The seventh leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour regular season kicked off today at the National Library in Kolkata, India. Over five days (November 22-26), eight of the world’s top chess players including the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen plus two local wildcards Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna will compete in rapid and blitz chess for a prize fund of $150,000. The first day featured three rounds of rapid chess in which players each receive 25 minutes plus a 10-second delay. After an eventful first day, Magnus Carlsen emerged as the sole leader by scoring two impressive victories.
Round 1
Anish Giri grabbed the lead right from the start repeating the scenario of the Grand Chess Tour event in Bucharest. In the first game, he defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi with Black. Russian GM was slightly better in the Catalan, but made a terrible mistake with 28.Qxa1?? completely forgetting about a dangerous black e-pawn. After 28...Qe6 White had to give up a knight to stop the pawn and was completely lost after that.
All other Round 1 games were drawn. There were two more Catalan Openings - Harikrishna never got anything substantial against his compatriot Vidit, whereas Ding Liren had some pressure versus Anand, but seemingly wasn't in a mood for a big fight.
Aronian tried to surprise Nakamura with quite a rare line in Italian Game, but the American GM was clearly unimpressed and equalized with ease.
All eyes in Round 1 were on the rematch of the Fischer Random Championship final between Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen. In one of the sharpest lines of Najdorf (6.h3), Carlsen had some counterplay on the queenside but apparently blundered a pawn with 22...Bb6. Despite being a pawn up though, So never had a real chance to score a full point. With all the pawns on the same side of the board, Carlsen held him for a draw.
Round 2
Carlsen played with his "classical games' Nemesis" Nepomniachtchi and proved that in rapid he was a better player today. World Champion avoided major theory lines in the Sicilian but grabbed an opening advantage with the maneuver Nf3-d2-b3-a5 anyway. He denied his opponent of any counterplay and created an extremely strong passed pawn on the Queen's side. Nepomniachtchi tried to escape but to no avail.
Anand also scored a victory in Round 2 and joined the leaders. In classical Ruy Lopez Anand used the a-file to penetrate into Wesley So's camp, but Fischer Random Champion was OK until he missed a nice geometrical knight maneuver. Anand won a pawn, but not a game as Black still had good chances for a draw. At some moment So had an easy escape but missed that he could go for a pawn ending. Now he needed to find some precise moves to hold the game but with time ticking down he didn't manage to do it. Anand won a second pawn and the game.
Giri didn't have a real chance to retain a sole lead - his game with Aronian was an uneventful draw. Harikrishna had White second time in a row and this time he was close to his first victory. After he won a central pawn, Ding Liren's position looked just lost, but somehow the Chinese GM activated his queen to regain a pawn and then this very queen ran all the way back to d8 to stop White's passer. Probably the Indian wild-card missed some opportunities, but Ding's creative defense is highly commendable anyway.
The most double-edged game was the encounter Vidit - Nakamura. Once again, Catalan Opening was played where Vidit had some chances to grab the initiative. He missed several active moves though and at the very end, Nakamura even had a chance to play for a win with a computer move 40...Qd2!, but opted for an immediate draw.
Round 3
After two losses, Nepo got into the beast mode, and Anand became a victim. In the English opening, Nepomniachtchi planted his knight on f5 and then went for a breakthrough in the center. After a careless 17...Rfe8? Ian found a simple combination that forced Anand to resign on move 22.
In the central game of the round, Aronian and Carlsen fought in the Najdorf Sicilian with the opposite-side castling. Around move 25 Grand Chess Tour Bucharest winner missed a strong continuation, and it was all Carlsen after that. Fist, Black's queen found a way into White's fortifications and then a timely piece sacrifice left Aronian in dire straits. Levon defended stubbornly to bring the game to the ending with two light pieces against a rook, but Black’s extra pawns turned to be a decisive factor. In a completely winning position, Carlsen misplaced his rook on g7, thus allowing Aronian to save a half-point with an easy 49.Nf4+! but Levon also missed this move and soon resigned.
Even more improbable miss decided the result of the encounter Ding Liren - Vidit. The world #3 from China was pressing the whole game and came very close to converting his advantage in the middle game. Vidit was defending really well and finally reached a drawish rook ending. He was the first to make a mistake there allowing the white king to invade the queenside where his Majesty took Black’s last pawn. With mere seconds on his clock, Vidit continued what looked like hopeless resistance and somehow saved a draw after Ding made an unbelievable blunder in a well-known position with 79.a7+?? As a result, the game ended with a stalemate.
Playing versus Giri, Nakamura sacrificed a pawn to ruin Black's pawn structure on the Queen's side in the endgame. Giri's position was unpleasant but not hopeless by any means, but he clearly underestimated the danger and soon found himself in big trouble. Nakamura was ruthless demonstrating an excellent endgame technique. So was pushing for a win against Harikrishna but Indian GM managed to defend all his weak pawns with two bishops and the game ended peacefully.
Standings after Round 3:
Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour)
