Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi increased his lead at the 2020 Candidates to a full point after defeating his compatriot Kirill Alekseenko. It turned out, Nepomniachtchi made a wise opening choice since Kirill Alekseenko seems to be unfamiliar with the subtleties of the position. After Black went astray on move 8 White grabbed the initiative with the most natural moves and scored a well-deserved victory. Before the rest day, Nepomniachtchi has 6,5 points after 10 rounds and with 4 rounds to go the Russian GM is a strong favourite to win the tournament. 

"He's someone who can outplay me... it's always been an interesting clash of styles!" said the Wordl Champion Magnus Carlsen on Ian Nepomniachtchi today. 

As three other games were drawn the gap between the leader and the runner-ups has increased. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, and Anish Giri are still tied for second place with 5,5 points out of 10.

The most remarkable of three draws was an incredibly sharp duel Wang Hao - Grischuk, where at first Black spent on one of the opening moves 72 (!) minutes, and then White sacrificed the queen for two minor pieces. 

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Kirill Alekseenko (1-0)

1.c4 was played for the first time in the second stage of the Candidates Tournament, but it hardly came as a surprise for Alekseenko, since this is one of Nepomniachtchi's favourite moves. Soon, one of the lines of the English opening appeared on the board, which is informally called "semi-Catalan". White fianchettoed his king's bishop, but his d-pawn remained in its original position, keeping both options d2-d4 and d2-d3. 

As Kirill admitted, he did not remember that line very well and made a serious inaccuracy already on the 8th move, and later on, did not play his best chess. 

“It's quite a common mistake that you prepare all the main lines and you kind of spend less time looking at some sidelines and tricky move orders. So 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 is not exactly what worries you most." expressed his opinion commentator Daniil Dubov.  

Ian confirmed that instead of 8… Be7, Black should have played 8… Qc7 with the idea of placing the pawn on b6 and bringing the bishop to b7, as his main task in this line is to develop his queenside.

Ian Nepomniachtchi: "It was optically very easy, but in fact, I think it was not. I guess I was lucky that in the opening Kirill quickly got into some position he's not familiar with."

White seized the opportunity and with 10. d4 got a very good version of the Catalan opening. Ian quickly developed his pieces increasing the pressure on the black's queenside. To complete development, Black had to exchange his c8-bishop for his opponent's knight but seriously weakened the white squares in his camp. Alekseenko tried to muddle the waters, but Nepomniachtchi was merciless and finished off his opponent on move 31. 

Ian Nepomnaichtchi: "The point is that everyone has like seven finals here. Seven finals in a row, that's my take on this. It's better to have +3 than +1 or something, but it's too early to make any conclusions."

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Anish Giri (½ : ½)

For the second time in three days, Anish had to defend in Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian. Maxim opted for a popular 7.Nd5 plan, which was extensively tested in the last world championship match between Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen (London 2018). After the exchange on d5, the world champion retreated his knight to e7, which leads to double-edged positions. Giri, on the other hand, opted for a calmer move 8… Nb8.

Of course, the French grandmaster did not come to the game empty-handed: he immediately made a breakthrough c2-c4-c5, which was considered innocuous five years ago. Anish Giri could not recall all the details of his analysis and faced some problems as a result. By sacrificing a pawn, Anish blocked the opponent's dangerous passer and got a good counterplay. Soon Black cleared a big diagonal for his bishop and forced massive exchanges. White’s initiative petered out and after reaching the 40th move, the opponents shook hands.

Fabiano Caruana - Ding Liren (½ : ½) 

Fabiano Caruana used a positional pawn sacrifice in the so-called "anti-Marshall" variation of the Ruy Lopez and put some pressure on Black’s queenside. White's position looked very promising, but a pawn clash in the center, the American grandmaster did not play optimally and found himself on the defending side: Ding Liren had an extra pawn, albeit a doubled one. 

To avoid passive defence, Caruana bravely pushed his pawns from the king to prompt a crisis. After massive exchanges, the opponents eliminated the weak pawns and ended up in an endgame with rooks and knights. It seemed that Black still had some chances to play for a win, but Ding Liren, evidently, considered them insufficient and immediately agreed to a draw. 

Speaking about his chances to catch up with the leader, Fabiano Caruana was not overly pessimistic: "A one-point lead isn't insurmountable.”

Wang Hao (China) - Alexander Grischuk (½ : ½) 

It was the most exciting game of the day that kept the audience on the edge of their seat until the very end. The opponents had a discussion in an old system of the French Defence, which was used by the first world champion Wilhelm Steinitz at the end of the 19th century. White's idea is to firmly "cement" his pawn chain in the center at the cost of falling slightly behind in development.

The first critical position arose after White's 11th move. Black had to go for complications, otherwise White, having completed development, would have achieved a stable advantage. Grischuk knew that the move 11.Qd2 (instead of the main theoretical continuation 11.Qb3) was not dangerous for Black forgot his analysis. Wang Hao admitted that he simply mixed things up and was preparing a completely different line. As a result, Alexander spent 72 minutes (“This is not a record to be proud of,” the Russian grandmaster admitted) to calculate all the variations.

During the press conference, Wang Hao was not hiding his admiration while his opponent was displaying all the spectacular options. Grischuk rightly believes that in response to 11... cxd4 White should recapture with his e2-knight, but Wang Hao played differently. Black could have immediately gained an advantage, but Alexander simply did not have enough time to assess the new situation. He played less ambitiously and White took over the initiative again.

The second critical moment occurred on move 21 when Wang Hao recklessly sacrificed his queen for two minor pieces, creating dangerous pressure on the enemy king. “There were a lot of traps here, and some of them could work” (A. Grischuk). Being in severe time trouble, Alexander chose to give back material to protect his king. When the smoke cleared and the opponents get over the first time control, there was a drawish fortress on the board.

"Yesterday I was watching some stream with Kramnik and Bareev commenting. Speaking about today's round they said that Wang Hao-Grischuk would be the least interesting game of the round. I wonder if they still think the same way," said Alexander Grischuk after the game.

Standings after Round 10: 

1	Ian Nepomniachtchi (2774)	6½
2	Fabiano Caruana (2842)	5½
3	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2767)	5½
4	Anish Giri (2763)	5½
5	Hao Wang (2762)	4½
6	Alexander Grischuk (2777)	4½
7	Kirill Alekseenko (2698)	4
8	Ding Liren (2805)	4

Pairings for Round 11:  

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Fabiano Caruana
Kirill Alekseenko - Wang Hao 
Alexander Grischuk - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Anish Giri - Ding Liren

Media accreditation for the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg is carried out on the official website of the tournament: https://candidates-2020.com/accreditation and tel. +7 962 385-05-61. Contact: press@fide.com 

Photo: Lennart Ootes
 

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