It was tiebreak time in the quarterfinals of the Moscow Grand Prix, and all three tiebreakers were settled after a pair of rapid games. The smoothest winner was Hikaru Nakamura, who ground out a win with Black against Daniil Dubov in the first game and coasted to a draw in the rematch, having enjoyed a large, even winning advantage almost from start to finish.
The next match was between Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk. Grischuk achieved an easy draw with Black in the Sveshnikov - and could have played for more at the end - and then ground out a win in the endgame in his white game. He will play Nakamura in the semi-finals.
That leaves the tiebreaker between Wei Yi and Ian Nepomniachtchi, to see who would face Radoslaw Wojtaszek (who won in the classical portion of the match). Wei Yi had some winning chances in game 1, as his extra piece was more valuable than Black's three scattered pawns. He couldn't find a way to convert his advantage, and in the rematch he lost badly. Within four moves after Nepo improved on an earlier game played against Wei in that same line, unforced errors left him with a completely lost position.
The tiebreak games, with my annotations, are here. The semi-finals will be played tomorrow/today at the usual time; the only guaranteed rest day comes before the final match.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the coming man on Saturday, riding an eight-game win streak at one point to put some pressure on Magnus Carlsen and the significant lead he build up in the rapid portion of the Grand Chess Tour event in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Could he come even closer on Sunday?
In a word: no. In a few more words: he did manage to defeat Magnus Carlsen once again in their head-to-head matchup, but Carlsen played well the rest of the day. He scored 6.5 points from his other 8 games, outscoring Vachier-Lagrave by a point today and finishing three and a half points ahead of MVL and Hikaru Nakamura. His form was more impressive today, and with four dominant days out of the five he was a very deserved winner with 26.5 points out of 36.
MVL played extremely well on days 3 and 4 and deserved his high placement, as did Nakamura. Vachier-Lagrave wound up the overall winner of the blitz, finishing half a point ahead of Carlsen and a point ahead of Nakamura. (He did end up a hair behind Carsen in the blitz ratings though - 1.4 points behind Carlsen, which will be two points when their ratings are rounded off at the end of the month.) Aside from his entirely unnecessary loss to Bassem Amin on day 2 he performed extremely well in the rapid, and while the first day of the blitz was a disaster by his standards he played very well in the second day of the blitz. He started today with 6.5/8, including a victory over Vachier-Lagrave in the day's third round, and was only stopped by Magnus Carlsen in the last round.
The next finisher, Wesley So, was another three and a half points behind Nakamura and MVL. 19.5/36 is a very good score in such a field, even if it left him a full seven points behind Carlsen. Ding Liren finished another point behind, and everyone else finished with a minus score. Here are the final, combined standings:
It's always great fun when a tournament comes down to the wire (unless one is a participant in the event and wants to win it with room to spare), and that's what happened at the 2019 U.S. Championship. Three players led going into the last round, and there was even a tiny chance that it could have been a four-way tie for first at the end of the round. Hikaru Nakamura, Leinier Dominguez, and Fabiano Caruana all began the day with 7/10, with Wesley So a point behind them.
So's chances were slim at best, and it turned out that he lost ground, losing to 15-year-old Awonder Liang, whose rating will now cross the 2600 threshold. Congratulations to the youngster!
Caruana had Black against Sam Shankland, and he got nothing. He chose a very solid opening choice, and while it was good enough for an easy draw there was no opportunity for more.
The race between Nakamura and Dominguez, however, did come down to the wire. On paper Dominguez had the better chances, with White against pre-round tailender Timur Gareyev, while Nakamura had Black against Jeffery Xiong. Unlike Caruana, Nakamura took some chances, playing the Dutch to create an imbalanced position. Yes, he was worse coming out of the opening, but it wasn't so bad that Xiong could coast to victory of even to a safe draw if he was so inclined. Dominguez, meanwhile, obtained a clear advantage against Gareyev, and the Championship debutant seemed on his way to the title.
It was not to be. Nakamura maintained the tension and outmaneuvered Xiong, whose 23rd move got him into some hot water and whose 32nd move cost him the game. It was also move 32 that spoiled Dominguez's chances. Instead of 32.Qe4 he played 32.Rd2, which was met by the terrific 32...Ncd4, ultimately sacrificing a piece for a passer on b2 that tied White down. Dominguez gave it his best shot, but there was no win to be had.
Nakamura thus won his fifth championship and continued his climb back up the rating list. Congratulations!
Congratulations are also in order for Jennifer Yu, who won yet again to finish with a fantastic score of 10/11, a TPR of 2678, and a gain of 96 rating points. Not bad for a week and a half's work for the 17-year-old!
The games (with my comments) are here, and these are the final standings (of the Open event):
I was hoping to reverse jinx Fabiano Caruana in a recent post, and it looks like I succeeded: he defeated Jeffery Xiong convincingly to end his crazy 27 game winless streak in classical chess. It was just in time, too; another non-win and Caruana would have slipped behind Ding Liren into third place on the live rating list. Instead, he knocked Xiong out of the five-way tie for first in the U.S. Championship and entered the time himself...or would have, except that another pre-round leader, Hikaru Nakamura, won his game.
Nakamura's opponent was Gareyev, and for a change it wasn't Gareyev's propensity for opening adventures that got him in trouble. He was doing fine with Black against Nakamura, but after the opening Nakamura bulldozed him, winning easily. It wasn't so many years ago that Gareyev was a serious, up-and-coming player (he was rated 2682 in February 2013), but in recent years he has been more engaged with blindfold chess and living an adventurous life in general. It's probably exactly the life he wants to live, it's just that it hasn't worked wonders for his skill in classical chess, and it has shown in this tournament. He is in last place, and his score could easily have been at least a point lower than it is.
The day's other winner was Awonder Liang, who made better use of his extra exchange than Varuzhan Akobian did of his central pawn mass. The game was a sharp Winawer (but I repeat myself), and for a long time Black had nothing to complain about. Some players, going back to Bobby Fischer, hold Black's position in the Winawer in some contempt, but for decade after decade it has proved exceptionally difficult for White to prove a meaningful advantage against it. (That said, it's challenging for Black to prove that he's okay, too. It's tough for everyone.)
The remaining four games were drawn, with the most noteworthy case being Leinier Dominguez's inability once again to convert a serious advantage, this time against Wesley So. Dominguez still seems to be suffering from his long absence from tournament play, an absence occasioned by his transfer of federation from Cuba to the U.S.
Having passed the halfway point, the players finally get a rest day on Tuesday, and resume action on Wednesday. Here are today's games, with my comments, and here are the pairings for round 7 (of 11):
The Champions Showdown was a fun event with lots of decisive results. The play was entertaining and the openings were lively. It was everything a fan could hope for - except for the almost complete lack of drama. Some of the blitz matches were close, taken just as blitz matches, but with the exception of a brief flurry near the end of the match between Veselin Topalov and Leinier Dominguez, there was hardly a stich of doubt about who would win what match shortly after the start of the blitz portion.
The match between Fabiano Caruana and Pentala Harikrishna was exceptionally lopsided, with Caruana keeping his foot on the gas throughout the first day. Caruana stumbled a bit on day 2, but still won the blitz portion 17.5-6.5 and won overall with an enormous 35.5-12.5 victory.
Hikaru Nakamura's lead over Jan-Krzysztof Duda was only 14-10 after the rapid games, but when he began the blitz with a 5.5-1.5 run it was pretty clear that the player who has generally been considered the best player in the world, barring only Magnus Carlsen, was going to stroll to victory. He won the blitz 15.5-8.5 and finished a 29.5-18.5 winner overall.
Wesley So led David Navara by a very comfortable 16-8 margin after the rapid games, and led the blitz portion past the halfway point of that part of the competition. Navara went on a nice run to almost win the blitz, but So won the last two games to tie the blitz 12-12 and take the match with an overall score of 28-20.
Veselin Topalov led Leinier Dominguez 15-9 after the rapid games, and went +1 in day 1 of the blitz (6.5-5.5). But then Dominguez caught fire. After a draw to open day 2 he won, drew, won twice more, drew again and scored another win. That brought the score to 23-20 in Topalov's favor, and when Topalov won game 44 he was just a draw away from sealing match victory. Dominguez won game 45, but Topalov drew game 46 and the last two games as well to sneak home with a 25.5-22.5 victory despite losing the blitz by a 13.5-10.5 score.
Finally, Richard Rapport entered the rapid with a crushing 18-6 lead over Sam Shankland. Shankland was much more competitive in the blitz, but Rapport won that as well, 13.5-10.5 to win the match 31.5-16.5.
A good time was had by all, especially since the winners made $36,000 each and the losers were consoled with $24,000 checks. Not bad for a week's work!
After three days and 12 rapid games, four of the five matches of the Champions Showdown in St. Louis are practically over, barring major comebacks from those who are trailing. The rapid games count double, and the 12 games are equal in value to the 24 blitz games coming over the next two days. Here are the standings so far:
Caruana 18 - Harikrishna 6
Nakamura 14 - Duda 10
So 16 - Navara 8
Topalov 15 - Dominguez 9
Rapport 18 - Shankland 6
Fabiano Caruana came out smoking against Pentala Harikrishna the first two days, going 3.5-.5 (7-1) each of the first two days. His first (and so far only) win in the rapid came in the first game today, but Caruana won in game two and drew the remaining games to maintain an enormous lead.
Richard Rapport won the first three games of the match against Sam Shankland to put heavy pressure on the American. Shankland stopped the bleeding for a while, (barely) drawing the last game on day 1 and the first three games of day 2. He suffered a very unnecessary loss in the last game of day 2, but started day three with a win. Unfortunately for him, the series of six games with even results was punctuated by three more losses, bookending the start of the match.
The match between Wesley So and David Navara was closely contested at first. Navara won game 1, and although So finished the first day at +1 Navara struck back at the start of day 2 to equalize the scores. But then So took over, winning four in a row (= an eight-point lead), setting the margin that is present going into the blitz.
Veselin Topalov and Leinier Dominguez were equal after two days, with one win by each player and six draws, but day three was a disaster for Dominguez and a triumph for Topalov. Dominguez drew the second game and lost the rest, and trails by six points heading into the blitz.
The closest match is the one between Hikaru Nakamura and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and if Duda had won the last game instead of losing it it would have been tied. With Duda having finished as the runner-up in the World Blitz Championship a couple of months ago, it would be premature to claim that the match is over - though I'd still expect Nakamura to pull out match victory.
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.
It's becoming nightmarish, but at least we can console ourselves with the fact that five of the six games between Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian had a winner, and it wasn't a whitewash either: Caruana won three of those games and won their third-place match. At the top though, between now-former world blitz #1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and world blitz #3 (but maybe de facto #2) Hikaru Nakamura wins were harder to come by.
Both of their rapid games finished in a draw, and so did the first three blitz games. A playoff was averted, however, as Team Nakamura found an opening wrinkle for the last blitz game, and Vachier-Lagrave was unable to cope with it at the board in the limited time afforded by that format. MVL went wrong, Nakamura won, and took the Grand Chess Tour championship title for 2018 (and a bunch of money with it). Not a bad finish to the year at all, winning this and Chess.com's Speed Chess Championship a week ago, and he can put a capstone on the end of the year at the World Rapid & Blitz Championship in a week or so. It won't be easy of course, not least because Magnus Carlsen will be playing.
The third-place match was MUCH more interesting, partially because of Aronian's free-wheeling style and probably also because the players had less at stake. Amusingly, the most interesting game from one point of view was the draw, as Aronian put Caruana's 10...Rd8!? from game 2 of the world championship match to the test. They followed a correspondence game for 25 and a half moves before something new happened, and Caruana held the draw pretty easily. (I may have found a couple of minor improvements, but Caruana showed that the line was not a one-off bluff.) Caruana won game 2 of the rapid to take a 4-point lead going into the blitz portion of the match, and the remaining games were decisive. (A reminder: the classical scoring - which was irrelevant throughout the competition - was 6-3-0, rapid was 4-2-0, and blitz 2-1-0.)
Caruana's win was a slight surprise, but Aronian was licking his lips at the prospect of beating up on Caruana in blitz. This optimism seemed justified when he won the first two games to level the scores. Those two games were very difficult to win, but he did it, and in game 3 he had White. A crazy and offbeat London sideline opened the game, and Aronian obtained a serious advantage, though not one where the position has resolved and the advantage is easy to convert. Missing 13.Be5, Aronian's advantage shrunk, disappeared, and then turned into a disadvantage, and Caruana played an excellent game on the way to a comeback victory. In a must-win situation with Black in the last game Aronian went for a sideline of the Modern, but wound up with a poor position. Caruana played very well, and although he might have won faster with more precise play he was in control from start to finish and won convincingly.
The win should hearten Caruana and his fans, but I stick to what I said in the previous post: Caruana has to make a priority of improving his rapid & blitz chess. Hopefully he's playing in those championships next week as well.
Three of the four games weren't so bad, though none of them are likely to be particularly memorable. But the fourth one was pretty awful, as Levon Aronian reacted to a slight opening surprise by Fabiano Caruana by heading for a quick repetition to kill the game, self-confessedly happy to head for the rapid & blitz part of the match. It's a reasonable strategy, especially since Aronian slaughtered Caruana 20.5-6.5 in their online blitz and bullet match this past July. It may be a lousy state of affairs, but Caruana needs to dedicate himself in a major way the next couple of years to bringing his rapid and especially his blitz game up to snuff. There are just too many places where rapid and blitz play a role in "classical" events (or events with a classical component).
Just off the top of my head, there's the World Championship (with rapid and then blitz, as necessary), the World Cup (same procedure), the Grand Chess Tour (both the finals and the events in Leuven and Paris, plus blitz tournaments for pairings here and in other events), and the U.S. Championship (I think - in case of a tie for first). And of course rapid and blitz events are a commonplace, including the World Championships for both disciplines coming up between Christmas and the new year.
Getting up to speed - pun intended - has to be a major priority for Caruana. Can he do it? I hope so for his sake.
I'm still not completely sold on the draw problem, but I am sure that blitz chess is garbage chess, and it should have as little place as possible - preferably none - in events with a classical component. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy playing blitz chess as much as the next person, even bullet chess. It's fun to play and fun to watch. But it's garbage chess, or to coin a phrase here, it's slapstick chess. The ideas are shallow, and blunders and wild swings of fortune are commonplace. (This isn't the rant of a curmudgeon who wants three hours per move. I've always been a very good blitz player - certainly compared to my classical rating, and back when ICC was THE chess server I made it onto almost every one of their "best" lists.)
The latest confirmation of this obvious fact was today's play in the London Chess Classic. Both semis were tied 1-1 after draws on days 1 and 2 (but for those who say, "Seeeeeeeeeeeee? Draws are a problem!", I say the "problem" was great defense: three of the four games could have been decisive), so today's agenda was a pair of rapid games followed by four blitz slapstick games.
The rapid games made sense. Starting with the Fabiano Caruana vs. Hikaru Nakamura match, game 1 was well-played. Nakamura pressed with White, Caruana defended well, and it was a long draw. Game 2 was a little odd: Caruana had some deep prep and had an advantage and a nice lead on the clock after 22 moves. Unfortunately for Caruana, he blitzed out his 23rd move as well, and it was inaccurate. (Maybe he forgot his prep, or misremembered, or just thought it was a good move.) Perhaps out of psychological inertia he kept playing as if he had the advantage when he went for 25.Nd4, but 25...Bf6 was a cold shower. Nakamura played well after that, and gradually brought home the full point.
The first rapid game between Aronian and MVL was a repeat of the two classical games: Aronian had excellent preparation and obtained a serious advantage, but at some point let the advantage slip and Vachier-Lagrave escaped with another draw. Finally, in game 4, the first part of the script was repeated - but with the roles reversed: MVL won the theoretical battle; not to the point where he was winning, but enough to have some play. Aronian didn't play the defender's role as well as his opponent had, however, and eventually lost the game.
On the scoring system in play, both Nakamura and MVL led by four points, with four blitz games - each worth two points for a win and one for a draw - to go. In a heartening surprise, Caruana managed to win the first game against Nakamura, with Black, taking advantage of a rare tactical oversight by Nakamura. (That's blitz slapstick chess!) Game 2 was wonderful. The position was equal after the opening, but Nakamura's 16...Qe8 was an error, and White would have been clearly better after 17.Nxd7 Nxd7 18.b4. Instead, he played 18.Ne4??, and after 18...Rxc1 19.Rxc1 Black could win a piece with 19...e5 (20.Bg3 f5 21.Nd2 f4 is the basic idea). But he missed it (blitz slapstick chess) and the game was equal again. Both sides played well after that, with Nakamura pressing for the win until Caruana blundered with 43.Kf1; 43.Kg1 would have kept the result in doubt.
In the post-match interview Nakamura called games 3 and 4 "routine", and he's right about game 3. Needing to win twice to force a playoff Caruana took some excessive risks in the opening, and was duly punished. But game 4 wasn't routine at all: Nakamura was worse from the get-go, losing for a while, and stone cold absolutely busted for a few moves. The win was quite nice, and Caruana would have found it in classical or even in rapid. It was a big ask for a blitz slapstick game though, and he didn't manage.
Instead of the clearly bad 25.Qc1, the right way was 25.g5(!). Here's the point: 25.Qxg7+ almost works, but the Black king can escape to e8 if White keeps checking. For the attack to work, White needs to get the bishop to h5 (and ideally, g6). That gives rise to the idea of playing Nf5. But 25.Nf5 won't work, because 25...gxf5 26.gxf5 is illegal. Therefore 25.g5!, and after 25...fxg5 then 26.Nf5! gxf5 27.Bh5!, and it's mate in no more than four more moves. Beautiful, but hey, it's better to watch the players step on rakes repeatedly if the alternative is a time control that could result in a draw, right?
Caruana didn't find it, lost the thread of the game, and lost badly. On to the other match.
It wasn't completely clear who the favorite would be between Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave in the blitz. Yes, MVL came into the competition as #2 on the rating list in blitz, just two points behind Carlsen, but Aronian is a former world blitz champion who was #4 on the list and whose recent results in online blitz were as good as MVL's. (Plus, he won their rapid & blitz playoff in the 2017 World Cup, in an Armageddon game.) It didn't work out for Aronian: Vachier-Lagrave won games 1, 2, and 4 (and lost game 3) to win the match and take over the top spot on the blitz list. MVL is 2948.2 there, Carlsen "only" 2939. (Nakamura is third at 2895.4, and Aronian is #4 at 2846.8. And Caruana...#16. Go here and click on the blitz tab.))
The question, though, is how good the games were. Game 1: MVL was outplaying Aronian, but the game was far from decided until 31.Rf3?, blundering a second pawn. Game 2: MVL missed a pretty win in the early middlegame (it's blitz) and the game was equal for 23 moves or so, and then Aronian walked into a one-move knight fork. Blitz Slapstick chess. Game 3 was a normal blitz game: Vachier-Lagrave had no time to work things out at a critical moment, and his position immediately collapsed. Game 4 was another comedy: what was a good, clean win by MVL turned into a shambles in the time scramble. Aronian was two pawns down and completely busted, but soon had managed to win a pawn back and achieve objective equality. No matter: it was Aronian's turn to err - repeatedly - and Vachier-Lagrave again obtained a winning position. This time, he cashed in.
The blitz games weren't terrible. We can always see glimpses of what makes the great players great, their deep preparation, and their outstanding knowledge of the game. But they are blitz games, and so along with the glimpses of greatness we see moments of utter foolishness, too - not to mention countless missed opportunities and spoiled brilliancies. Again, don't get me wrong: I enjoy blitz, and after Christmas I'll spend as much time as I can watching the World Blitz Championship. But blitz is its own thing; it's weird to tack it on to a classical event, even a classical and rapid tournament.
Rant over - for now. The players are off tomorrow, and then on Saturday they'll do it all over again: Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave will play for first, and Aronian and Caruana will play for third. The format is the same: a classical game on day 1, another classical game on day, and then two rapid and four blitz games on day three, with a two-game blitz tiebreaker followed by Armageddon if necessary. There's the drama of the event, and the rating drama remains, too: it's possible that the event will end with Caruana rated #1 in the world in classical chess and Vachier-Lagrave #1 in blitz. Carlsen will have a chance to fix the latter at the end of the year, but won't be in action in classical chess until Wijk aan Zee starting January 12.