Grand Swiss: Caruana and Firouzja start off with wins

Nihal to face Caruana in round 2

A total of 108 players made their way to Riga to try their chances in the open section of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The first edition of the tournament, in 2019, featured 154 players, and included 18 women in the lineup. This time around, a separate women’s event (with 50 participants) is taking place concurrently. The one woman player that opted to register in the open is Aleksandra Goryachkina, who already has a spot at the next Women’s Candidates and recently became the first woman to play in the “men’s” Russian Superfinal.

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

Given the fact that this is a Swiss tournament but not an open — in the sense that a player must be of a certain level to participate — tough pairings are seen from the get go. Notwithstanding, top seed Fabiano Caruana kicked off with a win, as he got the better of Maksim Chigaev with the white pieces.

Alireza Firouzja, who at 18 is the third highest-rated player in the field, also won his game with white, needing no more than 28 moves to defeat Nijat Abasov. The one other player from the top 10 who obtained a full point was Kirill Alekseenko. The Russian grandmaster beat Kirill Shevchenko and got off to a promising start — let us remember that his great performance at the 2019 edition gained him the right to be invited to the 2020/21 Candidates.

...54 boards

Amin Tabatabaei had a strong World Cup in Sochi and kicked off the Grand Swiss with a draw against Levon Aronian | Photo: Mark Livshitz

The scarcity of decisive results was not only seen on the top boards, as only 20 players got full points on day 1. Among the winners of the day was 17-year-old Nihal Sarin. Back in July, the Indian prodigy won back-to-back tournaments to enter the world’s top 100 and confirm he is very likely to reach the elite of the sport in the coming years.

Nihal employed a London System to beat 55-year-old Kiril Georgiev. Things looked bad for the Macedonian veteran once Nihal gained control over the dark squares on the kingside.

It is certainly scary for Black to exchange the bishops with his pawn already on g6 and White ready to break open the structure with h5 soon. But 24...b5 25.Bf6 Bf8 means it will be a tough defence nevertheless.

Coincidentally, Nihal also used the London to beat Igor Kovalenko with white in the deciding game of the Serbian Open in July. The prodigy once again proved he knows his way around these systems, as he forced his opponent to resign on move 36.

London System with 2.Bf4 Reloaded and Tactic Toolbox London System

Simon Williams presents the London System, providing the theory you need for your games (7 h 16 min). In addition Williams also introduces into typical tactics and patterns in a seperate product. (53 games, 96 training questions and 3h 14 min)

Defending g6 with 36...Qe8 is insufficient, as 37.Rxh5 would be lethal in that case.

The early win by the 41st seed gained him the right to face none other than rating favourite Caruana in round 2, when the youngster will get a second white in a row.

Nihal Sarin | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Caruana’s victory was not as strategical. The American star in fact got to show a thematic, yet courageous, knight sacrifice out of a Sicilian against Chigaev.

Understandably, the players had been spending copious amounts of time since move 10, and here came 23.Nd5 — not an easy move to respond to while facing one of the strongest players of this generation. The idea is that after 23...exd5 White gets a massive initiative by placing his other knight on the strongest outpost of the board with 24.Nf5.

Chigaev did not leave the tactical skirmish unscathed, and by the time he gave back the piece it was already too late, as Caruana had a winning position with the black king still in the centre.

Standings after round 1

...108 players

All games

Only seven draws in the women’s section

It was a much more bloody round in the women’s tournament, with 18 out of 25 games finishing decisively. The top seed in this section is Mariya Muzychuk, who was one of the 14 players that finished the day with a half point, after drawing Russian WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya with the black pieces.

On the top 10 boards, half the games favoured the rating favourites — i.e. Nana Dzagnidze, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Polina Shuvalova, Lei Tingjie and Nino Batsiashvili.

Fundamentals of Chess Openings

Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.

...25 boards

Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Sophie Milliet with the black pieces | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Alina Kashlinskaya, the 8th seed and one of 10 Russians in the 50-player field, was upset by Armenian WGM Anna Sargsyan. Kashlinskaya mistakenly thought she could sacrifice her rook for a winning attack.

35.Bd5 allowed 35...Rxc1, when White had 36.Qe8 planned, threatening mate-in-one on g8. But Black’s attack with queen and rook is decisive.

Surely Kashlinskaya had foreseen that Black has 36...Rg1+ here, but what she probably missed in her calculations is Sargsyan’s follow-up combination after 37.Kh3

37...Rxg3+ 38.Kxg3 and 38...Qd6+ in fact leave Black a piece to the good. Kashlinskaya continued fighting until move 58, but Sargsyan did not put a foot wrong in the winning queen endgame.

Standings after round 1

...50 players

All games

Links

• Top GMs to fight for Candidates spots at Grand Swiss in Riga
• Pairings and results at Chess-Results: Open | Women’s