Moscow Grand Prix R06: Two is company, eight is a crowd

Photos by Max Avdeev

The start of the final stretch saw a bit of everything. While the “old friends meet again” Grischuk-Svidler and Radjabov-Mamedyarov ended as predictable quick draws, some of the older participants felt rejuvenated after the rest day and went on to open their respective scorelines.

Boris Gelfand seems to have mastered his power over Father Time. Decades roll by, and Boris still wins in his trademark style: an ambitious, yet classical handling of the opening, followed by a quick tactical explosion, to be converted into a win in the endgame. This time the victim was the unfortunate Pentala Harikrishna.

Frankly, it's not hard to see Boris continuing in this way to qualify for the Candidates once again!

Mickey Adams no longer has such ambitions, but it was nice to finally win a game and escape the bottom of the standings

Two of the pre-tournament (and pre-cycle) favorites, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniaschi (my own phonetic spelling of his name), locked horns in a desperate battle to stay relevant in the race.

Hikaru Nakamura needed to make a move if he had any hope of staying relevant, and he timed it to perfection with this win over Ian Nepomniachtchi. He stays in contention, but more is needed.

Hikaru Nakamura vs Ian Nepomniachtchi (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

 

Preparation was a big factor today, but of the computer-generated kind. Nakamura based his decisions on a careful study of Nepo's opening preferences, and it must be said that getting him out of the Najdorf into the Classical Sicilian was a stroke of genius.

Ian Nepomniachtchi's fighting spirit is not in doubt after only one draw in six games, the fewest of any player, but fewer losses would be helpful

The main ticket was the battle between two players from the leading group.

Ding Liren vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

 

A disappointing miss for Ding. Had he won this game he would have been a sole leader with just three more games to go. The second miss after his brush with victory against Svidler.

No less important than winning games in a tournament is not losing games, perfectly demonstrated by MVL's defensive skils, and the combination of the two is the perfect recipe for success

Perhaps, it would be appropriate to talk about the entire Grand Prix cycle to figure out where we stand.

2017 FIDE Grand Prix standings

As seen from the table above, every player will have three chances, and all of those will count for the final tally. There will be no “throw away” worst result, so, for example, Aronian's position after his disastrous showing in Sharjah looks very precarious. Levon needs to finish in the top three in both of his remaining events, and even so that would not guarantee him a top two finish. See for yourself.

Forget about the money, we're only interested in the points awarded. Since about half of the 24 players involved in this year's cycle are either not good enough or don't seem to be interested in trying, we have about 12 left to compete for the top two spots in the overall standings. I'd say any player who came from Sharjah with less than 70 points is at best a long shot to make it, even if his name is Levon Aronian.

In this tough field, it'll probably take around 300 points total. This is why Nakamura and Ding need to finish at least in a first place tie in Moscow, while Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave and Grischuk, might be OK with finishing around fourth through sixth places. Players like Giri, Radjabov, Gelfand and Svidler absolutely have to stay on a plus score in order to build up points.

In Sharjah, Alexander Grischuk was the surprise winner at the end, after a thoroughly lackadaisical event by all. Can lightning strike twice?

We'll see how it plays out. I can't wait for the next round to begin!

Standings after six rounds

Pairings for round seven

Links

• Official tournament site
• All 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.