Events Everywhere!

The Road to Miami, Leon, Biel, St. Louis...

I’m on the road, writing from a hotel room, so it’s more difficult to present games with the sort of depth I'd like. Nevertheless, a number of interesting events are afoot, and while they don’t have the sort of high-stakes pressure of the Candidates they’re all interesting in their own right.

The most notable event is the FTX Road to Miami, which is not itself in Miami but taking place online. Six of the 16 players represent the United States, including super-GMs Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez. It’s no surprise then that after day 1, two of the five leaders are Americans, with a third U.S. player just half a point behind. What is surprising is that the leading Americans are Sam Sevian and Jeffery Xiong, with Hans Moke Niemann nipping at their heels. Aronian lost his first two games and has only 1.5/4 (a point and a half behind the leaders), and that is Aronian’s score as well. Sam Shankland is having an even harder time of it, with just 1 out of 4. (At least he’s not in last, which is where Teimour Radjabov(!) is, with only half a point out of four - and that draw was prearranged draw #555 with his friend and countryman Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Mamedyarov, by contrast, is tied for first, along with the two Americans mentioned above, Wei Yi, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda.)

The goal, recall, is to be in the top 8 at the end of this, preliminary, round-robin stage, so no one is out of contention yet, with 11 games remaining. As for the games, they were what you’d expect from top GMs playing 15-minute chess: a generally high level, but lots of mistakes, too, especially as time ran low. I’ll highlight two games for you: Mamedyarov’s win over Richard Rapport (for the attractive, though not particularly difficult finish), and Sevian’s win over Xiong, which featured an impressively handled rook ending by Sevian.

On to Leon, where an exciting four-player knockout event took place. The format for semis and finals alike was a best-of-four rapid match, followed (if necessary) by a two-game blitz tiebreak and then an Armageddon game. In one semi, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand played Jaime Santos Latasa, and in the other former “Vice” Champion (that title, more common in European writing than in America, seems to proclaim the deep and thoroughgoing rottenness of the titleholder) Boris Gelfand faced Andrey Esipenko.

In both matches, the older, more accomplished players lost the first game. Anand was blown off the board with some nice tactics, while Gelfand began what was to be a series of traumatic experiences with the white pieces, going down with what looks like the least impressive anti-Nimzo line ever. To their credit, both players bounced back. Anand took dramatic advantage of a seemingly minor error by Latasa, while Gelfand began what was to be a series of delightful experiences with the black pieces. Both matches saw draws in game 3, and then Anand finished things off with a win in game 4 while a second straight draw sent Gelfand and Esipenko to the blitz tiebreak.

In the first blitz game, Gelfand had Black, so no problem: he ground out a win. Unfortunately, he had White in game 6, and lost again. (Maybe he should have played 1.c3 e5 2.c4, transposing to the position he had in almost every one of his black games in the tournament?) But good news: he got Black in the Armageddon game, and while Esipenko managed a pawn-up rook ending, the position was drawn. Apparently it came down to the clock rather than the board, and Gelfand won that battle, winning the game and the match.

So, the final came down to the geriatric battle of 50-somethings (I’m not criticizing - I’m more 50-something than they are!), and we were treated to more of the same. As in the earlier matches, the player who won the first game lost the match, and as in Gelfand’s first match, playing White was almost the kiss of death. Anand won game 1 with Black, and in game 2 Gelfand likewise capitalized on the “advantage” of the black pieces to level the scores. Then the players forgot the script for a moment: Gelfand won game 3 with White, but corrected his error by losing with Black for the first and only time in the event. Gelfand then went 2-0 in the blitz, first winning with Black and then with White to take the title.

Next up, Biel, where the very same Esipenko will try his luck in a hybrid event that combines Classical, Rapid, and Blitz formats - plus a bonus 960 event. Maybe this “Tetrathlon” format will be the wave of the future, possibly for the World Championship? Anyway, I think that play starts tomorrow (Monday). The other players in the top event are Le Quang Liem, Salem Saleh, Gata Kamsky, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arkadij Naiditsch, and Dommaraju Gukesh. It’s a strong and interesting field.

Finally, a reminder that the U.S. Senior and Junior championships are continuing in St. Louis. After four rounds Larry Christiansen leads the Seniors with 3/4; Christopher Yoo leads the Juniors with 3.5/4.

Here are four games from the first two events discussed above—enjoy.