Sinquefield Cup, Round 1
Carlsen beats Nepo, all other games drawn.
Last year, as most if not all of you will recall, Magnus Carlsen won handily against Nepomniachtchi in their World Championship match. Most of those wins came when a fatigued and discouraged Nepomniachtchi blundered, however - fallout from the epic marathon sixth game - and not representative of the real Nepo. It was therefore especially interesting to see how he would fare in round 1 of the Sinquefield Cup against Carlsen: well-rested, psychologically recovered, and enjoying the boost in confidence he received from a second straight Candidates victory.
How did he do? The good news: he didn’t blunder. The bad news: he was impressively outplayed by Carlsen, who may be surrendering his championship title but is still clearly the world’s #1 player. Carlsen used a rare Queen’s Gambit line that Baadur Jobava has been trying lately (with few followers), and ground Nepo down in impressive style. It’s far from obvious where Black went wrong in the game, and I think this game, though devoid of fireworks, may well find its way into an eventual collection of Carlsen’s best games.
The other four games were drawn. No one missed any clear wins, but Alireza Firouzja had an advantage against Fabiano Caruana and Hans Niemann enjoyed a dream position against Levon Aronian that he couldn’t find a way to convert. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs. Wesley So stayed pretty level throughout, nearly reaching bare kings, while Leinier Dominguez vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave did reach bare kings. So, while there was only one decisive game, there was plenty of action.
The games, with my comments to Carlsen’s win, are here. And here are the pairings for round 2:
Niemann - Mamedyarov
Caruana - Dominguez
Nepomniachtchi - Firouzja
Aronian - Carlsen
Vachier-Lagrave - So
Thanks for the high-quality opening survey!
Even as a lifelong QGD player, I wasn't really familiar with this Bf5 line, where as you say, classical theory says that black has solved all his problems. As it turns out, there's life left in the position yet! Thanks for laying out all of the predecessor games by Jobava et al.
This is why I'm not unhappy with Carlsen's withdrawal. Of course I understand the dark cloud that will float above the head of his successor, but Ding against Nepom is going to be way more interesting.