Fabio Caruana crowned the winner of Tata Steel Chess 2020

Already in the penultimate round of the Tata Steel Chess 2020 Tournament Fabio Caruana secured his victory. Against Duda, he got his sixth victory in the twelfth round after very strong play with white. As Magnus Carlsen only managed a draw against Vladislav Artemiev there was no chance for Carlsen to reach Caruana in the final round.

Carlsen trailed Caruana throughout the whole Tata Steel Chess Tournament but didn’t have the edge to close the gap in critical situations. Against Aremiev, a must-win game for Carlsen to have a shot at the title, he faced a well-known variation of the Grünfeld-defence which Aremiev played with comfort to a draw. Carlsen was not even close to finding an attacking opening in Aremiev’s defence and had no other choice but to offer Remi.

Three undefeated players in the tournament

In the Caruana Duda game, both were undefeated in the first 11 games. But with only one win for Duda, putting him at six points, he was trailing Caruana, having five wins and six draws, putting him at eight points in total. In a tournament of this calibre, you can almost not afford to lose a game, but it is also evident that winning games is a very important factor when playing chess on this top-level. And after the Caruana win, bringing him to a nine-point total, the Tournament victory was secured by the American.

But others also played very well. American Wesley So went undefeated in the Tata Steel Chess 2020 with a total standing of 7.5 points. And, maybe the biggest surprise of the tournament, was the very good result from Jorden van Foreest. Van Foreest drew both Carlsen and Caruana and lost only two games in total, coming in at a very honouring fourth place. Compared to last year’s tournament, van Foreest has increased his lowest level a lot, securing much more draws in 2020 compared to 2019. This brought him from place thirteen in 2019 to fourth in 2020. Please check out the final results of the Tata Steel Chess 2020 here.

Carlsen continuing his undefeated streak

Magnus Carlsen, the four-time world champion, secured the second place in the Tata Steel Chess 2020. Even if he did not play his best game it is evident that he is in very good form still starting 2020 in the same fashion as 2019. It has now been 120(!) games that Carlsen has played without losing in classical chess. An unbelievable record and the last time he lost was back in 2018 (on 31 July) against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the Biel Chess Tournament.

Upcoming Candidates Tournament and Word Championship

With Caruana, who held a performance rating on 2945 taking 10 out of 13 points (which only four players managed to do in the past), in crazy form and Carlsen continuing his unbeaten streak there might some very interesting games coming up between the current two giants of chess. Maybe these two will also fight for the World Champion title at the end of 2020. Just like they did in 2018 where Carlsen won after a rapid chess tiebreak.

The challenger to Carlsen will be the winner of the Candidates Tournament held 15 March to 5 April 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Even if the competition in the Candidates Tournament is very high, it is hard to guess that anyone else than Caruana will secure the spot on the 2020 World Championship, given the stellar performance he showed in Tata Steel Chess 2020.

A glance at the Chess World Championship 2020

In the 2020 World Chess Championship there are some new regulations introduced. Apart from doubling the price money (from a minimum of 1 million EUR to a recommended 2 million EUR price fund), the most notable change is that there will be no increment before move 61. This means that the usual 30 seconds added after each move will not be added in the World Championship 2020. The combatants play 14 classical games. instead of 12, and no player may offer a draw before move 40.

Carlsen, admitting having struggles motivating himself before the last World Chess Championship might need to find some new ways of finding the spark. Carlsen is an experienced gamer and loves video games. He is a dedicated Fantasy Football player and he also loves Final Fantasy which releases a new game in 2020. Hopefully, he will come into the championship well prepared and give us a sparkling performance, regardless of who he will face in the end.