Superbet Classic: Nepo and Rapport score, catch So in the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/8/2023 – The Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest has three players sharing the lead after two rounds. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Richard Rapport joined Wesley So atop the standings after scoring wins over Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Jan-Krzysztof Duda respectively. World champion Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana signed a 21-move draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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“He got careless, obviously”

Three rather uneventful draws were seen in round 2 of the Superbet Chess Classic, with newly crowned world champion Ding Liren deciding to call it a day early on (with white) against Fabiano Caruana. The remaining two games were plenty entertaining, though. Ian Nepomniachtchi got the better of Bogdan-Daniel Deac, while Richard Rapport defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The two winners of the day joined Wesley So in the lead with 1½ points.

Nepo beat the tournament’s underdog with black after making the most of Deac’s subpar (and slow) play in the opening. Talking to Cristian Chirila after his win, Nepo confessed that he is lacking a bit of motivation after the gruelling match in Astana, but that this is his job, and he intends to gain rating in the single round-robin. Nepo’s conversion of his edge was brilliant.

Meanwhile, Rapport demonstrated that not all pure opposite-coloured bishop endgames are drawn. With both sides having the same number of pawns, the Romanian grandmaster outplayed Duda to grab his first win of the event. Rapport later explained:

He got careless, obviously, because he thought everything was a draw. [...] He wanted probably to wrap the game up very quickly.

Round 3 will see co-leader Nepo facing Ding with white in their first encounter after the Astana match. As noted by Caruana, Ding does not seem to have been trying very hard in his back-to-back wins with the white pieces, but obviously, he will have plenty of unused theoretical preparation against Nepo’s repertoire on Monday.

Anish Giri

Anish Giri and Alireza Firouzja signed a 36-move draw | Photo: Bryan Adams

Deac 0 - 1 Nepomniachtchi

Deac, Bogdan-Daniel27000–1Nepomniachtchi, Ian2794
GCT Superbet Romania 2023
Bucharest07.05.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.a3 Nc6 9.Qc2 Qa5 10.Rd1 h6 11.Be2 Ne4
12.cxd5 exd5 This move has never been played before. So far only 12...Nxc3 13.bxc3 exd5 14.Rxd5 Qxa3 15.0-0= had been tried. 13.Rxd5 Nxc3 14.Qxc3 14.bxc3 Qxa3 15.0-0 reaches the same position as the previous variation. 14...Bb4 In any case, this gains an exchange. 15.axb4 Qxd5 16.b5 Ne7 17.0-0 Be6
The evaluation is close to equal. Materially, bishop and pawn against rook is okay for White, but of course the imbalance also offers chances. 18.Nd4 Nf5 19.Nxe6 Qxe6 20.h3 Rfd8 21.Bf3 Rac8 22.Qa5 b6 23.Qxa7 g5 24.Bh2 Nh4 25.Bb7 Rc2 26.Qa4 Rc4 27.Qa6 Kg7 28.b4 Rc2 29.Qa1+ f6 30.Kh1 Rdd2
If you have an extra exchange, you should activate your rook(s). In this respect, things are already looking very good for Nepo, but in concrete terms nothing works for him (yet). 31.Bg3? However, this does not work. 31.Qa7 Ra2 32.Qb8 Rxf2 33.Rg1= In this sharp position White can take his opponent's b-pawn with Bc6 and Qxb6, while g2 remains safely covered. It is Black who has to be careful. For example Qxe3?? followed by 34.Bd5 loses immediately. 31...Nf5 32.Bc6 Ra2 33.Qb1 h5
Suddenly Nepo is winning - White is totally passive! 34.Qe4 Qxe4 35.Bxe4 Nxg3+ 36.fxg3 Rab2 37.Bf3 Kh6 38.g4 h4 39.Bc6 Kg7 40.Kh2 Rxb4 41.Ra1 Re2 42.Kg1 Rbb2 43.Ra7+ Kf8 44.Ra8+ Ke7 The white rook must return to the first row, when Black will have no trouble converting his advantage. 0–1

Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Ian Nepomniachtchi

Bogdan-Daniel Deac was defeated by an in-form Ian Nepomniachtchi | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Rapport 1 - 0 Duda

Rapport, Richard27451–0Duda, Jan-Krzysztof2724
GCT Superbet Romania 2023
Bucharest07.05.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nd7 3.d4 Nb6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.Nh4 e6 6.Nxf5 exf5 7.Qd3 g6 8.Bg2 Nf6 9.Bg5 Bg7 10.Qe3+ Kf8 11.Na4 h6 12.Qa3+ Qe7 13.Qxe7+ Kxe7 14.Nxb6 axb6 15.Bxf6+ Bxf6 16.Bxd5 c6 17.Bb3 Bxd4 18.c3 Bf6 19.0-0-0 Rhd8 20.a4 Rxd1+ 21.Rxd1
The position is completely balanced still. 21...b5?! But here Duda goes astray. Good was 21...Ra5! and he could work on improving his structure with b5 or f4. 22.axb5 Ra1+? It was better to keep the rook and to play 22...cxb5 23.Kd2 Rxd1+ 24.Bxd1 cxb5
Duda probably thought this endgame was a draw. It might have been for a short while at one point or another, but in a practical game Rapport holds all the trumps. The Hungarian, who represents Romania since last year, is now comfortably wrestling down his colleague, who has too many pawns on squares of the wrong colour. 25.b4 g5 26.f4 gxf4 27.gxf4 Bh4 28.Bc2 Ke6 29.Bd3 Bf2 30.e3 h5 31.Ke2 Bh4 32.Bxb5 Bf6 33.Bc4+ Ke7 34.Kd3 h4 35.Bd5 b6 36.Bg2 Bg7 37.Kc4 Kd6 38.Bh3 Ke6 39.Bf1 Ke7 40.Bg2 Kd6 41.Kb3 Ke7 42.c4 Bf6 43.Bh3 Ke6 44.e4 Bd4 45.Bxf5+ Kd6 46.e5+ Kc7 47.e6 fxe6 48.Bxe6 Kd6 49.Bg4 h3 50.Bxh3 Bg1 51.f5 Bxh2 52.f6 1–0

Richard Rapport, Jan-Krzysztof Duda

Jan-Krzysztof Duda trying to defend the tricky opposite-coloured bishop endgame against Richard Rapport | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Results - Round 2

Standings - Round 2

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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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