Leinier Dominguez wins 2021 Champions Showdown
Leinier Dominguez secured victory in the 2021 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX after winning a dramatic final round game against Levon Aronian and ending with 6.0/9 points. Finishing in second place were Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Sam Shankland, all on 5.5/9, while former World Champion Garry Kasparov concluded an impressive performance with 5.0/9. The time control for the event is 20 minutes per side with a 5-second increment starting from move one. Before each round, the players were shown the unique starting position 15 minutes ahead of time and are allowed to prepare using the physical boards. Round 7 Starting position – Round 7 Despite entering the final day as the clear leader, Dominguez suffered a shock in the first round, losing to Shankland after blundering in the late middlegame and going into a bad endgame. 20.Rxb5! left Shankland with an extra pawn in the rook endgame, which he managed to convert smoothly. | 1-0, 56 moves The result allowed Shankland to catch Dominguez in the standings, as did Kasparov, who continued his excellent play from yesterday to defeat Svidler in a trademark attacking style. 20…Nxc4! gave Kasparov a winning attack, with a huge advantage after 21.bxc4 g5! | 0-1, 26 moves The 13th World Champion finished with a highly respectable 5.0/9 Round 8 Starting Position – Round 8 The penultimate round saw the standings get shaken up even further, as draws by Shankland, Dominguez, and Kasparov allowed So to catch up to the leaders with his win over Svidler. 14.Rc1! won a full piece for So, as the knight on c6 was impossible to defend. | 1-0, 21 moves This meant that going into the final round there would be four leaders on 5.0/8 – So, Dominguez, Kasparov, and Shankland; with Vachier-Lagrave just a half-point out of first place. The current Chess 960 World Champion started off the final day with two wins Round 9 Starting Position – Round 9 The final round was the most dramatic of all, with all four leaders facing different players, making numerous playoff possibilities feasible. Both Shankland and So had chances at various points, but could only draw against Caruana and Nakamura, respectively; while Kasparov got in trouble against Vachier-Lagrave and ended up with a losing position. Only Dominguez could manage to win, taking advantage of a slip by Aronian to collect the full point and ultimately clinch first place. 20…Nb3! secured a powerful initiative for Dominguez, as he followed up with Be6 and Rad8 to win a critical game. | 0-1, 58 moves Leinier Dominguez turned in a fantastic performance, winning four games in a row earlier in the event. Coming up next in Saint Louis will be the 2021 U.S. Chess and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships, taking place October 5 – 19 and featuring 24 of America’s top players battling it out for two national titles. Fans can learn more and watch the action live on uschesschamps.com. Coming up next in Saint Louis will be the 2021 U.S. Chess and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships, taking place October 5 – 19 and featuring 24 of America’s top players battling it out for two national titles. Fans can learn more and watch the action live on uschesschamps.com. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller Dates & Location: September 8 – September 10, 2021Saint Louis Chess Club Livestream:USChessChamps.Com Web: uschesschamps.com | Twitter: @STLChessClubInstagram: @STLChessClub | Facebook: @STLChessClubYouTube: @STLChessClub | Twitch.tv: @STLChessClub#ChampionsShowdown #Chess9LX #STLChessClub Press Contact:Rebecca Buffingtonrbuffington@saintlouischessclub.org Photo Credits:Photos and appropriate credits available on Flickr Saint Louis Chess Club | Building Champions 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108 | (314) 361.CHESS (2437)
Russia advances to the playoffs with a perfect score
Thursday, September 9th, 2021 – The Top Division of the Online Olympiad finished today after three days of intense top-level chess. A total of 1717 players, playing from 150 countries all over the world, with 888 titled players, including 209 Grand Masters and 244 International Masters. Three weeks after the tournament began, we are closing in on the event’s final stage: the Play-Off by Knock-Out. No more groups, no more comebacks: if you lose, you’re out! This stage will run from Monday, September 13th (Quarter-finals) to Wednesday, September 15th (Final). Each duel will consist of two matches, and in the event of a tie (each team wins one of the two matches, or both matches are drawn) it shall be broken with one 3/2 blitz match, followed by Armageddon if needed. After today’s results, the pairings are: Duel 1: Kazakhstan vs USA Duel 2: Ukraine vs India Duel 3: Russia vs Hungary Duel 4: China vs Poland *Fair-play panel confirmation is pending Top Division – Pool A An unfortunate last round loss against Armenia by 2-4 relegated China (14/18) to second place in group A and allowed Kazakhstan to win the group outright with 16/18 points. A round earlier, Iran, who had lost most of its chances to qualify by tying with Greece, had defeated Kazakhstan, and it looked as if China would prevail; they were leading on tiebreak by quite a substantial margin. China getting ready to face Romania. Photo: Liang Ziming But you can never count out a country with such a chess tradition as Armenia. Although out-rated on all boards by a considerable margin, they overcame the ELO difference with strong play. The two main surprise results were WIM Siranush Ghukasyan defeating WGM Qian Huangon on board four while WFM Mariam Mkrtchyan defeated WGM Jiner Zhu on board six. With these results, A1 winner Kazakhstan will face D2 runner-up United States of America and A2 runner-up China will play against D1 winner Poland in the quarterfinals. IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) finished the event with an impressive 7/7 on board six. However, GM Ju Wenjun (China) scored 7½ /8 on board four for a superior final result. Iran’s GM M.Amin Tabatabaei finished the tournament with an undefeated score of 7½ /9 on board five while his teammate IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh lost one of her last day for 7/9. Top Division – Pool B Logic prevailed this afternoon in group B. India defeated Hungary by 4-2 in the first round of the day and consolidated their lead. A 5-1 win over Moldova, followed by an exciting last-round draw against Slovenia (already as group winners), gave the Indian team a 16/18 score and first place. Hungary will join them in second place with 15/18, three points ahead of Azerbaijan. Although they conceded the top position to India in the first round of the day, they continued to play strong and defeated Sweden and Moldova. Shenzhen China also did very well and with wins over Egypt, France and Sweden edged out these teams (Slovenia for Sweden) on tiebreak for fourth place. The quarterfinal pairings will be B1 winner India against C2 runner-up Ukraine and B2 runner-up Hungary against C1 winner Russia. India’s U-18 GM Nihal Sarin and legend GM Vishy Anand. Photo: Amruta Mokal One of India’s secrets has been sharing the burden of the effort through all the players. Each of them has participated at least three times – most of them have played five – and only board six WGM Vaishali R. has played her sixth game, scoring an undefeated 4½ /6. Hungary has also used all their players, ranging from two games to six, with strong performances by WIM Bianka Havanecz (reserve second female) with 5/6 and main junior board GM Adam Kozak with 5½ /6. However, the best score of the group has been GM Zhao Xue from Shenzhen China on board three, with an outstanding undefeated 8/9 score. She pulled away from Marie Sebag (France) by winning their head-to-head encounter. In the diagram, the position is quite complex. Black has just played 30…Ng5 attacking the rook on e6. Of course, 31.Bxg5 seems fine, but Zhao Xue chose another option. 31.Bxe5!? Nxe6 and now the computer suggests 32. Bxd6! Ng5 and 33.Be7! with the idea d6-d7, although it’s still very complicated. Zhao chose 32.dxe6 and after 32…dxe5 33.Bxb7 got enough compensation for the exchange and went on to win. Top Division – Pool C The undisputed winner of group C is the team from Russia. Their final score, 18/18, has left no doubt about the strength of the squad: the icing on the cake was a 6-0 last round win against Latvia, having already secured first place. They have spread the task fairly between most of the team members and have only lost 4 in 54 games (2 of them by GM Alexander Grischuk). An incredible feat! Even more outstanding is that their six female players have not lost even a single game of the 27 they have played! The G-factor: WGM Keya Garifullina and GM Valentina Gunina scored 5/5 each! Ukraine took the second qualifying spot with 15/18, in good measure due to a very close 3½ -2½ win against Spain in the last round. The Spaniards had just lost all their chances to qualify by losing to Russia by a tight 4-2 (the “best” result by any of Russia’s opponents) but even so they put up a show until the end. Spains’s U-18 Maria Eizaguerri won the 2021 Spanish mixed U-18 Championship Germany came very close to qualification (14/18), winning their last three matches, but did not manage to come back from Day One’s bad performance. The German team came very close to qualification The final standings of the group offer the following quarterfinal pairings: C1 winner Russia against B2 runner-up Hungary and C2 runner-up Ukraine against B1 winner India. GM Andrey Esipenko’s 6½ /7 result on the U-20 board five was Russia’s top score, but also very impressive were reserve female players GM Valentina Gunina and WGM Leya Garifullina scoring 5/5 100% results apiece. Italy’s Luca Moroni Jr. also turned in an excellent performance with an undefeated 6/7 score on board two. Top Division – Pool D Poland and USA converted their rating advantage into qualification, dominating this group from start to finish. Both teams finished