CrunchLabs Masters: Grischuk and Arjun prevail in Divisions II and III

Grischuk beats Vidit twice to win Division II

At 40 years of age, Muscovite GM Alexander Grischuk continues to show his class in rapid and blitz events. Last year, the ever-entertaining grandmaster was the top scorer at the blitz section of the Tata Steel Chess India event, and now he has claimed overall victory at the very competitive Division II of the CrunchLab Masters, an online knockout tournament featuring the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Vidit Gujrathi.

In the division's Grand Final, Grischuk faced Vidit for a second time in the event. The Indian star had knocked Grischuk down to the losers' bracket in the semifinals of the winners' bracket. The eventual champion defeated Nakamura to gain the right for a rematch.

To win the event, Grischuk needed to beat his formidable opponent twice on Tuesday. After trading wins in the 4-game Grand Final, Grischuk prevailed with white in Armageddon to set up a Reset. In the ensuing 2-game match, the Russian obtained a clear 2-0 victory to claim first place, US$ 15.000, and a spot in Division I of the tour's next event.

Grischuk had this to say about Vidit, who was among the 8 participants at this year's Candidates (Grischuk has played the Candidates 5 times, between 2007 and 2020):

He's like a rock - it's very difficult to beat him, so you need to keep pouncing on him to make small holes in the rock, and maybe, eventually, he can collapse.

Grischuk 1 - 0 Vidit

Grischuk, Alexander2687

1–0

Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi2720

Champions Chess Tour CrunchLabs Masters Chess.com23.07.2024[CC]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 d5 3.e3 Bf5 4.Bd3 Bg6 5.h4 e6 An unconventional opening - the kind that elite GMs dare to employ in rapid or blitz. 6.h5 Bxd3 7.Qxd3 Nbd7 8.Nc3 Bd6 9.h6 This is the novelty in the position. 9.Nf3 h6 10.0-0-0 Qe7 11.g3 This line was seen in a game between Raunak Sadhwani and Sergey Karjakin - the Indian youngster won that game. 9...g6 10.Nf3 0-0 11.0-0-0

With kings castled on opposite sides, the plans are clearly established for both sides. 11...a6 12.Bg5 Be7 13.Nd2 b5 14.f3 c5 15.dxc5 Nxc5 16.Qd4 Ncd7 17.Kb1 Rc8 18.Ne2 Qc7 19.c3 Rfe8 This is rather slow by Vidit. His attacking plan on the queenside is more straightforward, so he could have taken advantage of this fact by pushing one of his queenside pawns. E.g.: 19...a5 20.e4 20.Qh4 b4 20...e5 21.Qd3 and Black has a strong initiative. 20.Rc1 a5 21.Rhd1 Qb7 22.Qh4 a4 A missed chance by Vidit. 22...Qa6 both prepares to break through on the queenside and prevents White from playing e3-e4. White does not have an active plan, while Black will continue to push his queenside pawns. 23.a3 Kf8 After failing to find the . ..Qb7-a6 manoeuvre, Vidit is again overly cautious. 23...e5 all but forces 24.f4 exf4 and the double-edged struggle continues - from Vidit's point of view, it makes sense to reject these sharp lines, as he came from winning game 2 and was perhaps looking to consolidate his advatange with a draw in this encounter. 24.Nd4 e5 25.Nc2

Now that White has re-routed his knight to a strong defensive square, the position is balanced. Black is no longer positioned to create a quick attack - thus, a manoeuvring battle follows. 25...Rc6 26.e4 Re6 27.exd5 Nxd5 28.Bxe7+ R8xe7 29.Ne4 f6 30.Rd2 N5b6 31.Ne3 Qc7 32.Rcd1 In just 7 moves, White has gone from a slightly positional edge to getting a clear and visible advantage. The pawn on h6 is very annoying for Black, and it is White who controls the open d-file. f5 33.Ng5 Rc6 34.Nd5 Nxd5 35.Rxd5 Rc4 36.Qf2 Qb7 37.Qd2

Not quite an "Alekhine's gun" (which has a queen behind a pair of rooks), but surely a strong major-piece setup. 37...Ke8 38.Rd6 e4 39.fxe4 fxe4 40.Qe3 Rc6 41.R6d5 Rf6 42.Qd4 Remarkable technique by Grischuk, who now threatens to capture on d7 and then on f6 . There is little Vidit can do against such well-coordinated play by his opponent. Rf5 43.Qh8+ Rf8 44.Qd4 Rf5 45.Rxf5 gxf5 46.Rf1 e3 47.Qh8+ Nf8 48.Rxf5 e2 Giving up the knight and putting all hopes on the far-advanced passer. This is desperation, though - White can now create a mating net. 49.Rxf8+ Kd7 50.Qd4+ Kc7 51.Qd8+ Kc6 52.Rf6+ Kc5 53.Qd4#

Checkmate. 1–0

Division II bracket

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Division III: Arjun obtains smooth, quick victory

The winner of Division III was decided rather quickly, as the clear favourite, Arjun Erigaisi, obtained a 2½-½ victory over Israeli representative Evgeny Alekseev.

Arjun, who is having a remarkable year in over-the-board competitions, failed to make it to Divisions I or II in the Play-In stage, but made up for his slow start by winning the still competitive Division III.

Before reaching the Grand Final, Arjun obtained match victories over Read Samedov, Benjamin Bok, David Paravyan and Daniil Dubov.

Division III bracket

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Links

• Official website
• Four ‘regular’ events and a grand finale in this year’s Champions Chess Tour
• Carlsen beats resilient Firouzja, wins Chessable Masters
• Firouzja takes down Carlsen to win Chess.com Classic