Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Dmitry Andreikin and Wesley So respectively and both advanced to the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix organized by World Chess. Sergey Karjakin was knocked out by Wei Yi in an eventful four-game match that could have gone either way.
The moment of truth has come: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi will finally cross swords in the decisive clash for a spot in the Candidates tournament. If Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins this match he will immediately qualify for the Candidates. For the Russian, things are a bit more difficult: to get his ticket to Ekaterinburg 2020 he has to not only eliminate Maxime but also win the event.
Israeli grandmaster Alik Gershon, who is also famous for setting the Guinness World Record for simultaneous games after playing 523 opponents, made a first symbolic move in the game Wei Yi - Karjakin. It turned out to be the longest match of the second round playoffs. After losing the first rapid game Sergey Karjakin took revenge and leveled the score in the second encounter. The Russian grandmaster had a pleasant advantage in the third game but missed a few opportunities in the middlegame and then misplayed the endgame, allowing his opponent to take the lead in the match. Sergey, who is known for his ability to fight back in any situation, tried to stage one more comeback, but Wei Yi didn't give him a second chance.
Dmitry Andreikin found an interesting idea to avoid the classical Naidorf in the first rapid game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and confused his opponent. The French grandmaster didn’t react optimally and after f4-f5 found himself in a difficult position. According to Maxime, he still managed to create a mess on the board then turned the table and even won the game. Dmitry had to win the second encounter to level the score and was able to get a complicated position with black pieces. Since the match situation required to take extra risks, the Russian grandmaster sacrificed some material to stir up action, but Maxime found the most precise moves and transposed into the winning ending. The Frenchman preferred not to take any chances and offered a draw to seal his 1.5:0,5 victory.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was taken by surprise in the opening of the first game and could not recall his preparation clearly. According to Ian, he got into the position where black had positional disadvantages but his defense was still hard to break. Wesley So did not find a way to do it and the game was drawn. In the second encounter, the American fell into his opponent's preparation. “Once in a blue moon, I managed to get something out of the opening! Actually, this idea of 21…Bf3 22.Rf3 Re5 is a trap. I was lucky to remember all moves until it was better for white but it would not be me if I didn’t make some mistakes later in the game”, commented Nepomniachtchi. After 37…Rd4 38.Re8 the players entered the rook ending which clearly favored White. Wesley questioned his decision to go for this rook ending and assumed that he would probably have had better chances to defend the ending with queens on the board.
The first games of the semifinals will be played tomorrow, December 17, at 3 pm local time:
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Wei Yi – David Navara
Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com
Text: Anastasiya Karlovich
Photos: Niki Riga
World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com
Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox.
Leading partners supporting the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series 2019 include:
Algorand as the Exclusive Blockchain Partner
PhosAgro as the Official Strategic Partner
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
Usetech as the partner of the Jerusalem Grand Prix
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
