There were two wins and three draws today in the Superbet Classic, and four of those results made sense.
The draw between Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana was very short, but interesting for a couple of reasons. First, while Ding avoided his beloved Catalan throughout his match with Ian Nepomniachtchi, he trotted it out at his first opportunity in the tournament. And second, Caruana played a very rare line in response: an Open Catalan with 8…Nc6 (after 8.a4) 9.Qxc4 Na5 followed by …b6. Caruana’s 13th move was a novelty, and after 17…Nc5 Ding found nothing better than a move repetition that ended the game four moves later.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So showed far more fighting spirit, continuing their game half a move further, also ending the game in a repetition after White’s 22nd move. Great stuff.
Anish Giri and Alireza Firouzja was interesting for a while, despite the rather peaceful reputation of the Exchange Slav, but after 27…b4 whatever tension remained vanished as the players hoovered up most of the pieces and all of the life, and they called it a day after 36 moves.
To the wins. Nepomniachtchi won with Black against Bogdan Deac. Nepo played a relatively rare line on the black side of a 5.Bf4 QGD, and the first critical moment came when Deac chose a playable but definitely unnecessary exchange sac with 14.Qxc3. A few moves later he swapped off Black’s remaining bishop, and the resulting material imbalance was that Black had a rook and a knight for two bishops and a pawn. The bishops often dominate in such situations, but they weren’t so effective this time. Black kept nagging play on the kingside, and it only took one error by Deac to go from equal to lost or nearly lost. A move or two later, there was no further question; White was plainly lost, and Nepo finished him off.
Those games all made sense - there was a clear narrative, and the final result wasn’t surprising in any of those games. The same cannot be said of the Richard Rapport vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda game. After White’s 21st move the position on the board was pretty boring, with rooks, opposite-colored bishops, and seven pawns apiece. Black had two sets of double pawns, but they weren’t weak. It looked like the sort of position where one or two accurate moves/ideas would finish the job, and they’d join MVL, So, Giri, and Firouzja on vacation.
It didn’t happen. Instead of the engine’s recommended 21…Ra5 (intending …b5) or my idea of 21…Ke8 (to play 22…Rd8), Duda came up with several strange moves (especially 21…b5?! and especially 25…g5?), and just six moves later he had a very bad, possibly lost position. He had traded rooks - that’s progress - but had done so at the cost of isolating *all five* of his remaining pawns, four of which were pairs of doubled pawns. (And if that’s not bad enough, both of the lead pawns were fixed on the square of the opponent’s bishop, for easy plucking.)
He soon wound up two pawns down, but opposite-colored bishop endings didn’t achieve their drawish reputation for nothing. The last key moment came on move 45. Had Duda dropped his king back to e7, the position would have remained objectively drawn. Instead, 45…Kd6? gave White a crucial tempo, and he was able to break through and win.
We’ll have five fresh games today (Monday), including a World Championship rematch:
Caruana (1) - Vachier-Lagrave (1)
Nepomniachtchi (1.5) - Ding (1)
Duda (.5) - Deac (.5)
Firoujza (.5) - Rapport (1.5)
So (1.5) - Giri (1)