If you’re immature like me when it comes to these things, you’ll be slightly disappointed that the tournament in Shenzhen didn’t end in a first place tie between Bu, Yu, and Xu. But hey - two out of three ain’t bad! Bu Xiangzhi and Yu Yangyi tied for first with Arjun Erigaisi (at least he’s got a “u” in there), a point ahead of Daniil Dubov (another “u”) and Xu Xiangyu, who finished with back-to-back wins. (He lost to Erigaisi in round 1; had he won that game and everything else remained the same we would have had our dream finish.)
A historical note on this name silliness: people were (mildly) fascinated for years by the “K” phenomenon: Karpov and Korchnoi fighting for the World Championship from 1974 (de facto) through 1981, then Karpov and Kasparov through 1990, with Kasparov keeping his branch of the title from 1993 to 2000 when it was taken over by Kramnik, while Karpov had the other branch from 1993 until Khalifman (granted, it’s a different first letter in Russian) had it in 1999. (We could add as an “appendix” Kasimdzhanov’s possession of the split title in 2004 along with Karjakin’s near-miss in 2016.
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming…
We had already covered the first five of the tournament’s seven rounds a couple of days ago; surprisingly, there was comparatively little action in the final two rounds. Xu was the only winner in both rounds, beating Dubov after the latter (presumably) forgot or mixed up his preparation and coming back from a lost position to defeat Ma Qun to close the tournament. Not only was he the only player to win in game in those last rounds, it almost seemed as if he was the only player who was even trying. That’s an exaggeration, but the six non-Xu games in the last two rounds were all drawn in 33 moves or less. [Or “fewer”, if you prefer, but the authorities say that “less” is also satisfactory.]
As for the tournament winners: in round 6 Bu and Yu while Erigaisi drew Vladislav Artemiev; both games were pretty clean. In round 7 Bu and Yu drew quickly with Artemiev and Giri, and Erigaisi’s draw with Dubov was fairly speedy as well. Erigaisi was in some trouble, however, but Dubov let him slip out of it.
Final Standings:
1-3. Bu, Yu, Erigiais 4.5 (of 7)
4-5. Dubov, Xu 3.5
6. Artemiev 3
7. Giri 2.5
8. Ma 2
Now let’s turn to Prague, which, sadly, was not won by Pragg. When I posted on this tournament Nodirbek Abdusattorov had already clinched clear first after defeating Parham Maghsoodloo in the penultimate round, giving him a point and a half lead over the field with one round to play. As the laws of logic and mathematics weren’t repealed, everyone’s drawing in the final round kept him in first with that same 1.5 point margin over his closest pursuers.
There were no wins, but there was plenty of action. All three of the players tied for second - Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Maghsoodloo, and Thai Dai Van Nguyen - had chances to win their games, especially Maghsoodloo and Nguyen. If Nguyen would win it would be a sensation, as the lowest seed would have taken clear second. He was very close, but the move he clearly thought would win - 25.Qa3 - allowed Vidit to escape.
Final Standings:
1. Abdusattorov 6.5 (of 9)
2-4. Praggnanandhaa, Nguyen, Maghsoodloo 5
5-7. Gukesh, Rapport, Navara 4.5
8-9. Bartel, Keymer 3.5
10. Vidit 3
Finally, the games from the last two rounds of both tournaments, with comments to almost all of them, are here.