Shankland wins Prague Masters after dramatic final round

by Klaus Besenthal
6/20/2021 – Sam Shankland reached the final round of the Prague Masters Tournament with a half-point lead over Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The American grandmaster was still busy with his game against Jorden van Foreest when Duda had already overtaken him in the standings thanks to a win over Wojtaszek. Shankland only needed a draw, but his opponent was desperate to win. The curse turned into a blessing when Van Foreest blundered: Shankland won and thus became the undisputed tournament winner. | Photo: Official site
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Prague Chess Festival - Masters

Radoslaw Wojtaszek’s blunder in the game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda was rather crude, at least for players of that level. It occurred shortly before the time control, right after Duda had radically changed the character of the game with a double-edged piece sacrifice. After his mishap, Wojtaszek was simply lost.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.a4 Bd7 10.Bc2 Re8 11.Re1 h6 12.Nbd2 Bf8 13.Nf1 d5 14.exd5 Nxd5 15.Bd2 b4 16.a5 bxc3 17.bxc3 Nf6 18.Ng3 Rb8 19.Ba4 Bd6 20.Qc2 Na7 21.Bb3 Be6 22.Bxe6 Rxe6 23.d4 Nc6 24.Rad1 exd4 25.Rxe6 fxe6 26.cxd4 Qe8 27.Re1 Rb5 28.Ne4 Nxe4 29.Qxe4 Qd7
White did not need to worry about the a5-pawn since he could have responded to Nxa5 with Ra1 and Rxa6. Duda could have created luft for his king, but he decided to launch a sharp attack instead. 30.Bxh6!? gxh6 31.Qg6+ Kh8?! 31...Kf8! was probably better here: the king would have been able to gradually find a new, safe refuge on the queenside. 32.Qxh6+ Qh7 33.Qf6+ Qg7 34.Qxe6
Engines unanimously evaluate this position as "0.00", but in real life things are more complicated. 34...Nxd4?? Wojtaszek makes a serious blunder, which gives the white rook a free path along the e-file. White, practically out of nowhere, gets a mating attack. After 34...Ne7!= The black king, undefended, would have had nothing to fear. Of course, even then anything could have happened, since the balanced evaluation given by the computers was of a more dynamic nature. Under no circumstances was Black able to capture on a5: 34...Nxa5? 35.Re4 with a strong attack. 35.Nxd4 Qxd4? The game was lost either way, but this leads directly to mate. 36.Qh6+ Kg8 37.Re8+ Mate in three moves! 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Duda,J2729Wojtaszek,R26871–02021Prague Festival Masters 20217.4

Shankland had already won the direct encounter against Duda in the second round and, since this was the first tiebreak criterion, a draw against Jorden van Foreest would have been enough for him to win the tournament. But the Dutchman was playing to win.

The mistake that finally derailed Van Foreest’s ambitious plans was at least as dramatic as Wojtaszek’s against Duda. And Shankland knew exactly how to win the game. He did not let the chance be taken away from him, so that in the end he had a half-point lead over Duda in the final standings table.

 
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1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 e6 3.Bg2 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.d4 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4 Bd6 11.Qc1 Nbd7 12.Nc3 Ne4 13.Rd1 Nxc3 14.bxc3 a5 15.c4 Bxf4 16.Qxf4 Nb6 17.Rdc1 Bxa4 18.Qd2 Bc6 19.c5 Nd7 20.Rxa5 Rxa5 21.Qxa5 b6 22.cxb6 cxb6 23.Qa7 Be4 24.e3 Nf6 25.Ne5 Bxg2 26.Kxg2 h5 27.h3 Qd5+ 28.Kg1 Ne4 29.h4 Qa5 30.Ra1 Qc3 31.Ra2 Qb3 32.Kg2 Qd5 33.Kg1
In this position Van Foreest aggravated his position by inviting his opponent to capture on f7. Instead of his next move, he could have returned to b3 with his queen. 33...Kh7 34.Nxf7 Qf5 35.Ng5+ Nxg5 36.hxg5 h4! Black should not lose any time: it is time to attack. 36...Qxg5 37.Qxb6 was worse. 37.gxh4 Qg4+ 38.Kf1 Rc8 Now we know: Van Foreest wanted to win this game! 38...Qd1+ 39.Kg2 Qg4+ leads to an immediate draw. 39.Qa3 Qd1+ 40.Kg2 Rc1 41.Kg3 Qg1+ 42.Kf4 Qh2+ 43.Ke4
In this position, Van Foreest still could have saved a draw. In a blitz game, any club player would have captured the h4-pawn without thinking. Or if he wanted to think about it, he would have made sure that at least one more check was possible. Curiously the world-class Dutch player did neither the one nor the other... 43...Qg2+?? ...and blundered instead. 43...Qxh4+! 44.Kd3 Rd1+= 43...Qh1+!= 44.f3! A nice lesson in king safety. Qh3 Black has squandered a valuable tempo. That is enough for Shankland to win this important game. 45.Qf8! Covers mate on f5 and targets the perfect square on f4. Rc8! Van Foreest fights! Of course this rook is taboo because of the threat on f5. 46.Qf7! Forcing Black to capture on h4 first has the advantage of forcing the queen exchange (otherwise the white rook would move to h2). The endgame is then clearly winning. 46.Qf4 also wins, but after Black's Dh3-f1-b1+ things could get complicated, as the white king could be forced into the open board after e5 and e6. 46...Qxh4+ 47.Qf4 Qxf4+ 48.Kxf4 b5 49.Rb2 Rb8 50.Ke5 Rb6 51.Rb4 Kg6 52.f4
Black is lost. 52...Kf7 53.e4 Ke7 54.d5 g6 55.dxe6 Rxe6+ 56.Kd5 Rd6+ 57.Kc5 Rd1 58.Rxb5 Rf1 59.Rb7+ Ke8 60.f5 gxf5 61.g6! This motif is familiar to every chess player: check on the back rank followed by g6-g7! fxe4 62.Rb8+ 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Shankland,S2691Van Foreest,J27011–02021Prague Festival Masters 20217.2

Results - Round 7

 

Final standings

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1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 0-0 D38: Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defence (4 Nf3 Bb4). 8.e3 Bf5 9.Qb3 Bxc3+ The position is equal. 10.bxc3 10.Qxc3 gains popularity. Nbd7 11.Be2 c5 12.dxc5 g5 13.Bg3 Threatens to win with Bd6. Nxc5 14.Qb4 Qe7 15.0-0 Nfe4 16.Rad1 Rfd8 17.c4 dxc4 18.Bxc4 Rxd1 19.Rxd1
19...Be6N Predecessor: 19...Rd8 20.Rxd8+ Qxd8 21.Nd4 Bg6 22.f3 a5 23.Qa3 Nxg3 24.Qxc5 Nh5 25.e4 b6 ½-½ (60) Grischuk,A (2777)-So,W (2765) Chess.com INT 2020 20.Bxe6 Qxe6 21.Qa3 g4 22.Nd4 Qd5 23.f3 gxf3 24.gxf3 Nxg3 25.hxg3 Ne6 26.Kg2 Rc8 27.Qb3 Qxb3 28.Nxb3 a5 29.Nxa5 Rc2+ 30.Kh3 b6 Not much happened in this game. Weighted Error Value: White=0.02/Black=0.01 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nguyen,T2577Wojtaszek,R2687½–½2021D38Prague Festival Masters 20211.1
Van Foreest,J2701Abasov,N2665½–½2021B76Prague Festival Masters 20211.2
Grandelius,N2670Shankland,S2691½–½2021C07Prague Festival Masters 20211.3
Duda,J2729Navara,D26971–02021C65Prague Festival Masters 20211.4
Abasov,N2665Grandelius,N26701–02021B23Prague Festival Masters 20212.1
Shankland,S2691Duda,J27291–02021B90Prague Festival Masters 20212.2
Wojtaszek,R2687Navara,D26971–02021E06Prague Festival Masters 20212.3
Nguyen,T2577Van Foreest,J2701½–½2021D15Prague Festival Masters 20212.4
Duda,J2729Abasov,N2665½–½2021D35Prague Festival Masters 20213.1
Van Foreest,J2701Wojtaszek,R2687½–½2021E54Prague Festival Masters 20213.2
Grandelius,N2670Nguyen,T2577½–½2021D26Prague Festival Masters 20213.3
Navara,D2697Shankland,S26910–12021A29Prague Festival Masters 20213.4
Van Foreest,J2701Grandelius,N2670½–½2021C85Prague Festival Masters 20214.1
Wojtaszek,R2687Shankland,S2691½–½2021E04Prague Festival Masters 20214.2
Abasov,N2665Navara,D26971–02021D02Prague Festival Masters 20214.3
Nguyen,T2577Duda,J2729½–½2021A40Prague Festival Masters 20214.4
Navara,D2697Nguyen,T2577½–½2021C54Prague Festival Masters 20215.1
Shankland,S2691Abasov,N26651–02021E46Prague Festival Masters 20215.2
Duda,J2729Van Foreest,J27011–02021C80Prague Festival Masters 20215.3
Grandelius,N2670Wojtaszek,R2687½–½2021C84Prague Festival Masters 20215.4
Wojtaszek,R2687Abasov,N26651–02021D38Prague Festival Masters 20216.1
Nguyen,T2577Shankland,S2691½–½2021D39Prague Festival Masters 20216.2
Van Foreest,J2701Navara,D2697½–½2021A20Prague Festival Masters 20216.3
Grandelius,N2670Duda,J27290–12021C02Prague Festival Masters 20216.4
Navara,D2697Grandelius,N2670½–½2021B52Prague Festival Masters 20217.1
Shankland,S2691Van Foreest,J27011–02021A15Prague Festival Masters 20217.2
Abasov,N2665Nguyen,T2577½–½2021C52Prague Festival Masters 20217.3
Duda,J2729Wojtaszek,R26871–02021C84Prague Festival Masters 20217.4

Open

In the Open, Polish GM Marcin Krzyzanowski and Austrian IM Felix Blohberger shared first place on 7 points. If we have interpreted the somewhat cryptic regulations correctly, however, the Polish player is the tournament winner based on the fourth (!) tiebreak criterion — more games played with black: 5 compared to Blohberger’s 4.

These two players were the only ones — out of the eight co-leaders after the penultimate round — that won their last games of the event.

Rg. Name Pkt.  Wtg1 
1 Krzyzanowski Marcin 7,0 49,5
2 Blohberger Felix 7,0 49,5
3 Nasuta Grzegorz 6,5 51,0
4 Petr Martin 6,5 50,0
5 Greenfeld Alon 6,5 48,5
6 Plat Vojtech 6,5 48,5
7 Kraus Tomas 6,0 46,0
8 Sorm Daniel 6,0 45,5
9 Neuman Petr 6,0 45,0
10 Pavlidis Anastasios 6,0 44,5
11 Finek Vaclav 6,0 44,5
12 Simek Petr 6,0 42,5
13 Dahl Christoph 6,0 42,5
14 Colbow Collin 6,0 41,0
15 Navrotescu Andreea 6,0 39,5

...99 players

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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MauvaisFou MauvaisFou 6/21/2021 11:30
I hope Navara, who is both a gentleman and a fighter, will recover from his bad tournament
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