Aronian and So make their claim
The participants in the Berlin Grand Prix have a maximum of exactly fifteen minutes to play their first move on the board after the arbiter starts the round. However, elite players are generally already seated or at least in the building five or ten minutes earlier. So, at the start of today’s round four, when GM Pentala Harikrishna played 1.e4 and his opponent GM Alexei Shirov was clearly absent, you could sense the nervousness around the room.
The organizers quickly contacted him at the official hotel and, luckily for Shirov, he was in his room. Visibly nervous at the prospect of “losing on time”, he ran to the playing venue, arriving a few seconds before being forfeited. In his postgame interview, Shirov apologized profoundly: he hadn’t checked the schedule and had mistakenly thought that there was no game today.
Going into the free day, and with only two rounds to go in the qualifying group stage, only two players – GM’s Levon Aronian and Wesley So – dominate their groups with three points out of four. But as we witnessed today, anything can happen: also, tiebreaks are looming on the horizon for players with equal scores at the end.
Pool A
In yesterday’s press conference, GM Hikaru Nakamura said that “everyone will be going for a specific player in the group from now on” clearly referring to his opponent today, Etienne Bacrot, currently last in the group standings.
However, although Bacrot is no longer a professional player – “…my focus nowadays is on coaching (MVL) and therefore it’s difficult to play with the top players” – he still prepares the games thoroughly and for the second time brought out the French defence. “After all, I am a French player!” he said after the game”.
Today he caught Nakamura by surprise with 10…g5!?, a nice opening idea introduced last year by World Championship contender GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. Play took on a forced nature and Nakamura decided that in view of his tournament situation it was not the day to play on in a win-lose manner. “I was afraid the position could collapse if I continued the final position” was Bacrot’s final conclusion after the game. “However, it’s still very nice to sense the following of the French chess fans that support me”.
In the other game of the group the two Russians faced each other for the second time, both of them in need of a win to catch Nakamura in the standings. With Black, Andrey Esipenko went for the reliable NimzoIndian reaching a middlegame position where he was slightly worse, but complex enough to make Alexander Grischuk go wrong.
“I got completely confused. After 22.Qd3 Andrey played Qc6, and I started calculating some lines, but I will not say which ones. Because if I say, tomorrow I will have not only a PCR test but also a psychiatric test”, joked Grischuk after the game, stirring up a laugh from the spectators in the press room. Esipenko defended with precision and the draw became inevitable. “Both my strength and my weakness is that I am a perfectionist” announced Grischuk after the game.
Pool B
GM Vladimir – “I am very strong in closed positions” – Fedoseev made his claim for first place in group B today by crushing GM Grigoriy Oparin with Black. “I had a blackout and missed …Qg4”. Maybe there is some incredible tactic that saves the game, but I couldn’t see it” was Oparin’s postgame explanation.
Already famous in the postgame press conferences for his incredible calculation skills, Fedoseev recited several interesting lines that he had calculated, but which all led to good positions for him. It was clear he had everything under control: with this important win he ties for first place in the group.
When he was asked by WGM Dina Belenkaya if would like to have a chess opening named after him, Fedoseev surprised us all by responding “I already invented two openings. For example, the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 a6 was developed by me and I am very proud of this idea”.
GM Richard Rapport was out for the win today against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the other game of the group. With White, he played an excellent technical game against Black’s isolated queen-pawn but wasn’t able to convert, in good measure thanks to his opponent’s tenacious defence.
After the game Rapport was asked what did he consider the best skills to have as a chess player. His answer stood out: “The engines are pretty strong so I suspect that accurate calculation if the best skill to have as a chess player”.
Pool C
In the game that might have decided the winner of this group, GM Levon Aronian displayed some fine opening preparation to hold a comfortable draw against GM Vidit Gujrathi, maintaining top position going into the rest day.
“I have analyzed this to play with White actually, and also from the Black side. It’s kind of a solid line for Black and my conclusion is that maybe it’s a tiny bit better for White but nothing really special. I think it’s important in this type of positions to play precisely: I have to act fast with …a5—a4 as there is a strategical risk” said Aronian after the game in conversation with Press Officer IM Michael Rahal.
In the other game of the pool, GM’s Daniil Dubov and Vincent Keymer fought out a very technical battle in a Caro-Kan: neither of the two wanted to share the last place anymore. Today the Russian prevailed, notching up a win which allows him to tie for second place and keep his winning aspirations intact.
“This is chess nowadays. The Caro-Kan used to be a really fighting opening but now with the line I played sometimes you will run into something like this. You have to be very well prepared to play 15 only moves in a row”. Asked after the game about chess in-between tournaments, Dubov was clear: “Many times I have fired a second: no one can stand me for more than two years. Boris Gelfand is my main inspiration to try and work hard day to day on chess”.
Pool D
In the clash between the two leaders and teammates, GM Wesley So scored a huge win, securing clear first place in the group. His opponent, GM Leinier Dominguez, miscalculated the forced sequence after 23.Qg3, missing Wesley’s very strong 25…Rf2!
Dominguez tried to find some drawing chances by sacrificing some pawns to activate his rooks on the seventh, but So’s technique was flawless and with computer-precise moves he brought home the win and new number five in the FIDE Live rating list.
After dealing with some jet-lag troubles in the first rounds, Wesley seems to have finally found his form and will be a strong candidate to advance to semifinals. “Religion and a strong family base are my main strengths. In chess, I like to work hard but I would like to improve my consistency and motivation” were his final considerations after the game.
The last game of the afternoon to finish was the technical encounter between GM Pentala Harikrishna and GM Alexei Shirov. Playing with Black, Shirov had to overcome the fact that he nearly lost on time, had no specific opening preparation – he thought that there was no game today – and to makes things worse, the possibility of being heavily fined by FIDE for being late.
Things started to go downhill for him when his opponent GM Harikrishna started to press strongly out of the opening, gradually increasing his positional advantage by means of precise exchanges. The endgame was surely much better for the Indian player and one could sense his frustration when he was only able to score a draw.
“In hindsight, capturing 42.Nxg6 was the way to go but I though that 42.Re4 with the idea of 43.Nd3 was also very good: I somehow missed 45…Kf7 and then Alexei played very well” said Harikrishna after the game.
With these results, Wesley So leads the group with 3 / 4, a full point ahead of Dominguez and Harikrishna. His 5th round game with Black against Alexei Shirov may prove to be decisive for the outcome of pool D.
About the Tournament
The three-tournament Grand Prix series which will unfold from February to April features twenty-four of the world’s best Grandmasters, who will compete in two of the three events. In order to make the series more exciting and reduce the percentage of draws, FIDE and World Chess have changed the format.
This innovative approach is new for the chess world but very similar to the Super League: the first stage has four pools of four players and the winner of each pool advances to the semifinals and then to the final.
The venue of the first leg is the World Chess Club Berlin, located at the City Centre on Unter den Linden, 26-30 and the games will be played from February 4th-17th every afternoon at 3 pm. Along with the two qualification spots for the Candidates, the event has a 150.000 euros prize fund, 20.000 euros more than the 2019 series.
All the games will be broadcasted live with expert commentary in three languages here. More information and the full schedule can also be found on the worldchess.com website. Full pairings can be found here.
Due to COVID restrictions currently in place, only a limited number of tickets are available. Please note that the 2G+ rule applies to the event, which means that visiting the venue is only possible for those who either have a complete vaccination with EU-certified vaccine or proof of recovery and can additionally present a booster dose certificate or a negative test result.
Leading companies supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include:
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
;
Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner
;
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
;
FIDE Online Arena as the Official Partner.
