Fabiano Caruana drew a sharp game against Richard Rapport to finish in clear first place in the Superbet Chess Classic, taking the $100,000 top prize and the maximum 13 Grand Chess Tour points. His pursuers could all only draw, though that was a good result for Anish Giri after he stumbled into a lost position against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Ding Liren regained the world no. 3 spot after ending with a fine win over Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

He was never in danger in a single game and could have scored more. He missed a chance against Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the first round, and his one real regret was a failure to turn a huge advantage against Alireza Firouzja into a full point.

There was also nostalgia, as Fabiano had been the first to face 10…Ba5 10.Bf4 0-0 11.0-0-0!, in a game against Magnus Carlsen. Rapport varied from that game with 13.Qe3 and an interesting battle ensued, but there was no opening bomb. When Richie missed a chance to ask more questions with 19.f3! the game soon fizzled out into a draw.

The next event on the Grand Chess Tour, the Superbet Warsaw Rapid & Blitz, starts in just six days, with six of the same players competing. We won’t get to see Ding Liren vs. Magnus Carlsen just yet, however, since Ding has been granted a much needed break!

See also:

• Official website
• All the Superbet Chess Classic games with computer analysis
• Ding Liren and Nepomniachtchi back in action
• Superbet Chess Classic 1: So gets Firouzja revenge
• Superbet Chess Classic 2: Nepo and Rapport strike
• Superbet Chess Classic 3: Ding thwarts Nepo again
• Superbet Chess Classic 4: Caruana beats Nepomniachtchi
• Superbet Chess Classic 5: Firouzja world no. 2 after beating Ding
• Superbet Chess Classic 6: So & Caruana miss wins
• Superbet Chess Classic 7: Firouzja catches Caruana
• Superbet Chess Classic 8: Duda shocks Firouzja

American grandmaster Wesley So (23) has won the 79th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Playing with black he managed to beat Russian Ian Nepomniatchi and thus managed to leave behind world champion Magnus Carlsen, Chinese super talent Wei Yi and Levon Aronian. They were all half a point behind So before the start of the 13th round, which was opened by former world champion Anatoli Karpov, and so were all still competing for first place. It’s the first time So has won a tournament in which Carlsen was participating.

Carlsen came in second in the Tata Steel Masters. The first regular match between Carlsen and Karjakin since their world championship match in New York ended in a draw today. Wesley So has remained unbeaten for 56 matches in a row and is now the world’s number three chess player. So after his victory: “Winning this prestigious tournament has been a goal for a long time. I really love the Tata Steel Chess Tournament”. So received the award from Anatoli Karpov and Theo Henrar, chairman of the directors of Tata Steel Nederland. Henrar announced that the 80th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in Wijk aan Zee from 12 – 28 January 2018.

Other winners

Gawain Jones (UK) managed to win the Tata Steel Challengers. The fight for first place was fierce in this group as well during the last round, which started with three players still in the race for victory. Winning the Tata Steel Challengers means that Jones will participate in the Tata Steel Masters in 2018. The top amateur group was won by Lucas van Foreest (15), brother of Jorden van Foreest (17).

The latter participated in the Tata Steel Challengers. His victory means that Lucas van Foreest will participate in the Tata Steel Challengers in next year’s edition. The Vugar Gashimov Fair Play Award was won by Adhiban Baskaran (India) and Eric Hansen (Canada). They received the award from Sarkhan Gashimov, Vugar’s brother. The Professor Van Hulst Young Talent Award was won by 16-year-old American Jeffery Xiong, who secured third place in the Tata Steel Challengers. He received the prize from 106-year-old Johan van Hulst.

Steel and chess: creativity and innovation

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament has a long tradition. Starting as an employee tournament, it has grown into an international tournament of world class renown, for which grand masters and amateurs alike will clear their diaries. Tata Steel has chosen for chess, because chess entails strategic thinking and focuses on finding creative solutions for complex issues. Tata Steel has that very same focus. Steelmaking is a high-tech process with a crucial role for innovation.

Tata Steel employees are continuously and relentlessly working on finding clever solutions to improve processes and products. That is how Tata Steel is able to provide top products to its customers, allowing them to distinguish themselves in their markets. At the same time Tata Steel contributes to creating a sustainable society through its product and process innovations. Among chess aficionados the tournament in Wijk aan Zee is known as ‘The Wimbledon of Chess’.

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Chess, unlike most other competitive sports, maintains a system of titles granted to players of exceptional skill and talent. The highest title awarded in the world of bishops and knights is International Grandmaster (GM). While it sounds mysterious, the title’s origins are tied to the conception of mastery, like that of an artist or craftsman who has attained the highest level of achievement recognized by one’s peers.

Prior to the titling system’s formalization in the early 1950s by World Chess Federation, the term Grandmaster existed only as an approbation granted to the very best players in the world. The lore surrounding some of the title’s first usage dates to the last days of the Russian Empire when Tsar Nicholas II held a tournament of “grossmeisters” (German for Grandmasters). That title was never formally given. Chess had always been informal through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such informality even allowed World Champions to avoid challengers who might beat them or to play against lesser contenders to assure themselves the retention of the crown.

In 1946, international chess would find itself in a crisis and in need of a more formal structure after the death of World Champion Alexander Alekhine. Although the Soviet Challenger Mikhail Botvinnik had offered the best sponsorship and funding for a match with Alekhine, events and politics made the hosting of a World Championship match impossible during WWII.

The postwar era opened the door for the World Chess Federation to regulate the many aspects of the game that, up until that point, had been informal or ad hoc. Its rules committee authored a new version the Laws of Chess universalizing international chess competition. It regularized the system under which players could qualify and play for the World Championship, and held a large, international tournament in 1948 to crown a new champion after Alekhine’s death. Finally, it created a set of rules for the granting of titles to chess players.

In 1950, two new titles were created: International Grandmaster and International Master (IM). Similar to university degrees, these titles were a hierarchical system with GM higher than IM, and once earned, the bearer would hold his or her title for life. To earn each title, a player must achieve three quality performances, each known as a norm, in tournaments meeting a strict set of regulations on the composition of the player pool.

In general terms, to earn one norm:

• a player needs to score quantifiably well in a tournament where at least three other players already hold the title being sought
• the average rating of all the players in the tournament must be above a minimum threshold (2380 average for GM norms)
• a minimum of four national federations must be represented

After all three norms are earned, the player must achieve rating over 2500 for GM or 2400 for IM.

These rules for chess titles created a natural break on their proliferation. In the 1950s, only about 50 Grandmasters existed. The international nature of norm qualified tournaments meant strong events held in the United States or the Soviet Union often would not consist of required number of foreign or titled players. It was not until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, with its exodus of Eastern European and Russian players to the West, that the GM title started to spread more widely. Today, there are more than 1,000 Grandmasters worldwide. To put that number in perspective, it is estimated (2012) that around 600 million people play chess worldwide.

Although norm tournaments have become more common in the United States in the last few decades, they are still onerous to organize because the of the time commitment required and the resources needed to attract foreign or titled players. But norm tournaments are essential for the promotion of professional chess, as they are often the first introduction players have to invitational round-robin tournament chess and only way to earn international titles. Those who earn the GM title can trace a line to the past and count themselves among chess’ elite players.

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