TATA Steel Masters 2024 Round 1 Analysis

In this series, I will be analysing games from each round of the TATA Steel Masters. The focus will be on areas for learning, mostly for myself but I hope this will be useful for you too! As usual, I will try to keep things easy-going and succinct.

Overview:

The 1st super tournament of 2024. Obviously, all the participants are ultra strong but there is still quite a wide variance in expected strength. Due to this, we are seeing riskier – and consequently more interesting! – opening play. Donchenko and Ju Wenjun go for sidelines, perhaps to avoid their higher rated opponent’s excellent preparation. Of course, we still have the opening slugfest of Gukesh – Nodirbek, with both blitzing a crazy Italian variation.

Analysis: Board 1: Donchenko (2643) - Wei Yi (2740)

(Photo credit: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024)

Note: I can't figure out why the annotation symbols are missing once I embed the game in a blog post, but I think it would be more instructive to open the game as a study. Click the button with the three dots, followed by "view on Lichess".

One might pin point the final mistake as 32.Bf6, but really 29.Nb5 was the start of Donchenko's downfall. Wei Yi shows us why he is 2700+. He navigates the opening skillfully, obtaining a favourable position. Still, Donchenko shows why White's half-move advantage gives him so much leeway. Even with an unambitious aim to obtain just a playable position, White still manages to obtain a fighting game with chances.

Conclusion

I was hoping to annotate Van Forrest - Firouzja and Ju Wenjun - Giri too, but obviously, I have underestimated the work and time neccessary! Regardless, I hope to continue this series (at least till the end of TATA Steel), and I hope it's somewhat enjoyable for you to follow along too. Feel free to comment, discuss or criticise in the forum, I'll be keeping a look out :) Till tomorrow tonight then!

Check out Round 2's recap here!