Tata Steel 2015 Round 13

Opening: B90: Sicilian: Najdorf

Player(s): Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave

GM Var Akobian recaps Round 13. Magnus, for the third time, wins the super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Congratulations to the World Champion for yet another great victory. The real news though is another: there are 4 musketeers, all of them younger than the World Champion - who is not exactly a decrepit man - who are surging prepotently to dominate the chess scene: MVL from France, Wesley So from Philippines (now playing for U.S.), Ding Liren form China and Anish Giri from the Netherlands. These 4 boys have had a fantastic tournament, and Magnus had to play well all the way through the end to win the event. The 5th musketeer is probably tired from playing just too much: Fabiano the fabulous Caruana didn't have a good tournament, and finished 7th, behind Ivanchuk. The first super-tournament of the year seems to indicate that chess at the top level is more and more dominated by fresh and young talents, that are able to sit at the board for 7 hours without getting tired. The 2015 Tata Steel tournament has been interesting and exciting to follow, with the main protagonists fighting hard to prevail. Caruana won the first two games and then disappeared from the top, replaced by an evergreen Ivanchuk, who held the helm for four rounds, until Magnus started his amazing 6-win streak, to get a firm grip on the title, which he managed not to let go in the last rounds.