The players will enjoy a free day tomorrow
IM Michael Rahal - Berlin, February 7th 2022 – The participants in the Berlin Grand Prix have a maximum of exactly fifteen minutes to play their first move on the board after the arbiter starts the round. However, elite players are generally already seated or at least in the building five or ten minutes earlier. So, at the start of today's round four, when GM Pentala Harikrishna played 1.e4 and his opponent GM Alexei Shirov was clearly absent, you could sense the nervousness around the room.
The organizers quickly contacted him at the official hotel and, luckily for Shirov, he was in his room. Visibly nervous at the prospect of "losing on time", he ran to the playing venue, arriving a few seconds before being forfeited. In his postgame interview, Shirov apologized profoundly: he hadn't checked the schedule and had mistakenly thought that there was no game today.
Going into the free day, and with only two rounds to go in the qualifying group stage, only two players – GM's Levon Aronian and Wesley So – dominate their groups with three points out of four. But as we witnessed today, anything can happen: also, tiebreaks are looming on the horizon for players with equal scores at the end.
Pool A
In yesterday's press conference, GM Hikaru Nakamura said that "everyone will be going for a specific player in the group from now on", clearly referring to his opponent today, Etienne Bacrot, currently last in the group standings.
However, although Bacrot is no longer a professional player – "…my focus nowadays is on coaching Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), and therefore it's difficult to play with the top players" – he still prepares the games thoroughly and, for the second time, brought out the French defence. "After all, I am a French player!" he said after the game".
Today he caught Nakamura by surprise with 10…g5!?, a nice opening idea introduced last year by World Championship challengerrr GM Ian Nepomniatchchi. The play took on a forced nature and Nakamura decided that in view of his tournament situation, it was not the day to play on in a win-lose manner. "I was afraid the position could collapse if I continued the final position" was Bacrot's final conclusion after the game. "However, it's still very nice to sense the following of the French chess fans that support me".
In the other game of the group, the two Russians faced each other for the second time, both of them in need of a win to catch Nakamura in the standings. With Black, Andrey Esipenko went for the reliable Nimzo-Indian reaching a slighly inferiour middlegame position which was complex enough to make Alexander Grischuk go wrong.
"I got completely confused. After 22.Qd3 Andrey played Qc6, and I started calculating some lines, but I will not say which ones. Because if I say, tomorrow I will have not only a PCR test but also a psychiatric test," joked Grischuk after the game, stirring up a laugh from the spectators in the press room. Esipenko defended with precision, and the draw became inevitable. "Both my strength and my weakness is that I am a perfectionist," concluded Grischuk after the game.
Pool B
GM Vladimir – "I am very strong in closed positions" – Fedoseev made his claim for first place in group B today by crushing GM Grigoriy Oparin with Black. "I had a blackout and missed …Qg4". Maybe there is some incredible tactic that saves the game, but I couldn't see it" was Oparin's postgame explanation.
Already famous in the postgame press conferences for his incredible calculation skills, Fedoseev recited several interesting lines that he had calculated, but which all led to good positions for him. It was clear he had everything under control: with this important win, he ties for first place in the group.
When he was asked by WGM Dina Belankaya if would like to have a chess opening named after him, Fedoseev surprised us all by responding: "I already invented two openings. For example, the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 a6 was developed by me and I am very proud of this idea".
GM Richard Rapport was out for the win today against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the other game of the group. With White, he played an excellent technical game against Black's isolated queen-pawn but couldn't convert, in good measure thanks to his opponent's tenacious defence.
After the game, Rapport was asked what he considered the best skills to have as a chess player. His answer stood out: "The engines are pretty strong, so I suspect that accurate calculation is the best skill to have as a chess player".
Pool C
In the game that might have decided the winner of this group, GM Levon Aronian displayed some fine opening preparation to hold a comfortable draw against GM Vidit Gujarathi, maintaining top position going into the rest day.
"I have analyzed this to play with White actually, and also from the Black side. It's kind of a solid line for Black, and my conclusion is that maybe it's a tiny bit better for White but nothing really special. I think it's important in this type of position to play precisely: I have to act fast with …a5—a4 as there is a strategical risk," said Aronian after the game in conversation with Press Officer IM Michael Rahal.
In the other game of the pool, GM's Daniil Dubov and Vincent Keymer fought out a very technical battle in a Caro-Kan: neither of the two wanted to share the last place anymore. Today the Russian prevailed, notching up a win that allows him to tie for second place and keep his winning aspirations intact.
"This is chess nowadays. The Caro-Kan used to be a really fighting opening, but now, with the line I played, sometimes you will run into something like this. You have to be very well prepared to play 15 only moves in a row". Asked after the game about chess in-between tournaments, Dubov was clear: "Many times I have fired a second: no one can stand me for more than two years. Boris Gelfand is my main inspiration to try and work hard day-to-day on chess".
Pool D
In the clash of two leaders and teammates, GM Wesley So scored a huge win, securing clear first place in the group. His opponent, GM Leinier Dominguez, miscalculated the forced sequence after 23.Qg3, missing Wesley's very strong 25…Rf2!
Dominguez tried to find some drawing chances by sacrificing some pawns to activate his rooks on the seventh, but So's technique was flawless, and with computer-precise moves, he brought home the win and new number five in the FIDE live rating list. 
After dealing with some jet-lag troubles in the first rounds, Wesley seems to have finally found his form and will be a strong candidate to advance to the semifinals. "Religion and a strong family base are my main strengths. In chess, I like to work hard, but I would like to improve my consistency and motivation" were his final considerations after the game.
The last game of the afternoon to finish was the technical encounter between GM Pentala Harikrishna and GM Alexei Shirov. Playing with Black, Shirov had to overcome the fact that he nearly lost on time, had no specific opening preparation – he thought that there was no game today – and to makes things worse, the possibility of being heavily fined by FIDE for being late.
Things started to go downhill for him when his opponent GM Harikrishna started to press strongly out of the opening, gradually increasing his positional advantage by means of precise exchanges. The endgame was surely much better for the Indian player, and one could sense his frustration when Shirov escaped with a draw.
"In hindsight, capturing 42.Nxg6 was the way to go, but I thought that 42.Re4 with the idea of 43.Nd3 was also very good: I somehow missed 45…Kf7 and then Alexei played very well," said Harikrishna after the game.
With these results, Wesley So leads the group with 3/4, a full point ahead of Dominguez and Harikrishna. His Round 5 game with Black against Alexei Shirov may prove to be decisive for the outcome of pool D.
About the Tournament
The three-tournament Grand Prix series, which will unfold from February to April, features twenty-four of the world's best Grandmasters, who will compete in two of the three events. In order to make the series more exciting and reduce the percentage of draws, FIDE and World Chess have changed the format.
This innovative approach is new for the chess world but very similar to the Super League: the first stage has four pools of four players, and the winner of each pool advances to the semifinals and then to the final.
The venue of the first leg is the World Chess Club Berlin, located at the City Centre on Unter den Linden, 26-30, and the games will be played from February 4th-17th every afternoon at 3 pm. Along with the two qualification spots for the Candidates, the event has a 150.000 euros prize fund, 20.000 euros more than the 2019 series.
All the games will be broadcasted live with expert commentary in three languages at https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13604 More information and the full schedule can also be found on the worldchess.com website. Full pairings can be found here.
Due to COVID restrictions currently in place, only a limited number of tickets are available. Please note that the 2G+ rule applies to the event, which means that visiting the venue is only possible for those who either have a complete vaccination with EU-certified vaccine or proof of recovery and can additionally present a booster dose certificate or a negative test result.
Leading companies supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include:
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
FIDE Online Arena as the official Partner
For further questions, please contact: media@worldchess.com
Text: IM Michael Rahal
Photo: Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press Kit
About World Chess
World Chess is a London-based chess gaming and entertainment group and FIDE’ official broadcaster and commercial partner. World Chess organized the FIDE Championship Matches in Russia, the USA, and the UK, and revolutionized the sport by signing the biggest media partnerships in history. World Chess develops Armageddon, the chess league for prime-time television. World Chess also runs FIDE Online Arena, the exclusive official chess gaming platform. More at worldchess.com.
About Kaspersky
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise are constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies, and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
About Algorand:
Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for financial institutions and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. The technology of choice for more than 700 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value. For more information, visit www.algorand.com.
About Prytek
The Prytek Group combines technology companies and services companies to create a new asset class. We build legacy service businesses and combine them with deep tech technologies to increase margins. We buy out entire operations and create efficiency and scalability through our technologies. The group is divided into a Corporate Arm - which comprises of controlled companies and an Investment Arm – which acts as a VC and PE fund of the Group. The goal of the Corporate Arm is to generate consolidated cash with a legacy vision, while the Investment Arm is to develop products for our operations and generate profit via equity value growth and exit at a high valuation.
Prytek Building Technologies, Delivering Managed Services. Prytek: www.prytek.com
About FIDE Online Arena
FIDE Online Arena is the exclusive online chess gaming platform that awards online ratings recognized by FIDE. It hosts rated tournaments and games 24 hours per day. The platform runs an advanced fairplay engine. Play official games at chessarena.com.
