FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Rapid & blitz drama on Day 3
She is 21 years old, lives in Hamburg and aspires to take part in the next Summer Olympiad 2020 in Tokio. We are talking of Yusra Mardini, a professional swimmer whose personal story has inspired the world. In 2015 she fled from war in Syria to find a shelter in Europe. Germany is her new home, and today she opened the tiebreak of the first round at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg. If classical chess sometimes doesn’t provide enough drama rapid and blitz chess does. Today the players had much less time to think and this lead to mistakes, turnarounds and finally to the answer who will qualify for the next round. No luck for Vitiugov At the board of Nikita Vitiugov and David Navara, Yusra Mardini moved the white Knight to f3, but this brought no luck for the Russian grandmaster. He won a pawn at the queenside in the Benoni reversed, then went for another pawn on the other side of the board but gave the opponent dangerous initiative. Navara used the open h-file to start a menacing counterattack and with time running down, Vitiugov lost control of the action and went down in flames. In the must-win-situation, Vitiugov chose the Dutch Opening in the second game but never came close to level the score. Navara broke through in the center and repelled all the attacking attempts by the Russian GM. After some tactical blows, the Czech won material and Vitiugov threw in the towel. As usual, Navara showed a lot of respect for his opponent: “Nikita played many other tournaments this year with very good results, and I considered him the favorite in the classical games. In rapid of course, everything can happen.” Yu Yangyi made up for the missing win from the previous day against Dmitry Jakovenko. The first game of the tiebreak saw an exciting tactical fight which ended with a clear advantage for White due to his active heavy pieces. The Chinese grandmaster won some material and progressed into an easily winning rook endgame with connected passed pawns on the queenside. In the second game, Dmitry Jakovenko was close to equalizing the score. In a position with opposite-colored bishops, he was the one attacking, and chess experts know that usually, this factor favors an active part. Jakovenko had a decisive advantage around move 50, but in rapid chess, everything can change in a blink of an eye. Yu Yangyi managed to exchange the queens and held the resulting endgame with relative ease. Grischuk advances The first game between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Alexander Grischuk was an unclear case from start to the end. Grischuk opted for a dutch-like setup with Black, but White chose to castle long. With no time on the clock, the Russian grandmaster decided to repeat moves, despite having slightly more active pieces. In the second game, the Russian grandmaster went for a Kings-Indian-like setup with White to confuse his adversary. In a position with opposite-castled kings, both sides had their chances, but Grischuk prevailed after Wojtaszek went for a queen exchange in an unclear situation. The favorite won a pawn and converted his advantage safely, even being as usual short of time. “After my opponent completely out-prepared me in the classical games in rapid I decided to play anything just to avoid preparation”, stated Grischuk afterwards. Dubov faster and luckier After finishing the two classical games fast and leaving the stage early in the first two days of the FIDE Grand Prix Daniil Dubov and Teimour Radjabov regaled the spectators with a long battle which lasted 4.5 hours, much longer than the rest of the tiebreak matches. First, they continued their non-aggression pact with a quick draw, but the second game nearly became decisive. After blundering a pawn, Dubov was standing on the edge of a precipice but showed all his resilience. Apart from playing much faster, he was able to maintain tension which saved him half the point. As the two rapid games with the time control of 10 minutes + 10 seconds increment also ended in a draw, the spectators could enjoy the two grandmasters blitzing out for the slot in the next round. It was a question of nerves. The first game with the time control of 5 minutes + 5 seconds was a clear-cut win for Dubov. In the second game, Radjabov was as dominating until he blundered with 63…b3 and had to take a draw. Round 1, tiebreak results: Nikita Vitiugov – David Navara: 0-2Alexander Grischuk – Radoslaw Wojtaszek: 1,5-0,5Daniil Dubov – Teimour Radjabov: 3,5-2,5Yu Yangyi – Dmitry Jakovenko: 1,5-0,5 The pairings for the second round are as follows: Veselin Topalov – Maxime Vachier-LagraveAlexander Grischuk – David NavaraDaniil Dubov – Peter SvidlerYu Yangyi – Jan-Krzysztof Duda Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox. Leading partners supporting the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series 2019 include: Algorand as the Exclusive Blockchain PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Four players advance to the second round
FIDE oversees the undoubtedly most beautiful game humankind has ever created, the royal game of chess, which unites nearly all countries of this world with one language. Algorand has the vision of building technical innovations for a borderless economy. What could be more natural than joining forces with World Chess, the organizer of the FIDE Grand Prix? The COO of Algorand, Mr Sean Ford, opened the 2nd round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg on the board of Wei Yi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by pushing the e-pawn two squares ahead. “Probably this was the best move I ever made over a chessboard”, he joked afterwards. All of the games of the second day of the first round of knockouts at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg ended with a draw, but not without drama. Four players advanced to the next round, and four need to pack their bags. The remaining eight players will meet again on the tiebreaks. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at the top of his game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has lived up to expectations so far. After winning the first game against Wei Yi in grand style, he was close to winning the second game as well. The rivals again discussed a line of the Najdorf Variation, but once again the Frenchman seemed to be better prepared. The critical moment arose after White’s twelfth move. Vachier-Lagrave correctly pushed his h-pawn and then his e-pawn to destroy the pawn armada that threatened to overrun his position. Black’s pieces exerted a lot of pressure, and although his king stayed in the centre for the whole game, it was the white king that was in much more danger. Instead of taking any chances, Vachier-Lagrave forced a draw by repetition at move 27. “So far the preparation before the tournament pays off”, said the 29-year-old with a smile after the match. A draw in the second game of the first round against Pentala Harikrishna was enough for Peter Svidler to qualify for the next round. With a strong pawn centre and well-placed pieces, the Indian grandmaster could hope for more than a half-point in the middlegame, but Svidler’s position was very solid and “Hari” did not manage to find a way to breakthrough. After a massive exchange of pawns, there was no play left and the players agreed to a draw. Hikaru Nakamura playing with the black pieces was not able to turn the tables in his match against Veselin Topalov. In a Queen´s Gambit Accepted White got an upper hand due to better development. Nakamura left his king in the centre and tried to create some play against the white king with his queen and the bishop pair, but it caused only a slight disturbance to White, who obtained a clear advantage. After 25 moves Topalov was a pawn up in an ending and could have continued without any risks, but decided that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Bitter end for Ian Nepomniachtchi Ian Nepomniachtchi was in a must-win-situation after he lost the first game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The rising Polish star chose the Accelerated Dragon with Black but was never able to equalize. An ending that arose after only 15 moves favoured White due to the better structure and the more active pieces. After a long fight, Nepomniachtchi managed to win a pawn, but it was not enough to win the game due to the reduced material. This defeat in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg substantially reduces the chances for the Russian grandmaster to qualify for the Candidates, but there is still hope for him to bounce back in the last leg of the series in Jerusalem. In total contrast with their exciting first battle, Alexander Grischuk and Radoslaw Wojtaszek concluded the second game of their mini-match with a draw after just an hour of play. In a line of the Italian Game, the Polish grandmaster showed excellent preparation, whereas Grischuk weighed the pros and cons of the position in his typical tempo. After spending more than 50 minutes for the first 14 moves and realizing that his opponent still was blitzing out his analysis, he offered a draw which Wojtaszek accepted. Grischuk justified his decision by saying: “I didn’t want to continue playing against a computer,” and added with an ironic undertone: “Besides I don’t want to spoil the spectators”. Nikita Vitiugov and David Navara will meet again on the tiebreak after drawing both games with classical time control. It seemed that the Russian grandmaster was applying pressure throughout the game, but afterwards, he denied doing so: “Actually this was nothing until David tried to lose the game”. He was referring to the way the Czech grandmaster handled the position. Navara deliberately sacrificed material to enter a rook endgame a pawn down. Here he showed an excellent technique and apparently aware of how to save a half-point. Yu Yangyi fails to convert Yu Yangyi missed a big chance to win the second game against Dmitry Jakovenko. After only 18 moves, the two players had exchanged most of the pieces including the queens, but something went wrong for the 36-year-old Russian as he lost a pawn shortly thereafter. The battle headed into a knight ending where Yu Yangyi was completely winning but failed to convert his advantage. “It was a miracle, and it took several mistakes from my opponent to save the game”, Jakovenko admitted. Daniil Dubov tried to bedazzle Teimour Radjabov by using the Italian Gambit as White, a rare choice on top-level. The Azerbaijanian took his time to recall the critical lines, and after forcing the exchange of queens, the players reached an equal ending with two rooks and one minor piece respectively. The rising Russian star, who used only a bit more than 15 minutes for the whole game, penetrated the 7th rank with one of his rooks and forced Radjabov to oppose the threats with one of his own rooks. Daniil tried to continue battle after the exchange of the rooks, but in the emerging endgame a draw was unavoidable. Round 1, game 2 results: Wei Yi – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave: 1/2-1/2Veselin Topalov – Hikaru Nakamura: 1/2-1/2Nikita Vitiugov – David Navara: 1/2-1/2Alexander Grischuk – Radoslaw Wojtaszek: 1/2-1/2Daniil Dubov – Teimour Radjabov: 1/2-1/2Pentala Harikrishna – Peter Svidler: 1/2-1/2Yu Yangyi – Dmitry Jakovenko: 1/2-1/2Ian