Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (featured on the cover of this issue) reminds one of the legendary warriors of the East. Few can rival him in swashbuckling play over the board. One had a glimpse of the same in his game with Aronian in the recent Olympiad. He conjured up a magical attack from nowhere to score a victory. But then this kind of play also has its flip side. Two rounds later he fell prey to Caruana who withstood his aggression to begin an attack on his own that prevailed in the end. The despairing Azeri left the board without a word.
IM Sagar Shah narrates the conclusion of this key game | ChessBase India YouTube
In this issue, there are as many as 46 games played by Mamedyarov. In Biel he beat Carlsen with powerful positional play and the victory enabled him to come first ahead of Magnus. The game is annotated by GM Mikhail Golubev.
In general, Mamedyarov played sober, practical chess in Biel | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Biel International Chess Festival
When Mamedyarov was asked in an interview if there was a change in style he replied, “In the past, I used to play more aggressively, while now you might say I play more wisely.”
But then a leopard cannot change his spots. I found another game in this issue that is a lot more fun.
A fine contest. In fairness to the Frenchman, it should be pointed out that he beat Mamedyarov twice in the blitz event and went on to score 13½/18 coming first ahead of Nakamura, Caruana and Karjakin. All the games from the blitz and rapid sections of Saint Louis Tournament may be found in this issue.
Carlsen and Caruana face off in St. Louis | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The main event, the Sinquefield Cup tournament ended in a three-way tie between Aronian, Carlsen and Caruana with 5½/9 apiece. As is known, it saw too few decisive games, but many hard-fought draws. Of course, the focus of interest was the Carlsen-Caruana clash as it was to be their last duel before the World Championship match. When they met in the seventh round, Caruana was leading by half-point with only three rounds to go. The challenge before Magnus was to beat him and win the race for the final standings. The game is analysed by Michael Roiz in this issue. I have annotated it afresh taking into account what the players themselves have had to say and offered a few pointers in the line of improvement.
Player interviews courtesy Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube
The Dortmund tournament was won by Nepomniachtchi ahead of Kovalev and Duda. The surprise of the event was the poor showing of Vladimir Kramnik who had dominated the event for years but ended up with 3/7 points. One reason for his failure was his loss to the eventual winner. In this issue Nepominiachtchi himself annotates the game against Kramnik:
“We are friends, but we love to fight!” | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
In the second part of the review, I shall deal with the rest of the magazine, especially, opening surveys.
