Grand Swiss: Nakamura, Esipenko and Vidit share the lead

11/5/2023 – Round 10 of the FIDE Grand Swiss saw decisive games on the seven top boards, with Hikaru Nakamura, Andrey Esipenko and Vidit Gujrathi scoring full points to go into the final round in shared first place. Nakamura got the better of Fabiano Caruana in the duel of top seeds, Vidit defeated Bogdan-Daniel Deac with the black pieces, while Esipenko beat Parham Maghsoodloo on board 3. In the women’s tournament, Vaishali Rameshbabu climbed to the sole lead by beating Tan Zhongyi with the white pieces. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

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Decisive, decisive, decisive

Two rounds remained to be played at the FIDE Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man, and the players topping the standings showed their fighting spirits by playing decisive games on all seven top boards in the penultimate round of the open tournament.

Most notably, in a duel of top seeds, Hikaru Nakamura all but secured a spot in next year’s Candidates Tournament, as he defeated world number two Fabiano Caruana with the white pieces — not only allowing him to enter the final round as a co-leader, but also gaining 5.1 rating points (Naka now has a 25-point advantage over Alireza Firouzja in the race to get the rating spot in the Candidates).

Vidit Gujrathi and Andrey Esipenko also grabbed full points to join Nakamura in the lead. Curiously, all three co-leaders have already faced each other, so they will play against participants with 7 or 6½ points in the final round.

Wins for Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi and Alexandr Predke on Saturday left them still in contention for first place, as all three stand a half point behind the leaders and, since the frontrunners will not play each other, it is theoretically possible for all three chasers to score wins and create a tie for first place on 8 points in the final standings — i.e. an extremely unlikely scenario!

Round 11 pairings

Master advanced Tactics and Calculations like a super Grandmaster

The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	16	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2712	7		7½	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	2780	2
2	15	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2716	7½		7	GM	Predke, Alexandr	2656	47
3	4	GM	Giri, Anish	2760	6½		7½	GM	Esipenko, Andrey	2683	32
4	1	GM	Caruana, Fabiano	2786	6½		7	GM	Keymer, Vincent	2717	12
5	18	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	2707	6½		6½	GM	Vitiugov, Nikita	2711	17
6	8	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2738	6		6½	GM	Deac, Bogdan-Daniel	2701	20

Vidit Gujrathi

Vidit Gujrathi | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Analyses by GM Karsten Müller

All three co-leaders showed good endgame technique to convert their advantages in the penultimate round, much like Anish Giri, who needed 94 moves to defeat Hans Niemann in what was his second consecutive victory on the Isle of Man, and Arjun Erigaisi, who defeated an in-form Sam Sevian.

Endgame expert Karsten Müller analysed the wins by Nakamura, Vidit, Arjun and Giri!

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Game analysis by Robert Ris

Magical Chess Endgames Vol. 1 & 2 + The magic of chess tactics

In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.

Hans Niemann, Anish Giri

Hans Niemann and Anish Giri | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Standings after round 10

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	32	GM	Esipenko, Andrey		2683	7,5	2696	57,5	61	0	2875	10	24,9
2	2	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru		2780	7,5	2684	56	60	0	2872	10	11,2
3	15	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi		2716	7,5	2672	52,5	56	0	2859	10	18,2
4	47	GM	Predke, Alexandr		2656	7	2700	58	62	0	2834	10	24,2
5	16	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun		2712	7	2670	55	60	0	2811	10	13,1
6	12	GM	Keymer, Vincent		2717	7	2661	53,5	58	0	2805	10	11,6
7	1	GM	Caruana, Fabiano		2786	6,5	2680	56	60,5	0	2785	10	-0,1
8	20	GM	Deac, Bogdan-Daniel		2701	6,5	2663	52,5	56	0	2765	10	8,7
9	18	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham		2707	6,5	2654	53	57,5	0	2761	10	7,3
10	4	GM	Giri, Anish		2760	6,5	2654	50	54	0	2743	10	-1,7
11	17	GM	Vitiugov, Nikita		2711	6,5	2646	48	52,5	0	2752	10	5,5
12	46	GM	Sindarov, Javokhir		2658	6	2708	53,5	57	0	2762	10	14,6
13	80	GM	Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel		2618	6	2703	50	53	0	2758	10	19,3
14	81	GM	Yakubboev, Nodirbek		2616	6	2698	49	50	0	2723	10	16,1
15	44	GM	Cheparinov, Ivan		2658	6	2695	53,5	57,5	0	2747	10	12,5
16	39	GM	Bacrot, Etienne		2669	6	2689	52,5	56,5	0	2751	10	11,2
17	75	GM	Kuzubov, Yuriy		2625	6	2671	53	57	0	2721	10	13,4
18	33	GM	Sarana, Alexey		2682	6	2671	52	56	0	2717	10	5,7
19	41	GM	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw		2668	6	2671	47,5	50,5	0	2732	10	8,9
20	45	GM	Korobov, Anton		2658	6	2666	52,5	56,5	0	2723	10	9,2

...114 players

All games - Round 10

Find games from all rounds at Live.ChessBase.com

Vaishali only needs a draw to reach the Candidates

Decisive results were also seen in the most important games of the penultimate round in the women’s tournament, with Vaishali Rameshbabu scoring her sixth win of the event by beating Tan Zhongyi with the white pieces. The Indian star is now the sole leader with one round to go, and only needs a draw on Sunday to secure at least second place in the final standings — i.e. a spot in next year’s Candidates Tournament.

Anna Muzychuk also scored a crucial win, as she defeated Deysi Cori to go into the eleventh round in sole second place, a half point behind Vaishali.

Similarly, Mongolian IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul (the 40^th seed in the field) scored a key full point on Saturday. The biggest underdog among the players fighting for tournament victory defeated Mai Narva with black and is now in sole third place, a full point behind Vaishali.