Jorden Van Foreest wins Tata Steel 2021
Baku, February 1, AZETAC
Jorden Van Foreest won his home tournament Tata Steel 2021 after beating his countryman Anish Giri in Armageddon and became the first Dutchman to clinch the title in Wijk-an-Zee since Jan Timman in 1985, according to the official FIDE website.
In the final round, Anish Giri made a hard-fought draw David Anton but gave a chance to three players to catch up with him. Only Jorden Van Foreest was up to the challenge, whereas Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja had to settle for draws.
David Anton put the leader to a serious test and made him work hard for a draw. The Spaniard opted for a seemingly innocuous but very solid line against Najdorf variation of the Sicilian and after 19.a5, fixing Black’s pawns on the queen-side he got a long-lasting advantage. Anish put up a stubborn and patient defense and scored a half-point that guaranteed him at least a tie for first place.
Out of three chasers, only Jorden Van Foreest managed to earn a victory over Nils Grandelius and catch up with Giri. The Dutchman went for a rare line in Najdorf Variation prepared at home, sacrificed a pawn, and got a fresh and complicated position with sufficient compensation. Nils was defending well in a maze of complications up to some point, but Jorden came up with a temporary piece sacrifice (21.Nb5!) and took control over the proceedings. In the end, White’s king made a long trip to h6 to force the capitulation of Black’s monarch.
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