Unforgiving

John B. Henderson • August 8, 2023

“It’s a very unforgiving tournament” was Fabiano Caruana’s take on the demanding knockout format of the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, as the newly-minted US No.1 on the live ratings bemoaned the whirligig of the mini-matches followed by a nervous series of sudden-death tiebreaks, where just a minor slip can often see a top seed dramatically heading home early.


It didn’t happen to Caruana, but the fear lurks for the seeds as the field whittles down round by round - but not so lucky proved to be Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with the Frenchman eliminated in the third round, after he lost his match to Javokhir Sindarov, the rising 17-year-old Uzbek teen star.

Also heading to the departure lounge was the ultimate chess power couple, Alexander Grischuk and Kateryna Lagno, with the Russian husband and wife team - playing under the neutral Fide flag due to the Ukraine war - were both sensationally knocked out by relative unknowns in the round two tiebreaks. Grischuk lost to 17-year-old Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar, while Women's fourth-seed Lagno was sent packing by Indian WGM Mary Ann Gomes. 


And the seeds continued to fall at the hands of the underdogs. Out went another of the favourites in the women's competition, with the 2021 World Cup winner and former World Champion, Alexander Kosteniuk, now playing under the Swiss flag, crashing out to Serbia’s Teodora Injac. And not to be outdone, crashing out also in the open competition in the third round went Anish Giri (who dramatically lost on time in the tiebreak to Nijat Abasav), plus the 2019 cup-winner and local hero, Teimour Radjabov.


And in the same round of tiebreaks, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So both flirted with disaster but still managed to live to fight another day, going through to the next round, where they now join fellow US star Caruana, along with Magnus Carlsen (who comfortably beat fellow Norwegian No.2, Aryan Tari), lan Nepomniachtchi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, along with the teenager to watch out for, Gukesh D, who has crashed his way into the world top-10 for the first time, with the 17-year-old supplanting Vishy Anand to become the new Indian No.1.


While top seed Carlsen plays the German teenage ace Vincent Keymer in the final 16, all eyes are firmly on the plum pairing of the fourth round, with second seed Nakamura facing what potentially could be a very dangerous opponent in Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnandhaa, yet another young Indian teenager who inexorably continues to climb his way towards the top-20 and beyond.


The FIDE World Cup brackets/pairing tree can be found by clicking the link.

GM Magnus Carlsen- GM Aryan Tari

FIDE World Cup, (3.1),

E46: Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 O-O

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd2 An old line that was big in the 1950s and now coming back into vogue - and it has become a firm favourite for Carlsen of late. 5...c5 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Bxc3 Ne4 8.Ne2 b6 9.d5 Just throwing a spanner in the Nimzo-Indian works, hoping that the d5 wedge will disrupt Black's normal play. 9...Ba6 10.f3 Nxc3 11.Nxc3 Bxc4 12.Bxc4 Qh4+ 13.g3 Qxc4 14.h4 exd5 15.Nxd5 Nc6 16.b3 Qa6 17.Nc7 Qa5+ 18.b4 cxb4 19.Nxa8 bxa3+ 20.Qd2 Rxa8?! More awkward for White would have been 20...Qc5! as the knight can't really get out so easily; and Nxb6 axb6 just opens the a-file for Black's rook to make the passed a-pawn a monster. So now 21.Nc7 Ne5! 22.Na6 Nxf3+ 23.Kf2 Nxd2 24.Nxc5 bxc5 25.Rxa3 Nc4 26.Rxa7 Ne5 27.Rha1 Re8 28.Ra8 Kf8 29.Rxe8+ Kxe8 30.Ra8+ Ke7 31.Rg8 g6 32.Rh8 h5 33.e4 d6 and Black has excellent holding chances. 21.Qxa5 Nxa5 22.Rxa3 Nc4?!

I don't know what Tari was thinking here, as this just gives Carlsen the sort of position he thrives on squeezing wins out of. More resilient, and to the (half) point was 22...Kf8! 23.Ke2 Ke7 24.Rb1 (Tempting was 24.Rc1 but after 24…Nc6! Black's ready to play ...Rb8 looking to follow up with ...a5 and ...b5 and suddenly the passed pawns are a headache for White) 24...Rc8 25.Ra2 Rc5 where Black has excellent holding chances. 23.Ra6! Carlsen seizes his best chance to convert an unlikely win against his fellow countryman. The point is that if Black plays ...Na5 looking to entomb the rook, White will simply play Kf2 and Rb1! with a promising endgame squeeze with the ever-present threat on the board of R1xb6! 23...Nxe3? Tari goes from bad to worse. It wasn't too late to realise the errors of his ways by playing 23...Ne5 24.Kd2 Nc6 25.e4 Rd8 26.Ke3 and White is only marginally better. But in chess, it's always the case that a player is too proud to admit mistakes by immediately moving a piece back. 24.Kf2 Nd5 25.Rha1 Kf8 26.Rxa7 Rxa7 27.Rxa7 If Black's two queenside pawns were connected, then there would be a problem of saving the game - but with the pawns isolated, something has to give as Black can't defend both of them and the kingside pawns. 27...Ke7 28.Rb7 h5 29.g4 g6 You would imagine that better was 29...hxg4 30.fxg4 - but Tari rightly judges this to be worse, as White will soon turn the h-pawn into a big passer that will be difficult to stop. 30.Rb8! Slowly but surely, Carlsen is looking to get his rook in behind his opponent's kingside pawns. 30...Kd6 31.Kg3 It is indeed a difficult ending to fathom out, but more accurate was 31.Rf8! Ke7 32.Rh8 that at least serves to crucially push Black's king further back - which is vital, as the next note explains. 31...f5?? The final, fatal mistake from Tari, who commits pawn structure hara-kiri. The key to survival, as Mr Engine ingeniously works out, was the power of the passed b-pawn and not to give a fig about the other pawns. After the correct 31...Kc5! 32.Rh8 b5! the b-pawn off to the races forces an unlikely saving scenario of 33.gxh5 gxh5 34.Kf2 b4 35.Ke2 (The resource that the engine finds is almost study-like, and you can't capture the h-pawn with 35.Rxh5? as 35...b3 36.Rg5 b2 37.Rg1 Kc4 38.Kg3 Nf6! 39.Kf4 d6! 40.Kg5 Ng8! 41.h5 d5! 42.h6 Nxh6! which is going to lead to a textbook draw with 43.Kxh6 d4 44.f4 d3 45.f5 Kc3 46.Kg7 Kc2 47.Kxf7 b1=Q 48.Rxb1 Kxb1 49.f6 d2 50.Kg6 d1=Q 51.f7 Qf3 52.Kg7 Qg4+ 53.Kh7 Qf4 54.Kg7 Qg5+ 55.Kh7 Qf6 56.Kg8 Qg6+ 57.Kh8! and Black can never bring his king up the board due to this stalemate trick of tucking the king in the corner) 35...b3 36.Kd3 Nf4+ 37.Kc3 d5! 38.Rf8 b2! 39.Kxb2 Kd4 40.Rxf7 Ke3 and a draw, with White's f-pawn falling and Black's knight protecting both the d5- & h5-pawns. 32.gxh5 gxh5 (see diagram) 33.Rh8! With all of Tari's pawns now isolated and vulnerable, Carlsen ruthlessly and expertly stretches Black's resources which can't control things on both wings of the board at the same time. 33...f4+ 34.Kf2 Nf6 35.Ke2 Ke5 36.Kd3 Black's pawns are all isolated and vulnerable - when one falls, the endgame falls with it. And it is only a matter of time for Carlsen to engineer this scenario. 36...d6 37.Rh6 d5 38.Rg6 b5 39.Rg5+ Ke6 40.Kc3 Black is effectively in zugzwang with the end coming very swiftly now. 40...Nd7 If 40...Kd6 41.Kb4 and White will start to pick off the pawns, starting with b5. 41.Kd4 Nf6 42.Rg7 b4 43.Ra7 Ng8 44.Ra6+ Kf5 45.Kxd5 b3 46.Rb6 Ne7+ 47.Kc4 Ng6 48.Rxg6! It's not a brazen act of showboating from Carlsen - the sacrifice leads to an easily winning K+P endgame. 48...Kxg6 49.Kxb3 1-0

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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