Sinquefield Cup, Round 5
Firouzja wins, takes the sole lead going into the rest day.
In the interests of getting to bed at a only slightly crazy hour, I’m going to postpone analyzing today’s games until later. (It doesn’t help that the games went more than 64 moves on average.) Here’s a quick recap:
Alireza Firouzja went for the slow, Ruy-like buildup on the kingside against Anish Giri in a Giuoco Piano. Giri was fine until his 19th move, a big mistake that could have cost him the game after 20.Nxg7! Kxg7 21.d5, intending to meet 21…Bd7 with 22.Bxh6+ Nxh6 23.Qg5+ with a winning attack. Firouzja’s 20.dxe5 was inaccurate, but even that move gave him a significant advantage. The advantage fluctuated between near-winning and winning for a long time, but Firouzja’s 41st move was a big error that threw it all away. (Bear in mind that there’s only one time control in this tournament: game in 2 hours, plus a 30-second increment after every move. So it’s not as if Firouzja could have taken a pause after move 40 to regain his bearings, take his time, and finish with exemplary technique.) No worries, Firouzja fans: Giri returned the favor with his 42nd move, and he received no further opportunities to save the game. This was the only decisive game of the round, and so Firouzja is in clear first, half a point ahead of So, while Giri is now in clear last.
Fabiano Caruana was generally slightly better and never worse than equal on the white side of a sort of Dragadorf/Dragondorf against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. MVL defended well, and White’s advantage never became serious. The result was a stable and generally well-played draw.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh Dommaraju had a good battle in a d3 Ruy, with first one player and then the other enjoying the advantage. In the end Abdusattorov had an extra pawn in a queen and rook ending, but Black’s activity and the vulnerability of White’s king prevented him (Abdusattorov) from making anything of his slight material plus. The game was drawn.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu enjoyed a big advantage almost from the jump against Wesley So in a Giuoco with Bg5 thanks to So’s seriously mistaken 13…Bg4. So was lost for most of the game - and it was a very long game (107 moves) - down two pawns from move 26 all the way until move 101(!). Much of the game saw Pragg pressing in an ending with rooks and opposite-colored bishops, with Pragg enjoying a 2-0 pawn advantage and connected passers. Could Pragg successfully advance them without allowing So the chance to reach rook vs. rook and bishop? The answer is that there were many such opportunities, but without enough time to work things out he failed to make progress. One clear win was 90.Rd3, when Black cannot avoid trading rooks into a lost bishop ending. (For example, 90…Rc2+ 91.Kf3 B-any 92.Re3+ and 93.Bxc2.) Another version of the same idea was 91.Be4+ intending 92.Rd3, and then there was 94.Rd3. 98.Ke4 threw away the win for good, and several moves later Black eliminated one of White’s pawns to essentially secure the draw. A very narrow escape by So.
Finally, a World Championship rematch between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. Nepo achieved little on the white side of anti-Marshall, but with a dollop of bitter irony for Nepo, he wound up with an extra pawn in a rook ending that was almost identical to the one he lost to So in the previous round: three vs. three on the kingside, with an extra d-pawn. Naturally, Ding held with no problem.
Update: Here are the games, with my comments. Round 6 will be on Sunday, and there will be no other rest days: round 7 on Monday, round 8 on Tuesday, round 9 and tiebreaks (if necessary) will be on Wednesday, and if there is a tie for first in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings there will be a playoff for that on Thursday. At the moment though, that seems just about impossible as Tour leader Firouzja is in clear first, and a full point ahead of Caruana (who is second in the Tour). Not only would Caruana need to pass him in the tournament, he’d need to be several places ahead of him. It’s not impossible, but it’s highly improbable.