Anish Giri defeats Wang Hao, tied for second in Candidates
Anish Giri scores an all-important win in the 9th round against Wang Hao, keeping chances to fight for the victory in the tournament alive. Alexander Grischuk “plays roulette”, takes some risks but can not beat the tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi. As a result, Ian preserves his pole position in the Candidates Tournament a half-point ahead of three competitors. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave miraculously saves an extremely tough position against Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana fights to the bare kings, but his game with Kirill Alekseenko also ends in a draw. Three players: Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Anish Giri share second place after the nine games, ready to chase the leader in the next rounds. Alexander Grischuk – Ian Nepomniachtchi (½ – ½) In the Russian derby between Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the leader used his main weapon, the Grunfeld Defense, in response to 1.d4. Alexander has prepared a surprise – a seemingly modest but poisonous continuation 9.h3!?, which has never been seen at a high level. On the next move, White sacrificed a pawn, giving his opponent a wide range of options. It was clear that Grischuk analyzed the emerging complications at home, while Ian had to sort them out over the board. Ian accepted the sacrifice but immediately offered to restore material balance at the cost of simplifying the position. Alexander did not like this scenario – after yesterday’s defeat, he was eager to complicate matters. However, Ian played solidly and soon a roughly equal ending emerged on the board. Grischuk tried to use a small space advantage and was in no hurry to win back the sacrificed pawn. Nepomniachtchi, in his turn, completed his development and even attempted to grab the initiative. Grischuk could have reached equality in different ways, but, as Alexander said at a press conference, he decided that it was a moment to “play roulette” and went for an exchange sacrifice. Ian thought for a long time and refused to accept this “gift”. A series of exchanges followed and after White’s 41st move the grandmasters agreed to a draw. According to the FIDE Candidates regulations, players have no right to start peace negotiations before the 40th move. Anish Giri – Wang Hao (1-0) In the game between Anish Giri and Wang Hao saw a classic version of the Catalan. White put some pressure on the opponent’s position, but Wang Hao was defending creatively sending his queen to the a8-square. Nevertheless, Black did not manage to engineer a real counterplay. At a press conference right after the game, it became clear that the grandmasters differed in their evaluation of the position that emerged after the opening: Giri believed that he had only a minimal advantage, while Wang Hao did not see good continuations for himself. According to chess engines, the truth was somewhere in between, but pessimism played a cruel joke on the Chinese grandmaster. He carelessly weakened his kingside and soon found himself under an extremely unpleasant pin on the long diagonal. In the final portion of the game, the Dutch grandmaster made a series of precise moves, shattered Black’s defence, and scored a full point on move 39. “A very, very good game. He managed to showcase all his strengths here, both in terms of planning and a little idea in the opening with h3”, said the world champion Magnus Carlsen, who is doing live commentary of the games on his own online platform. Kirill Alekseenko – Fabiano Caruana (½ – ½) Young Russian Grandmaster Kirill Alekseenko started the second part of the Candidates Tournament having white pieces in two straight games. As in the victorious game versus Grischuk, he opened with the same move e4. Soon a calm position, typical for the Italian, appeared on the board. In the old days, this variation was called Giuoco Piano, meaning a “calm play”. However, Alekseenko did not agree with such an assessment of the situation and introduced an interesting idea, ready the sacrifice of two pawns. The 2018 world championship challenger proceeded with reasonable caution as he took only one of the pawns, and even returned it two moves later. Later at the press conference, Kirill admitted that he underestimated the move 14…c2. Fabiano was not even considering the capture on b2 – the position that arises in this case, similar to the Northern Gambit, seemed too dangerous for him. “I tried to stabilize the position; it looked dangerous for black, but white also had his own problems,” Fabiano noted. Alekseenko rushed to restore material balance but overlooked some tactics, which helped Caruana to successfully regroup his pieces. The American seized the initiative, but Kirill once again proved that he has a perfect feeling of dynamical resources of the position. He gave up both pawns on the queenside while activating his pieces. Caruana refused to repeat the moves first but eventually went for an equal rook endgame. The grandmasters played almost to bare kings and agreed to a draw on move 59. Ding Liren – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (½ – ½) The most exciting opening duel happened in the game between Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The French Grandmaster had to play two games with Black at the start of the second half of the event, and in both of them, he faced powerful home preparation of his opponents. Maxim is known for his love for the Grunfeld Defense in response to 1.d4, but it didn’t come to that this time – as soon as Black played g6, White’s h-pawn darted to an assault: 3.h2-h4!? This opening does not have an official name yet, but it has become quite trendy in recent years, influenced by AlphaZero neural network. Vachier-Lagrave chose a rather ambitious plan: he exchanged his g7-bishop bishop for the c3-knight and placed his pawns on the dark squares, creating a powerful outpost for his knights on the central e5-square. Judging by the speed Ding Liren made his opening moves, it did not surprise him. He spent only two minutes before sacrificing a knight, placing it under a direct attack of the enemy’s pawn. Maxim accepted the sacrifice and immediately returned
Caruana takes down MVL, Nepomniachtchi emerges as a sole leader
The Candidates Tournament resumed with a “bang”, as the latest challenger to the world championship title, Fabiano Caruana from the US, took down the leader of the tournament, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The American won in great style, sacrificing material in the opening to create a very sharp and double-edged position. The French Grandmaster fell in Caruana’s opening preparation, but he defended remarkably well in what seemed a minefield. “Horror. Pure horror”, is what a top player feels when he walks straight into his opponent’s preparation, according to Magnus Carlsen, who commentated the first round for Chess24. However, the effort took its toll: after six hours of play, and when the worst seemed to be already behind, the tournament leader bit the dust in a tricky ending. This was the most exciting game of the tournament so far, and one to be remembered for decades to come, where both players demonstrated an excellent level. This result allows Ian Nepomniachtchi to emerge as the sole leader since his game against Anish Giri was drawn. Kirill Alekseenko beat his compatriot Alexander Grischuk, while the Chinese derby between Ding Liren and Wang Hao ended in a draw. Caruana – Vachier-Lagrave Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played the so-called “Poisoned Pawn Variation” in the Najdorf variation in Sicilian Defense (7…Qb6), favoured by the legendary world champion Robert Fischer. At the very beginning of the game, Black bravely takes the b2-pawn (8…Qxb2) but falls under a dangerous attack. At the same time, boundless complications arise on the board. There are so many options here that even with the help of powerful modern computers it has not yet been possible to determine an accurate assessment of the position. As chess players joke, the winner here is the one who makes the penultimate mistake. Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave are both famous for their extremely deep opening preparation, but the American grandmaster was better prepared for this game – his second, former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov, found a very dangerous idea. Already around the 15th move, Maxim began to spend a lot of time on every decision, while Fabiano was replying instantly. On the move 18, the American introduced a stunning novelty 18.Bc4 sacrificing a bishop in addition to tree pawns. Until the 25th move Black, according to the “electronic mind”, defended very well, but eventually, the Frenchman took a questionable decision to go for an endgame without an exchange for two pawns – White’s pieces sprang into action. After massive exchanges, the game transposed into the ending with pawn and rook vs pawn and knight and, to the surprise of most experts, an unbreakable fortress appeared on the board. However, the World Champion Magnus Carlsen, admitted that he was not sure of his ability to keep this position for Black – so difficult are the problems the weaker side is facing. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also failed to cope with this task, although he was holding his ground for quite a long time. But then he didn’t find the precise setup, misplaced his knight and allowed the white king to break into his camp via h5-square. On move 74 Black had to resign. Alekseenko – Grischuk Alexander Grischuk seems to have surprised his opponent in the opening by choosing the French Defense, which is a rare guest in his long professional career. Ironically, in this game, just like in the encounter Caruana – Vachier-Lagrave, the black queen hunted out for the b2-pawn. By using an opened b-file, the white rook soon entered the opponent’s camp, but then Kirill Alekseenko chose not to go for the most principled line and steered the game into a calm, approximately equal ending. Around move 30, the grandmasters got into time trouble and White missed a small tactical blow. Even though Alexander won an exchange for a pawn, Kirill got enough compensation in form of active pieces and a strong passed pawn. Both grandmasters were quite optimistic about their positions; however, Kirill Alekseenko’s assessment turned out to be more accurate. Grischuk could have given his material back to get an equal rook endgame but avoided drawing variations and overpressed at the end. Black’s counterplay on the kingside turned out to be ineffective while White’s e-pawn triumphantly marched to the eighth rank. The debutant of the Candidates Tournament and the youngest participant of the event Alekseenko won his first game, also on move 74. Nepomniachtchi – Giri After the game, Ian said that he had prepared for many openings which Anish often uses, but yet he was surprised by the choice of his opponent. “Sometimes a whole year is not enough to prepare for seven games,” Ian smiled. Anish Giri: “I chose the Sveshnikov system which gives my opponent a choice: either to go for a double-edged fight with mutual chances or to play solidly, but then Black, in my opinion, has no problems.” The Russian grandmaster chose the first path but admitted that he had played inaccurately. As a result, Anish Giri quickly equalized and on move 25 White began to repeat moves, insistently proposing to trade the light-squared bishops. Black could not afford this exchange, as in this case his position worsened significantly, so a draw was soon agreed due to the threefold repetition. Ian Nepomniachtchi: “I got sick by the end of the first half of the tournament and lost the last game, so, of course, I was not upset that the tournament was interrupted… When you often travel to tournaments, the happiest time is in between trips, but usually, it’s only a week. When the pandemic hit, I realized that there is nothing wrong with having more rest and not going anywhere. Generally, like Hachiko, I have been waiting for the Candidates Tournament for the entire 2020”. Anish Giri: “Recently I played over the board in Wijk aan Zee, so I didn’t forget how to put on a suit for the game. But I completely forgot how to pack my suitcase, since I hadn’t flown anywhere for more than a year. And, of course, completely unusual sensations arose in the lounge in Moscow airport, when