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Three out of four semifinalists at the first leg of the Grand Prix, also played in Berlin, represented the United States. This time around, with five players hailing from the North American country, we are likely to see at least a couple of them in the semis of the third leg. Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So and Sam Shankland all won in round 5 of the preliminaries and all stand on 3 out of 5 points going into the final day of the double round-robin.
Coincidentally, Nakamura and Aronian are tied for first in pool A, while So and Shankland are leading the standings table in pool C. The fifth member of team USA in Berlin, Leinier Dominguez, also has a 3/5 score and is also sharing the lead — with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, in pool B.
Master Class Vol.5: Emanuel Lasker
The name Emanuel Lasker will always be linked with his incredible 27 years reign on the throne of world chess. In 1894, at the age of 25, he had already won the world title from Wilhelm Steinitz and his record number of years on the throne did not end till 1921 when Lasker had to accept the superiority of Jose Raul Capablanca. But not only had the only German world champion so far seen off all challengers for many years, he had also won the greatest tournaments of his age, sometimes with an enormous lead. The fascinating question is, how did he manage that?
In the one pool that includes no US players, the four contenders are tied on a fifty-percent score. Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov, Yu Yangyi and Amin Tabatabaei have all equal chances of reaching the semis in Monday’s final round — if we go by ratings, however, Giri might be considered the favourite, as he will face rating underdog Tabatabaei with white on Monday. The Dutchman is well-aware that his opponent is not one to go down easily, though, as the Iranian demonstrated in his round-5 encounter against Yu.
It will be interesting to see who decides to keep it safe and who employs a more risky approach on Monday, as the players will surely keep an eye on the other game of each pool in order to weigh their chances.
The playing hall at Berlin’s Unter der Linden
Grandmasters are perfectly capable of memorizing thousands of opening variations and their consequences — but they can also mix up simple information sometimes. After losing in 23 moves with the black pieces against Levon Aronian, Andrey Esipenko confessed that he thought he was supposed to play with white against Hikaru Nakamura.
The youngster was completely shocked and messed up his position early on. Aronian had prepared the line that appeared on the board, and knew that his opponent’s approach was mistaken.
Esipenko was already way down on the clock when he spent no less than 18 minutes on 13...h6. To rub salt into the wound, Aronian blitzed out 14.gxh6 in response. What followed was a brilliant display of attacking chess, with the US grandmaster barely using time on his clock before securing his second victory of the event.
Nakamura had a much tougher task, as he needed to show his excellent endgame technique to take down former sole leader Grigoriy Oparin in 57 moves.
Levon Aronian
While Daniil Dubov tried to convert a better position into a win against Vincent Keymer in a complex struggle, co-leaders Leinier Dominguez and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov explored a theoretical line out of a Ruy Lopez.
It was only on move 18 that Dominguez deviated from theory.
The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation
Pavel Eljanov explains in depth what Gyula Breyer already saw in 1911 and what became an opening choice of the likes of Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen. The Breyer Variation, which is characterised by the knight retreat to b8.
Later on, the Cuban-born grandmaster regretted having played so quickly in the opening, since he thought he could have got more out of this position. Discussing a few lines with Anastasiya Karlovich, it seems like none of the contenders knew that 18.b3 had been tried in a 2016 correspondence game which ended in a win for White.
Dominguez’s 18.Qh3 was not as trying, and Mamedyarov safely equalized the position. A draw was agreed on move 36.
After signing a 30-move draw in round 4 in their direct encounter and getting a rest day on Saturday, Wesley So and Sam Shankland scored crucial wins with the black pieces to go into the final round sharing first place on 3/5.
While So got the better of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after the latter, in typical style, took risks from the get go, Shankland took full advantage of a surprising oversight by Alexandr Predke.
Predke had given up a pawn in the opening, and by this point was slowly but surely losing the thread, as his opponent had almost fully stabilized his position. There was plenty of fight left in the position, though, except that, by playing 21.Qh3, the Russian simply missed that 21...Qe2 gave up yet another pawn.
Needing to return with 22.Qb3 was a bad omen for Predke. Shankland grabbed the material with 22...Qxe4 and swiftly converted his advantage into a 37-move victory.
In the shared lead — Sam Shankland
Nikita Vitiugov and Anish Giri drew in the most uneventful game of the day, while Yu Yangyi and Amin Tabatabaei played an exciting, rollercoaster encounter which lasted 69 moves. Out of a sharp Ragozin, the Iranian missed a chance to get a considerable advantage on move 15.
With his king stuck in the centre, it is understandable that Tatabataei rejected playing 15.f3 here. However, he would have got a clear edge after 15...Nxd4+ 16.exd4 Bxb5+ 17.axb5 Ke3 — scary, indeed, although Black will also have trouble protecting his king with the dark-squared bishop covering the a3-f8 diagonal (see diagram below).
The Ragozin is being played by every top grandmaster in the world - it is time you also add it to your repertoire to get interesting and dynamic positions against 1. d4!
GM Alejandro Ramirez analyses every single move that White can play once the Ragozin is reached, but due to several transpositional possibilities he always emphasises strategic goals to keep in mind.
Instead of attacking the knight, the Iranian went for simplifications with 15...Bxc6, but the line seen in the game nonetheless led to a sharp struggle.
Yu outplayed his opponent in the complex middlegame, but Tabatabaei managed to escape in a position in which he later confessed to have had “zero hope”. A perpetual check allowed him to salvage the half point.
64.Ne6+ fxe6 65.Qe7+ and the black king cannot escape the checks! Draw.
