2020/1 Candidates, Round 10: Nepomniachtchi Pushes The Lead to a Full Point
Four rounds are still enough time for the three gentlemen tied for second place to catch up to Ian Nepomniachtchi - after all, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was able to make up that one point gap in their head-to-head game in the last round of the first cycle. But it's not a lot of time, and if he increases the lead in the next round it's probably as good as over. We'll see what happens in round 11, after the rest day; for now, let's summarize round 10.
As indicated in the subject line, Nepomniachtchi extended his lead to a full point, taking full advantage of having the white pieces against the lowest-rated player in the field. Kirill Alekseenko seemed completely unprepared for what Nepo played - there was no need for White to produce some sort of clever prep, as Black was at sea from the get-go. White was clearly better after 11 moves, probably winning after 14, and Black could plausibly have resigned after 20 moves. It was a disaster for Alekseenko, who had played well in the first two games of this cycle.
The other three games were drawn. Fabiano Caruana started the round half a point behind Nepo, and had White against Ding Liren. Ding seemed the better prepared player on the day, and if anything it was Caruana who had to sweat a little to make a draw.
The two other players tied for second, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri, were paired with each other. I'm not sure if MVL was ever "mathematically winning", but on multiple occasions he had a serious plus against Giri. All went by the wayside, and once the players made the time control at move 40 they called it a day.
The most exciting game was the only one with few-to-no implications for the battle for first. After 20 moves, Wang Hao had a slight edge against Alexander Grischuk on the board, but a huge lead on the clock. (Grischuk was down to around three minutes to make his next 20 moves, though we shouldn't forget the 30-second increment after each move.) Wang decided to roll the dice with an interesting queen sacrifice; unfortunately for him, he miscalculated (or misassessed) something and was soon not only better (as he was before the sac) or equal (the objective evaluation after it), but lost. Only here did Grischuk's time trouble pay any dividends for his opponent: his 29th move allowed a nice shot, and his follow-up brought the game back to equal. Both players were very short of time now, but were able to coast in from here to the time control, and after 41 moves settled on a peaceful result.
As noted above, tomorrow (Thursday) is a rest day, and they'll go back at it on Friday. Here are today's games, with my comments, and here are the pairings for round 11:
- Nepomniachtchi (6.5) - Caruana (5.5) (A win by either player would be of colossal importance for the standings.)
- Alekseenko (4) - Wang Hao (4.5)
- Grischuk (4.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (5.5)
- Giri (5.5) - Ding Liren (4)
Reader Comments (1)
"Perhaps Nepo found a hole in Alekseenko's prep?"
There seems to be more to it: Already 1.c4 may have surprised Alekseenko (Nepo played this occasionally, but 1.e4 is by far his main first move). Alekseenko had almost always played 1.c4 e5 - now he maybe wanted to avoid Nepo's prep and was utterly unprepared himself: burning time starting at move 4, going wrong from move 8 onwards. Nepo does sometimes go for 1.c4, but apparently he followed up with a similar setup only once - back in 2004, age 14, at the Russian Youth championship. So even if Alekseenko wasn't improvising from move 1 but had some preparation, this wasn't covered?
On a German site, IM Sielecki ("Chessexpained") suggests that Nepomniachtchi may have anticipated these developments - Alekseenko choosing a "reserve variation" that he had played twice before 6 years ago also in youth events. If that's true, he may have had some "clever prep" against accurate black play that wasn't needed.
For what it's worth: as an amateur, I feel for Alekseenko. In Internet blitz (German-international quarantine league), I started to dislike my positions and results after 1.c4 e5, thus switching to 1.-e6 ... sometimes also with opening disasters. But I am an untitled amateur, he is a strong GM - while he may never play again at such a very high level.
[DM: To quote the main post, "Kirill Alekseenko seemed completely unprepared for what Nepo played - there was no need for White to produce some sort of clever prep, as Black was at sea from the get-go." The comment in the game annotation was perhaps ambiguous, but my reference to the "hole" in Alekseenko's prep was to a gap, not to a particular error therein. In other words, he seemed to be completely unprepared. (I tried to put it more politely, because he is a professional and a very strong player, and because my guesses aren't based on nothing, they are still guesses. But that's how it seemed, and my comment in the main post wasn't ambiguous.)
This was a very Thomas-like comment. If you're him, please refrain from further comments here.]