Skilling Open: Coincidences

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
11/28/2020 – The semifinals of the Skilling Open kicked off on Friday. Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in their first mini-match after collecting three draws and a win. Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura followed a similar pattern, with So getting ahead in the matchup after getting a single win. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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Carlsen and So strike first

Much like in the start of his match against Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen felt he was mostly on the back foot against Ian Nepomniachtchi on Friday. His one win came in the first game of the day, when he came out of the opening with a clear advantage. Curiously, as ‘Nepo’ pointed out later, the two contenders had looked into this line prior to Carlsen’s 2014 World Championship match against Viswanathan Anand. Nepomniachtchi explained:

I remember well we had some discussion about this position, and now it appeared on the board. That was funny!

From that point on, however, the tables turned in favour of the Russian, who was not able to make the most of his chances and ended up losing the first mini-match of the semifinals. Carlsen confessed:

I didn’t really get what I want, so I’ll have to cook up something new. But overall I’m pretty happy to have survived, and I feel like in these matches if you can survive your worst day, you’re probably going to be fine overall.

Wesley So’s win over Hikaru Nakamura in their first mini-match was more one-sided, with ‘Naka’ reflecting on the fact that when he lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on day one of the quarterfinals he felt he had many more chances than the ones he got against So on Friday. The ever polite So said:

I feel like it was simply not Hikaru’s day.

Skilling Open

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Carlsen 2½ : 1½ Nepomniachtchi

The following position had been reached by Nepomniachtchi twice this year, against Giri, while Carlsen played this with black in his World Championship match against Anand:

 
Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi - Game #1
Position after 13...c6

There followed 14.Bh3 Kg8 15.Qc3 and Qb8, which was a grave mistake:

 
Position after 15...Qb8

Carlsen found the refutation — 16.d6 exd6 17.f4 Re8. White does not capture the knight immediately due to 18.fxe5 Rxe5 when Black has a lot of counterplay. Instead, the world champion continued to improve his position and only captured the piece under optimal conditions. Nepomniachtchi resigned after merely 26 moves.

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bd2 Bg7 6.e4 Nxc3 7.Bxc3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 D85: Exchange Grünfeld: Unusual White 7th moves and lines with 7 Nf3. 9.Nf3 Bg4 Threatening ...Bxf3. 10.d5 aiming for Bxg7. Bxf3 White has an edge. 11.Bxg7 Kxg7 12.gxf3 Ne5 13.0-0-0 c6 14.Bh3
Strongly threatening f4. 14...Kg8N Predecessor: 14...Qc7 15.Qc3 Kg8 16.f4 Nd7 17.e5 Rad8 18.Kb1 Nb6 19.Bg2 Qc8 20.Bh3 Qc7 21.Bg2 Qc8 22.Bh3 1/2-1/2 (22) Keskowski,T (2399)-Ristea,T (2351) ICCF email 2017 15.Qc3       White is more active. Qb8?
This move loses the game for Black. 15...Qc7= and Black is okay. 16.d6!+-       exd6 17.f4 Re8 18.Rhe1 Don't take 18.fxe5?! Rxe5 19.Qg3 Rxe4± 18...a5 19.Kb1 Don't do 19.fxe5 Rxe5 20.Kb1 Qe8+- 19...a4 20.fxe5 Rxe5 21.f4 Rc5 22.Qf6 a3 23.b3 Rh5? 23...Qd8 was necessary. 24.Qxd6 Qxd6 25.Rxd6 Rh5 24.Rxd6 And now Rd7 would win.White is clearly winning. Qe8
25.Be6!       fxe6
26.Red1! Weighted Error Value: White=0. 06/Black=0.60
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2881Nepomniachtchi,I27781–02020D85Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.1
Nepomniachtchi,I2778Carlsen,M2881½–½2020B72Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.2
Carlsen,M2881Nepomniachtchi,I2778½–½2020D85Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.3
Nepomniachtchi,I2778Carlsen,M2881½–½2020C67Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.4

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So 2½ : 1½ Nakamura

The Filipino-born grandmaster won the second game of the first mini-match. After following 11 moves of a Ding v Nakamura game from this year, White got a better position with his knight strongly cemented on f5. Some manoeuvring followed, until So found the way to break through:

 
So vs. Nakamura - Game #2
Position after 32...Ba6

33.h4 gxh4 34.Qg4 Kf8:

 
Position after 34...Kf8

Black is in deep trouble — 35.Bxf6 gxf6 36.Qxh4 Kg8 (to avoid mate) 37.Re2 Re5 38.Re3 bringing one more piece to the attack:

 
Position after 38.Re3

38...Rxf5 — what else? 39.Rh3 Rg5 40.Qh8+ Kf7 41. Rh7+ and Black resigned with his pair of bishops sitting useless on the queenside.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nf3 5.Nge2 d5 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.0-0 Bxc3 8.bxc3 Be6 9.Bxd5 Qxd5 10.c4 Qd7 11.Ba3 0-0-0 12.Rb1 e4 13.Nf4 Bf5 14.Nd5 Rhe8 15.Qd2 f6 16.Qc3 b6 1/2-1/2 (43) Nakamura,H (2777)-So,W (2780) chess.com INT 2018 5...d6 6.h3 Na5 C28: Vienna Game: 2...Nf6 3 Bc4 Nc6. 7.Bb3 0-0 8.0-0 c6 9.Ne2 Nxb3 10.axb3
10...Ba5N Predecessor: 10...d5 11.Nxe5 Re8 12.Nf3 dxe4 13.dxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxd8 Rxd8 15.Ra4 a5 16.c3 b5 0-1 (37) Guerrero Sierra,J (2234) -Martinez Ramirez,L (2374) Santa Clara 2015 11.Ng3 h6 12.Nh4 Bc7 13.Nhf5 d5 14.Qf3 Kh7 15.Nh5 Better is 15.Re1= 15...g6 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.Nd4 Wrong is 17.Bxh6? Rg8-+ 17...Qd6 18.Ne2 f5 19.exf5 Bxf5 20.Ng3
20...e4!       21.dxe4 Bxe4       Double Attack 22.Qe3 h5 Black should try 22...g5 aiming for ...Bg6. 23.Rxa7 Rxa7 24.Qxa7 Bxc2 23.c4 Kg8 24.c5 Qe5 25.f4 Qe7 26.Nxe4 dxe4 27.Ra4       Rf5 27...Rae8! 28.Rxe4= The position is equal. Qxc5 29.Qxc5 Rxc5 30.Re7 Bb6
...Rxc1+ is the strong threat. 31.Be3 Rb5 32.Bxb6 Rxb6       Endgame KRR-KRR 33.f5 Rf8 34.f6 Rf7 35.Re8+ Rf8 36.Re7 Rf7 37.Re8+ Rf8 38.Re7 Weighted Error Value: White=0.10/ Black=0.12
½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nakamura,H2829So,W2741½–½2020C28Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.1
So,W2741Nakamura,H28291–02020C54Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.2
Nakamura,H2829So,W2741½–½2020D41Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.3
So,W2741Nakamura,H2829½–½2020A81Skilling Open CCT KO 20212.4

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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.

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