Hi guys, despite the coronavirus era , the chess during the 2nd phase of Pandemy does not stopped as the 1st.

These days is taking place the traditional Tata Steel Masters at Wijk  aan Zee at Netherlands. Now it have played 4 rounds from 13.

Until now first with 2.5/4 are Carlsen (2862) (World Champion & no 1 rating player in the world), Caruana (2823) (no 2 rating player in the world), Giri (2764) , Harikrishna (2732) and Grandelius (2663) (a big surprise for a player 2700 - to be in the first position after 4 rounds).

Carlsen had an easy programme until now and managed to succeed only 1 win. The more difficult programme of these 4 had Caruana, so despite we have 9 more rounds we can say that he has a little advantage from the others co leaders.

3 other 2700+ players like Vachier - Lagrave (2784) ,Firouja (2749) and  Wojtaszek (2705) are at 2/4 and thery are also near. Firouja had 3/4 black !! so in next games he will have 5 whites and 4 blacks !

A big dissapointing is the 1.5/4 of Duda (2743).

Some surprises is the 1.5/4 of Tari (2625) - the lowest player at the tourney -  that made an easy draw with the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Firouja.

So for me until now Caruana has a little advantage to earn the tourney as earned last year.

PS The photo was taken from https://www.yogems.com/yopedia/tata-steel-masters-carlsen-claim-first-victory-anand-slip-against-caruana/

and we can see Magnus Carlsen the no1 rating player in World and World Champion