22 January 2020
Magnus Carlsen Pursues Leader in Wijk aan Zee
World champion defeated Alireza Firouzja in Round 9.
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In Round 9 of the Tata Steel Masters Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Magnus Carlsen outplayed Alireza Firouzja, one of the leaders, as Black and got into the second-place tie. Fabiano Caruana is the sole leader of the event. The games Anand - Dubov, Vitiugov - Caruana, Kovalev - Van Foreest, Duda - Xiong, Artemiev - Yu Yangyi, and So - Giri were drawn.
Standings after Round 9:
1. Fabiano Caruana - 6 points
2-5. Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Jorden Van Foreest - 5.5
6. Jan-Krzysztof Duda - 5
7-9. Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev, Anish Giri - 4.5
10. Viswanathan Anand - 4
11. Jefferey Xiong - 3.5
12-14. Nikita Vitiugov, Yu Yangyi, Vladislav Kovalev - 3.
Round 10 pairings:
Dubov - Giri, Yu Yangyi - So, Xiong - Artemiev, Van Foreest - Duda, Carlsen - Kovalev, Caruana - Firouzja, Anand - Vitiugov.
David Anton, Pavel Eljanov, and Erwin l'Ami are leading the race at Tata Steel Challengers with 6 points scored.
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