SuperUnited Croatia: Formidable Anand grabs the lead

by André Schulz
7/6/2023 – For five days, ten of the world’s best chess players, including former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, are playing rapid and blitz chess in Zagreb. The chess stars have been received with great enthusiasm in the Croatian capital. After the first day of rapid chess, living legend Anand has taken the lead. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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A strong field

The SuperUnited Croatia Rapid and Blitz is the third stop on this year’s Grand Chess Tour. It will be followed in November and December by the two tournaments in Saint Louis, the Rapid and Blitz tournament and the Sinquefield Cup.

In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, some of the strongest players in the world, such as Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Richard Rapport meet up-and-coming young players, who already belong to the world’s elite, namely Alireza Firouzja and D. Gukesh. Ivan Saric and Constantin Lupulescu play as representatives of the host countries.

The field offers some interesting encounters with a past, namely rematches of World Championship contests featuring Carlsen and three of his previous challengers: Anand, Caruana and Nepomniachtchi.

Garry Kasparov having fun | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The tournament in Zagreb consists of a rapid chess section and a blitz section. Three rounds of rapid chess will be played on each of the first three days. Then a double-round blitz tournament follows on the remaining two days. The points in the rapid count twice as much as in the blitz (win: 2 pts; draw: 1 pt).

High-fiving Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen started with a clear win with black over Gukesh. The young Indian was simply outplayed by the 17th World Chess Champion.

Gukesh D27440–1Carlsen, Magnus2835
SuperUnited Croatia Rapid 2023
Zagreb05.07.2023[Schulz,A]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 The Rossolimo Variation tends to be easier to play than the Sveshnikov Variation. g6 3...e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.d3 Ne7 6.Nbd2 d5 7.h4 f6 8.h5 e5 9.Qe2 Be6 10.c4 a5 11.a4 Rb8 12.b3 Nc8 13.Ba3 Bd6 14.Rc1 d4 15.Rc2 Nb6= 0-1 (42) Gukesh,D (2725)-Carlsen,M (2859) Chess.com INT 2022 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Re1 0-0 7.d4 d5 8.e5 Ne4 9.Be3 cxd4 10.cxd4 Qb6 11.Bxc6 Qxc6 At least equally popular is 11...bxc6 12.Nbd2 Bf5 12...Be6 13.Rc1 Qd7 14.Qb3 Rac8= 1/2-1/2 (39) Yoo,C (2532)-Praggnanandhaa,R (2624) Chess.com INT 2022 13.Nb3 b6 The c5-square cannot be occupied by the knight now. 14.Nh4 14.Rc1 Qd7= 14...Be6 15.f3 The knight has no retreat square. What now? g5 Correct. The h4-knight has nowhere to escape either. 16.fxe4 gxh4 White has come out of the exchange with the better structure. But he is weak on the light squares and the b3-knight is bad. 17.Bg5?! Better was 17.Rc1 Qd7 17...Qb7 18.h3 dxe4 19.Qh5= 17...f6 18.Rc1 Qb7 19.Bxh4 19.exf6 exf6 20.Bxh4 dxe4 and the black bishops are very active. 19...dxe4 20.Rc3
20...f5 20...fxe5!? 21.Rce3 Rad8 was also a possibility. 21.Bg5 Bf4 would be desirable, but White doesn't get around to it. f4 An unpleasant pair of pawns.
22.Qc2? White does not pay attention to the threat of h6. Necessary was 22.Rf1 and Black can play f3 Or 22...Rf5 23.Bxf4 Raf8 24.g3 Bh6 and it is still all up for grabs. 22...h6 23.Bh4 e3 Now Black has a clear advantage. 24.Qg6 The counterattack is easy to parry. Qd7 25.Rec1 If White could manage Rc7, he would have enough counterplay. 25.d5 Bf5 26.Qh5 Bxe5 is no good for White. 25...Bxb3 The simplest. 25...Bf5 26.Qc6 gives an advantage. Stronger is 25...Bf7 26.Qc6 Qf5-+ 26.axb3 Qxd4 27.Rc7 Rae8
28.Be1 The threat is Bc3 and e6. Qxe5 29.Rxa7 29.Bc3 Qg5-+ 29...Qf5 30.Qxb6 f3 The game is decided. 31.gxf3 Qxf3 32.Qe6+ Kh7 33.h3 Qf1+ 34.Kh2 Qe2+ 35.Kg3 Rf3+ 36.Kh4 Bf6+
0–1

Jan-Krzysztof Duda won against Ian Nepomniachtchi, also with Black, while Richard Rapport got the better of Fabiano Caruana.

Duda took the momentum from the first round into the second round, where he defeated another giant, Alireza Firouzja.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda

Richard Rapport, on the other hand, did not manage a second win. The Hungarian, who now plays under the Romanian flag, was defeated by Viswanathan Anand. Fabiano Caruana managed to level his score by beating Constantin Lupulescu.

Carlsen’s game in round two against Ivan Saric ended in a draw after the Norwegian missed a good opportunity in the middlegame and was probably on the losing side in the endgame. In the study-like pawn race, however, the Croatian grandmaster did not find the win and got off lightly. The game between Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi also ended in a draw.

In the third round, Anand scored his second win, against Lupulescu. At 53 years of age, the 15th World Champion has not lost any of his playing strength, at least not in rapid chess. Duda’s winning streak, on the other hand, was ended by Richard Rapport.

Vishy Anand | Photo: Lennart Ootes

With his 5 points out of 6, Anand took the lead in the standings after the first day of play. He is followed by Rapport, Carlsen and Duda.


Anastasiya Karlovich interviews Vishy Anand


Standings after round 3 (win = 2 pts; draw = 1 pt)

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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