FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Semis: Game 2 Recap
In the second round of the semifinals of the third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin organised by World Chess, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura made a second draw and will continue fighting for a spot in the final on the tiebreak tomorrow. After a huge blunder by Wesley So, Amin Tabatabaei bounced back in the second game of the semifinal and took their match to the tiebreaks!
With today’s half-point, Hikaru Nakamura has secured victory in the overall 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series organized by World Chess. Even if he loses the tiebreak tomorrow, he still edges out Richard Rapport on a total number of points won in classical games.
Both matches will be decided on the tiebreak where Hikaru Nakamura and Amin Tabatabaei will start their matches with White tomorrow. On the 1st of April, we will know the names of the finalists.
Amin Tabatabaei tried to surprise Welsey So in the opening and after an interesting move order, the Romanishin Variation in Nimzo-Indian Defense appeared on the board. Wesley managed to exchange his side-pawn b5 for the central pawn on d5 and not only solved his opening problems but got a quite comfortable position for Black. The critical moment of the game happened on move 23. After spending only one minute on his clock the American suddenly went for a piece sacrifice and completely missed a very strong reply Rd3! which stopped all Black’s threats and created his own ones. The key variation in the position was 24...Nf3 25.Rxf3 Bxf3 26.Qc3 with double attack. “That’s basically a one-move blunder from Wesley So, which is very uncharacteristic of him,” – said the commentator of the tournament GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.
“What happened was just crazy. I played 23.Rd1 and I completely blundered 23...Nh4 – I thought everything falls apart. And after 24.Rd3 it is so strange that White is completely winning,” shared Amin Tabatabaei after the game. “I was incredibly lucky at that moment.” “My opponent is a great player, fighting, very aggressive, very tactical. And yeah, I just blundered Rd3 – that’s all I can say about the game. Blunders happen,” said Wesley So. The game was transferred into the winning ending with an extra pawn and the bishop pair advantage for White and Wesley So decided not to check the technique of Amin, resigning on move 30.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was satisfied with his position in one of the Queen’s Gambit Declined variations with 5. Bf4. By advancing his pawns on the queen’s side White created certain threats but Hikaru Nakamura found an interesting way to regroup his pieces and took control over the c-file with his rooks. After White’s a4 It seems Hikaru could have put more pressure on his opponent by keeping pawns on a-file in the game but chose to go for a force line which led to numerous exchanges. None of the opponents had real chances in the drawish ending but kept playing until the peace was signed on move 51.
Leading partners supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022:
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.
