GCT Leuven: So with a solid start

by André Schulz
6/13/2018 – Wesley So had the best start on the first day of the rapid tournament in Leuven and leads after wins over Caruana and Mamedyarov and a draw netting him 2½ points, using traditional scoring. Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian trail with 2 points. Rapid game point tallies will, however, count double in the final standings. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.

Grand Chess Tour 2018

The GCT started in the magnificent town hall of the Belgian city of Leuven on Tuesday with three rapid games. The tournament series, which started in 2015 as an initiative of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis advised by Garry Kasparov, aims to pit the best ten players against one another in a series of tournaments following the example of the Grand Slam tennis series. The latest incarnation of an idea which has been tried several times over the years was originally seen as a competing series for the FIDE Grand Prix, following the unsuccessful run by Kasparov for President of FIDE in 2014. The FIDE Grand Prix has persisted through periods of uncertainty and underwent a format change in the last edition, which was not necessarily an improvement in terms of the excitement of the tournaments. The Grand Chess Tour, by comparison, has never suffered from that criticism.

Originally, three classical tournaments in Stavanger, St. Louis and London formed the backbone of the Grand Chess Tour for its first year, which hoped to expand to a fourth country or even continent. But the Norwegians decided to go their own way the following year, continuing Norway Chess as an independent tournament, and in its place, rapid chess and blitz tournaments in Paris and Leuven were added in 2016. A third rapid and blitz event in St. Louis was included last year, along with the debut of a new rating system, so shorter time-controls currently make up the majority of events in the series.

The merit of the basic idea of always inviting players of roughly equal strength is debatable. The Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, for example, thrives on the fact that its field is more eclectic. That makes for more decisive games — including upsets. Instead, the Grand Chess Tour (like Norway Chess) aims to invite only the best players in the world.

playing hall

The venue is the City Hall of Leuven

The elephant not in the room 

Speaking of the best, if you look at the list of participants of the Grand Chess Tour 2018, then, of course, one name is missing: Magnus Carlsen. Without the World Champion, the 2018 field lacks a bit of the radiance of past years, even if the other players are nevertheless world class. But the World Champion is the World Champion and his dominance over his peers in shorter time-controls even greater than in classical chess. (Just look at the rating list.)

The tournaments played in Leuven and Paris are scheduled in quick succession (though the opposite order from past years), and begin with three days of rapid chess, followed by two games of blitz games. The results are combined to a total score, with the rapid games counting double. The whole tournament will also be part of the overall ranking in the Grand Chess Tour.

The first day's winner was Wesley So. The US grandmaster, who just days ago suffered a bad mishap against Caruana in Stavanger, started with a first-round win over the US number one and followed it up by beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and drawing with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Against Caruana, in a long and interesting Ruy Lopez game, So, playing black, gradually gained the upper hand on the queenside and before shifting to a crushing attack on the kingside.

 
Caruana vs So
48...Rxg4 and White gave up

Wesley So speaks to Maurice Ashley after his first-round win | STLChessClub YouTube

Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian are close behind with one victory and two draws apiece. Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov form the broad middle of the field with 1½ points. With the exception of Vachier-Lagrave, all these players have won a game, lost one and played a draw. The Frenchman has played all three games to a draw.

With a draw and two defeats, Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana are currently at the bottom of the table.

 
Anand-Mamedyarov
Position after 40.Ne3

With 40 ... c5 Black forced the exchange of queens and thereby increased his advantage.

Mamedyarov could have come away with two wins but missed a change in his game against Anish Giri.

 
Mamedyrov vs Giri
Position after 26...Nd6

With 27.Rxh7! Kxh7 28.Rh1 Kg8 29.Rh6 White could have won easily. He instead played 27.Rc5 and the game ended in a quick move repetition.

Standings after three rounds (with double point-scoring)

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Round-up show

Games of Day 1

 
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Replay and check the LiveBook here
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 Bd7 9.c3 C84: Closed Ruy Lopez: Unusual White 6th moves 0-0 9...Na5 10.Ba2 bxa4 11.Nbd2 0-0 12.Bb1 Bb5 13.Bc2 Nb7 14.c4 Bd7 15.Bxa4 Bxa4 16.Qxa4 Nc5 1/2-1/2 (53) Carlsen,M (2837)-Ding,L (2774) Saint Louis 2017 10.Bc2 Re8 11.Re1 h6 12.Nbd2 LiveBook: 10 Games b4N Predecessor: 12...Bf8 13.Nf1 d5 14.exd5 Nxd5 15.Ng3 b4 16.Bd2 Rb8 17.a5 bxc3 18.bxc3 Qf6 19.Bb3 Nf4 20.Ne4 Qd8 21.Bxf4 exf4 1/2-1/2 (43) Jakovenko,D (2731)-Bu,X (2723) Sochi 2016 13.d4 Rb8 14.d5 bxc3 15.bxc3 Na5 16.Ba3 c6 17.c4 Qc7 18.Bd3 Nb7 19.Nb3 a5 20.Bc1 Bg4 21.Be3 Nd7 22.h3 Bxf3 23.Qxf3 Nbc5 24.Nxc5 Nxc5 25.Bxc5 25.Ra3 is interesting. Rb2 26.Qg4 Bg5 27.Bxc5 dxc5 28.h4 25...dxc5 26.Bf1 Rb4 27.Red1 Reb8 28.g3 cxd5 29.exd5 White should play 29.Rxd5= Qc8 30.h4 29...Bd6 30.h4 Qd7 31.Bd3 g6 32.g4 Qe7 Of course not 32...Rxa4?! 33.h5= 33.h5 Qg5 34.hxg6 fxg6 35.Qg2
35...Rf8! Hoping for ...Rb2. 36.Re1 Rb3 37.Re3 Rf4 38.Bf5 Rb2 39.Be6+ Kg7 40.Rf1 40.Re4 40...Rxc4-+ 41.Qg3 Rbb4 41...Rxa4 42.Ra3-+ 42.Qh2 42.Qh3 42...Rf4 43.Kh1 43.Qh3 c4 44.Rc3 43...e4 44.f3 h5 Weaker is 44...Rxf3 45.Rexf3 exf3 46.Qxd6± 45.Qh3 hxg4 Black mates. 46.Bxg4 Rb8 47.Qg3 Rh8+ 48.Kg2 Rxg4 Precision: White = 45%, Black = 77%.
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Caruana,F2816So,W27780–12018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid1
Vachier-Lagrave,M2789Karjakin,S2782½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid1
Nakamura,H2769Giri,A27821–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid1
Grischuk,A2766Aronian,L2764½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid1
Anand,V2759Mamedyarov,S28080–12018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid1
Caruana,F2816Vachier-Lagrave,M2789½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid2
Giri,A2782Anand,V27591–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid2
Karjakin,S2782Grischuk,A27661–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid2
So,W2778Mamedyarov,S28081–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid2
Aronian,L2764Nakamura,H27691–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid2
Mamedyarov,S2808Giri,A2782½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid3
Vachier-Lagrave,M2789So,W2778½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid3
Nakamura,H2769Karjakin,S2782½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid3
Grischuk,A2766Caruana,F28161–02018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid3
Anand,V2759Aronian,L2764½–½2018Your Next Move GCT 2018-Rapid3

Commentary webcast

Commentary by Yasser Seirawan, Jovanka Houska, Alejandro Ramirez (St. Louis)
Maurice Ashley and Nigel Short (Leuven)

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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