Two rounds before the end of this year’s Tata Steel Masters, Jorden Van Foreest, the Dutch no. 2, declared himself ‘excited to play the role of spoiler’. Van Foreest was placed near the bottom of the leaderboard, but had yet to face two of the leaders.
His opponent in the penultimate round was Anish Giri. True to his word, Van Foreest attacked him with abandon, and had his compatriot on the ropes, but their game was finally drawn after more than six hours of play. In the final round, Van Foreest faced tournament debutant Nodirbek Abdusattorov, hitherto the star of the event. The 18-year-old from Uzbekistan had led almost from the start, beating Magnus Carlsen along the way. But his play in the final round looked uncertain, allowing Van Foreest to fully embrace the role of spoiler. Abdusattorov was leapfrogged by Anish Giri, who scored a well-deserved tournament victory, undefeated on 8.5/13. Van Foreest’s upheaval of the standings was a pleasing restitution for Giri, since in the 2021 edition he narrowly missed out on the title after losing a tiebreak against Van Foreest.
Earlier in the event, Giri had also scored a win over Carlsen, though his most spectacular game was played in the second round against one of India’s top teenagers.
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