FIDE Grand Swiss, Round 7: Firouzja in Clear First
Yesterday was a rest day for the FIDE Grand Swiss, and round 7 (of 11) took place today, and went strangely. There were five players with 4.5 points and another 15 with 4 points coming into the round. All the games involving 4-pointers finished in a draw. Not necessarily cleanly, mind you: Andrey Esipenko was probably winning against Alexei Shirov - one of the 4.5 pointers - David Navara was beating Alexey Sarana, and A. Tari was beating Sanan Sjugirov. But all draws nevertheless.
Among the leaders, I already mentioned Shirov's narrow escape. Krishnan Sasikiran and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew their game, but the other game between the leaders finished with a winner. Alireza Firouzja enjoyed a winning advantage against Evgenij Najer fairly early in the game, but resourceful play by Najer and mistakes by the youngster allowed Najer to escape into a drawn ending. Not trivially drawn, but drawn all the same, and there were two ways to accomplish it on move 50. Instead, Najer made a move that loses to a method known to 10-year-old non-prodigies, and Firouzja could lick his chops, seize the gift, and retake the clear lead.
A good thing he did, too, because in addition to the four players tied for first with him entering the round and the 15 players half a point behind him, an incredible 12 of the 15 games involving 3.5-pointers finished with a winner. Had he drawn, then, there would have been four players tied with him and 27(!!) players half a point back. Instead, he has a tiny bit of breathing room going into round 8, which has the following pairings with players having 4.5 points or more:
1. Firouzja (5.5) - Sasikiran (5)
2. Vachier-Lagrave (5) - Shirov (5)
3. Grandelius (4.5) - Caruana (4.5)
4. Vitiugov (4.5) - Ponkratov (4.5)
5. Howell (4.5) - Esipenko (4.5)
6. Najer (4.5) - Harikrishna (4.5)
7. Dubov (4.5) - Oparin (4.5)
8. Fedoseev (4.5) - Anton Guijarro (4.5)
9. Sarana (4.5) - Yu (4.5)
10. Maghsoodloo (4.5) - Sarin (4.5)
11. Sevian (4.5) - Navara (4.5)
12. Korobov (4.5) - Volokitin (4.5)
13. Deac (4.5) - Kryvoruchko (4.5)
14. Predke (4.5) - Tari (4.5)
15. Shevchenko (4.5) - Sargissian (4.5)
16. Sjugirov (4.5) - Petrosyan (4.5)
There were quite a few interesting games, especially in the battles of the 3.5-pointers, but today I've focused on the Firouzja-Najer game - have a look, here.
Reader Comments