FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Round 6 Recap
Halfway through the 2021 Grand Swiss, five players are tied for first place in the Open event, while Lei Tingjie is the sole leader in the women’s section. Round Six was the final round before a one-day break at the Grand Swiss, with many players welcoming the pause in the games to regroup their thoughts and plan their approach for the second, most important part of the tournament. The Open After six rounds of the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss five players are tied for first place in the Open event: Round Five leaders, Alireza Firouzja, Alexei Shirov and Evgeniy Najer, are joined by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and four-time Indian champion, Krishnan Sasikiran. The top game of the day was on board one where a clash of generations took place. Alexei Shirov (who became GM back in 1990) was White against Alireza Firouzja (born in 2003). Shirov opened with his usual 1.e4 and – what else to play in Riga? – soon the Tal variation of Caro-Kann Defense was on the board. Alexei Shirov, in his element, was developing an initiative with White, but Firouzja did not agree to be haunted by ghosts, took a hanging pawn on h4 and proved that his own attacking ideas are stronger. White found himself in a very unpleasant situation, but Black’s mistake on the 36th move let Shirov get away with it. ”The naturalised Frenchman stormed out of the playing hall, while Alexei Shirov confessed that he was happy with the outcome as he was “clearly worse, maybe lost.” 2015 European Champion Evgeniy Najer is having a great tournament, but it seems that luck isn’t with him. He was White against Fabiano Caruana on board two, which was the last game on the top boards to finish, lasting around six hours. The Four Knights Sicilian Sicilian quickly transposed to a very sharp and double-edged position with both kings in the centre. A very sharp position transpired quickly, with both kings in the centre. Russian Grandmaster managed to realign his pieces better and push through the centre, putting the world’s second strongest player on the backfoot. As it often happens, the sharp fight ended in a calm bishop vs knight endgame with a pawn up for White. Caruana showed precision and stubbornness in defenсe not giving his opponent an immediate breakthrough. After 59 moves he claimed threefold repetition. Najer was confused but the arbiters confirmed and he had no option but to accept a draw. Had he defeated Caruana, Najer would have been to sole leader of the tournament. Caruana is now on 4/6, trailing the top five by half a point. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave started aggressively in his game against Pavel Ponkratov. The Russian played the French defence, to which the Frenchman responded by making moves quickly, clearly coming confident in his preparation and sacrificing a pawn early in the opening. Following 15…h5, Vachier-Lagrave increased pressure on the kingside creating a strong advantage which ended in a win on move 26. MVL finished the first half of the tournament with 4.5/6 putting him in a comfortable position to attack the top two spots which lead to the Candidates. The Frenchman is clearly satisfied with his own performance in the first half of the event: “So far my play is convincing. I did not have any long games, so it’s all good. But now the decisive games are happening and I will need more wins. It’s a quest, it’s not over.” The game between Samuel Sevian and Yu Yangyi on board five was off to a very slow start. Some three-quarters of an hour into the round, the players made just six moves in the London system of the Queen’s Pawn Opening. Throughout the 30 moves played in the game, the position was equal without much excitement and the players called it a draw. On board five, 17-year-old Nihal Sarin was up against David Navara who after a slow start in the tournament with two draws, sprung to the top boards with 2.5 points in the last three rounds. The Czech opted for the Gruenfeld Defence. A sharp position developed on the board and on move 16 Navara, in his trademark creative style, decided to give up his queen for two rooks. However, the material imbalance seemed to favour White. Sarin managed to create passers on files a and c, but Navara’s play was more precise. The position eventually transpired into a rook vs queen endgame where the Czech created a fortress and drew the game. Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran, four-time national champion, also joined the top leaders of the tournament with 4.5/6 having won as Black in the Nimzo-Indian against the promising Russian player Alexandr Predke. Levon Aronian, who was on 3/5 before this round, was white against Alexander Donchenko. The English Opening was played. Aronian played fast and managed to develop nicely on both flanks, eventually achieving space advantage and creating weaknesses for his opponent, but Donchenko held his own. In the opposite-coloured bishop’s endgame a draw was agreed upon repetition. With 3.5/6 both Aronian and Donchenko are trailing the leaders by a point. The shortest game in the tournament – lasting just 14 moves – was played between Georgian Baadur Jobava and Jules Moussard of France. Speaking after the game, Jobava said his first reaction was to feel sympathy for his opponent as he himself has been in similar positions. “But this is a sport. Someone has to win and these things happen”. Another quick game with a decisive outcome was played between Sergei Movsesian and Lucas Van Foreest where Black was beautifully mated on move 29. Women’s Event After six days of play the standings in the inaugural Women’s Grand Swiss are as follows: Lei Tingjie (4.5/6), followed by four players on four points: Nino Batsiashvili, Elisabeth Paehtz, Zhu Jiner and Natalija Pogonina. Lei Tingjie became the sole leader of the women’s event after winning with white pieces against Jolanta Zawadzka on the top board. The Ragozin was played and Black managed to align her pieces better, however, after 27…c5 the initiative was handed over to White. Tingjie played dominantly, forcing her opponent to give way, ultimately creating a winning position. On board two Zhu Jiner was white against Elisabeth Paehtz. In the Kalashnikov Sicilian, Paehtz got into serious