WR Chess took the lead in the inaugural FIDE World Rapid Team Championship after winning all of their matches
After four rounds of play, the team made up of top-world GMs such as Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, as well as two former Women World Champions, Hou Yifan and Alexandra Kosteniuk, are in the lead having triumphed in all of their matches and have eight matchpoints. Notably, Wadim Rosenstein, the amateur board and CEO of event sponsor WR Group, significantly boosted team WR Chess's performance by winning three out of four games.
In close pursuit are two teams, MGD1 and rating favourites Freedom, each with seven matchpoints after winning three matches and drawing one.
The top three are chased by Armenia, ASV AlphaEchecs Linz and Columbus Energy KingsOfChess from Krakówall garnering six points with three victories and one loss.
How the first four rounds unfolded
Round One saw favourites secure confident wins, including Freedom and ASV Alpha Chess Linz with perfect scores. Notably, several top grandmasters faced unexpectedly strong resistance, resulting in draws against lower-rated opponents.
In a dramatic upset, former World Champion Candidate Fabiano Caruana drew against FIDE Master Siem Van Dael, rated more than 500 points below him. But there were other notable surprises in round one: In the match between the exceptionally strong squad of Team MGD1 (which has an average rating of 2453) and the youth team of Deutsche Schachjugend 1, the 2320-eated IM Yevhenii Yelisieiev drew with the Indian super-GM Nihal Sarin who is rated 350 points higher. Team Armenia’s top player and very strong GM Gabriel Sargissian also surprised, drawing a 300-points lower rated MariusFrommof Doppelbauer Kiel.
Things started to get tougher in round two. Team Freedom had a tense match against Chessbrah OFM. Despite winning with 4:2, Freedom’s Polina Shuvalova misplayed against Sara Khadem. The WR Chess team won its second match with 4:2 but saw its top board Wesley So losing a game as Black against 236 points lower-rated Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh.
In the third round, the margin of victory became even thinner as the top teams started to clash: Freedom scored a narrow victory over team Armenia 3,5:2,5. The Indian squad Team MGD1 defeated the very strong Kompetenzakademie Allstars (who have Caruana and Aronian playing on the top two boards) with 4:2. ASV AlphaEchecs Linz (with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alexander Grischuk as the top two boards) suffer a narrow defeat to Columbus Energy Kings Of Chess from Kraków who were led by Baadur Jobava. The outliers were the WR Chess team who had a comfortable 5,5:0,5 win against Ashdod Elit Chess Club (featuring some strong players, including Eljanov, Volokitin and Mariya Muzychuk).
Round four saw a first draw on the top boards: Freedom had a difficult battle with the Indian squad of Team MGD1 with the top three boards drawing (Anand – Harikrishna, Dubov – Sarin, Vidit – Erigaisi). Raunak Sadhwani scored a victory as Black against Richard Rapport but the victory on the amateur board saved Freedom from defeat. WR Chess, ASV AlphaEchecs Linz and team Armenia scored comfortable victories.
A curiously named team of Chess Pensioners – featuring former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (on board three!) - and heavyweights Leinier Dominguez Perez (who is definitely not a chess pensioner as he most recently had a deep run in the World Cup in Baku) and Peter Svidler – had an interesting journey in the first day. They started slowly with two draws and then in round three had a convincing 5:1 victory against the team of Ukrainian amateurs, but in round four again drew their match. While Vladimir Kramnik finished the day with 3.5/4, their board one – Leinier Dominguez is only on 50% having lost two games.
Joining the buzz of the event, even FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich took part in the games, showing his chess skills. In round four, playing with FIDE’s Management Team on board six, as an amateur player, Dvorkovich won against Iga Jasinska from team Sharks. Despite achieving a better position, Dvorkovich blundered and allowed Black to equalise, but luckily for him, the opponent passed on the opportunity.
Round five will start with a direct clash of tournament leaders – WR Chess and Freedom.
The complete pairings of round five can be found here.
The games continue on Sunday, 27th August from 1.30 PM CET.
Here follows a closer look at some of the games from the first day of the FIDE World Rapid Team Championship:
The biggest surprise of round one was Fabiano Caruana’s draw with a more than 500 points lower-rated Dutch player Siem Van Dael. Even with the black pieces, the game should have been a walk in the park for the former World Champion Candidate and the recent World Cup bronze medallist. However…
In the Sicilian defence Caruana was better throughout and achieved a winning position twice, but both times he misplayed badly and allowed the Dutch player to equalise.
Caruana just pushed his pawn to h3 to attack the white king. White had only one good place to put the king – on f2. Instead, he played 33.Kf1 after which Black was completely winning.
The most obvious line ended with White having to give up his queen: 33...Rxa6 34.bxa6 Rb1+ 35.Ke2 Qb5+ 36.Kd2 Rb2+ 37.Rc2 Rb3 38.Qxb3 Qxb3 39.f4.
Instead of this, Caruana played 33…Rxb5 giving White an important respite in the position. 34.Bxb5 Qxb5 35.Kf2
Caruana again played a weak move – 35…Ra6 Qb3 36.Qxb3? Rxb3 and now the position is even.
Luckily for Caruana, in the proceeding moves White misplayed his position and Black was again on the verge of victory.
Caruana completely misplayed with 49…Bc7 allowing White to capture the e4 pawn and save his skin.
50.Nxe4 Ra6 51.Rc8 Be5 and now 52.Ng5+ and collecting the h3 pawn as well. If anything, it seemed that White ended with more activity than Black.
Caruana pushed on a bit more but in the end, had to settle for a draw.
Wesley So (rated 2789) lost in round two to the young Indian GM Chithambaram VR.Aravindh rated 2553.
In an even position, instead of reserved 29...Nf6 Wesley So went for a dubious attack plan which resulted in a defeat.
29…Qh4 30.Ne5 Bxe5? And White is now better. 31.Rxe5 Nf6 32.f3 Qxe1 33.Rxe1 Rb8 34.Rc1 Be8 35.b5 h6 36.Bxd4
White has an extra pawn, a pair of bishops and winning position. So tried his last chance 36…Bxb5 but after 37.Rb1 the b5-bishop is trapped as there’s no protection for the rook on b8. 1-0
Polina Shuvalova of the team Freedom lost an even position to Sara Khadem.
The position is even. White should have kept her knight centralised and proceeded with 64.Rd8 to attack the bishop and harass Black’s rear.
Instead, Shuvalova played 64.Nc6??
After 64…Bb7 65.h6 Bxc6 66.Rxc6 b4 67.h7 Rh1 68.Ke5 b3 And Black is winning. The h7 pawn is controlled by Black’s rook on h1 and the b- and c-pawns are marching down towards promotion. Shuvalova was visually upset with the defeat as the team captain Emil Sutovsky immediately rushed to talk to her and help Shuvalova regain her balance.
Germany’s Vincent Keymer suffered a surprising defeat in round four after misplaying in an even position.
The position, arising from the English opening, is even. The most natural move for Keymer was 20.e3 to push black knight. Instead, Keymer was lost in just one move:
20.cxd5?? And now, he is lost as Black has a commanding initiative.
20…f5! 21.gxf5 Nxf5 22.Qg5 Nxd5 23.Qh6 Nxc3 24.Rd7 Ne2+ 25.Kf1 Rxc1 26.Bxc1 Nxc1 27.Ng5 The last desperate attempt after which White is facing a checkmate.
27…Bxg2 28.Ke1 Qe5+ Here Keymer resigned as after 29.Kd2 Qe2+ 30.Kxc1 Ba3+ 31.Kb1 Qb2# or if 29.Kd1 then 29...Qe2+ 30.Kxc1 Ba3+ 31.Kb1 Qb2#
Text: Milan Dinic
Photos: Mark Livshitz and Niki Riga
About the event
The World Rapid Team Championship is taking place between the 26th and the 28th August.
The event consists of 12 rounds played under the Swiss System. The first named team in a pairing shall have the white pieces on the odd-numbered boards and the black pieces on the even-numbered boards.
The time control will be 15 minutes, with a 10-second increment from move one.
The scoring will be based on matchpoints: a win scores two points, a draw scores one point and a loss means zero points.
The team with the highest number of matchpoints in the relevant final standings shall be declared World Rapid Team Champion.
The tournament will feature a 250,000 Euro prize fund.
Event website: worldrapidteams2023.fide.com/
You can follow the event live on FIDE’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/watch?v=25bPhnrg9wc&ab_channel=FIDEchess
