FIDE Grand Prix: Dubov squeezes into semi-finals
For the tiebreaks of the second round, the stage of the Kehrwieder theatre was set for two players and a high-ranking visitor. As Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda qualified through the classical portion of the knockout round, the remaining spot of the semi-final would either go to Daniil Dubov or Peter Svidler based on the results of the tiebreaks played with shorter time control. Mr. Darion Akins, the Consul General of the United States of America, ceremonially opened the first rapid game between the two Russian grandmasters. Mr. Akins showed a great understanding of the royal game, which he used to play in college. Afterwards, fascinated by the two grandmasters, he stayed for half an hour to follow the moves. The players repeated the same line from their first classical game until Svidler deviated on move ten by pushing his pawn to b6. Dubov reacted with a rarely played advance of the h-pawn. Svidler reacted perfectly by bringing his queen to h4. The crisis erupted on the 21st move when Dubov allowed an excellent tactical shot by Svidler to force an endgame with a bishop and two pawns against a rook. The older of the two Russian grandmasters pushed for a win, but Dubov was able to save a half-point. Svidler opened the second encounter with 1.c4, but the game transposed into a sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Dubov opted for a risky setup that involved weakening his kingside and castling queenside. After both players finished their development, Svidler had the upper hand due to better control over the center. Peter managed to win a pawn, but Dubov, who was playing much faster, started to bother the white king on f2. Svidler was controlling the course of the game. He exchanged pieces and even threatened mate in one with his queen. Dubov parried the mate and Svidler could have gone for a second pawn. Instead, he preferred to continue the attack, but Dubov found a tactical way to complicate matters. The players reached a queen and rook endgame with White being a pawn up. Svidler had a weak king and Dubov created enough counterplay to hold the balance. In the end, it was a question of nerves. The game turned in favor of Svidler, but in severe time trouble, he allowed a perpetual after having a winning position for several moves. After starting the day with two draws, the tiebreak rules required two further rapid games with a time control of 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. Svidler avoided theory by playing a rare line of the Queen’s Pawn Opening but soon found himself in a worse position. After finishing his development, Dubov was in total control of the game. He won a central pawn and was ahead on the clock with four minutes against three minutes. Daniil forced a rook endgame that was winning due to his four vs two pawn majority on the queenside. White could not salvage his position and soon threw in the towel. In a must-win-situation, Svidler chose the Dutch Defense with Black. Dubov offered the chance to simplify the position in the opening, but this was not Svidler’s intention. Instead, he undertook some risky maneuvers. but did not get closer to achieving his goal. Dubov was on the verge of winning this game as well but offered a draw after 18 moves that Svidler accepted. Round 2, tiebreak results: Daniil Dubov – Peter Svidler 2,5-1,5 The pairings for the semi-finals: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Alexander GrischukJan-Krzysztof Duda – Daniil Dubov Time control tiebreak: 25‘+10‘‘ in the first two games. The next game will always start ten minutes after the end of the session. If the scores are level after the match (i.e. the overall result is 1:1), the colors are drawn for the first game of the next match immediately after the game. The match will continue with two games 10‘+10‘‘ if needed. Further stages will be two games 5‘+3‘‘ and finally a sudden death game 5‘ against 4‘ with 2‘‘ increment from move 61, if needed. The player who draws white for the armageddon game immediately chooses his color. Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko 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 PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
FIDE and ROSATOM festivals in Bangladesh and Turkey
As part of the agreement between FIDE and ROSATOM, two more chess festivals will be held during the last two months of 2019, with support from this company. International Chess Festival in Bangladesh The International Chess Festival in Bangladesh will take place between November 24 and December 4 in Dhaka. The main event will be the 1st SAARC Countries Chess Championships 2019, a Swiss system competition in Open and Women categories (9 rounds), with a total prize fund of $18.000. There is also a number of side events: – Blitz tournament, with an additional prize fund of $2.000. – Master class and simul exhibition by GM Nigel Short for SAARC chess players (28-29 November). – The 1st SAARC Chess Congress (29 November), which will be organized with the aim to establish a new organization, the SAARC Chess Federation. Its purpose will be to unite chess players and officials from this region to further develop chess in joint endeavors. – FIDE Trainers Seminar (30 November – 2 December), with GM Nigel Short as one of the lecturers. – FIDE Arbiters seminar (26-28 November), with Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh of Iran as one of the lecturers. Read full regulations International Chess Festival in Turkey The International Chess Festival in Turkey is to be organized from 7-14 December in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The festival consists of two main events: – The 1st Confederation Cup for disabled people 2019, organized by FIDE as a premier event on the eve of the 1st World Chess Paralympiad 2020. The teams, consisting of 6 players with different groups of disabilities from 4 Continents (plus 1 team designated by the sponsor) will take part in a round-robin to determine a Continental Team Champion and individual inners in all three disability groups, per gender as well. This is an invitational tournament and all participants will have their expenses covered. – The FIDE Cadet Blitz Festival 2019 (7 December), with the participation of the 12th World Chess Champion GM Anatoly Karpov, who will offer a seminar and a simul exhibitions for kids. Along with the Cup, there will be also a master class by GM Victor Bologan (13 December), and meetings of the FIDE DIS and Event Commissions (12 December). A round table with disabled chess players and members of the World project “Sales of Spirit” sponsored by Rosatom (will be held on December 11). “Sales of Spirit” is an inclusive project which united sales sportsmen with disabilities, who develop themselves through the sport as through an active adaptation and to achieve high sport results. Read full regulations These two chess festivals supported by Rosatom follow the ones already held earlier this year in Finland (August) and Uzbekistan (September). [Link to the respective reports from these two festivals] About Rosatom Rosatom is a global actor on the world’s nuclear technology market. Its leading-edge stems from a number of competitive strengths, one of which is assets and competences at hand in all nuclear segments. Rosatom incorporates companies from all stages of the technological chain, such as uranium mining and enrichment, nuclear fuel fabrication, equipment manufacture and engineering, operation of nuclear power plants, and management of spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Nowadays, Rosatom brings together about 400 enterprises and organizations with the workforce above 250 K. https://rosatom.ru/en/about-us/
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Korobov still ahead
The two wildcards ruled day one of the blitz in Romania. Le Quang Liem struggled to find his form during the rapid portion but ravaged through the field in blitz with a fantastic score of 7/9. Anton Korobov’s 50% score was enough to keep him on top of the leaderboard, but with a narrower gap. The tournament is still wide open as Levon Aronian, Le Quang Liem and Sergey Karjakin are within striking distance from the current leader, with Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Viswanathan Anand still keeping their hopes alive. Tomorrow, after another exciting 9 rounds of blitz, a champion will be crowned for GCT Superbet Rapid & Bitz. Anton Korobov had a shaky start to his day with two losses in the first three games against Le Quang Liem and Viswanathan Anand. His game against Anand was particularly exciting as the position was absolutely wild with both sides attacking and the evaluation changing constantly. Korobov’s results improved in the second half of the day, with back to back wins against Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In the postgame interview, Korobov declared that he is full of power going into the final day. Levon Aronian, on the other hand, was moving up quietly but surely. The Armenian star won only two games and drew the rest, but it was enough for leapfrogging in the standings. His wins came against Vladislav Artemiev and Wesley So. The game against Artemiev was a perfect example of how tricky rook endgames can be when the players get low on time, as Artemiev lost in a theoretically drawn endgame after a careless check. In the game against So, he sacrificed a pawn early in the Najdorf, then went on to unleash an attack using his better placed knight against his opponent’s bad bishop. If Levon can repeat this result tomorrow, he will be in an optimal position to qualify for the London finals in December. Le Quang Liem’s performance today was a reminder as to why he is a former World Blitz Champion. After starting the day with a win over Korobov and a draw against Karjakin, he went on a winning streak defeating Anand, Artemiev, So and Giri. The win against So was reminiscent of Caruana vs Karjakin from round 4 of rapid, as both Karjakin and So relaxed too early in a down a pawn endgame thinking it’s an easy draw and lost. His win against Giri was an extremely one-sided affair where he simply blew his opponent off the board. Due to his tame performance in the rapid, this result puts the Vietnamese star in third place, but it’s possible that another result like this tomorrow could possibly mean his winning the tournament. Another former World Blitz Champion is no stranger to showing strong performances in the Grand Chess Tour, having scored 7.5/9 in previous editions of the blitz. Sergey Karjakin had the third best performance of the day but only scored 5 points, which unfortunately did not improve his standings by much. The Russian player is in a must-win situation here as he needs those 13 GCT points to qualify for London. After a tumultuous start, he ended the day with +2, defeating Anand in a rook endgame and demolishing Mamedyarov in 22 moves with the black pieces. Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Viswanathan Anand ended the day with 13.5 points, three full points behind the leader. Giri was the long-time leader in the rapid but has since sunk in the standings. He did not manage to win any games today, drawing 7 and losing 2. Mamedyarov made a comeback on the last day of the rapid and was having a solid day today, but back to back losses against Korobov and Karjakin in rounds 7 and 8 respectively hurt his chances. Anand started and ended the day in a tie for the fifth place. The former World Champion played some of the wildest games in this event, scoring important victories against Korobov and Mamedyarov today. Neither American has been able to find his footing in this event. Wesley So was making a comeback scoring 4 points in the first 5 games but wasn’t able to maintain his form, losing two back to back games against Le Quang Liem and Levon Aronian. Fabiano Caruana started and ended the day in 8th place after missing many opportunities in multiple topsy turvy games. While the other two wildcards are thriving, Vladislav Artemiev is struggling in 9th place. The youngest participant of the tournament had a difficult day today scoring only 3 points with 6 draws and no wins. Combined rapid and day 1 blitz standings. In the rapid, a win is worth 2 points, a draw is 1 point and a loss is 0. In the blitz, a win is 1 point, a draw is .5 points and a loss is 0 Official site Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.
Levon Aronian wins Superbet Rapid & Blitz
The 2019 Superbet Rapid and Blitz concluded in a dramatic fashion. At the end of an exciting day of blitz, Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin were tied for first place. While the tour points and prize money were split, there was a playoff to crown the champion of the inaugural event. The tiebreak consisted of two 10-minute games. After drawing the first game, Levon Aronian won the second game in a 27-move tactical battle. This marked the second tour win of the year for the Armenian superstar and puts him in an optimal spot to qualify for the London finals. The newly crowned champion was greeted by the Armenian Ambassador to Romania Sergey Minasian and a member of the Romanian Parliament Varujan Pambuccian. The next and final stop of the tour is the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz beginning November 22. The longtime leader of the tournament wildcard Anton Korobov completely collapsed today, losing his first five games. Former World Blitz Champion Le Quang Liem, who made waves yesterday with his phenomenal performance of 7/9, also showed a lackluster performance in day 2 of blitz by scoring only 4 points. The struggles of these players allowed for two new leaders to emerge. Levon Aronian climbed to the top by defeating both Korobov and Liem in the first two games, giving him a comfortable two-point lead over the field. The rest of his day, however, was tumultuous, to say the least. He lost three out of his next four games against Sergey Karjakin, Vladislav Artemiev, and Wesley So while drawing the rest. While Aronian was having a topsy-turvy day, Karjakin slowly crept up to the top with wins over Aronian himself, Le Quang Liem and Caruana. Going into the last round, both players were tied for first. Aronian drew his game, leaving the fate of the tournament in Karjakin’s hands. The fateful game between Karjakin and Korobov was a rollercoaster ride that could have sealed the deal for either Aronian or Karjakin. The Russian was winning for most of the game, but allowed a lot of counterplay and even blundered a checkmate closer to the end of the game. Luckily for him, Korobov failed to capitalize on his opportunities, and the game was eventually drawn. The first encounter of the Aronian-Karjakin playoff was a quiet Spanish which ended in a 20-move draw. The second game was a much sharper fight, but Armenian eventually triumphed after Karjakin failed to respond accurately in the tactical skirmish. Viswanathan Anand had the second-best score of the day along with Karjakin and Wesley So. After defeating Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Anton Korobov in the first three games, the former World Champion went on to draw the rest of his games, most of them without a fight. It felt as though his strategy was to preserve energy and earn as many GCT points as possible to improve his qualifying chances to London. He finished in third place, earning 8 tour points and $20,000. The two wildcards were on top of the leaderboard throughout day one of blitz, but ultimately finished in the middle of the pack. Both Korobov and Liem struggled throughout the day and ended up scoring totals of 2 and 4 points respectively. Even so, the two players delighted the fans with their ferocious play and tenacity against the very best in the world. The third wildcard, Vladislav Artemiev, had the best result of the day. He scored an impressive 7/9, including an upset over Aronian. Unfortunately for him, his poor start prevented his impressive result on the final day from having a large impact on his final position in the standings. Anish Giri had dreams of qualifying to the London finals, but they ended with his 6th place finish. Wesley So had a strong performance with 6/9, while his countryman Fabiano Caruana never found his form, scoring only 2 points.
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Three players advance, one tiebreak to follow
The rematches of the second round at the FIDE Grand Prix brought several decisive outcomes. Three grandmasters qualified for the semi-finals whereas the fourth one will be determined on the tiebreak on Sunday. After his loss in the first game of the second round, Veselin Topalov needed a win to equal the score against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. He chose the French Defence, and after some thought, the French grandmaster opted for the Exchange Variation to avoid any theoretical battles. Nevertheless, the game became quite sharp with both sides installing strong knights in the center. As the game developed, White started an attack on the queenside, whereas Black had no realistic chances to attack the white king on the other side of the board. After some exchanges before move 30, Topalov realized that his position was worse and offered a draw. Vachier-Lagrave saw no reason to play on as a half-point was enough to promote him into the next round and enjoy another free day before the semi-finals. David Navara and Alexander Grischuk followed a critical line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined which the Czech grandmaster had used in the past year in the German Bundesliga. After Grischuk deviated on move 15, both players spent a lot of time evaluating a sharp position with kings castled on opposite sides of the board. Navara went astray when he prematurely pushed his h-pawn that allowed Grischuk to deliver a deadly counter punch on the other side of the board. The Russian grandmaster timely sacrificed an exchange and ripped big rewards. Navara had to choose between entering an inferior rook endgame or playing a piece down but having some threats to the black king. He picked the second option but the risk did not pay off. Navara fought on for several moves, but Grischuk confidently fended off all the threats and advanced to the semis. Blunder decides in favor of Duda Jan-Krzysztof Duda also qualified for the semi-finals. His game against Yu Yangyi was more or less decided by one terrible blunder. After an equal opening, the players exchanged queens on move 14 and soon reached an almost equal endgame. The encounter was heading towards a peaceful finish despite the Chinese grandmaster being down a pawn. However, Yu Yangyi went for a deadly walk with his king to the h3-square. Duda surprisingly captured the black pawn on g4 with a check and it turned out it was immune because of the pinned black bishop on c8 and a deadly checkmate threat. As a result, Yu Yangyi losing two pawns and resigned shortly afterward. Evgeny Miroshnichenko, who is commentating on the games in the official live coverage, said: “It’s one of those moves which are easy to calculate but hard to come up with.” The day started with a quick draw between Peter Svidler and Daniil Dubov in a game that only lasted an hour. Svidler chose the Rossolimo Variation against Dubov’s Sicilian Defence and regretted it afterwards. “It was not the wisest choice to play this, but these things happen,” he admitted. After the opening, the younger of the two Russian players gave a pawn to free up his light-squared bishop, which he then exchanged for the white knight on f3 and ruined white’s pawn structure. After 21 moves, the players reached an endgame in which Svidler was a pawn up, but Dubov had active pieces and was still in his preparation. Svidler had seen enough and offered a draw which his compatriot accepted. In the end, Dubov had gained five minutes on the clock compared to his starting time, whereas Svidler burned over 50 minutes. These two grandmasters will meet again in the tiebreak on Sunday to determine the fourth player of the semi-final. Round 2, game 2 results: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Veselin Topalov 1/2-1/2David Navara – Alexander Grischuk 0-1Peter Svidler – Daniil Dubov 1/2-1/2Jan-Krzysztof Duda – Yu Yangyi 1-0 Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko 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 PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Korobov maintains his lead
The rapid portion of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz concluded day 3 with wildcard Anton Korobov maintaining his lead of the event. The tournament is still wide open with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian and Anish Giri trailing the leader by only two points. There’s still time for a new leader to emerge with 18 exciting blitz games left to play over the weekend. Round 7 Anton Korobov started the day with a draw against Levon Aronian with the white pieces. Korobov’s position was slightly unpleasant but the transition to an opposite-colored bishop’s endgame ensured him half a point. After a successful day two, Fabiano Caruana decided to keep the momentum going by playing a sharp line in the Giuoco Piano against Vishy Anand. The former World Champion kept his cool in the chaotic position, and eventually punished his opponent for taking too many liberties with his position. Anish Giri suffered the same fate as Caruana, after playing a sharp line in the Nimzo-Indian against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leaving his king in the center and compromising the kingside. Giri played too slowly at the critical moment thus allowing his opponent to develop and castle into safety, and was punished swiftly. Sergey Karjakin had a great day today, beginning with a win over Vladislav Artemiev. After his countryman blundered, Sergey quickly found a geometric sequence to win his opponent’s bishop with a queen and knight maneuver. Both Le Quang Liem and Wesley So are still struggling to find their form and consequently drew their game, after the Vietnamese player slowly let his advantage slide and finally missed a study-like win at the end. Round 8 Korobov extended his lead to two points after a miraculous draw against Giri. The Dutchman has been playing very dynamic chess as of late, and this game was no exception. After posing some problems to his opponent in the Najdorf, he emerged three pawns up in the middle game. The position still required some work and a few inaccuracies later, Giri found his king in real danger and had to force a draw with a perpetual. This result puts Giri in second place two points behind the leader. He was joined by Aronian, Mamedyarov, and Anand for a big tie for second place. Aronian’s dynamic play with black pieces in the Giuoco Piano paid off handsomely against the suffering So; the Armenian won his game with a direct kingside attack in 33 moves. The game between Caruana and Mamedyarov was a rollercoaster ride. In another Giuoco Piano, Caruana suffered with white pieces, going down a pawn and defending for most of the game. He managed to outplay his opponent and win a pawn in the endgame, only to blunder his knight in a time scramble. Karjakin continued his comeback by demonstrating his impressive endgame skills and winning a queen endgame against Anand. The game between Le Quang Liem and Artemiev was another rollercoaster ride with the interesting dynamic of queen vs three pieces on the board. The Vietnamese star keeps struggling in this event as his winning advantage turned into a losing position in a matter of moves. Thanks to his opponent’s inaccuracy, he was able to give up his queen for a rook and a bishop and force a draw in the resulting endgame. Round 9 The only decisive result of this round was between Anand and Le Quang Liem. In a messy tactical battle, the former Blitz World Champion achieved a winning position but blundered the advantage away. Anand found the best moves to keep the game going only to return the favor and allowing his opponent to score the first victory of the tournament. Korobov had the perfect opportunity to extend his lead to three points as he played an excellent game, putting enormous pressure on Caruana. However, this event keeps proving that converting winning positions is extremely difficult against strong players. Caruana created enough difficulties for his opponent to escape with half a point. Aronian had two dangerous connected passed pawns against Giri, but the opposite-colored bishops allowed a comfortable draw. Artemiev and Mamedyarov drew So and Karjakin respectively in quiet games. Official site Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Vachier-Lagrave is the only winner of the day
Hamburg is known as a hub of chess activity. The city in northern Germany hosts one of the largest clubs in Europe that has its clubhouse and a long tradition dating back to 1830. Additionally, the Chess in Schools project has been successfully supported by the local associations and authorities for decades. One result of these steady efforts is the annual “Alsterufer” match with more than 100 schools and nearly 4000 kids participating. One of the winning teams of this annual match, consisting of eight children, was invited onto the stage to open the first game of the second round of the FIDE Grand Prix. Vachier-Lagrave does it again Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is the only winner of the day. The French grandmaster chose his beloved Grünfeld Defence with Black against Veselin Topalov who opted for a sideline which transposes the position into a Benoni-like-structure. In a highly complex middlegame, the Bulgarian grandmaster used one of his trademark exchange sacrifices to complicate matters even more. In time trouble, both players attacked the enemy’s king and risked everything. Topalov committed the final mistake on move 36. He could have sacrificed a piece and hide his king in the corner, but this was extremely difficult to spot. Instead, he allowed his opponent to win very important b-pawn. In the end, Vachier-Lagrave found a lovely combination to force a queen exchange and promote his passed pawn. Yu Yangyi misses a possible win Yu Yangyi demonstrated a fantastic preparation once again. In the main line of the Petrov’s Defence, which the Chinese grandmaster often uses himself, he presented an interesting novelty on move twelve, which immediately put pressure on his opponent. Duda spent about an hour for the next six moves but landed in an inferior position. Yu Yangyi played a perfect game until 27th move. In a heavy piece endgame, he had a strong passed pawn on e6 and could dominate the situation with a quiet queen move. Instead, he lost two tempi with unnecessary rook moves. Duda was able to activate his queen and force a draw by a perpetual. “When I played my rook to e5 I completely missed that he can activate his queen”, Yu Yangyi confessed after the game. Alexander Grischuk and David Navara followed the main line in the Catalan Opening that the Russian grandmaster used to beat Leinier Dominguez Perez in the third round of the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk. After exchanging three minor pieces, Grischuk pinned his hopes on slight space advantage and a better minor piece, but Navara’s position remained solid. Alexander spent a lot of time, but he couldn’t find a way to put Black under serious pressure. Navara countered with a well-timed centre push, and the position soon petered out into an equal queen endgame. In a battle of generations, the Russians Daniil Dubov and Peter Svidler discussed an important theoretical line of the Grünfeld Defence. White started to build up a strong centre but Svidler timely undermined it with typical counters even at the cost of a pawn. Afterwards, both players agreed that objectively White should hold an advantage. Over the board, Dubov wasn´t able to demonstrate this statement to be the case. With his time running down, Dubov decided to avoid unnecessary risks and offered a draw on move 23. Round 2, game 1 results: Veselin Topalov – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0-1Alexander Grischuk – David Navara 1/2-1/2Daniil Dubov – Peter Svidler 1/2-1/2Yu Yangyi – Jan-Krzysztof Duda 1/2-1/2 Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko 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 PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Korobov takes the lead
After another day of rapid, a surprising new leader has emerged. Wildcard Anton Korobov is not well known in the chess elite but he is the highest-rated rapid player in the tournament and now he is leading the tournament. The Ukrainian had a phenomenal day defeating Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So, while Anish Giri stumbled in the fifth round and lost to another wildcard, Vladislav Artemiev. Tomorrow is the final day of the rapid as the tournament will move on to the blitz portion. Round 4 Anish Giri maintained his lead with a win over Le Quang Liem in a complicated Rossolimo Variation of the Sicilian. The Dutch player’s extra bishop against his opponent’s three pawns was too powerful in the middlegame, allowing him to unleash an attack against his opponent’s weak dark squares. Coming to the round, there was a tie for second place between Anton Korobov, Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand. Korobov separated himself from the pack by defeating Anand in 27 moves by pushing his “g” pawn down the board and creating a mating net around his opponent’s king. Aronian saved his game against Vladislav Artemiev, who wasn’t able to find a win with only seconds left on the clock. The Armenian star was joined by Fabiano Caruana in a tie for third place after the latter defeated Sergey Karjakin in a marathon 99 move encounter. Wesley So bounced back from a tough first day with a win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a topsy turvy game. Round 5 Giri suffered his first loss of the tournament against Artemiev after he went pawn grabbing with his queen, leaving his king vulnerable. Artemiev’s attack played itself out, forcing his opponent to resign ten moves later. This round 5 result blew the tournament wide open, allowing Korobov to catch up with the Dutch GM after a comfortable draw against Mamedyarov. Caruana joined the top duo after finding a beautiful checkmating pattern with his knight pair while leaving his queen en prise. Anand put himself only a point behind the leaders after converting his extra pawn against Aronian. The game between Karjakin and So ended in a 25 move draw. Round 6 Korobov described his middle game position against So as strategically lost in the postgame interview, thus forcing him to seek complications. So let his advantage slip away then allowed a big turnaround in the game by leaving his back rank weak. So resigned after realizing that his only options were either parting with his queen or allowing a checkmate. Giri – Anand game was quite balanced, but the draw put the long-time leader a full point behind Korobov. Caruana wasn’t able to keep pace and lost to Artemiev, by making the same mistake Giri did in the previous round – putting his queen out of play and leaving his king alone surrounded by the enemy pieces. Aronian and Karjakin drew Mamedyarov and Le Quang Liem respectively in quite uneventful games. Official site Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Rapid & blitz drama on Day 3
She is 21 years old, lives in Hamburg and aspires to take part in the next Summer Olympiad 2020 in Tokio. We are talking of Yusra Mardini, a professional swimmer whose personal story has inspired the world. In 2015 she fled from war in Syria to find a shelter in Europe. Germany is her new home, and today she opened the tiebreak of the first round at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg. If classical chess sometimes doesn’t provide enough drama rapid and blitz chess does. Today the players had much less time to think and this lead to mistakes, turnarounds and finally to the answer who will qualify for the next round. No luck for Vitiugov At the board of Nikita Vitiugov and David Navara, Yusra Mardini moved the white Knight to f3, but this brought no luck for the Russian grandmaster. He won a pawn at the queenside in the Benoni reversed, then went for another pawn on the other side of the board but gave the opponent dangerous initiative. Navara used the open h-file to start a menacing counterattack and with time running down, Vitiugov lost control of the action and went down in flames. In the must-win-situation, Vitiugov chose the Dutch Opening in the second game but never came close to level the score. Navara broke through in the center and repelled all the attacking attempts by the Russian GM. After some tactical blows, the Czech won material and Vitiugov threw in the towel. As usual, Navara showed a lot of respect for his opponent: “Nikita played many other tournaments this year with very good results, and I considered him the favorite in the classical games. In rapid of course, everything can happen.” Yu Yangyi made up for the missing win from the previous day against Dmitry Jakovenko. The first game of the tiebreak saw an exciting tactical fight which ended with a clear advantage for White due to his active heavy pieces. The Chinese grandmaster won some material and progressed into an easily winning rook endgame with connected passed pawns on the queenside. In the second game, Dmitry Jakovenko was close to equalizing the score. In a position with opposite-colored bishops, he was the one attacking, and chess experts know that usually, this factor favors an active part. Jakovenko had a decisive advantage around move 50, but in rapid chess, everything can change in a blink of an eye. Yu Yangyi managed to exchange the queens and held the resulting endgame with relative ease. Grischuk advances The first game between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Alexander Grischuk was an unclear case from start to the end. Grischuk opted for a dutch-like setup with Black, but White chose to castle long. With no time on the clock, the Russian grandmaster decided to repeat moves, despite having slightly more active pieces. In the second game, the Russian grandmaster went for a Kings-Indian-like setup with White to confuse his adversary. In a position with opposite-castled kings, both sides had their chances, but Grischuk prevailed after Wojtaszek went for a queen exchange in an unclear situation. The favorite won a pawn and converted his advantage safely, even being as usual short of time. “After my opponent completely out-prepared me in the classical games in rapid I decided to play anything just to avoid preparation”, stated Grischuk afterwards. Dubov faster and luckier After finishing the two classical games fast and leaving the stage early in the first two days of the FIDE Grand Prix Daniil Dubov and Teimour Radjabov regaled the spectators with a long battle which lasted 4.5 hours, much longer than the rest of the tiebreak matches. First, they continued their non-aggression pact with a quick draw, but the second game nearly became decisive. After blundering a pawn, Dubov was standing on the edge of a precipice but showed all his resilience. Apart from playing much faster, he was able to maintain tension which saved him half the point. As the two rapid games with the time control of 10 minutes + 10 seconds increment also ended in a draw, the spectators could enjoy the two grandmasters blitzing out for the slot in the next round. It was a question of nerves. The first game with the time control of 5 minutes + 5 seconds was a clear-cut win for Dubov. In the second game, Radjabov was as dominating until he blundered with 63…b3 and had to take a draw. Round 1, tiebreak results: Nikita Vitiugov – David Navara: 0-2Alexander Grischuk – Radoslaw Wojtaszek: 1,5-0,5Daniil Dubov – Teimour Radjabov: 3,5-2,5Yu Yangyi – Dmitry Jakovenko: 1,5-0,5 The pairings for the second round are as follows: Veselin Topalov – Maxime Vachier-LagraveAlexander Grischuk – David NavaraDaniil Dubov – Peter SvidlerYu Yangyi – Jan-Krzysztof Duda Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko 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 PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Four players advance to the second round
FIDE oversees the undoubtedly most beautiful game humankind has ever created, the royal game of chess, which unites nearly all countries of this world with one language. Algorand has the vision of building technical innovations for a borderless economy. What could be more natural than joining forces with World Chess, the organizer of the FIDE Grand Prix? The COO of Algorand, Mr Sean Ford, opened the 2nd round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg on the board of Wei Yi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by pushing the e-pawn two squares ahead. “Probably this was the best move I ever made over a chessboard”, he joked afterwards. All of the games of the second day of the first round of knockouts at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg ended with a draw, but not without drama. Four players advanced to the next round, and four need to pack their bags. The remaining eight players will meet again on the tiebreaks. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at the top of his game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has lived up to expectations so far. After winning the first game against Wei Yi in grand style, he was close to winning the second game as well. The rivals again discussed a line of the Najdorf Variation, but once again the Frenchman seemed to be better prepared. The critical moment arose after White’s twelfth move. Vachier-Lagrave correctly pushed his h-pawn and then his e-pawn to destroy the pawn armada that threatened to overrun his position. Black’s pieces exerted a lot of pressure, and although his king stayed in the centre for the whole game, it was the white king that was in much more danger. Instead of taking any chances, Vachier-Lagrave forced a draw by repetition at move 27. “So far the preparation before the tournament pays off”, said the 29-year-old with a smile after the match. A draw in the second game of the first round against Pentala Harikrishna was enough for Peter Svidler to qualify for the next round. With a strong pawn centre and well-placed pieces, the Indian grandmaster could hope for more than a half-point in the middlegame, but Svidler’s position was very solid and “Hari” did not manage to find a way to breakthrough. After a massive exchange of pawns, there was no play left and the players agreed to a draw. Hikaru Nakamura playing with the black pieces was not able to turn the tables in his match against Veselin Topalov. In a Queen´s Gambit Accepted White got an upper hand due to better development. Nakamura left his king in the centre and tried to create some play against the white king with his queen and the bishop pair, but it caused only a slight disturbance to White, who obtained a clear advantage. After 25 moves Topalov was a pawn up in an ending and could have continued without any risks, but decided that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Bitter end for Ian Nepomniachtchi Ian Nepomniachtchi was in a must-win-situation after he lost the first game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The rising Polish star chose the Accelerated Dragon with Black but was never able to equalize. An ending that arose after only 15 moves favoured White due to the better structure and the more active pieces. After a long fight, Nepomniachtchi managed to win a pawn, but it was not enough to win the game due to the reduced material. This defeat in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg substantially reduces the chances for the Russian grandmaster to qualify for the Candidates, but there is still hope for him to bounce back in the last leg of the series in Jerusalem. In total contrast with their exciting first battle, Alexander Grischuk and Radoslaw Wojtaszek concluded the second game of their mini-match with a draw after just an hour of play. In a line of the Italian Game, the Polish grandmaster showed excellent preparation, whereas Grischuk weighed the pros and cons of the position in his typical tempo. After spending more than 50 minutes for the first 14 moves and realizing that his opponent still was blitzing out his analysis, he offered a draw which Wojtaszek accepted. Grischuk justified his decision by saying: “I didn’t want to continue playing against a computer,” and added with an ironic undertone: “Besides I don’t want to spoil the spectators”. Nikita Vitiugov and David Navara will meet again on the tiebreak after drawing both games with classical time control. It seemed that the Russian grandmaster was applying pressure throughout the game, but afterwards, he denied doing so: “Actually this was nothing until David tried to lose the game”. He was referring to the way the Czech grandmaster handled the position. Navara deliberately sacrificed material to enter a rook endgame a pawn down. Here he showed an excellent technique and apparently aware of how to save a half-point. Yu Yangyi fails to convert Yu Yangyi missed a big chance to win the second game against Dmitry Jakovenko. After only 18 moves, the two players had exchanged most of the pieces including the queens, but something went wrong for the 36-year-old Russian as he lost a pawn shortly thereafter. The battle headed into a knight ending where Yu Yangyi was completely winning but failed to convert his advantage. “It was a miracle, and it took several mistakes from my opponent to save the game”, Jakovenko admitted. Daniil Dubov tried to bedazzle Teimour Radjabov by using the Italian Gambit as White, a rare choice on top-level. The Azerbaijanian took his time to recall the critical lines, and after forcing the exchange of queens, the players reached an equal ending with two rooks and one minor piece respectively. The rising Russian star, who used only a bit more than 15 minutes for the whole game, penetrated the 7th rank with one of his rooks and forced Radjabov to oppose the threats with one of his own rooks. Daniil tried to continue battle after the exchange of the rooks, but in the emerging endgame a draw was unavoidable. Round 1, game 2 results: Wei Yi – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave: 1/2-1/2Veselin Topalov – Hikaru Nakamura: 1/2-1/2Nikita Vitiugov – David Navara: 1/2-1/2Alexander Grischuk – Radoslaw Wojtaszek: 1/2-1/2Daniil Dubov – Teimour Radjabov: 1/2-1/2Pentala Harikrishna – Peter Svidler: 1/2-1/2Yu Yangyi – Dmitry Jakovenko: 1/2-1/2Ian