31 January 2021

Andrey Esipenko Places Third at Tata Steel Masters

Jorden Van Foreest won the first place match against Anish Giri.

Photo: Official website
Photo: Official website


The final 13th round of the Tata Steel Masters was played in Wijk aan Zee on January 31. 

The Russian Andrey Esipenko defeated Alexander Donchenko to take third place and hit the 2700 mark.  

Andrey Filatov, President of the Chess Federation of Russia:

- I am glad that our young promising chess player, the "Sirius" graduate, came third in such a representative tournament and crossed the 2700 mark. It is an excellent achievement for a first-timer of this prestigious event to defeat the World Champion at the age of 18. However, Andrey lost one game after it; that's why I wish him to move beyond and keep on working on chess extensively. 

The games Firouzja - Wojtaszek, Tari - Caruana, Anton - Giri, and Duda - Harikrishna were drawn. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while Jorden Van Foreest won against Nils Grandelius to join the leader, Anish Giri. 

Two rapid games were drawn in the tie-break, and then Anish Giri lost on time in Armageddon with an extra bishop in the endgame. 

Final standings:

1-2. Jorden Van Foreest, Anish Giri - 8.5
3-5. Andrey Esipenko, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja - 8
6. Magnus Carlsen - 7.5
7. Pentala Harikrishna - 6.5
8-9. Aryan Tari, Nils Grandelius - 6
10. Jan-Krzysztof Duda - 5.5
11-13. David Anton, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - 5
14. Alexander Donchenko - 3.5.

Tie-break: Jorden Van Foreest - Anish Giri, 2-1


Official website