Challengers Tour Finals: Pragg dominates, Lei falls just short

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
10/15/2021 – Praggnanandhaa and Christopher Yoo advanced to the semifinals of the Julius Baer Challengers Tour Finals after knocking out Volodar Murzin and Lei Tingjie respectively. While Pragg obtained a commanding 3-0 victory, Yoo was inches away from losing more than once in a match that was decided in blitz tiebreaks. The other two quarterfinal matches will be played on Friday.

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Pragg and Yoo advance

The first two matches of the quarterfinals at the Julius Baer Challengers Tour Finals were played on Thursday. Praggnanandhaa and Christopher Yoo moved on to the semifinals after winning matches of markedly different nature. Pragg will face either Vincent Keymer or Leon Mendonca while Yoo will play either Awonder Liang or Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Vladimir Kramnik and Judit Polgar, the captains of the teams that participated in the tour, provided live commentary. The living legends saw how dominant was Pragg’s play against his Russian opponent, with Kramnik noting: “Pragg played extremely well today, [at] the level of a 2700 player”.

After making the most of Murzin’s poor time management in game 1 to get ahead on the scoreboard, Pragg scored with the white pieces.

 
Praggnanandhaa vs. Murzin - Game #2

Murzin’s (mistaken) decision to castle short in the previous move was immediately punished by the Indian prodigy, who opened up the position with 23.f3 — there followed 23...Qd7 24.fxg4 fxg4 (24...hxg4 is better, but also losing) 25.Bh6 h4 26.Bxf8 Rxf8

 

Black was forced to give up an exchange on f8, but that was not enough to stop White’s attack. Pragg now broke through with 27.Rxf7 Rxf7 28.e6. Murzin continued fighting, but only for a couple more moves. With two wins to his name, Pragg only needed a draw in the next game to reach the semifinals.

The 16-year-old from Chennai could have repeated moves in game 3, but decided to keep going from his superior position. His bravery was rewarded, as he obtained a third consecutive victory, which not only gained him the pass to the next phase but also the praise of the famed commentators.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.0-0 d5 8.Nd2 Be7 9.Re1 a5 10.c4 Ba6 11.Qc2 h6 12.e5 Nd7 13.Nf3 0-0 14.Be3 Qb8 15.Bd4 Rc8 16.Rac1 Bc5 17.Bc3 Bb4 18.Bf1 Qb6 19.b3 Bb7 20.Bxb4 axb4 21.c5 Qa7 22.Qe2 Nxc5 23.Qc2 Nd7 24.Ra1 c5 25.Nd2 Qb6 26.Re3 Ba6 27.Rae1 Bxf1 28.Nxf1 c4 29.Ng3 d4 30.Rf3 cxb3 31.Qxb3 Rc3 32.Qb1 Qb5 33.Ne2 Nxe5 34.Rxc3 dxc3 35.Nxc3 Qa5 36.Nd1 b3 37.Ne3 bxa2 38.Qa1 Qxe1+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Murzin,V2513Praggnanandhaa R26180–12021Challengers Chess Tour Finals1
Praggnanandhaa R2618Murzin,V25131–02021Challengers Chess Tour Finals2
Murzin,V2513Praggnanandhaa R26180–12021Challengers Chess Tour Finals3
Praggnanandhaa R2618Murzin,V25132021Challengers Chess Tour Finals4

The other match of the day lasted much longer. Facing the only girl who made it to the Finals, Yoo kicked off with a victory.

 
Yoo vs. Lei - Game #1

As GM Karsten Müller notes in his annotations, Black is in trouble since her opponent has the initiative in an opposite-coloured bishops position with rooks on the board. However, Lei could have continued fighting for a draw with 56...Ba7, as her 56...Bc7 gave White the chance to gain a key tempo with 57.d6. Yoo ended up winning the game eight moves later.

Lei bounced right back, though, convincingly getting a 32-move victory in game 2. The Chinese star had the black pieces in game 3, and missed a huge chance to score a win, as she failed to find the killer blow in the following attacking position.

 
Yoo vs. Lei - Game #3

24...Rdh8 is devastating here, as after 25.g3 Black would get to play the flashy 25...Rg6 (the f5-pawn in pinned) — not only that: the more natural 25...Bxg3 was also winning in this line. However, Lei went for 24...Qd6, and after 25.g3 Bxg3+ 26.Kg2, Black is no longer winning. The Chinese star needed to play accurately to hold a draw, in fact.

A draw in game 4 meant the match would be decided in tiebreaks. Another point was split in the first blitz encounter. In the second blitz encounter, Lei once again failed to put the finishing touches after getting a winning position — to make matters worse, she found herself in a losing position during the time scramble. Yoo clinched the all-important win and reached the semifinals. 

Kudos to Yoo for continuously creating problems for his opponent, even from clearly inferior and uncomfortable positions.

Games 1 and 6 below include instructive analyses by endgame expert Karsten Müller.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Qd3 e5 7.Nf5 g6 8.Ne3 Be6 9.g3 Nbd7 10.Bg2 Rc8 11.0-0 Qc7 12.f4 Be7 13.Bd2 b5 14.a3 Nb6 15.b3 Qc5 16.Ne2 0-0 17.Bb4 Qc7 18.f5 Bd7 19.Rad1 Qa7 20.Kh1 Rfd8 21.Ba5 Bc6 22.Nc3 Qb7 23.Rf2 g5 24.Ned5 Bxd5 25.Nxd5 Nfxd5 26.exd5 Bf6 27.Be4 Kg7 28.Qe3 Rc5 29.Bb4 Rcc8 30.Qf3 Nd7 31.Bxd6 Qb6 32.Bb4 a5 33.Bd2 Nc5 34.Be3 Qd6 35.Qg4 h5 36.Bxc5 Qxc5 37.Qe2 Rd6 38.Rff1 Rb6 39.Qxh5 Rh8 40.Qe2 Qxa3 41.Kg2 Qc5 42.Ra1 Ra6 43.Rfd1 Rd8 44.c4 bxc4 45.Qxc4 Qxc4 46.bxc4 Be7 47.Bc2 Bb4 48.Ba4 Kf6 49.g4 e4 50.Rdb1 Ke5 51.Bc6 Rb6 52.Rb3 Kf4 53.Rf1+ Ke5 54.Rc1 Bc5 55.Rxb6 Bxb6 56.c5 Opposite-coloured bishops favour the attacker. Pure opposite-coloured bishop endings have a very large drawish tendency, but when more pieces are on the board the guideline from middlegame - that they favour the attacker - is valid also in the endgame: Bc7? This does not stop White's wave of pawns. After 56...Ba7! White has to give one of the passed pawns to make progress, and then Black can try to construct a blockade, e.g. 57.Bb7 57.d6 Kd4 57.Rc4 a4 58.d6 a3 59.Rxe4+ Kf6 60.Rc4 a2 61.Ra4 Bxc5 62.d7 Rb8 63.Rxa2 Be7 64.Ra7 Ke5 65.h3 Rb6 66.Ba4 Kf4 67.Ra8 Rd6 57...Rd7 58.d6 Rxb7 59.c6 Rb2+ 60.Kh1 Kxd6 61.c7 Rb8 62.cxb8Q+ Bxb8 with good drawing chances for Black. 57.d6 Bb8 57...Bxd6 58.cxd6 Rxd6 59.Rc4 Rd2+ 60.Kg3 Rd3+ 61.Kf2 Rf3+ 62.Ke2 Rf4 63.h3 e3 64.Rc3+- 58.Rc4 Ba7 59.Rxe4+ Kf6 60.Rc4 The direct 60.d7 Bxc5 61.Re8 Be7 62.Ba4+- wins as well due to zugzwang, a sharp endgame weapon. 60...Ke5 61.Kf3 Rh8 61...Bxc5 is simply met by 62.Rxc5+ Kxd6 63.Rd5++- 62.Re4+ Kf6 63.d7 Rh3+ 63...Bxc5 64.Re8+- 64.Kg2 Rd3 65.Re8 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Yoo,C2485Lei,T25051–02021Challengers Chess Tour Finals1
Lei,T2505Yoo,C24851–02021Challengers Chess Tour Finals2
Yoo,C2485Lei,T2505½–½2021Challengers Chess Tour Finals3
Lei,T2505Yoo,C2485½–½2021Challengers Chess Tour Finals4
Yoo,C2485Lei,T2505½–½2021Challengers Chess Tour Finals5
Lei,T2505Yoo,C24850–12021Challengers Chess Tour Finals6

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Carlos 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.

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