Leon Luke Mendonca in round 11 vs Vladimir Fedoseev. PHOTO: Tata Steel Chess via Jurriaan Hoefsmit
Young Leon Luke Mendonca earned his first win of the Tata Steel Masters tournament after a 40-move take down of the Russia-born Slovenian grandmaster Vladimir Fedoseev in Round 11 of the prestigious tournament in Wijk aan Zee.
Mendonca’s win over Fedoseev helped him rise to 11th place in the masters standings. He has so far had a rough initiation into the elite masters section. He was the lowest rated player in the masters section, only earning his shot to compete there by winning the challengers event at Tata Steel event last year.
The Goan grandmaster’s tournament had almost started brightly: in the first match of the event against Vincent Keymer he held the edge before a one-move blunder had allowed Keymer to defeat him. Mendonca, playing in his first super elite tournament, had struggled to recover from that heartbreak.
In the previous game before the rest day, Mendonca had managed to hold Dutch GM Anish Giri to a draw. But on Friday, he took down Fedoseev, who recently was among the chasing pack at the top of the standings after a giant-killing start to the event, where he had defeated Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, and Keymer while holding Nodirbek Abdusattarov and Gukesh to draws.
The Mendonca vs Fedoseev game was played on equal terms until the middle game when three back-to-back mistakes with his bishop from the Slovenian GM on move 27, 28 and 29 altered the complexion of the game. First, he played in inaccuracy by withdrawing his bishop: 27. Be2? instead of 27. Rd1, which the computer really liked.
Fedoseev then complicated matters further on the next move with the same light-squared bishop, playing 28. Bf3?!, which the computer termed an inaccuracy, instead preferring 28. h3.
The third error came when he leapt forward with the bishop to capture a black pawn: 29. Bxc6? (termed as a mistake by the computer which preferred 29. Kf1).
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The win means Mendonca is no longer rooted to the bottom of the standings. The standings in the masters section at Tata Steel sees India’s top-ranked player, Arjun Erigaisi, still moored to the bottom of the 14-player field. Erigaisi is yet to win a single game at the cut-throat event, after drawing his game on Friday against Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest.
At the other end of the table are Gukesh, playing in his first event after becoming the youngest world champion in history last month. With two games remaining, Gukesh leads the standings with eight points, half a point ahead of compatriot Praggnanandhaa.
Chasing the Indian pair is Nodirbek Abdusattarov, who is on seven points.
With Erigaisi woefully out of sorts at the Tata Steel event, the only real challenge in his path to winning the event was Chinese GM Wei Yi, who Gukesh faced in Round 11 on Friday. The 18-year-old from Chennai opted for a sturdy Italian Opening against Wei Yi, which saw both players stay level most of the evening. Eventually, the game ended as a draw after an equal rook and pawn endgame.
