Superbet Chess "Classic", Round 9. Mamedyarov Wins the Tournament; Radjabov Gains the "Moral" Victory

Five mostly nondescript draws brought the "Super"bet Chess "Classic" to a merciful conclusion. Chess fans haven't seen this kind of rip-roaring action since Karpov, Andersson, and Ribli were perennial tournament favorites, and I hope they never will again.

Congratulations to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, whose three consecutive wins (which were also his only wins) in rounds 5-7 with draws in his remaining games secured clear first by a full point over the trailing troika of Levon Aronian, Wesley So, and Alexander Grischuk. Anish Giri and Teimour Radjabov came next, a further half a point back, both scoring 50%. Giri won one and lost one, but Radjabov was perfect in the event, drawing all nine games and doing so with great efficiency, averaging fewer than 30 moves per game. (Why mess around?)

Bogdan-Daniel Deac finished with a -1 score, which was a nice achievement for the lowest-rated player in the tournament. Fabiano Caruana was also -1, which was another matter altogether for the tournament's top seed and the world's #2. A further half a point back there was Constantin Lupulescu, who with Deac was the other representative of the home country. Like Deac he was heavily outrated by the rest of the field, so -2 was not a disaster for him. The same cannot be said for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who was also on -2 and technically in last place, if one bothers with tiebreaks. Not that there's really much cause for concern - Caruana and MVL may very well win their next classical event, and it's possible that both are recovering from a bit of post-Candidates depression.

Here are today's games, and I have put as much energy into annotating them as Aronian and Radjabov put into their game today.

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 8: Mamedyarov on the Verge of Tournament Victory

One round remains, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov retains a full point lead over his closest pursuers. Mamedyarov decided not to take any risks today against Anish Giri, choosing a variation that has already been used to assure White of a speedy drawn in seven games - including (move for move) the Teimour Radjabov vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave game from round 3 of this tournament.

That opened the door for Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk to come within half a point of the lead, if they could manage to defeat Vachier-Lagrave or Caruana, respectively. Neither did. Wesley So enjoyed a very small edge against MVL's comical knight's tour of an opening, but the latter defended well and made a comfortable draw. Grischuk's game was more complex. With Black, Caruana had a big advantage early on, and Grischuk had a significant advantage later in the game, but neither player could finish off the other: draw.

A fourth game finished in a draw as well: Radjabov vs. Constantin Lupulescu. Radjabov has enjoyed a "perfect" score so far - eight draws in eight games - and that apparently took precedence over Lupulescu's -2 score. There was one win on the day, however, and it featured the other Romanian: Bogdan-Daniel Deac. He entered the round at 50%, but slipped to -1 when he lost a long game to Levon Aronian. Deac had a big advantage early on, and while Aronian was making steady progress the game was still objectively drawn almost to the very end. With the win, Aronian joins So and Grischuk, a point behind Mamedyarov with one round to go.

Today's games, with comments to all but the Grischuk-Caruana game, are here. And these are the final round pairings:

• Lupulescu (3) - So (4.5)
• Aronian (4.5) - Radjabov (4)
• Caruana (3.5) - Deac (3.5)
• Giri (4) - Grischuk (4.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (3) - Mamedyarov (5.5)

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 7: Mamedyarov Wins, Leads by a Point

At last, there is some stratification at the Superbet Chess Classic. In round 6, the leading triumvirate lost one of its members, and now Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is alone in first place with two rounds to go, thanks to his third consecutive win and Alexander Grischuk's loss.

Today's action saw three decisive games, none of which featured Romanian players. Mamedyarov defeated no less a player than Fabiano Caruana, and with the black pieces. White played 4.d3 against the Berlin, and his subsequent 0-0 and h3 may have reminded Shakh of Aronian-Kramnik from the 2018 Candidates. He reacted similarly, and while the play continued in a different fashion than that earlier game the plan of ...g5 and ...Rg8 also struck paydirt. That said, while Kramnik's version was correct (and something he prepared long before), Caruana did have an opportunity to punish Mamedyarov's clever but ad hoc idea. He missed it, and things went steadily downhill for him from then on.

Had Grischuk won against Levon Aronian he'd have maintained a share of the lead, but he lost - badly - thanks most likely to his dubious time usage. In a position that wasn't unknown, Grischuk with Black played the first new move of the game, an interesting and (as far as I can tell) dubious exchange sac. At that point, he had just 13 minutes left to make the time control on move 40. After Aronian declined the offer the position was approximately equal but very sharp, and for all his ability, good nerves and blitz skills it still proved too great a challenge for Grischuk. His 21st move was an error, and any remaining hopes were put to bed after a further mistake on move 23. The final position after 29.Rd7 is the sort of position we might expect to suffer against Aronian, but apparently it can also happen to a super-GM who mismanages his time.

Finally (in terms of the decisive games), Anish Giri defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the white side of a Symmetrical English/Quasi-Gruenfeld. MVL offered a typical pawn sac that Giri accepted, and they headed to a drawish but not drawn ending. Vachier-Lagrave had to make a couple of critical decisions in that ending. First, whether to keep his bishop pair or to go for opposite-colored bishops; he opted for the latter. Later, he had to decide whether to force the last pair of rooks off the board at the cost of letting White's pawn advance a couple of squares, or whether to keep it blockaded further back; he chose the former. I think the former decision was something like a coin flip, and mostly a matter of taste. In the second case it seems he may have chosen wrongly, but even then the ending may still have been a draw. The final error was 42...Kf6 (42...f6 was a must, when White remains much better but [probably] not winning). Giri found a nice, forcing way to finish the game, and got back to an even score in the tournament.

The other games, Radjabov-So and Lupulescu-Deac finished peacefully.

The games, with my comments to the decisive games, are here. And these are the pairings for round 8:

• So (4) - Vachier-Lagrave (2.5)
• Mamedyarov (5) - Giri (3.5)
• Grischuk (4) - Caruana (3)
• Deac (3.5) - Aronian (3.5)
• Radjabov (3.5) - Lupulescu (2.5)

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 6: Mamedyarov & Grischuk Win, Lead

Per usual, a Romanian player - Constantin Lupulescu again - was involved in the day's decisive games, but for the second time in the tournament a non-Romanian was involved in one of the decisive games.

Wesley So made Anish Giri defend for a long time, but was unable to win. Knight and four pawns vs. knight and three pawns is typically winning for the strong side, but because Black had 48...g5 available at the start of the ending it was objectively drawn. Good "d" by Giri.

Alexander Grischuk won convincingly on the white side of a Classical Sicilian against Lupulescu. His preparation was good, and his opponent's wasn't. A surprisingly easy win for White.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave seemed to mix up his move order against Fabiano Caruana in a sharp Ruy Lopez, and was soon lost. Fortunately for him, Caruana failed to play 22...Qf6, which would have kept a winning advantage, and the game soon ended in a repetition.

Finally, Deac-Radjabov was an uninspired draw that probably suited both players. 'nuff said.

The games, with my notes to the two decisive games and MVL-Caruana, are here. These are tomorrow's pairings:

• Radjabov (3) - So (3.5)
• Lupulescu (2) - Deac (3)
• Aronian (2.5) - Grischuk (4)
• Caruana (3) - Mamedyarov (4)
• Giri (2.5) - MVL (2.5)

The Superbet Chess Classic, Round 5: Mamedyarov Makes it a Triumvirate

Now it's five out of six decisive games that involve the Romanian players, as Constantin Lupulescu dropped to -1 after losing to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who now shares the lead with Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk. The game was interesting from start to finish, and the initiative went back and forth, but at a certain point Lupulescu lost the thread of the game. Mamedyarov built up a kingside attack, and when Lupulescu missed a nice tactical trick his game was instantly lost, and his opponent had no trouble bringing home the full point.

The players are off on Thursday, and on Friday we have these pairings:

• So (3) - Giri (2)
• Vachier-Lagrave (2) - Caruana 2.5
• Mamedyarov (3) - Aronian (2.5)
• Grischuk (3) - Lupulescu (2)
• Deac (2.5) - Radjabov (2.5)

Today's games, with my comments to Lupulescu-Mamedyarov, are here.

The Superbet Chess Classic, Rounds 1-4

While the online rapid & blitz games make for good drama, it's nice to see slow over-the-board chess return (at least when the players fight and there's a non-trivial percentage of decisive games). The depth of the game is so much greater at a classical time control, and while it's harder to win and to pose unsolvable opening surprises when the defender has two hours rather than 20 minutes (or less) on the clock, that greater level of difficulty makes won games all the more impressive and valuable.

The classical event in question is the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania, which started June 5 (the 45th anniversary of Paul Keres' passing, for those who remember the Estonian legend) and runs through the 14th. Ten players are participating in this nine round event, eight of whom are members of the absolute elite while two strong but comparatively lower-rated players represent the home country. Thus far, both of the Romanian players - Constantin Lupulescu and Bogdan-Daniel Deac - are performing very respectably. They are both on 50% after four rounds, and while a cynic could note that they're only half a point out of last place, it's simultaneously true that they're only half a point out of first. The oddity of the event is that of the five decisive games played thus far, four involve them, with each player both winning and losing a game.

All five games were drawn in round 1, and in round 2 there were two decisive games. Fabiano Caruana defeated Lupulescu's French with a nice near-novelty that led to a speedy win, while Deac survived a difficult position against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and managed to pull out a win.

In round 3, Lupulescu bounced back with a win over Anish Giri. The game was at first even, but an error by the Romanian gave Giri a promising kingside initiative. Giri didn't make the most of it, and the game remained even (or very slightly in Giri's favor) until a pair of errors on moves 31 and 32 allowed Lupulescu a mating attack. He took advantage and made it back to 50%.

In round 4, he was joined at 50% by Deac, coming from the opposite direction. He was ground down by Alexander Grischuk in an isolated d-pawn middlegame. Rather than suffering an endless siege of the pawn, Deac decided to pitch the pawn for some freedom and in the hopes of regaining it. The sac was probably correct, but he didn't manage to reclaim the material and went down in a long heavy piece ending. Meanwhile - and finally! - there was a decisive game not featuring the Romanians. Caruana was also dragged back down to an even score when he was impressively outplayed by Wesley So. So found a nice pawn sac that split Black's position into two non-isolated halves. On the kingside, Caruana's king was joined by a dreadful bishop and a marginally helpful knight; on the queenside his queen was stuck out of play, joined by a hapless knight. His position wasn't yet lost, but it was difficult; difficult enough that even the number two player in the world quickly fell apart.

The surprising upshot is that the two winners in round 4 are the two co-leaders of the tournament. So and Grischuk lead with +1 scores, Vachier-Lagrave and Giri share last with -1 scores, and in addition to Caruana and the Romanians the tie for 3rd-8th is also shared by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian, and Teimour Radjabov.

All the games are here, with my comments to the decisive games. And here are the pairings for round 5:

• Deac (2) - So (2.5)
• Radjabov (2) - Grischuk (2.5)
• Lupulescu (2) - Mamedyarov (2)
• Aronian (2) - MVL (1.5)
• Caruana (2) - Giri (1.5)