Abdusattorov convincingly wins ChessKid Cup

Abdusattorov beats Caruana for a second time

At 18, Nodirbek Abdusattorov has already become a household name in the elite circuit. A few days before making his debut at the Norway Chess super-tournament, the Uzbek star won the third event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, as he scored a convincing 2½-1½ victory over Fabiano Caruana in the Grand Final. This year, Abdusattorov has already participated in the Tata Steel Masters (he finished in sole second place) and in the WR Chess Masters (he was one of the six players who scored 4/9 points).

Abdusattorov did not play a single Armageddon tiebreaker throughout the 5-day online event. On his way to overall victory, he beat Jules Moussard (2½-½), Jorden van Foreest (2½-1½) and Caruana (twice by the same 2½-1½ score). Both matches against Caruana were definitely hard-fought, but the youngster’s poise under pressure was what ended up giving him the two match wins.

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Besides the $30,000 first prize, Abdusattorov gained 150 tour points and, more importantly, the right to participate in the tour’s concluding in-person event set to take place in December. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, the winners of the two previous events, have already qualified to the series’ finals.

This is the second consecutive event that sees Caruana losing the Grand Final. His strong performances in the online series — including his winning Division II in the Airthings Masters — have left him in second place in the tour overall standings.

Abdusattorov defeated Caruana in game 4 of their Grand Final match. The score was tied and the youngster had the black pieces.

Caruana, Fabiano2764

0–1

Abdusattorov, Nodirbek2731

ChessKid Cup Div-I 2023 Online26.05.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.0-0 Bd7 5.Re1 Nf6 6.c3 a6 7.Bf1 Bg4 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 g6 10.d3 Bg7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.Qd1 Rc8 13.Nf3 e6 14.a3 Re8 15.g3 Nd7 16.h4 h5 17.Bg5 Bf6 18.d4 cxd4 19.cxd4 Bxg5 20.hxg5 e5 21.d5 Nd4 22.Nxd4 exd4

At this point, everything was still balanced: the position and also the match, with a score of 1.5:1.5. 23.Bh3! After 23.Qxd4 Qxg5 Black has the better minor piece and thus a very pleasant game: 24.Bh3? Ne5! 23...Rc4 24.Bxd7 Qxd7 Black has secured the d4-pawn (at least for one move), while White has taken the dangerous knight off the board. 25.b3 Rc3 26.Qxd4 Rxb3

In this position White would probably have been better off defensively, because the black position is more compact than the white one and also the black pieces seem to be well positioned. 27.e5? Good was 27.Re3 and after Rxe3 28.Qxe3 Qa4 29.Re1 White is safe. 27...dxe5 28.Rxe5 Rxe5 29.Qxe5 Rd3! White has lost control of the d3-square through his e4-e5, which the active black rook immediately exploits. 30.Rc1 Rxd5 31.Qb8+ Kg7

This position is winning for Black. 32.Qf4 Qd8 33.Rc7 Rf5 34.Qc1 Qd4 35.Rc2 Rxg5 36.Qxg5 Qd1+ 37.Kh2 Qxc2 38.Qe5+ Kh7 39.Qd4 Qf5 40.a4 b5 41.a5 b4 42.Qxb4 Qxf2+ 43.Kh3 g5

The passed pawn on the queenside is gone, but now the white king is under attack. 44.Qb7 Kg7 45.Qxa6 g4+ 46.Kh4 f6! A strong move! The white king can no longer get out of the mating net. 47.Qb7+ Kh6 48.Qh1 Qd2! Black mates in two moves at the latest. 0–1

Fedoseev prevails in Division II

Much like Abdusattorov in Division I, Vladimir Fedoseev won all his matches to claim first place in Division II. Unlike his Uzbek colleague, though, Fedoseev did need to win a couple of Armageddon deciders before grabbing the title. And he did it twice against the same opponent: the ever-dangerous Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Fedoseev had knocked Mamedyarov down to the losers’ bracket on the first day action, and met the elite GM again in the Grand Final. To reach the deciding match of the event, the eventual champion defeated David Anton, Raunak Sadhwani and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.

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Pichot beats Harikrishna to bag Division III

Maintaining the trend from the other two divisions, the winner of Division III also needed to beat the same opponent twice to claim first place. Alan Pichot from Argentina twice upset Pentala Harikrishna to win the event.

Harikrishna had been knocked down to the losers’ bracket by Pichot in the winners’ bracket semifinals, and then climbed his way up to the top bracket by beating the over-performing Denis Lazavik — Lazavik had defeated Francisco Vallejo and Gata Kamsky in previous rounds. 

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Links

• Official site
• Revamped Champions Chess Tour to kick off in February
• All ChessBase reports on the Airthings Masters 2023
• All ChessBase reports on the Chessable Masters 2023