The Next Big Event: The 2019 Champions Showdown

Hopefully everyone is enjoying Valentine's Day with someone they love. (Unless you're a little kid, in which case all that romantic stuff is icky. For you, be happy - the day is almost done!) Here's some good chess news to go along with your romantic bliss: a very high-level rapid & blitz event starts in less than a week.

It's the 2019 Champions Showdown in St. Louis, and it features the United States' Fab Five (note the extra pun, free of charge) taking on five challengers from the rest of the world (ROW). There will be three days of rapid play and two days of blitz, and these are the matchups:

• Fabiano Caruana vs. Pentala Harikrishna
• Hikaru Nakamura vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda
• Wesley So vs. David Navara
• Leinier Dominguez vs. Veselin Topalov
• Sam Shankland vs. Richard Rapport

I'm pretty excited about the event, and it will be nice to see Caruana and especially the long inactive Dominguez back in action. I think the Americans will be favorites on every board, though I wouldn't be shocked to see the ROWers win one or two of the first, fourth, or fifth matches.

Here are the specifics:

The event runs from February 20-24, and play each day starts at 1 p.m. local time (= 2 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CET). The first three days will be devoted to rapid chess, the last two to blitz. There will be 12 rapid games - 4 per day - and 24 blitz games - 12 per day. The rapid time control is 15' + 10" (an increment, thankfully, not the abominable Bronstein delay) and the blitz control is 3' + 2". The rapid games are scored 2-1-0, the blitz games 1-.5-0, with the prize money in each match awarding $36,000 to the winner and $24,000 to the loser. If the match finishes in a tie, that's it: the money is split and there's no playoff.

Thinking of Becoming a Professional Chess Player? You Might Want to Reconsider...

Here's some horrific news if you're a chess player: the list of the 50 best-paid players in 2018 based on FIDE events where at least one of the top 50 players took part. Thus winners of U.S. and other Swisses without super-GMs don't count. Another important omission is that appearance fees aren't included. Granted, these are unlikely to be huge, except when the top players are involved, but they do offer some help.

Even so, the figures are a horror: Peter Svidler made just under 27 thousand Euros last year, and Anish Giri less than 25 thousand. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana both made over 700 thousand Euros, thanks in good part to their World Championship match, and then the next players on the list are Hikaru Nakamura (229k) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (225k). Sergey Karjakin is next with 219k, and then Ju Wenjun is sixth (194k), thanks to her winning not one but two women's world championships in 2018.

The numbers are pretty bad, and with no retirement, a career at the top that certainly doesn't last until one's 60s, and more competition all the time it's pretty depressing unless the appearance fees are more widespread and more generous amongst non-GCT players than I thought. (No wonder Svidler does so much commentary.) The bottom line is that if you're not rated at least 2750 (or sponsored by your country and/or companies), you'd better supplement your playing career with commentary, writing, and/or lessons...or you might just find another career.

Sosonko & Shankland, Good News and Bad News

Jokes about Gennadi Sosonko as a sort of chronicler for the grim reaper have been going around for at couple of decades now. If Sosonko writes about you, there's a kind of good news, bad news to it: the good news is that if he does, you're somebody in the chess world; the bad news is that if he does, you're probably dead. (That may or may not be bad news for you, but it's at least sad for your loved ones.)

Sam Shankland may be the moderately grim reaper. If you lose to him in the last round of an event (or at least your last round), the good news is that you're clearly a really strong player. The bad news is that it might be your last serious game: he sent Judit Polgar into retirement in the 2014 Chess Olympiad (I can't believe it has been four and a half years! I initially wrote "2016", but then checked to make sure), and now he has sent Vladimir Kramnik out of professional chess as well. It's possible that there's no causal relationship between their losses to Shankland and their retirement, but you can't be too careful: make sure your favorite players don't face him in the last round of a major tournament.

2019 Gibraltar, Last Round: Artemiev Defeats Yu, Wins the Tournament

Some games are still going, but the first (and second) places in the 2019 Gibraltar Masters have been decided. Youngster Vladislav Artemiev won the tournament, defeating Yu Yangyi in a very complicated battle to take clear first. Yu had some pressure on the white side of an Advance Caro-Kann, and Artemiev did very well to survive what looked like a precarious position. Artemiev had already taken over the initiative, but it wasn't too serious until Yu got his knights jumbled up over moves 31-33. Once that happened he had to sacrifice material to bail out into a pawn-down rook ending, and while there are plenty of rook endings where the defender can escape with a draw, this wasn't one of them. The last two moves were a nice touch to expedite the win, and now Artemiev finished the tournament with 8.5/10 points, the £25,000 first prize, and a gain of 27 rating points (making him #20 in the world and the top-ranked player under 21 years of age) thanks to a 2941 TPR. It's an outstanding result, but whether it's an indication that he will break into the absolute elite remains to be seen.

Taking clear second was 19-year-old Indian GM Murali Karthikeyan. He defeated no less a player than Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the last round and is guaranteed clear second with 8 points. His performance wasn't as stratospheric as Artemiev's - his TPR was "only" 2747, and there were players in lower score groups with comparable and higher TPRs than his. Still, he had a great event, gained 24 points and £20,000 for his troubles - pretty nice for a week and a half's work. (Not counting the thousands of hours of hard work that went into giving him the necessary skill.) According to his Wikipedia page he has a "real" job, so it's even more impressive that he could achieve this. (On the other hand, it's potentially sad that such a talent has to have a non-chess job, but it's only sad in fact if he believes that it's something he must do for the sake of financial security.)

Three players finished with 7.5 points - and now that David Navara has only drawn against Hrant Melkumyan (a game he was winning, but that finished in a way that will make Sam Shankland wince if he sees it - compare this with that) I don't believe that anyone else can join the tie. If that's correct, then Nikita Vitiugov, David Howell, and David Anton Guijarro alone finished tied for third, with a big pile of players behind them tying with 7 points apiece.

Chess.com's Post on Kramnik's Retirement (Includes a Tweet Fit For a Donkey) **Updated**

It is a gracious post, of course, both in its original text and in the surveyed tweets. (Well, mostly so; there is one notable exception - a garbage tweet from the current owner of the game's highest title.) Hopefully there will be plenty of tributes, and some good books on his career - ideally by the man himself.

**Update** Magnus Carlsen says a little about Kramnik's retirement in the first few minutes of this video interview with Jan Gustafsson.

2019 Gibraltar, Round 9: Artemiev Again the Sole Leader, Entering the Final Round

With a good result tomorrow, Vladislav Artemiev will produce the greatest achievement of his young life. (He's 20.) With one round to go, Artemiev is the solo leader of the Gibraltar Masters, reaching 7.5/9 (and a 2905 TPR!), good for a half point gap over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Yu Yangyi, and dark horse Murali Karthikeyan.

Entering round 9, he shared the lead with David Navara and Kirill Alekseenko. Navara was his victim, and Alekseenko lost to Vachier-Lagrave. Starting (and finishing) the round half a point behind, Yu beat Le Quang Liem while Karthikeyan defeated Maxim Matlakov. Among the favorites who were also in that second score group, but who failed to keep pace, were Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura. The top players may be near the top, but it doesn't mean that they're going to win.

Before getting to the last-round pairings, some brief comments about ratings. Artemiev has gained 21.6 rating points, flying up 11 spots into a virtual tie with fellow 20-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda at 2731 (once it's rounded up). They're not quite the top players unable to legally drink booze in the U.S., as 19-year-old Wei Yi is one glorious rating point above them. But they're close! And Yu Yangyi is on the verge of following Ding Liren as the second Chinese player in the top 10. The two top teams from the last Olympiad are in a good fight: the U.S. has the #2, 12, 16, and 26 spots, and Leinier Dominguez will be #19 once he plays again and his rating is reactivated. China has the #3, 11, 21, 23, and 33 spots. Once Mr. G.K.K. comes to his senses, gets U.S. citizenship and unretires, we'll be the favorites again. C'mon, Garry; do the right thing.

Anyway, let's get to the last round pairings for Gibraltar:

• Yu (7) - Artemiev (7.5)
• Karthikeyan (7) - Vachier-Lagrave (7)

The 6.5-pointers are mathematically ruled out of winning the event (at least as long as there isn't a double forfeit on board 1), but for information's sake here are their pairings, too:

• Aronian (6.5) - Howell (6.5)
• Nakamura (6.5) - Grandelius (6.5)
• Navara (6.5) - Melkumyan (6.5)
• Vitiugov (6.5) - Vaibhav (6.5)
• Alekseenko (6.5) - Adams (6.5)
• Lalith (6.5) - Saric (6.5)
• Naiditsch (6) - Anton (6.5)

2019 Gibraltar, Round 8: Artemiev, Navara, and Alekseenko Lead

Vladislav Artemiev drew with Levon Aronian in round 8, the antepenultimate round of the 2019 Gibraltar Masters, allowing two other players to catch up to him. One was David Navara, who put the brakes on what had been an outstanding tournament for Nils Grandelius, and the other was Kirill Aleseenko, who won a wild up-and-down battle with Arkadij Naiditsch. (Naiditsch, as I recall seeing somewhere, was the 2700 with the lowest drawing percentage in 2018 - by far. It was something ridiculously low like 28%.)

12 players are half a point behind entering round 9, which feature the following leading pairings:

• 1. Artemiev (6.5) - Navara (6.5)
• 2. Vachier-Lagrave (6) - Alekseenko (6.5)
• 3. Saric (6) - Aronian (6)
• 4. Yu (6) - Le (6)
• 5. Howell (6) - Nakamura (6)
• 6. Anton (6) Vitiugov (6)
• 7. Karthikeyan (6) - Matlakov (6)
• 8. Lalith (6) - So (5.5)

The Grand Chess Tour Expands: More Tournaments, More Participants

More here. (HT: Allen Becker) The tournaments in Paris, St. Louis, Kolkata, and London continue for the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, and to these have been added events in the Ivory Coast, Croatia, and Romania. Additionally, there will be 12 full tour participants, up from the usual nine. The list of invitees are:

• 1. Magnus Carlsen
• 2. Hikaru Nakamura
• 3. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• 4. Fabiano Caruana
• 5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• 6. Ding Liren
• 7. Levon Aronian
• 8. Wesley So
• 9. Ian Nepomniachtchi
• 10. Vladimir Kramnik
• 11. Anish Giri
• 12. Viswanathan Anand

There are also two alternates, Sergey Karjakin and Yu Yangyi, who will be promoted to full tour participants in case any of the foregoing decline their invitations. Since Kramnik has retired from the game, that means that Karjakin is in (if he wants to be).

As for the tournaments, two (the new event in Croatia, along with the Sinquefield Cup) will feature classical chess. The remaining five (in Abidjan [in the Ivory Coast], Paris, St. Louis, Bucharest, and Kolkata) will be rapid & blitz events. All 12 participants will play in the classical events, while the rapid & blitz will be 10-player tournaments, with the participants choosing 3 of the 5 to play in.

More info, including dates and prize money, at the link above.

Vladimir Kramnik Retires At 43

I guess this explains his kamikaze performance at Wijk aan Zee, though why he preferred to go out showing insane chess rather than making an all-out effort to remind the world of his best chess is hard to understand. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

Anyway, it's sad news to see Vladimir Kramnik, who has been in the top 10 (often in the top 5, and for serious stretches in the top 3) for almost all of the past 25 years hang it up at the relatively early age of 43. There are athletes who still play professional sports at that age (not many, but still), and while Garry Kasparov threw in the towel at the age of 41 it's rare for a chess player to give up so early. Viswanathan Anand was still the world champion at that age, and Anatoly Karpov also held one of the world titles when he was 43 (and just a few months before he turned 43 he had one of the greatest results of all time when he destroyed the field in Linares in 1994).

Kramnik was the world champion from 2000 to 2006, defeating Kasparov to win the title. In addition to his colossal achievements as a player, he has been the leading influence on opening theory over the past quarter of a century. With White, he was among the movers and shakers of the 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian. Against the King's Indian, his use of the Petrosian Variation and then especially the Bayonet Attack gave King's Indian players headaches for years, and helped chase Kasparov away from that defense. His advocacy of the Catalan also produced much suffering for Black for years, while with the black pieces he not only put the Berlin Defense on the map, he made everything else on the 1.e4 map look like a tiny island, at least for a while.

Kramnik had made jokes about being a "pensioner" for a few years, and had threatened to retire at age 40. I'm glad he stuck around a while longer (though I would have been okay with his retiring before his dreadful performance in Wijk aan Zee), and hope he gets his motivation back soon. (He probably won't, but I can hope.)

More about the decision here, and if someone else doesn't do it first I might try to cobble together a "best of" post at some point.

2019 Gibraltar, Round 7: Artemiev the Sole Leader

Eight players shared the lead entering round 7 of the 2019 Gibraltar Masters, and when the round had finished there was a single leader.

Levon Aronian took a bye, so he was the first player to finish the day with 5.5/7.

Baskaran Adhiban played "down" in the sense that his opponent, Yu Yangyi, was in a lower score group. But Yu is higher-rated, and despite playing Black won a quick crush, and now he has 5.5 while Adhiban still has 5.

Nils Grandelius defeated Wesley So yesterday and should have beaten Le Quang Liem today, but their game finished in a draw, and they too both have 5.5 points.

Ivan Saric was better for a very long time against David Navara, but never winning. Navara defended well, held the draw, and they too have 5.5 points apiece.

Before getting to the one game where a 5-pointer managed to win, let me note that Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arkadij Naiditisch, Nikita Vitiugov, Maxim Matlakov, Rasmus Svane, and Kirill Alekseenko all started with 4.5 points and won their games.  That makes 12 players with 5.5 points, all of whom are half a point behind the winner of the game between Vladislav Artemiev and Hikaru Nakamura.

That player, as you already know from the post's title, was Artemiev. The position was perhaps slightly better in the early middlegame when Nakamura went in for complications that seriously worsened the American's position. After another error he was lost, but a subtle error on move 30 gave Nakamura a chance for a beautiful saving move. Unfortunately for him, he missed it, and this in turn gave Artemiev the chance for a beautiful knockout blow. He found it, and after several minutes that were probably spent steaming rather than thinking, Nakamura resigned. (The game, with brief comments, is here.)

Leading round 8 pairings:

• 1. Aronian (5.5) - Artemiev (6)
• 2. Le (5.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (5.5)
• 3. Matlakov (5.5) - Yu (5.5)
• 4. Navara (5.5) - Grandelius (5.5)
• 5. Alekseenko (5.5) - Naiditsch (5.5)
• 6. Vitiugov (5.5) - Saric (5.5)
• 7. Nakamura (5) - Svane (5.5)