve improved since the last time we’ve played.

—Magnus Carlsen

At the opening ceremony, Carlsen met three-year-old 1555-rated Anish Sarkar, whose favorite player is GM Anish Giri...

Kids these days!😅🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/C1mrxxdwo4

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) November 13, 2024

...commenting, "It’s really amazing to know the level he’s at—I have a little nephew who’s turning four in a few days and he’s a bright young child, but I don’t see him getting a rating of 1500 anytime soon!"

It wouldn't take long until we got to see what Carlsen meant about the chaos of encountering the incredibly enthusiastic fans in Kolkata. 

When @MagnusCarlsen arrives at the venue in Kolkata! #TataSteelChessIndia pic.twitter.com/xjmn8Xy529

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

It's going to be a spectacular five days—three days of rapid chess (25+10) followed by two days of blitz (3+2), with the two events completely separate for scores and prizes—so let's get to the action!

Open Rapid: Abdusattorov Survives Tricky Start To Lead

Abdusattorov said at the evening opening ceremony, "I was asleep a few minutes ago and now I’m here, so it’s already progress!", and it felt as if his first day followed a similar trajectory.

He conceded a huge space advantage against GM Daniil Dubov in the first round but held on. Then, in the second, he was under pressure, and for a few moves, losing against Keymer.

He limited the damage to only a pawn but somehow managed to win when his German opponent made one disastrous move, 61.Kd2?, allowing Abdusattorov to block with 61...Nh6!, and it was time to resign.

By the third and final game of the day, Abdusattorov was his recognizable self, as he pounced on a mistake by Praggnanandhaa to win convincingly and take the lead.

Things had started much brighter for Praggnanandhaa as he had Carlsen on the ropes in the first game of the day, first winning a pawn and then gaining a chance to pick up the full point.

The reason he didn't go for 32...Kf5! was likely that both players had missed that after 33.Rxb7 Nc5 34.Nxd4+ Kxf4 35.Nxe6+, the only winning move was not to take on e6 but to play 35...Ke3!!, threatening checkmate.

The zwischenzug 35...Ke3!!, threatening checkmate, is the move Pragg might have missed! pic.twitter.com/heS4lHDD0v

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

Carlsen then missed a fleeting chance against GM Nihal Sarin, but he ended the day on a high by scoring a slow positional win against the Berlin of the one player to have played in all five editions of Tata Steel Chess India—GM Vidit Gujrathi.

Magnus Carlsen beats Vidit for his first win of the 2024 edition of #TataSteelChessIndia! https://t.co/r81ohBcTQ7 pic.twitter.com/8g7F39iG3X

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

That's our Game Of The Day, which is annotated by GM Rafael Leitao below.

Two players suffered all the defeats on day one in the open section, with Vidit also ground down by So in a tricky queen and knight endgame, while Keymer had been beating Narayanan in the first game of the day but played too inventively and finally went astray in the endgame.

There were no less than 10 draws, but they featured some spectacular chess. For instance, Nihal's 49...Bg5!! caused Anand to exclaim, "this is genius!"

The point was that after 50.fxg5 Nihal could give up his queen with 50...Qf2+! since the black king has no squares and it'd be stalemate. Dubov tried to dodge that trick, but he couldn't stop the game from ending in stalemate after all.

The man of the moment, however, is newly-minuted 2800-star Arjun, who made three wild draws, all in his style.

The first was a well-played blow-by-blow draw against Nihal, while in the second, Arjun went for a risky opening against Vidit. The watching Anand commented:

"By now it’s becoming a pretty clear pattern. He just does something to unbalance it, a bit provocative, I guess to his eyes not overly—opinions can vary on that!—but he does this consistently round after round, tournament after tournament, and it seems to be working for him. Again, he’s basically saying, let’s play chess—no complicated theoretical battles."

This time, however, Arjun may have bitten off more than he could chew when he went for 24...Nc8?, a move that Anand hadn't even spotted, assuming the healthy 24...Rb8! was the only move.    

Arjun plays a move Anand didn't even see... but it's a blunder! #TataSteelChessIndia pic.twitter.com/jXkFX3Zgx4

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

If Vidit had followed up 25.h3! he would probably have won, but his 25.g3!? overlooked a fantastic blow later in the variation that wouldn't have worked if the king was safely hidden away on h2, 29...Ne3+!!. 

The theory about Arjun avoiding theory was somewhat shaken by his playing the notoriously theoretical Marshall in the following game against Narayanan. Sure enough, he forgot the move order in a known (by Anand) variation and ended up in a lost position. The five-time World Champion was puzzled.

Anand: "There are positions which Arjun wanders into where he’s much worse, but they look happier than this position! He has play, he has dynamics, he might be worse, he might be even much worse, but he has got his thing. Why did he choose this position is a bit beyond me!" https://t.co/tcHo37Yneg

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 13, 2024

"Maybe it’s just a random selector," was what Anand settled on to explain Arjun's opening choices, but in the end, it looked once again as though there was a method to the madness since one mistake by Narayanan in a phenomenally confusing position was all it took for the advantage to evaporate, while anything could then have happened before the game was ultimately drawn.

Don't bet on too many more days of all draws for Arjun.  

Women's Rapid: Goryachkina, Lagno, Vantika Lead

In 2023, the Women's and Open events were held one after another over two weeks, so the Women's tournament got full coverage. This year, they're being held side-by-side, which inevitably means less attention, but that doesn't mean any less action. After day one, we were left with three leaders, who had all won one game and drawn the remaining two.

At a glance, it looks as though Goryachkina simply continued her fine form from the Shymkent Women's Grand Prix, but that wasn't the whole story. She seemed hopelessly lost in her first game against Kosteniuk, who at the opening ceremony had commented on what she'd learned from the game with, "Chess is not always helpful in life." When asked for a restatement, she explained, "Chess is just a game, it's not life."

That's probably for the best since the way Kosteniuk outplayed her opponent, then let much of her advantage slip, then regained the edge, then blundered into an excruciating checkmate would otherwise be one of the worst things that could happen in life. Here's the bitter concluding phase:

There was some comfort for Kosteniuk, however, since in the next game against Vantika, she escaped to draw a lost position.

Both Vantika and Lagno won double-edged games against GM Valentina Gunina, with the reigning Women's World Blitz Champion nevertheless getting on the scoreboard with a win over GM Vaishali Rameshbabu.

There are two days and six rounds of rapid chess to go before the first champions of this year's Tata Steel Chess India are crowned.   

Tata Steel Chess India 2024 is taking place in the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata on November 13-17 and features an Open and a Women's section, each consisting of 10 players and with the same prize fund. The first three days of rapid chess (first prize $10,000) are a single round-robin with a 25 minutes/game + 10-second increment/move time control. The last two days of blitz (first prize $7,500) are a double round-robin at a 3+2 time control. 

Previous Coverage

• Tata Steel Chess India 2024: All The Information