2022 GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania: Day 3 Recap
Day 3 of the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest did not fail to entertain the audience. It has been the most exciting day by far, but at the same time heartbreaking for some of the players, commentators, and fans. While we have been used to only seeing one decisive result per round, today could have been completely different. The most unexpected results of today happened in the game of Aronian -Firouzja, which could have finished in favor of the French-Iranian Grandmaster, instead it ended in a draw. The other unpredictable result happened in the game of Rapport – Deac, where the Hungarian GM blundered on move 40, allowing his opponent to avoid the repetition and win in the endgame. With today’s victory, Bogdan-Daniel Deac has joined Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So as the co-leaders of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov This game was first to finish. Shakhriyar played the Caro-Kann Defense, which is one of his two main responses against 1.e4, and was met with the Two Knights Attack by the Frenchman. White did not achieve anything out of the opening and Mamedyarov forced a draw by repetition as early as on move 20. Daniel Jinca, the Director of Romanian Opera greeting GMs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier – Lagrave right before making the symbolic first move of their Round 3 | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Ian Nepomniachtchi – Leinier Dominguez This game kept the commentators intrigued as the players blitzed through their first 22 moves of theory in the Petroff and the game seemed very even throughout despite White’s extra pawn. Leinier Dominguez, however, was taken aback by 22.a4 followed by Qg4 by Nepomniachtchi. Considering that Ian finished the game with more time on his clock than the time he started with, we can only assume this line was part of his preparation in his World Championship Match against Magnus Carlsen. Nevertheless, despite choosing a hard path, it was safe enough for Dominguez to ensure a draw in a rook ending with a pawn down. Ian Nepomniachtchi looking calm cruising through his opening preparation in Round 3 | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Fabiano Caruana – Wesley So The game between the two American Grandmasters followed a very well-known line in the Catalan where GM Fabiano Caruana went for a thematic pawn sacrifice. Along the way, he traded too many pieces and despite landing a passed pawn on d6, it was more of a weakness than a strength. White’s pieces were more tied down to defend the pawn rather than the d6-pawn tying up Black’s pieces. In fact, Black seemed to be the one pressing, but the decisive blow never seemed to come. As soon as Caruana managed to control Black’s majority on the queenside, the players decided to call it a day and agreed on a draw by repetition. GM Fabiano Caruana – thoughtful during his game from Round 3 against compatriot GM Wesley So | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Levon Aronian – Alireza Firouzja After a day off at the office, Alireza Firoujza started the game energetically, surprising his opponent with the Czech Variation of the Slav Defense. Levon Aronian did not seem comfortable with his position, stumbling after forgetting to play 19.Nc3 instead of his 19.Ke2?. Firouzja showed praise-worthy technique, and by move 37 had a completely winning Bishop vs Knight endgame with an extra pawn. By move 41, Aronian had an extra pawn, but Firouzja’s pawns were close to promotion and all he needed to do was to bring his king to support them. Alas, that did not happen in time as 41…c5?? threw away the win allowing Aronian the life saving continuation 42.Nc3! In the ensuing queen and pawn ending, Firouzja’s king couldn’t find a shelter to hide and the game ended in a draw shortly after. Levon Aronian maybe predicting the calm before the storm at the beginning of his Round 3 against Alireza Firouzja | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Richard Rapport- Bogdan-Daniel Deac This game was a true heartbreaker for the Candidate 2022 participant Richard Rapport. The Hungarian exerted a lot of pressure on the host country’s #1 player, Bogdan-Daniel Deac. Known for his flamboyant style, Richard made a number of creative moves to grab the initiaitve. After Deac faltered with 21….Qh6?, it looked as if Rapport was going to win this game in style. However, to the Romanian Grandmaster’s credit, he started showing a great deal of resistance in a close to losing position. While being in tremendous time-trouble, Deac found some resourceful, creative and pragmatic counter-play ideas. That led to Rapport blundering away his advantage just a couple of moves after he had obtained it. After a few inaccuracies made by Deac in time pressure, it seemed that a draw by repetition would be the most probable outcome. Yet, the end was tragic for Rapport as he blundered 40. Ng5??, which led to an endgame down an exchange. Deac slowly converted his advantage into a win and now the local hero is now tied for first place! A happy GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac during his post win interview | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The 2022 Superbet Chess Classic Round 4 continues tomorrow, Sunday, May 8th at 6:50AM CDT with live coverage from Grandmasters Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler and Alejandro Ramirez in studio. Grandmaster Cristian Chirila with Woman Grandmaster Anastasia Karlovich on location. Watch all the action live on GrandChessTour.org Text: WGM Sabina Foisor Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Superbet Chess Classic Romania Sponsors Further Information: Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour Venue and dates: Sheraton Bucharest Hotel, Bucharest, Romania, May 5 – May 14, 2022 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.
Yuri Averbakh (1922-2022)
The legendary Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh, who had celebrated his centenary in February, passed away in Moscow. Averbakh started to play chess at the age of seven, but it was just one more hobby for him during his first years, and he didn’t really take it seriously, with volleyball being his main interest. Then, in February 1935, he had the chance to meet the famous chess composer Nikolai Grigoriev, at a time when Moscow was hosting its second international chess tournament, with Capablanca, Lasker, Botvinnik, and many others. “Grigoriev gave a lecture in the club, showing some of his famous pawn studies. They made an enormous impression on me, and that was the first time I sensed that chess wasn’t simply a game but was something more, that it was an art. And I also had the urge to master that field. That’s how I got involved in chess.” Finally hooked on chess at the age of 13, his first great success came three years later when he won the Soviet Union’s championship for schoolchildren. However, his incipient career would come to a halt, along with most chess organized activity, due to the World War II. He was evacuated with all his school from Moscow to Izhevsk, barely avoided being recruited himself when he reached the required age, and he would only return to Moscow in 1943. Yuri Averbakh at the tournament in Ivanovo (1944) It was then that his career took off, gaining in strength until he won the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of a strong field that included Andor Lilienthal and Vladimir Simagin, among many others. This was his first major success and the beginning of a decade in which he became one of the top players in the world, probably one of the top-10 at his peak. He won the Moscow Championship again the next year, and in 1952 he earned the Grandmaster title – a title he has borne for almost 70 years! Averbakh finished 5th at the Stockholm Interzonal Tournament in 1952, qualifying for the legendary Zurich 1953 Candidates Tournament, where he finished in 10th place. The next year, in 1954, he became champion of the USSR, and in 1956 he was very close to repeating this feat, sharing 1st-3rd places with Taimanov and Spassky, and ending up in second place after a tie-break stage. In his collection of selected games, published by Cadogan, Averbakh says that he learned chess “the wrong way round”, becoming a strategist before he learned properly about tactics and combinations. A very solid player, pure attack players would often feel uncomfortable when playing against him: Rashid Nezhmetdinov, for instance, was only able to get one draw in the nine games they played. Photo: ERIC KOCH @ANEFO Averbakh reduced his competitive activities when he reached his forties, leaving behind numerous victories in international events all over the world, like Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Adelaide, and Vienna. His latest international success was the Rubinstein Memorial held in Polanica-Zdroj in 1975. He shifted then his interest from playing the game to studying the game. And in that, he was as successful, or even more, as he was as a player. “My investigative character forced me to make a serious study of the endgame, that phase of the game where individual pieces battle against each other. Initially, I published several articles and then thought about a book devoted to various types of endings.” His endeavour turned into a monumental work, the first systematic study of the endgame in history, published in five volumes. “So many generations grew up with Averbach that we stopped feeling the importance of what he did for chess,” said Emil Sutovsky, FIDE’s Director General. “Averbakhs’s Five Books have been studied by chess players of all levels for decades. And the wonderful book “Journey to the Chess Kingdom” co-authored by Michael Beilin has been read by hundreds of thousands of children, including many future strongest players in the world.” Tall and athletic, Averbakh was physically gifted from his youth, and he cultivated his body as much as his mind. Volleyball was the first sports activity he took up seriously, taking advantage of his height. He also loved hockey and skiing – two national passions in Russia. Not so well known is the fact that, for a short period, he was also a regular at the boxing ring. “In our yard, there was a club which was turned into a dormitory for workers. It was a real rabble, where a cult of strength reigned. Therefore, if you wanted to be equal in the yard, you had to be able to give as good as you got. That’s why I took up boxing for a year,” Averbakh said in an interview with Vladimir Barsky and Eteri Kublashvili on the occasion of his 90th birthday. He was already a middle-aged man when he took swimming as a way to stay in shape. “I swam until very recently, having gone to the swimming pool from 1964 to 1996”. He would swim almost daily when he was already in his seventies and continued to do so until the doctors, worried about his pacemaker, told him to stop when he was already in his late eighties. “A healthy lifestyle with plenty of physical exercises is very important.” Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky While all this explains his longevity, it is very likely that keeping mentally active also played a huge role. He was one of those people who basically never retired and kept working as much as his health allowed. As late as 2016, he would still visit the Central Chess Club at Gogolevsky boulevard every Wednesday to meet with young talents and offer them advice. Averbakh was very fond of working with young people, but he also kept in mind the seniors and, with that intention, he found a chess centre in a library. “We were looking to attract older people to the game,” he explained in an interview with Dagobert Kohlmeyer. “They should not play in tough tournaments but rather spend their
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2022 GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania: Day 2 Recap
Round 2 started in an interesting fashion with a surprising opening choice by GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) who chose the QGA (Queen’s Gambit Accepted) against GM Wesley So. Although four of the five games ended in a draw, Mamedyarov – Rapport and Firouzja – Nepomniachtchi were fiery dynamic encounters that did not disappoint the fans or commentators. The day ended with a win for GM Ian Nepomniachtchi prevailed over the talented GM Alireza Fiouzja in topsy-turvy game. The audience also had the chance to see an interview with a legendary World Champion, Garry Kasparov, who was delighted with the organization and the progress of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania thus far. With today’s win, Ian Nepomniachtchi joins Wesley So as a co-leader of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania after the conclusion of Round 2. Wesley So – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave The only winner of Round 1, Wesley So, was up for the task of making the most out of his second White in a row. However, the opening might have caught him by surprise when he faced MVL’s QGA (Queen’s Gambit Accepted), something that is not considered in the French Grandmaster’s regular repertoire (being famous for the Gruenfeld Defense). The players went down a well-known theoretical labyrinth where they both seemed familiar with the best strategic plans. Wesley So may have had the chance to push further with 24.Qf4 instead of his choice 24.Qf3. Whether it was a sufficient advantage to carry on playing or not would require a deeper analysis, but it seemed that both players didn’t think it was enough to continue pushing for more. As a draw was the most likely outcome of that position, a repetition ensued and this was the first game to finish for the day. A happy GM Maxime at the interview after drawing Round 2| Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Richard Rapport Mamedyarov essayed 1.e4, which came as a surprise for Rapport because Mamedyarov is almost exclusively a 1.d4 player. The game shortly was transposed to the French Defence, one of Rapport’s pet-lines. Rapport’s choice was risky and White soon gained the initiative. Although the position suited Mamedyarov’s style, and several possibilities were present for him, the position was difficult to assess and unexpected defensive ideas were found by one of the most creative top players – Richard Rapport. After a long series of accurate dynamic moves, the game ended in the most exciting draw of the day shortly before the players reached the time control. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov looking sharp at the start of Round 2 | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Bogdan-Daniel Deac – Levon Aronian The game between Deac and Aronian also started with a QGA (Queen’s Gambit Accepted), which Aronian suggested in the post game interview, that has gained popularity in recent years thanks to Fabiano Caruana. For a short period of time it seemed that Deac could reach a promising position should he have tried 16.f5. Instead, he chose a passive approach which allowed Aronian to gradually outplay his opponent. Around move 34, it seemed that Aronian was pressing in a rooks and bishop versus rooks and knight endgame, but he opted not to trade off a pair of rooks with 34…Rxd1 followed by Rb2 and maintaining the pressure, and the position simplified quickly into a draw . GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac looking happy after the symbolic move was made in his game by Former Professional Boxer Mihai Leu also known as Michael Loewe | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Leinier Dominguez – Fabiano Caruana The two Americans started with a Four Knights Sicilian, which transposed into a Lasker-Pelikan Sveshnikov Variation. Dominguez’ response was solid, but it never caused any hardship to Black’s position. Caruana defended accurately and the game ended in a draw by repetition on move 47. Fabiano Caruana looking calm after surprising his opponent in the Sveshnikov in Round 2 | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Bryan Adams Alireza Firouzja – Ian Nepomchtchi The game between Firouzja and Nepomniachtchi has been by far the most exciting game of this event so far. Firouzja began the game ambitiously and chose 2.Bc4 to avoid Nepo’s Petroff, and as GM Yesser Seirawan suggested in the live commentary, Alireza seemed to have played the game as if “he had to win at all cost”, which is of course no wonder given the psychological battle that the two players will soon face in the upcoming Candidates Tournament. The players knew their lines and blitzed through their moves up to move 16, where Firouzja refrained from Ne3, choosing 16.h3 instead. The move did give Black some edge; yet, the position was complex and the advantage slipped through each player’s hands a number of times until nearing the time control, Ian reinforced his initiative and by move 40 he was completely winning. Nepo seemed to have given up part of his advantage by choosing to take the exchange on e1, with 42…Nxe1 , instead of taking his time with 42…Qxh3. Firouzja may have had the chance to hold on to the position, but he missed it and Nepomniachtchi ended up scoring an important victory for the day. Ian Nepomniachtchi during post win interview | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The 2022 Superbet Chess Classic Round 3 continues tomorrow, Saturday, May 7th at 6:50AM CDT with live coverage from Grandmasters Yasser Seirawan, Peter Svidler and Alejandro Ramirez in studio. Grandmaster Cristian Chirila with Woman Grandmaster Anastasia Karlovich on location. Watch all the action live on GrandChessTour.org Text: WGM Sabina Foisor Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes and Bryan Adams Superbet Chess Classic Romania Sponsors Further Information: Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour Venue and dates: Sheraton Bucharest Hotel, Bucharest, Romania, May 5 – May 14, 2022 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.