World Cup, Round 7 (Finals), Day 3: A Short Day at the Office

While Ding Liren eventually came under heavy pressure in his white game yesterday, he has had only slight difficulties in his black games - his preparation has been very good. Today we got the sort of Catalan-like English that occurred in one of Aronian's games with Vassily Ivanchuk - but with colors reversed. With White, Aronian varied from Ivanchuk's 8.d3 with 8.Qd3, which has also arisen in some very high-level games. 10.Qb3 left all the predecessors behind. White hoped for an edge with his bishops, especially the one on g2, but Ding first eliminated White's bishop pair and then blunted the Bg2 at the cost of an isolated pawn. After further exchanges the position was equal, and a draw was agreed on move 30. (The game, with my notes, is here.)

The final classical is tomorrow; if anyone wins it, they win the World Cup; otherwise, it's on to tiebreaks.

World Cup, Round 7 (Finals), Day 2: Aronian Misses a Big Opportunity

Or several. The first 29 moves were what you'd expect: Ding Liren, with White, was playing solid, two-results chess, trying to maintain and grow a safe, small opening edge, while Levon Aronian's goal was to neutralize it and get out with a draw. That was the script, with the "draw" ending on the way, until Ding played the careless 30.Ncb3. After 30...b6 31.Nxc5 bxa5 Black's a-pawn posed a real problem for White. Objectively he was still in decent shape, but Aronian outplayed him and reached a won ending. Fortunately for Ding, there was never a stone-cold obvious way for Black to win, especially with only a handful of minutes on the clock (and after hours of play, after weeks of play), and Aronian missed his chances and allowed his indefatigable opponent to escape with a draw.

The game, with my relatively light comments, can be replayed here. And here's Ding Liren, interviewed after the game:

Svidler On His World Cup, and on Game 1 of Aronian vs. Ding Liren

The audio isn't especially good, but it's worth watching if you can tolerate its choppiest moments. Have a look.

World Cup, Round 7 (Anti-climactic Final), Day 1: A Solid Draw **UPDATED**

The big prize of a trip to the Candidates has already been won by the finalists, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren, but an extra $40,000 and the prestige of winning the World Cup are still at stake. Game 1 of this best-of-four game mini-match is now history, and it was a good, correct draw in the English. The line 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.e5 Ne4 6.Nf3 Bf5 7.Be2 d4!? has sprouted out of nowhere the last few months, and for the moment it seems to be solving Black's problems in the variation. Ding Liren held without much trouble, and he'll have his first shot with the white pieces in game 2 tomorrow.

Here's the game, with annotations - now back to watching Caruana-Kramnik from the Isle of Man - what an insane pairing!

UPDATE: I've updated the annotations, which are marked by "UPDATE", on moves 7, 13, 17, 23, and especially 29. Also, here are some useful videos:

World Cup, Round 6 (Semi-Finals), Day 3 Tiebreaks: Ding Liren, Aronian Win, Advance to the Finals, and Qualify for the Candidates

At last, the World Cup has lived up to expectations: there was an Armageddon game! But before we get to the match between Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, let's discuss Ding Liren's triumph.

So Long, Farewell:

(The lengths I will go to for a "good" pun.)

In game 1 of the Ding Liren vs. Wesley So match, So had good winning chances with White before letting his opponent escape with a draw, and in game 2 it was the reverse. This pattern didn't continue in game 3, at least as far as colors were concerned. Ding was Black and still had So on the ropes, but let him escape - more than once. He was so disgusted by this that he had a difficult time readjusting for game 4, especially when he was surprised in the opening, and offered a draw on move 9. So accepted, and they were on to the 10' + 10" games.

It's harder to say if So had an advantage with White in game 5 after the opening. Maybe he had a tiny edge, maybe not, but Ding Liren's very energetic play starting with 20...Nxf2 put So on the defensive. Maybe he could have held with more time on his clock; in the game, Ding won convincingly, culminating in a queen vs. rook ending that he converted with ease. In the rematch, So was unable to create any problems for his opponent, who drew comfortably from a position of strength.

Aronian vs. Vachier-Lagrave:

Their classical games were on the tame side, but the rapid and blitz tiebreak was anything but. Vachier-Lagrave struck first, winning a good game with White in a Closed Ruy Lopez with 6.d3. (In fact, all the games where MVL had White went that way.) Aronian needed to win to stay alive, and win he did - quickly. In a 3.f3 Anti-Gruenfeld turned some sort of Modern Benoni, Aronian went for the jugular. His 15.Bc4 was a fascinating novelty, and while Vachier-Lagrave played six good moves in a row, the 7th move, 21...g5, was an error. That put him at death's door, and a further mistake on move 24 ended it.

From 25'+10" to 10'+10". Aronian started with White this time, and went for the Russian System against the Gruenfeld. His choice in this game was rather iffy, and reminiscent of his anti-Gruenfeld line in game 1: many moves of well-known theory resulting in a position that doesn't require anything special from his opponent to keep the draw. He was always comfortable and doing whatever pressing there was to be done, but MVL held the draw without slipping into danger. The next game looked similar for a while: Aronian equalized comfortably, and it looked like an easy draw was on the way. It was - until White played 27.Qxb5? That gave Black very good winning chances, but errors on moves 29 and 33 let Vachier-Lagrave escape.

On to the 5'+3" games. Aronian gave up trying to tackle the Gruenfeld and played the Barry Attack (via the London System) instead. This is a regular part of his blitz repertoire, but it's not clear that Vachier-Lagrave was well-prepared for it. Aronian got a very good position in the early middlegame, and was winning an excellently played blitz game until his 41st move. After a further error, he was even losing, but MVL returned the favor with big mistakes on moves 46 and 48, allowing Aronian to escape with a draw. Aronian again had some chances in the second blitz game, though they weren't as pronounced as in game 7. Once again, a draw resulted.

And so at long last, the tournament had its first Armageddon game. Vachier-Lagrave won the coin toss and elected to take Black. Aronian got White and five minutes; MVL Black and four minutes, with no increment for either side until move 61. (Three seconds per move after that.) Most importantly, Black received draw odds, which means that unless Aronian won the game, Vachier-Lagrave would win the match.

Aronian repeated the Barry Attack, and this time MVL was well-prepared, not only equalizing but getting the upper hand. White faced the further difficulty that the best way to neutralize Black's pressure would make the game more drawish. Fortunately for Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave played ambitiously rather than just sitting, and that gave White some chances. Practically speaking, Black lost the game on move 40, though he did get one last chance for a quasi-miraculous draw on move 54. Missing that, the game finished, oddly enough, in a queen vs. rook ending. A player can go years without reaching that ending or even seeing it in another game, but here both matches were decided in that same way.

The most important part of the World Cup has finished, as the two Candidates spots have been determined. That said, the extra $40,000 going to the winner ($120k vs. $80k) is, to borrow an old Bullwinkle joke, antihistamine money: nothing to sneeze at! The finalists have tomorrow (Friday) off, and then start their best-of-four game match on Saturday.

Today's tiebreak games are here, with my comments.

World Cup, Round 6 (Semi-finals), Day 2: Again Draws; This Time Ding Liren Misses a Big Chance

Today's games were an echo of yesterday's. Once again Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian made a short, effortless draw that suggests that even if collusion wasn't involved, both players were very willing from the start of the match to postpone the real battle to the tiebreaks. And once again Ding Liren and Wesley So played a fighting game in which White was pressing and had an opportunity to win or at least enjoy a very serious advantage, but failed to convert the chance. (I've annotated the games here.)

Tomorrow's action will thus decide the fate of both matches, and with it the identity of two of the Candidates. The money going to the winner, as opposed to the runner-up, will be a nice chunk of change, but the biggest prize is getting to the finals, and thus the Candidates. The most important action of the entire tournament takes place tomorrow, so be sure to tune in!

World Cup, Round 5, Day 2: Aronian, So, and Ding Liren Advance; Vachier-Lagrave - Svidler Goes to Tiebreaks

If there was a surprise in today's round, it was that everything one would expect came to pass. Levon Aronian had to work to neutralize Vassily Ivanchuk's attempts to get revenge with White, and he succeeded in that task. Ivanchuk played a long time, but never came close to winning the game. Favorites Wesley So and Ding Liren drew easily with Black on Friday, and used the white pieces today to defeat Vladimir Fedoseev and Richard Rapport, respectively. Finally, the most evenly matched pairing, between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Peter Svidler, finished in a second straight draw, so they'll go to tiebreaks tomorrow.

A complication with the tidy narrative: while the MVL-Svidler game was short, there was an exchange of errors on Black's 19th and White's 20th moves. White had a crude but powerful tactical idea at his disposal, and had he found it the match most likely would have come to an end, and the show would go dark tomorrow. Instead, the action continues.

The players finally get their first official, universal rest day on Monday, which means that Aronian, So, and Ding Liren will have two days off to get ready for the semi-final. Aronian won't know the identity of his opponent until the MVL-Svidler tiebreak concludes, while So and Ding Liren will prepare for each other - and no doubt already are.

Games here.

World Cup, Round 4, Day 2: Aronian, Ding Liren, and Ivanchuk Advance

There were three decisive games today, and there are three players advancing to round 5, but there isn't a one-to-one correlation between the two "threes". Ding Liren defeated Wang Hao in a good game with White in a Catalan, but if Wang Hao had known about an earlier game - or simply found the right idea on move 22 - the game probably would have finished in a draw, and they'd be off to tomorrow's tiebreaks.

Levon Aronian also won, defeating Daniil Dubov in a long game. Aronian reached a theoretically won ending, and while he had time at the start to figure out how to win it, he didn't hit on the right plan. Over the course of the next many moves, he even allowed Dubov numerous chances to draw, but Dubov - who had the time and ability to work out his drawing opportunities - thought it was the better strategy to keep blitzing Aronian. It backfired. It took Aronian seemingly forever, but around 40 moves later than he could have won, he finally hit on the right strategy - though he still managed to give Dubov one more (missed) drawing chance after that. Should Dubov have taken his time? The problem is that if he did, at a moment when he didn't have a draw, it could very well have given Aronian the chance to work out the winning plan. So I think Dubov was generally right to blitz - given his correct assumption that the ending was generally lost. But there were several positions where it looked like he could have an escape, and that's where it would have made sense to slow down and look. It's a risk, but there I think it's worth taking. Anyway, he's out, and Aronian advances.

The day's third winner was Maxim Rodshtein, who leveled his match with Vladimir Fedoseev. The game was an odd echo of the previous day's game: both won with Black after creating complications starting with a dubious ...g5 pawn sac. Fedoseev seemed too intent on playing for a draw - certainly in the opening - and it allowed Rodshtein to make lots of trouble for him. His reward: tiebreaks tomorrow.

The third player to advance is Vassily Ivanchuk, who was beating Anish Giri today, too, but he made Giri an offer he couldn't refuse: allow an immediate repetition or be dead lost. Giri chose to keep most of his rating points, and called it a tournament. Ivanchuk, meanwhile, will play Aronian in the quarter-finals in the only match that's set so far.

The other four games finished in draws and will result in tiebreaks. Alexander Grischuk vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was a 13-move draw; apparently Grischuk is reverting to his gruesome but effective strategy from Kazan Candidates matches a few years ago, where he would draw all his classical games with White without a fight and then hang on desperately with Black, aiming to reach the rapid and blitz tiebreaks.

Bu Xiangzhi vs. Peter Svidler was also a short draw, but this doesn't seem to have been by design. Bu was outplayed in the opening, and was pulling on the emergency brake before things got out of hand.

Baadur Jobava outplayed Wesley So and had him on the ropes, but So saved the game by creating a fortress in the ending.

Finally, Evgeny Najer and Richard Rapport had a hard-fought draw. It looks like Najer generally had the better chances, but Rapport was never at death's door.

Games, with mostly brief comments, here.

Ongoing and Completed Events: Gelfand-Inarkiev, the British Championship, and Giri-Ding Liren

1. The classical and rapid chess rematch between Boris Gelfand and Ernesto Inarkiev has gone much better for Inarkiev this year than last. (Non-Russian readers may prefer this link.) Last year Gelfand won both 4-2 at both time controls, but this year has been another story. Gelfand leads in the classical games 3-2 thus far, but is trailing in both of the rapid time controls. In 25'+10" he's down 3-1, and in 10'+10" he's down 2.5-1.5. Nevertheless, his most recent win in classical chess was something special - have a look.

2. When I last left off with the British Championship, Luke McShane and John Emms were the co-leaders after round 7. Each had six points and were paired for the penultimate round. They drew, and were caught by Gawain Jones, who defeated Nicholas Pert. In the last round McShane had White against Jones, and they drew. If Emms would have beaten David Howell with Black, he would have become the British Champion for the first time - and at the age of 50. A draw would have put him into a playoff, but he lost. Thus Howell joined the tie for first with 7 points, and so did Craig Hanley thanks to his win with Black against Zhou Yang-Fan. And the playoff winner was...Gawain Jones, who had previous won the title in 2012.

3. The four-game match between Anish Giri and Ding Liren may have slipped under the radar for most readers, as it was overshadowed by the Sinquefield Cup, but whenever two players rated near 2780 face off it's worth taking note. Giri won the match 2.5-1.5, winning game two on the black side of the ubiquitous Giuoco Piano.

Three Interesting Recent Games

I'm not going to analyze any of the three, mainly to avoid domesticating them. Each impressed and amazed me in its own way. The first, Najer-Mamedyarov, is a tactical tour de force by the hottest player in chess. (Don't peek, students!) The second, Ding Liren vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, featured a surprising sacrifice of a full exchange in the opening. The entire game was a mess, and the only thing that was clear is that Black was very fortunate to come away with half a point. The third game, between Hou Yifan and Jon Ludwig Hammer, was another matter. I watched a few moves early on in the rook vs. knight ending that arose after Black's 49th move, and was sure that it was a draw. A few hours later, I saw that Hou had won it (on her way to an excellent +1 result in the Grand Prix) and could hardly believe my eyes. Brilliancy by Hou or insanity by Hammer? I'll let you figure it out by yourself; I'll offer my own guess in the comments if anyone else offers one first.

Games here.