Gregory Kaidanov clinches 2021 U.S. Senior Championship title
GM Gregory Kaidanov won the 2021 U.S. Senior Championship title after defeating GM Larry Christiansen in an exciting playoff tiebreak, scoring 1.5 – 0.5 in the two-game rapid match. Gregory was a half-point ahead coming into the last round of the round-robin, but GM Larry Christiansen won a critical last-round game forcing a tiebreaker. The first game saw Kaidanov miss a golden opportunity out of the opening as Christiansen fell into trouble early on in a Bogo-Indian Defense. Despite winning a clear extra pawn, Kaidanov was not able to consolidate his advantage, as Christiansen created enough counterplay to win the pawn back and equalize the game. After more trades the players ended up in an equal rook endgame, agreeing to a draw soon thereafter. In the second game, Christiansen essayed the London System, to which Kaidanov responded in an aggressive manner, playing an early Qxb2 to isolate White’s queenside pawns. Christiansen in turn continued to play for the initiative, sacrificing a pawn for development. While under pressure, Kaidanov found an incredible resource to refute White’s attack, temporarily sacrificing a piece but leaving White with multiple pieces hanging. After the dust cleared, Kaidanov was left with an extra exchange, which he duly converted into the full point, winning the tiebreak and the national title. 19…Rc8!! was a brilliant find securing Black a decisive advantage Coming up next month will be the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, taking place August 9 – 16, followed by the Sinquefield Cup, which runs August 16 – 28. Check out more info for both events on grandchesstour.org. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
Round 05 Game 02: Shankland and Vidit advance
Goryachkina, Kosteniuk and Tan Zhongyi qualify for semi-finals Monday, July 26thth, 2021 – There were two very happy chess players this afternoon in the playing venue: Sam Shankland and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi. Both of them won their games in good style and are the first qualifiers for the quarterfinals: the rest of the players will have to return tomorrow afternoon for the stressful tiebreaks. The first one to finish was USA’s number five player GM Sam Shankland (2709). After holding his opponent, Russian GM Peter Svidler (2714), to a draw with Black in the first game, Shankland went all out with the aggressive 3.h4 against Svidler’s pet Grunfeld defence. Soon the game entered a tactical stage with opposite-side castled kings and both players attacking with all their forces. Svidler’s 24…Qb6 was a big mistake (24…Qb5 was the correct move, with approximate equality) probably based on a miscalculation, and Shankland cashed in with a direct attack on his opponent’s king. He will now face the winner of the match between Sergei Karjakin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, which will be decided in the tiebreaks. After dealing with the mandatory testing, Sam was kind enough to pop in to the press-centre and give his thoughts on both of the games of this round. The other happy face of the day was Indian’s number three player GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi. He missed a win with White in game one and the game ended in a draw. Today, with Black, he played an interesting side-line in the Ruy Lopez in which his opponent’s light-squared bishop – the “Spanish bishop” is the key piece. In the game, GM Vasif Durarbayli (2625) wasn’t able to solve this equation over the board and in the end the bishop was blocked in with no activity. Vidit’s excellent technique did the rest. He will be paired against the winner of the more than interesting tiebreak between Karjakin and Vachier-Lagrave. Before abandoning the playing venue, a relieved Vidit gave us a brief interview, explaining the reasoning behind his thought process in both of the games. The third decisive result of the day in the open group was Iran’s GM M. Amin Tabatabaei (2613) defeating on-demand GM Haik M. Martirosyan (2632) from Armenia, levelling the score in the match 1-1 and forcing the tiebreak. Tabatabaei was pressing with Black most of the game but the draw was always in hand. But in the nick of time, Martirosyan miscalculated a pawn ending, exchanged the last piece and found himself resigning after a few moves. Instead of 58.Nxf3? , a move like as 58.Nf1 would have probably held the draw and Martirosyan would have advanced to the quarterfinals. The rest of the games all ended in draws, some of them hard-fought, others blitzed out in the opening. Funnily enough, the first game to finish was the rematch between GM Sergey Karjakin (2757) and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2749). While the rest of the players were essentially starting to get comfortable in their chairs, preparing for a long afternoon of chess, Karjakin and MVL blitzed out a fashionable line of the Grunfeld defence, which includes a spectacular queen sacrifice, but that ultimately ends in a perpetual check. There will be six tiebreaks (of the eight matches) battled out tomorrow afternoon at the Galaxy Center in Sochi. GM Magnus Carlsen (2847) vs GM Andrey Esipenko (2716)GM Vladimir Fedoseev (2696) vs GM Velimir Ivic (2582)GM Etienne Bacrot (2678) vs GM Kacper Piorun (2608)GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2738) vs GM Alexander Grischuk (2778)GM Haik M. Martirosyan (2632) vs GM M. Amin Tabatabaei (2613)GM Sergey Karjakin (2757) vs GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2749) In the women’s group, the action was fast and furious. Three players qualified for the semi-finals with their result today and only one match will be decided at tomorrow’s tiebreak. An interesting fact is that the three top finishers in the women’s section qualify directly for the Candidates tournament. Since Goryachkina is out of the contest, all the other three semi-finalists have qualified for the Candidates. Kosteniuk and Tan already got their tickets, and the third name will be decided in tomorrow’s tiebreak. The first game to finish in the women’s group was the rematch between GM Anna Muzychuk (2527) and GM Nana Dzagnidze (2523). A three-fold move repetition in a tense position of the Sicilian Najdorf “Poisoned Pawn” variation left the match with a final 1-1 score. Soon after, playing with Black, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2596) found a convincing way to equalise against the London System proposed by IM Dinara Saduakassova (2483). Dinara Saduakassova – Aleksandra Goryachkina However, the blunder 22.Rc2?? (22.Rfe1 and anything can happen) decided the game immediately, the point being that 22.Qxc2 Qxf1+! (but not 22…Ne3 23.Qb3+ which was probably what Dinara had in mind) 23.Kxf1 Ne3 and White has to resign. As the first game ended in a draw, the top seed representing Russia advances to the semi-finals. Towards the end of the playing session, the other two games finished one after the other. In GM Kateryna Lagno (2559) vs GM Tan Zhongyi (2511) the game seemed to be heading for a draw, but around move 30 Lagno went astray, and let Tan Zhongyi’s rooks penetrate to the seventh where they proved to be decisive. Meanwhile, on the adjacent board, GM Valentina Gunina (2437) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (2472) were fighting it out in a side-line of the Ruy Lopez. Gunina, in a must-win situation, was forced to play aggressively in a situation where she might have been able to hold a draw. Kosteniuk will now face Tan Zhongyi in one of the semi-finals while Goryachkina’s opponent will come out of tomorrow’s tiebreak and will be either Nana Dzagnidze or Anna Muzychuk. The tiebreaks of Round 5 are scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, July 27th at 3 pm. Pairings of the round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the