Sinquefield Cup: Five draws, Gukesh puts pressure on Nepo

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/21/2024 – All five games ended drawn in round 2 of the Sinquefield Cup, leaving Alireza Firouzja as the sole leader in the standings. The tournament leader, who is also in first place in the Grand Chess Tour standings, safely held Nodirbek Abdusattorov to a draw with the black pieces. The most exciting encounter of the day saw D Gukesh getting the upper hand against Ian Nepomniachtchi, but failing to convert his extra pawn into a win in a technical endgame. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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Firouzja still the sole leader

The one decisive game of the Sinquefield Cup so far saw Alireza Firouzja collecting a crucial victory over Fabiano Caruana on Monday. If the youngster ends up winning the event, he will repeat his success from 2022, when he grabbed back-to-back tournament victories in Saint Louis to also secure first place in the Grand Chess Tour overall standings.

In the second round, Firouzja played the Berlin Defence against the ever-dangerous Nodirbek Abdusattorov and safely held his young colleague to a draw after 46 moves. In round 3, Firouzja will play white against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in an all-French confrontation.

As noted by MVL during his interview with Cristian Chirila, he will be looking to finally break his streak of draws in classical chess. He has drawn his previous 21 games, as his latest decisive result was seen on March 24, when MVL beat Felix Blohberger with the white pieces.

MVL played the Italian Opening against Praggnanandhaa on Tuesday, much like Anish Giri did in his game against world champion Ding Liren. For a second day in a row, Ding found a nice way to force a draw in the early middlegame - he had the black pieces this time around.

17...Qxh4 draws by force since after 18.Nxh4 Nxf2 (attacking the queen) 19.Qf3 there is nothing White can do to escape the double checks with the knight and the bishop from a7.

19...Nh3+ 20.Kh1 Nf2+ 21.Kg1 Nh3+ Draw.

Anish Giri

Anish Giri sharing a laugh with Ding Liren right after the draw was signed in their round-2 encounter | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Anish Giri, Ding Liren

The final position in Giri v. Ding with the kings in the centre | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The game that was closest to ending decisively was the hard-fought battle between D Gukesh and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

This position was reached right after the queens had been exchanged on d4. White's majority on the kingside surely looks more dangerous than Black's majority on the queenside - at least for the time being.

Later on, Gukesh managed to convert his positional edge into a material advantage, as he gained a pawn on move 38.

After 38.Nxf7+ Black cannot play 38...Kxf7, since 39.Rxd7+ Kf8 40.f5 is clearly winning for White. Thus, Nepo went for 38...Nc5 and there followed 39.Nd6 a4 40.Ke3 b3 41.axb3 axb3

As it turned out, the passer on the b-file gave Black enough counterplay to hold the draw. It was a strong showing of defensive technique by Nepo - who ended the game with a 40-minute advantage over his opponent on the clock!

Dommaraju Gukesh

Fully focused - Dommaraju Gukesh | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Standings after round 2

All games

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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.