Chess tournaments can be decided by the tiniest of margins, and that certainly happened in last weekend’s final two rounds at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, the “chess Wimbledon”. The world champion, Magnus Carlsen, missed a likely winning opportunity in the penultimate round, while the Dutch home favourite, Anish Giri, received a gift point in his final game.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the Uzbekistan 18-year-old who had led all the way from round one, chose a conservative drawing strategy in the second half of the event, and came unstuck against the offbeat ideas of Giri’s compatriot Jorden van Foreest. Abdusattorov still made a major advance, reaching the world top 20 with a controlled focus contrasting with his rival Alireza Firouzja, whose career path has become uncertain.
