The third leg of the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series organized by World Chess got off to a promising start, with four players securing victories and four games ending in a draw
The first round of the final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix saw Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Alexandr Predke and Nikita Vitiugov score victories and grab the lead in their pools. The four other games all ended in a draw.
Pool A:
Andrey Esipenko didn't manage to give himself a birthday present in his game against Grigoriy Oparin as the two split a point. Nevertheless, the present was “delivered” a few days earlier when Esipenko joined the tournament becoming the last-moment replacement of Dmitry Andreikin. Esipenko turned 20 today and as a real professional player spent the whole day at the board. The opponents tested a popular line of the Catalan in which Black solved all his opening problems, reached equality and confidently made a draw in a slightly inferior endgame.
Hikaru Nakamura challenged Levon Aronian with Black in a sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted that the latter had played against Leinier Dominguez just a month ago at the first FIDE Grand Prix leg. Levon expected anything but this line today but still had “a couple of ideas” in his pocket. He deviated with 14.Qd2 (one of the possible moves in this position) and probably threw Hikaru off his preparation as just five moves down the road, he committed a serious inaccuracy 19…Bf5. Still, the position remained quite unbalanced but another grave mistake by Nakamura 23…Nf4? became the last straw. Aronian immediately transposed to a won endgame and smoothly scored a full point.
According to Hikaru, the critical moment came on move 20 when he spent most of his time contemplating g5. He didn’t go for it and ended up in a worse position. “If Levon would have played 25.Qa5 instead of 25.Qa7 I would probably just resign the game, I was just ready to go home,” said Nakamura with a smile on his face, admitting that the game went off the track for him either way.
Pool B:
Vincent Keymer obtained a slightly better position in a quiet line of the Queen’s Gambit against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but after massive exchanges the Azerbaijani GM had no problems holding a draw in a bishop ending.
Leinier Dominguez defeated Daniil Dubov in a topsy-turvy game that could have ended in a draw. The American gradually outplayed his opponent in a fresh position with two knights vs. two bishops that emerged from a classical line of the Nimzo-Indian but let his advantage slip away in a mutual time scramble.
During the post-game interview, the American grandmaster noted he missed the queen’s manoeuvre Qe4-Qh4 and thought his position looked very dubious at that point. He exchanged his Bishop for the Knight on f3, opening g-file for his opponent, but managed to survive the toughest times of the game by moving his knights to h5 and f6 squares.
Surprisingly, right after passing the time control, Dubov dropped the ball with 43.Rf3?? and after 43…Rc2! he had no other option but a hopeless rook endgame in which he capitulated just a few moves later.
Pool C:
Sam Shankland and Wesley So played a trendy line of the Nimzo-Indian tested on a very high level recently. Once again Shankland impressed everyone with his home preparation as he introduced a novelty 12.Ne2 and had analysed everything at home until move 23, albeit with a different move order. “The whole position looks symmetrical but it’s not so easy for Black as White gets first on d5 square with the knight and Black’s knight on f6 is passive,” noted Sam after the game. Wesley managed to equalize with a series of precise moves. The opponents ended up in a rook endgame in which White had some practical chances. Shankland even managed to win a pawn, but it was not enough with four-vs-three on one side. So demonstrated necessary accuracy and reached a draw on the move 50.
The game Alexandr Predke - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave saw a very sharp line of the English Opening in which the former demonstrated much better preparation. On the move fourteen, the Frenchman quite optimistically castled short, apparently missing quite a strong pawn sacrifice 15.g4! White opened the lines on the kingside and arranged his pieces for an attack which became unnecessary after Maxime blundered with 19…Nxe4? and threw in the towel facing the loss of a piece.
Despite the result, the French grandmaster doesn’t lose hope: “I know I just need to win this tournament and obviously it’s not a good start for me but there are a few more games to go and I will be ready to fight.”
Pool D:
Anish Giri didn’t follow the recommendations of his own Chessable course in the Petroff Defence and instead surprised his opponent Yu Yangyi with an interesting novelty 9.Be3, achieving a good compensation for the sacrificed pawn. The Dutchman quickly restored material equality and got the upper hand. Anish built up pressure with precise moves, but just one mistake 26.h5? was enough to change the evaluation from “White is winning” to “not so clear”. “Probably I played well until very far but it took me a lot of time. To be honest I can’t say I regret taking the time as I could not see all those ideas in the game at first.” The Chinese player got some dangerous activity on the queenside and even emerged slightly better, but after going through a very tough position earlier, he accepted a draw.
Nikita Vitiugov probably caught Amin Tabatabaei on the back foot by introducing a novelty 13.Qxd2 (the first line of Stockfish) in the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez. Indeed, the GM from St-Petersburg quickly won a pawn and although his conversion was not ideal, he eventually put away the Iranian in a rook endgame.
“I believe that after 14…f6 White is significantly better, but later on Black definitely had some drawing chances,” said Nikita after the game. Amin agreed that the biggest chance to equalize the game came on move 30 after White played 30.Ra5. “I should have played 30…Re1+ and then continue Rd8,” explained the Iranian grandmaster, who was in time trouble at this moment and missed this last opportunity.
The second round of the group stage will be played on Wednesday, March 23, at 3 PM local (CET) time.
The pairings for the second round are as follows:
Pool A:
Levon Aronian (USA), 2785 – Grigoriy Oparin (FIDE), 2674
Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2750 – Andrey Esipenko (FIDE), 2723
Pool B:
Leinier Dominguez (USA), 2756 – Vincent Keymer (Germany), 2655
Daniil Dubov (FIDE), 2711 – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 2776
Pool C:
Alexandr Predke (FIDE), 2682 – Wesley So (USA), 2778
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), 2761 – Sam Shankland (USA), 2704
Pool D:
Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), 2623 – Anish Giri (Netherlands), 2771
Nikita Vitiugov (FIDE), 2726 – Yu Yangyi (China), 2713
The FIDE Grand Prix Series is brought to you by World Chess.
Leading partners 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.
Photo: Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press kit and Niki Riga
