Winners crowned at Prague Chess Festival 2022
The fourth edition of the Prague Chess Festival is in the books. The event, held in several sections and financially supported by FIDE Aid Package, took place from 8–17 June 2022 in the capital of the Czech Republic. The Prague Chess Festival offered a dramatic spectacle, and the winners were again decided on the last day. In the Masters, a 10-player round-robin with classical time control, Le Quang Liem and Pentala Harikrishna entered the final round a full point ahead of David Navara, Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Sam Shankland. Ironically, the co-leaders were facing Spanish opponents. Liem managed only a draw facing Vallejo Pons with black, while Harikrishna took full advantage of his white pieces to beat David Anton, clinching the title with a solid score of 6½/9. Liem finished second; Thai Dai Van Nguyen took third place thanks to slightly better Sonneborn-Berger over Shankland and Navara. The top 3 finishers completed the event undefeated. Final standings Masters: 1 Harikrishna Pentala IND 2701 6½ 2 Le Quang Liem VIE 2709 6 3 Nguyen Thai Dai Van CZE 2610 5 4 Shankland Sam USA 2718 5 5 Navara David CZE 2681 5 6 Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2703 4½ 7 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2723 4 8 Maghsoodloo Parham IRI 2716 4 9 Salem A.R. Saleh UAE 2679 3 10 Anton Guijarro David ESP 2692 2 The Czech players did not fare well in the previous three editions of the Masters. This year, however, the home fans are happy. Not only will the trophy for the winner remain in Prague (Pentala Harikrishna has been living in the capital for a long time), but the two Czech players performed well and shared third place. The Challengers Tournament saw predators battle it out for a place among the elite and the prospect of advancing to the Masters. Indeed, only nineteen games out of forty-five ended in a split of points. As the tournament progressed, there was an increasingly clear trio of players – Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer and Hans Moke Niemann – who had the biggest chance to win. By the last round, everything was still open. In the final round, Abdusattorov got into trouble against Slovakian youngster Jergus Pechac who outplayed him with black pieces. It was clear that the World Rapid Champion would fight for a draw in the game. In the end, Nodirbek held the draw, but it was not enough. Hans Moke Niemann and Vincent Keymer had black pieces in their games, but both won, scored 6½/9 each and proceeded into a tiebreaker. The German player achieved an overwhelming position in the first game, and just when it looked like Niemann could save himself in the rook ending, he made a crucial mistake, and black-playing Keymer celebrated his first win. Keymer left nothing to chance in the rematch and ended the game with a symbolic checkmate. After winning 2-0, he is happy with the overall victory and, above all, the ticket to next year’s Masters. Final standings Challengers: 1 Keymer Vincent GER 2675 6½ 2 Niemann Hans Moke USA 2678 6½ 3 Abdusattorov Nodirbek UZB 2661 6 4 Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2635 5 5 Pechac Jergus SVK 2598 4 6 Warmerdam Max NED 2613 4 7 Krzyzanowski Marcin POL 2535 3½ 8 Stocek Jiri CZE 2541 3½ 9 Hracek Zbynek CZE 2564 3 10 Michalik Peter CZE 2577 3 A hallmark of the Prague festival is the Futures Tournament. This year, the organizers once again managed to put together a very interesting lineup of young hopefuls from seven countries. This tournament came down to the wire as well. Kamil Warchol, the overall winner, challenged Atilla Kura in the last round and took the overall victory to Poland with a draw. Pawel Sowinski, also from Poland, joined them on the podium. The best Czech player Jiri Bouška finished just below the podium. Final standings Futures: 1 Warchol Kamil POL 1991 7 2 Kuru Atilla TUR 1949 6½ 3 Sowinski Pawel POL 2066 6½ 4 Bouska Jiri CZE 2191 5½ 5 Bokhnak Timofey CZE 2112 5 6 Kovalskyi Roman UKR 2065 4½ 7 Tolmacevs Artjoms LAT 2032 4 8 Balint Peter AUT 2097 4 9 Zelbova Lada CZE 1980 1½ 10 Peglau Charis GER 2008 ½ Over 300 players took part in the Open tournament with an invitation to the Challengers tournament 2023 at stake. The top seed Alexander Motylev conceded his opponents only two draws and, with a total of eight points, finished a full point ahead of a large group of players tying for the second place. Final standings Open: 1 GM Motylev Alexander FID 2619 8 2 GM Stremavicius Titas LTU 2495 7 3 Kozak Antoni POL 2459 7 4 GM Santiago Yago De Moura BRA 2509 7 5 IM Garriga Cazorla Pere ESP 2495 7 6 GM Petr Martin CZE 2488 7 7 GM Sankalp Gupta IND 2505 7 8 GM Popovic Dusan SRB 2484 7 9 GM Iniyan P IND 2518 7 10 GM Alsina Leal Daniel ESP 2514 7 Official website: praguechessfestival.com Text: Official website Photo: Petr Vrabec and Vladimir Jagr
2022 Candidates Round 1: Confident start for Nepomniachtchi and Caruana
Ian Nepomniachtchi delivered a stunning blow as Black to World No 2 Ding Liren, while Fabiano Caruana scored against compatriot Hikaru Nakamura Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi are in the lead after the first round of the Candidates, followed by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Richard Rapport, Teimour Radjabov and Alireza Firouzja, who drew their games, while Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren start the tournament with a zero on the scoresheet. The first round of the 2022 Candidates brought excitement as the players in all four games came out swinging. The first game to finish was between the winner of the previous Candidates cycle Ian Nepomniachtchi and the world’s second highest-rated player, Ding Liren. In an exciting game, Nepomniachtchi managed to mount a crushing attack on the white king, forcing the Chinese player to surrender in just 32 moves. The American duel between the four-time Candidates participant Fabiano Caruana and top chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura ended with a victory for White. Despite being surprised in the opening, Nakamura managed to hold his position. In the end, however, it was a one-sided game where it was only a question of when and not if Caruana would win. Similarly to Nakamura, Hungarian Richard Rapport was surprised in the opening as Black against the rising Polish superstar Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Despite the early advantage from the opening, Duda couldn’t find the right path forward, allowing Rapport to gradually consolidate and bring the game to a draw. The duel between the oldest and the youngest participants of the Candidates – Teimour Radjabov (35) and Alireza Firouzja (18) – ended in a draw despite promising to bring the most excitement to the day. Firouzja made a stunning sacrifice of material in the middlegame, threatening to completely throw white pieces into disorder. However, he lost the momentum, and Radjabov’s experience was enough to tame the immense energy of the young Alireza Firouzja. Here follows a deeper look at the games from the first round of the 2022 Candidates tournament. Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Richard Rapport: A surprise met with endurance With two victories, two draws and a loss in the games with classical time control, Duda had a slight advantage over his opponent, at least when considering their previous encounters. This game brought surprises from move one when Duda played 1.e4. In all their previous games, Duda went for 1.d4 against Rapport. Given that the Hungarian plays various responses to 1.e4, this suggests that Duda has studied Rapport very deeply. Rapport opted for a Sicilian, to which Duda reacted with a new trendy 5.Bf4 line. It immediately seemed that Rapport was caught on the back foot – spending a lot of time thinking about the opening moves. No wonder Rapport made a serious inaccuracy as early as on the move eight with 8…g6. Duda responded with an energetic pawn-thrust c4-c5 that ruined Black’s pawn structure and grabbed the initiative, leaving Rapport thinking for a long time in a sharp unknown position. There was no doubt that the Hungarian wasn’t comfortable with the developments. Following exchanges of heavy pieces down the central files, it was Duda’s time to err. Fearing for his a2-pawn, he naturally recaptured with bishop 16.Bxd1, but that gave Rapport a couple of tempi to complete development. In hindsight, 16.Rxd1, sacrificing a pawn, looks much more menacing for Black. It seemed that inspiration had passed from Duda to Rapport, who was defending with great precision but only up to a certain point. The last critical moment of the game came on move 33. After nearly equalizing, Rapport made a couple of inaccuracies and found himself again in big trouble. However, instead of 33.a4! – creating a permanent weakness on a5 in Black’s camp – Jan-Krzysztof went for the a5-pawn immediately, which wasn’t nearly as dangerous for Rapport. After almost 40 movies, White created a runner on the a-file and had an active pair of bishops, but Black was just in time to control everything and hold his position. The game dragged on, but it was even – with Black preventing White from making any progress on the queenside. After 69 moves and six hours of play, the two opponents agreed on a draw. Rapport is definitely the one who is more satisfied with the outcome, having made a comeback following a weak opening position. Ding Liren vs Ian Nepomniachtchi: The former Challenger delivers Ian Nepomniachtchi, playing with black pieces, delivered a crushing blow to World No 2, Ding Liren, in just 32 moves. It was the first game to finish in the first round. Unlike Nepomniachtchi, who has a recent world championship match experience and has played in other tournaments, Ding Liren hasn’t played in a top-level event for a while. He only qualified for the Candidates at the last moment, after a tournament marathon in China. However, Ding did beat Nepomniachtchi in the last game of the previous Candidates cycle, and he did have the advantage of the white pieces. A rare line of English opening with early 2.g3 and 2…c6 was played. Black’s goal was to build a strong presence in the centre, while White aimed to stop this. The focus of both sides was Black’s advanced e4-pawn, which is key for the whole position: if White wins it, he’ll gain a big advantage; If Black holds it, he’s good. The first critical moment of the game was on the move 14. White spent 20 minutes thinking before playing 14.h4. Previously opting to pursue development on the queenside, White needed to make sure he put a solid defence line against Black’s threats on the kingside. But it seemed as if that wasn’t enough. Contrary to the opening theory, Ding refused to take the e4 pawn from Black and instead focused on development. Nepomniachtchi used his stronghold on e4 to build up the initiative and launched a dangerous attack on the kingside threatening with g7-g5, which was highly unpleasant for White. After 25…g5! Black launched a deadly attack on White’s king Ding was trying to find the best way to save himself