2015 World Chess Cup: Round #3

Alexander Grischuk has been inconsistent in the last year. Less than a year ago, he had reached a career-high Elo of 2810 and #3 in the world. However, after lackluster results followed in the FIDE Grand Prix series, a winless World Team Championship and poor results in both Grand Chess Tour events, he is sitting on a “live” rating of 2757. Losing to Pavel Eljanov is nothing to be ashamed of, but the Russian actually missed a clear win after his perpetual zeitnot problems haunted him again.

It is easy to point out where someone missed a win and 100% of the time if you gave this position to Grischuk as a puzzle, he would see the winning move in half a second. However, when the clock is ticking loudly, nerves make the mind miss easy wins and even a mate-in-one (see Santosh-Bruzon game). In the position on the right, Grischuk was in severe time pressure in a tense struggle. The a-pawn commands black’s attention, so he must deliver a checkmate if he decides to remove the blockade. After Eljanov’s 37…Rg6, Grischuk played 38.Kh4? (38.a7!+-) Qb4? 39.Kh3? (39.Qf5!+-) and Eljanov played 39…Rg5 but still had no more than a draw. After 52.Ra5 white has a fortress draw, but moves later executed a self-mate problem with 55.Kd4?? Qd5+ 56.Ke3 Ke5… mate next move.

With three players remaining for USA, Fabiano Caruana was the first to get on the board with a smooth with over an overmatched Anton Kovalyov. While this game lasted 61 moves, Caruana held a positional grip for most of the game until he decided the time was right to seize the initiative with the f4 idea. However, Kovalyov decided to go first, but 42…f5 immediately exploded in his face. Caruana temporarily sacked the exchange for a pawn, won it back and pocketed the pawn. Black’s position in total shambles and it turned into a rout.

Sergey Karjkin has been in good form,
but formidable figures lurk in his shadows.

Sergey Karjakin seems to be on form. In yet another Sicilian, the Russian faced a Tamainov in a very unorthodox way with 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd5 8. Ne4 Qc7 9. f4 Qb6 10. c4 Bb4+ 11. Ke2. What??? Is this Wilhelm Steinitz? Nevertheless, Karjakin was all over Yu Yangyi and ended up with a growing positional advantage. He kept slowly squeezing his prey like a boa constrictor, then hit with the killer blow 38.Rxd7! It ended the matter.

While 75% of the games were drawn, there were few short ones, but there were several interesting encounters. Check on So-Le, Radjabov-Svidler and Topalov-Lu. In the latter game, Topalov had arrived at a completely winning position, but the Chinese player slipped away. After Lu played 30…Nf3, he peered at Topalov as he thought. He must’ve had a feeling the Bulgarian was losing his way. If you want a nice laugh, got over the Granda-Wojtaszek game!

The Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov is on 6/6 in three matches!

Pavel Eljanov showed why you have to be in top condition in these knockout tournaments. Apparently, Alexander Grischuk is still suffering from bouts of time pressure and is having problems with consistent results. In today’s game, Grischuk had to win in order to stay alive and chose a very solid and flexible hedgehog setup. This defense allows black to adapt to white’s intentions and rely on a powerful counterattack with a timely pawn thrust.

It appeared that 24…e5 was a mistake as it rendered black’s a8-bishop impotent after 25.d5 and later 40.c6 (diagram right). That bishop never moved again after 18…Ba8. Ultimately ALL of black’s pieces got pushed back and there was no possible counterplay. Meanwhile white froze the queenside and quickly opened up an attack on the kingside and black was defenseless to stop it. Grischuk went out with a whimper (see game here).

Two Chinese on a collision course won their games and are poised to face each other in round four. Unfortunately, both are close friends and in the latest New in Chess, Ding Liren talked about his relationship with Wei Yi and says he is the best hope to bring the World Championship to China. Wei Yi showed excellent form today in a clinching victory over Alexander Areschchenko.

The Ukrainian ventured into a main line Sicilian Poisoned Pawn variation wherein the Chinese prodigy had ideas of his own. First, on 15…Nd7, white eschewed 16.Kh1 ignoring the danger on the a7-g1 diagonal and played 16.Rbd1!? instead. After 16…h3 17.g3 Bb4 18.Qe3!?, black decided to allow 18…Bxc3 19. Nxe6! After the way Wei Yi brilliantly defeated Lazaro Bruzon a couple of months ago it is unfathomable why Areschchenko allowed this. Actually, the scary 19…fxe6 was actually the best try, but after 19…Qe5 20.Nc7+ white won the exchange and played forcefully to convert a nice win. Wei Yi will advance to play his compatriot Ding Liren in a Chinese derby.

In Ding-Guseinov, it is not certain whether black’s queenside play was a new idea, but he got absolutely nothing for the sacrificed pawn. Ding simply collected the pawn and said, “xie-xie”. The rest of the game was a brutal dissection where black was flailing away at white targets, but had to keep an eye on the d-pawn sprinting up the board. White ended nicely with 41.Nc7! deflection since 41…Nd8 loses to 42.Ne8+ winning a piece. Of course, 41…Nxd7 there is the intermezzo of 42.Nxe6+ and then 43.Nxd7 also netting a piece.

In Jakovenko-Ivanchuk, the Ukrainian veteran sacrificed his queen for what turned out to be dubious compensation. Black did have two rooks for the queen, but pieces were a bit stifled and the white queen was running amok causing all kinds of devastation. There was some surprise that Ivanchuk resigned so abruptly.

Why did Ivanchuk resign? Still plenty of fight left on the board. https://t.co/TdZ7f038Qz @chessdom @Fide_chess @EuropeEchecs @ChessClubLive

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) September 18, 2015

Poland’s Radoslaw Wojtazek ended the run of Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru. Black had a very solid position and perhaps could have held a draw even after white launched a vicious attack. The move 14…g6 certainly did not help secure the kingside and the weakness would soon be felt.

After 18. h4 h5 19. Ne5 Be8 20. Qf3 Bf8 21. g4 hxg4 22. Nxg4 Bg7 23.h5. This was the key position. Unfortunately, Granda ran low on time trying to figure out the complications. After 23. h5 gxh5 24. Ne5 Nf6 white kept coming with 25. f5 but black was holding. Jon Ludwig Hammer pointed out that after 25…Rxd4, Wojtazek played 26. Rxd4?! and missed 26.fxe6!

@chess24com maybe he missed 26.fxe6 Rg4+ 27.Qxg4! and a sweet mate next

— Jon Ludvig Hammer (@gmjlh) September 18, 2015

The point is that 26…Rg4+ is met by 27.Qxg4! hxg4 28.exf7+ with a minor piece mate after 28…Bxf7 29.Bxf7+ Kh8 (or 29…Kf8) 30.Ng6 MATE! Instead of defense, Granda tried to complicate matters with 31…Qe2? Finally, 33…Qb1+? instead of 33…Qc1+ ended resistance after 34. Kg2 c5 35. Rxf5. No mas!

Julio Granda, whose fascinating story is well-known,
will always be hailed as a hero.

Sergey Karjakin advanced after beating Yu Yangyi in a dominant performance. In the final position, he was indeed much better, but offered the draw and took the match. It is good to save energy for the tough matches ahead. TWIC’s Mark Crowther made an observation that Karjakin is becoming adept at beating Chinese players. At quick look would show that this is correct. In the China-Russia match, Karjakin had a huge score beating Wei Yi, Ding Liren, Ni Hua and beating Yu Yangyi in the final.

There were some short draws, but there were some interesting encounter such as Kramnik-Andreikin and Tomashevsky-MVL… both ending in minor piece endings. Lu-Topalov was another strange game starting out with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3!? d5 4. Bb5 dxe4 5. Nxe5 Qd5 6. Qa4. Lu sacrificed a pawn and then an exchange, but it yielded nothing but equality as Topalov returned the material and they shook hands.

Seven tiebreaks tomorrow with some big games. Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So both hope to join Caruana to potentially have three USA players in the final 16. Chinese could potentially have three. Russia has two players advancing with another five trying to advance. It will be a tough road however. Lu Shanglei could be a tricky opponent for Veselin Topalov. Be careful!