12/22/2019 – Game one of the final in Jerusalem favoured Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won a 96-move game with the black pieces after Wei Yi declined to force a draw by repetition in the middlegame. Nepomniachtchi now only needs a draw in the second classical game to reach the Candidates Tournament, leaving Maxime Vachier-Lagrave out of the race to challenge Magnus Carlsen in the next World Championship match. | Photo: Niki Riga
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Experts examine the games of Max Euwe. Let them show you which openings Euwe chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, which tactical abilities he had or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
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The fourth leg of the FIDE Grand Prix is being played in Jerusalem, Israel. The 16-player knockout has a €130,000 prize fund, with the series as a whole having an additional prize fund of €280,000 plus two qualifying spots for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The tournament takes place in the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre from December 11th to 23rd.
Things look dire for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after the first encounter of the Jerusalem Grand Prix Final ended in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi. The Russian struck first against Wei Yi and now only needs a draw to get the remaining spot in the Candidates granted by the GP series. This was the Frenchman's last hope to reach the eight-player event that awards the winner a chance to face the world champion in a direct match-up. Moreover, if Nepomniachtchi gets tournament victory, 'MVL' would miss out on playing the Candidates by the smallest of margins for a second cycle in a row.
Nevertheless, Wei Yi is a highly dangerous opponent, so it is very much a possibility for the Chinese to even the score in game two. The youngster played enterprising chess on Saturday and, given Nepomniachtchi's style, it is very likely for the rematch to turn into a sharp fight.
Wei Yi | Photo: Niki Riga
The struggle kicked off early on. Out of a Four Knights variation in the English, Nepomniachtchi already spent nine and eleven minutes on moves 9 and 10. The contenders continued to follow lines previously explored until move 12:
The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.
Previously, Black had gone for 12...d6, 12...♝e7 and 12...♞c6 in this position, while Nepomniachtchi, who seemed not to be prepared to face this line, spent over twelve minutes on 12...♛b4. Up to this point, Wei Yi had not spent more than a minute and a half on any of his moves, but this decision by Black seemed to catch him by surprise, as he invested a whopping 53 minutes on 13.♕d1.
Evgeny Miroshnichenko, in the commentary booth, spent most of the lengthy thinking period analysing 13.♕xb4 and the natural-looking 13.♗f4, which prompts us to think that the Chinese considered those lines to be insufficiently ambitious after his rival played a move he probably did not analyse during his preparation.
Alone on stage — Ian Nepomniachtchi | Photo: Niki Riga
During the middlegame, Wei Yi showed once and again that he was in for a fight, while Nepomniachtchi displayed his ability to make moves both quickly and precisely.
The new Corr Database 2020 is a large ChessBase collection of correspondence games from the period from 1804 to 2019. With more than 80,000 tournaments and over 1.6 million correspondence games.
Wei Yi found the best 26.♕d1, allowing 26...♛xa2 in order to transfer his queen to the kingside with 27.♕g4+. There followed 27...♚h8 28.♕h5 ♚g8 29.♕g4+ ♚h8 30.♕h5 and 30...♚g8 back. Would the Chinese star accept the implied draw offer?
Not when he can go for a sharp line instead! Wei Yi opted for 31.♘b5, as he apparently did not assess White's exchange sacrifice — 31...♜xb5 32.♕xb5 ♛xb2 33.♖b1 ♛c2 — to be dangerous for him. With little time on his clock, the Chinese failed to find the most accurate move at this point:
Instead of 34.♖fc1, White needed to go for an immediate 34.♖a1. After the text, there followed 34...♛d2 35.♕xb4 ♛xe3+ 36.♔h1 ♜a2, when White needs to be permanently alert due to the menacing position of Black's heavy pieces.
But Nepomniachtchi was also short of time and did not play the most clear-cut way to improve his advantage. A long manoeuvring fight ensued after a couple of rooks left the board on move 46. White had queen, rook and three pawns against Black's queen, knight and five pawns. Later on, Wei Yi explained that perhaps it is possible to defend such a position, but to do it for so long is not an easy task at all.
The Chinese held the dynamic balance for quite a while, but he started to lose the thread on move 84. Soon after, White had a totally winning position:
Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.
The Chinese had spent three minutes on the losing 87.♕e5, to which Nepomniachtchi responded with the strong 87...♛e4. After 88.♕xe4 fxe4, Black's connected passers were too much for White to handle. Wei Yi accepted defeat eight moves later. A remarkable fight!
In a must win situation — Wei Yi | Photo: Niki Riga
The most popular chess program offers you everything you will need as a dedicated chess enthusiast, with innovative training methods for amateurs and professionals alike.
Official broadcast with GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko via worldchess.com
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
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The fourth leg of the FIDE Grand Prix is being played in Jerusalem, Israel. The 16-player knockout has a €130,000 prize fund, with the series as a whole having an additional prize fund of €280,000 plus two qualifying spots for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The tournament takes place in the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre from December 11th to 23rd.
