If he should begin to combine a little, he will be impossible to play against. - Max Euwe was talking about Petrosian, and not @anishgiri as one could think after today's excellent game.
On Wednesday afternoon, January 18, Telstar’s BUKO stadium will traditionally host another special soccer match. A number of chess masters from the Tata Steel Masters will enter the field to play a friendly soccer match with players from the Telstar selection.
After a warm-up, the match will begin at 3 p.m. Interested parties can sit in the main grandstand for free. The grandmasters will play 30 minutes twice. On Thursday, January 19, the Tata Steel Masters will again play in a soccer stadium. Then the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam will be the setting. There, under the name ‘Tata Steel Chess On Tour’, the Masters will play the 5th round of their tournament.
For a long time not much was happening in the game between Erigasi and Aronian. Towards the end Erigasi slipped and suddenly Aronian had a forced win. The triangle zugzwang needed for that was stuff for engines not for humans so the game ended in a draw.
Giri: "If one of us is combative, it’s going to be a combat. I think the odds that both of us are non-combative are very low, largely because the odds of him being non-combative are really low!"
"All in all he played well. The worst thing is that I didn't feel unwell today, so I have no excuses. It was just a risky choice and something I overlooked that he exploited."
"It's not too much of a crisis. I just have to pull yself together, play well and it's still a long way to go. But obviously, today was not good."
