Grand Chess Tour - Leuven: Wesley So storms first day

The Leuven tournament of the Grand Chess Tour is running from June 28 to July 2 in Leuven, Belgium. It is a combination of Rapid and Blitz games. The ten participants are Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Viswanathan Anand, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Vassily Ivanchuk, and Baadur Jobava. They will play nine rapid games, three a day, from June 28–30. Each day the games will start at 14:00h, 15:30h and 17:00h European Standard Summer Time. The Blitz tournament is on July 1-2, with nine rounds on each day, starting at 14:00h. The total prize fund is $150,000!

Note that the event is using the Bronstein mode: the players have 25 minutes for all the moves of a rapid game, and a ten second delay per move. This means that the clock does not run for ten seconds – the point is that you cannot accumulate time by playing very quickly in the Bronstein Mode.

Day one

All photos by Lennart Ootes

The opening round of the the 2nd Grand Chess Tour stage gave a quick answer to the question of fatigue affecting some of the players. On the contrary, all three guys who played in Paris, Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrace and Wesley So, won their games, and the same went for Ian "Nepo" Nepomniachtchi who came to Leuven all the way from Khanty-Mansiysk.

Round one

Magnus Carlsen-Levon Aronian was the most anticipated encounter, given Levon 's recent victories at the Grenke Classic and Norway Chess, and both times ahead of Magnus, who was participating. To answer the call, Magnus once again showed who's the boss in the factory.

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian meet the VIP guests as the games get ready to start

Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian

When I play this game over I visualize Carlsen leaning back in his chair with his feet up on his desk and a fat stogie stuck in his mouth.

The playing hall is a sight to behold

Wesley So took full advantage of Vladimir Kramnik's cavalier approach to the problem of defending a somewhat inferior endgame. The double pawn sac attempted by Vlad was thwarted by Wesley's calm and collected play.

Wesley So - Vladimir Kramnik

The best game of the round belonged to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who downed Vassily Ivanchuk in an instructive endgame.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Vassily Ivanchuk

Baadur Jobava's attack against Nepo never took shape as Baadur was shedding pawns left and right. A solid game between Vishy Anand and Anish Giri was the only draw in the opening round.

Round two

Round Two saw a classic battle Kramnik-Anand. Vladimir was able to get the better of his old rival once he engineered his trademark pawn breakthrough in the center.

Vladimir Kramnik - Viswanathan Anand

Ivanchuk-Carlsen was drawn in a theoretical Marshall, as the players hardly made any new moves.

Levon Aronian won a rather one-sided game against Baadur Jobava, who seems to be looking into a long tournament if things continue this way. It is hard to face the best players in the world, particularly in faster time controls where they are particularly adept.

Wesley So had a sizable edge over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, but made a wrong trade at the critical moment.

Wesley So ended up with great winning chances against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Wesley So - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Finally, Nepo, fresh off his impressive 2821 performance at the FIDE World Team Championship, won a  really crazy game against Anish Giri, and took an early lead with 2.0/2.

Ian Nepomniachtchi was one of the stars of the World Team Championship and scored the highest performance of any player there. Just a day after it ended in Khanty-Mansiysk, he was in Leuven ready at the Openng ceremony, and gearing to play.

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Anish Giri

It is always tough playing a quick unpredictable player such as Nepomniachtchi. Just ask Anish Giri (above), who was unable to weather the storm in round two.

Round three

The whirlwind continued in Round Three. Once again, only one game was draw, and what a game it was.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Vladimir Kramnik

A big miss for Big Vlad, but I'm sure his fighting spirit will not fade away.

Anish Giri redeemed himself in style by taking down Levon Aronian in the not-so-quiet English Opening.

Anish Giri - Levon Aronian

Anish Giri present his win over Levon Aronian to Maurice Ashley after, explaining what he saw

I feel bad for Baadur Jobava, but he needs to get a grip on himself.

Baadur Jobava - Vassily Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk is always a force to reckon with

Finally, the big game: World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen versus World no. 2 Welsey So. Just a few days ago, Magnus won the Paris stage thanks (among other factors, of course) to his perfect score against Wesley.

The game everyone was waiting for: Carlsen-So

Magnus Carlsen - Wesley So

This goes to show how quickly one's luck can change.

There will be chances for Carlsen to turn it around, but for now So leads the race with 5.0/6, followed by MVL and Nepo, half-point behind. Remember that the nine Rapid games count double, after which there will be 18 Blitz games worth a point each. In the end, the winner will be the player with the highest combined score.

Rapid crosstable after three rounds

(Click for full size)

Links

• Official tournament site
• All Rapid games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.