Hamburg GP: Equality

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
11/12/2019 – The first classical games of the semi-finals at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg ended in draws. Both games went into theoretical lines that led to draws in less than thirty moves. In Tuesday's rematch games, Alexander Grischuk and Daniil Dubov will have the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, respectively. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko
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Semis kick off in Hamburg

The third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix is being played in Hamburg, Germany. The 16-player knockout has a €130,000 prize fund, with the series as a whole having an additional prize fund of €280,000 plus two qualifying spots for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The tournament takes place in the Kehrwieder Haus from November 5th to 17th. You can find more info here.

Half the semi-finalists at the third leg of the Grand Prix have their qualification to the Candidates on the line, while the other half is just fighting for prize money and honour. Coincidentally, the members of group one — Vachier-Lagrave and Grischuk — were paired up against each other. After day one of the semis, the Russian can claim a slight edge, as he drew with the black pieces.

Duda and Dubov, in the meantime, are two strong contenders to become permanent members of the elite in the future. They are only lacking some consistency against the top guns — especially Dubov — to join the likes of Aronian and Nepomniachtchi in top-notch events.

Match results

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Duda ½:½ Dubov

In the post-game interview, Daniil Dubov made a strong case for the appreciation of draws in games between strong players. The Russian spent over half an hour calculating a a potential ensuing line on move 11:

 
Duda vs. Dubov
Position after 11.Bg5

Perhaps, if we just take a quick glance at the game, we might not realize all that Black needed to assess here before playing the apparently innocuous 11...h6. Dubov himself declared that he "felt like an idiot" after spending over half an hour on this move, as after 12.♗xf6 ♛xf6 Duda instantly replied with 13.♖c1.

The Russian star was fully justified in spending that time though, as the critical line with 13.♘xd5 is both dangerous for Black and difficult to calculate. The idea is that after 13...cxd5 14.♕xd5 Black's rook and bishop are attacked. Thus, there should follow 14...♝xf2+ 15.♖xf2 ♕xb2:

 
Analysis diagram
Position after 15...Qxb2

Here is when things get more messy, as White has 16.♖xf7+ and in case of 16...♛xa1+ White has 17.♖f1+ with a killer discovered check. Black would need to go 16...♛b6+ and enter an endgame a pawn down after 17.♔h1 ♝e6 18.♖xf8+ ♜xf8.   

None of this happened of course, as Duda later confessed he had seen this line but missed 17♖f1+. Dubov rightfully explained: "That basically shows that even such a short draw makes some sense for the players".

 
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1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.d4 Nc6 7.Bg2 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.0-0 0-0 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bxf6 Qxf6 13.Rc1 E01: Catalan: Early deviations Bb6 The position is equal. 14.e3 Ba6 15.Re1 Rad8N Predecessor: 15...Rac8 16.Qa4 Bd3 17.Red1 Bg6 18.Rd2 Rfe8 19.Rcd1 Bh5 20.Rc1 Rcd8 1/2-1/2 (20) Sinnett,G (1939)-James,D (2024) Neath 2003 16.Qc2 d4 17.Ne4 Qf5
Strongly threatening ...dxe3. 18.exd4 Rxd4 19.Nc5! Qxc2 20.Rxc2 Bc4 21.Nb3 Bxb3 22.axb3 Rb4 23.Bxc6 Rxb3 24.Bd5 Rd3 25.Bc4 Rd7 26.Rce2 Rfd8 27.Re8+ Rxe8 28.Rxe8+ Kh7 29.b3 Accuracy: White = 81%, Black = 90%. ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Duda,J2734Dubov,D2699½–½2019Grand Prix Hamburg 20193.1

Jan-Krzysztof Duda

Will Duda and Dubov decide their match-up on Tuesday? | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

Vachier-Lagrave ½:½ Grischuk

The contenders for the Candidates spots entered a line of the Ruy Lopez mostly seen in games featuring players in the 2300-2600 range (although Dominguez and Caruana also explored it back in 2009). If we go by the time spent by the players, the critical moment came on move 15:

 
Vachier-Lagrave vs. Grischuk
Position after 14...Nxe4

Vachier-Lagrave went for 15.h3 after fourteen minutes of thought, but 15.♕c2 and 15.♗d5 were also moves to consider. Grischuk, in kind, spent a half an hour on 15...♝f5, when 15...♝h5 and 15...♝xf3 would have led to a different kind of struggle. The draw was signed in a completely balanced position twelve moves later.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.a4 Rb8 9.d4 Bb6 10.axb5 axb5 11.Na3 0-0 12.Nxb5 Bg4 13.Be3 C78: Ruy Lopez: Archangelsk and Möller Defences 13.Bc2 exd4 14.Nbxd4 Nxd4 15.cxd4 Bxf3 16.gxf3 Nh5 17.f4 Qh4 18.Ra3 d5 19.exd5 f5 20.Qf3 Rbd8 21.Rc3 1-0 (60) Harikrishna,P (2733)-Erdos,V (2624) Antalya 2017 13...exd4 The position is equal. 14.cxd4 Nxe4 15.h3 Bf5 16.Nc3
16...h6N Predecessor: 16...Nf6 17.Re1 h6 18.d5 Nb4 19.Bxb6 Rxb6 20.Nd4 Bg6 1/2-1/2 (38) Saulin,D (2375)-Lastin,A (2535) Moscow 1998 17.Bd5 Nxc3 18.bxc3 Ne7 19.Bb3 c5 20.Re1 cxd4 21.Nxd4 Bg6 22.Bf4 Bc5 23.Ba4
Nb3 is the strong threat. 23...Rb2 24.Qf3 Bxd4 25.cxd4 Nf5 26.Be3 Nxe3 27.Qxe3 Accuracy: White = 44%, Black = 26%. ½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Vachier-Lagrave,M2774Grischuk,A2759½–½2019Grand Prix Hamburg 20193.1

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France's number one Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

Commentary webcast

Commentary by GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko

Schedule

Nov. 5–7 Round 1 + Tie-breaks
Nov. 8–10 Round 2 + Tie-breaks
Nov. 11-13 Semi-final + Tie-breaks
Nov. 14 Rest day
Nov. 15-17 Final + Tie-breaks

Links

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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