IM Michael Rahal – Berlin, February 11th 2022 –”That’s what chess is. You train so hard, and then everything depends on that crucial few seconds of decision making.” Wesley So’s final reflection after losing his semifinal sums up very well the extreme difficulty of being elite chess professional.
Rapid and blitz game tiebreaks are the real test for today’s modern chess player. Calculation skills become slightly less important, and as the time on the clock starts to run low, pure intuition comes to the fore.
Good nerves, decent physical condition, stamina, and a well-thought-out opening repertoire are some of the key skills that have to be honed at home before the competition to be a good tiebreaker. Superior players excel even more with reduced time, thanks to better intuition and pattern knowledge plus match experience and today’s tiebreakers were no exception.
After the preliminary qualifying stage finished, two pools still had to determine the winners. The rules and regulations of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix read that tiebreaks are used to determine who advances to the semifinals: two rapid games – 15 minutes base time + 10 seconds increment – followed by two blitz 3/2 games. A nerve-racking “Armageddon” decisive game is left for the end: 5 minutes vs 4 on the clock, and Black advances in case of a draw.
Tiebreak 1: GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland 2702) – GM Richard Rapport Hungary (2779)
According to the database, Wojtaszek and Rapport have faced each other twelve times during their careers, with a total head-to-head score of 7-5. However, the trend in the tournament seemed to favour Rapport: he qualified for the tiebreaks in the last minute by defeating Fedoseev yesterday, while Wojtaszek missed a huge opportunity for direct qualification to the semifinals.
In the first game Rapport opted for the double-edged King’s Indian Defence with Black, his main weapon for most of his career. Wojtaszek had prepared a very solid fianchetto variation which has also served him well for many years.
The game proved to be very exciting and remained balanced until the opponents reached a double-rook ending. Rapport retained a strong passed pawn which eventually advanced to the seventh rank: it’s a well-known fact that these endgames with two rooks and passed pawns are extremely tricky. With precise play, the game should have been a draw, but, very low on time, Wojtaszek chose the wrong defence, and his king fell into a mating net.
Having won the first game, Rapport played it safe in the second. Faced with Wojtaszek’s Sicilian defence, he chose the solid 3.Bb5+, and went on to exchange every piece in sight. Even though he ended up a pawn down in a bishop ending, the Hungarian was never in any danger and drew the game effortlessly, securing his spot in the semifinals, where he will face-off against Hikaru Nakamura.
After the match, both players talked to IM Michael Rahal, Press Officer for the event. “I was just lucky even to have qualified for the tiebreak,” said Rapport. “In today’s first game, I got a decent position from the opening. Objectively it should be equal, but both of us were trying to create some imbalances. The resulting rook ending should be fine, but it’s somewhat uncomfortable for White because he has to watch out for checks all the time. In the end, he was low on time and blundered the mate.”
When questioned about tomorrow’s semifinal against Nakamura, Rapport dodged the issue: “I am really tired after this tiebreak and yesterday I also had a must-win game, so it takes a toll. But I guess there is no rest for the wicked, so I have to keep on going.”
When questioned about his opening choice in the second game, Wojtaszek took it in his stride and jokingly said that “Maybe I should have chosen something different because Rapport probably checked this line in his room during the break! The ending is just a draw, and there are hardly any real chances to do something different. I wasn’t expecting to lose the first game with White, so I wasn’t really ready for this scenario”.
Tiebreak 2: GM Wesley So (USA 2782) – GM Leinier Dominguez (USA 2722)
According to the database, So and Dominguez have faced each other on 53 occasions, most of them in rapid and blitz events, with a total score of 29-24 for Wesley So, making him a very slight favourite in this two-game match-up.
The first game was apparently a dull affair. With White, Wesley avoided the main theoretical lines in the solid Queen’s Gambit Accepted and went for a queenless ending that theory considers completely equal.
However, World Chess online commentator Evgenij Miroshnichenko observed: “This kind of setup is, in fact, dangerous for Black, especially if he does not realize the dangers.” But once again, Leinier’s defensive skills were on point, and after precise play, a draw was agreed on move forty-two, a very good result for Dominguez.
The second game was clearly the most exciting of the afternoon. Once again, Leinier went for the Italian Opening, and soon the game was in unknown territory. Wesley opted for a defensive plan with several pawn moves (d6-c6-f6), which he recognized after the game was possibly not the best choice.
After a few inaccuracies and facing the unattractive possibility of losing a central pawn, So sacrificed his knight on g2. With under a minute left on his clock, Dominguez found an excellent counter-attack and threatened mate with 30.Qd3. So parried the threat and created his own attack on Dominguez’s king, but the native of Cuba found the only move 32.Kh1 (any other move would lose the game), and Wesley was forced to resign.
Asked about his performance in the first game, Wesley gave an honest opinion: “Accidents happen; this tiebreak was very short. I knew it was a 50/50 chance; Leinier is very dangerous in the opening, so I decided to play whatever to avoid getting too tired. I have already played this line against Lenier two or three times in the past and never got anything.
So recognized he didn’t play very well in the second game: “In the second game, my pawn structure was very vulnerable, although I’m not entirely sure where I made the decisive mistake. I thought I had some tricks, but I totally missed that against 32.Kh1, I can’t play 32…Rf3 because he has 33.Re8+ and mate on h7.”
A very happy Leinier Dominguez gave us some insight on how to prepare for a rapid-blitz tiebreak: “I didn’t think too much about the opening because these fifteen-minute games are always decided in some middlegame position: you make mistakes, you survive a bad position and then its all about the calculation skills and your overall form on that particular day”.
With regard to the second game, Leinier recognized that luck was on his side: “I knew that my position in the second game was promising, maybe even clearly better because his pawns are weak and my pieces are well placed, but I was low on time, and in one move I can spoil everything. In any case, I think I deserve to qualify after finding this Kh1: it is such a difficult move. I actually saw it at the last moment.”
The prospect of facing teammate Levon Aronian tomorrow in the semifinal was still not on Leinier’s mind: “It feels a bit surreal after losing the classical game against Wesley. I felt that I’d go home by Saturday, and yet I was able to make a comeback. It took a lot of energy, so I’ll try to get some rest, and then I’ll think about the next match.”
About the Tournament
The three-tournament Grand Prix series, which will unfold from February to April, features twenty-four of the world’s best Grandmasters, who will compete in two of the three events. In order to make the series more exciting and reduce the percentage of draws, FIDE and World Chess have changed the format.
This innovative approach is new for the chess world but very similar to the Super League: the first stage has four pools of four players, and the winner of each pool advances to the semifinals and then to the final.
The venue of the first leg is the World Chess Club Berlin, located at the City Centre on Unter den Linden, 26-30, and the games will be played from February 4th-17th every afternoon at 3 pm. Along with the two qualification spots for the Candidates, the event has a 150.000 euros prize fund, 20.000 euros more than the 2019 series.
All the games will be broadcasted live with expert commentary in three languages at https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13604 More information and the full schedule can also be found on the worldchess.com website. Full pairings can be found here.
Due to COVID restrictions currently in place, only a limited number of tickets are available. Please note that the 2G+ rule applies to the event, which means that visiting the venue is only possible for those who either have a complete vaccination with EU-certified vaccine or proof of recovery and can additionally present a booster dose certificate or a negative test result.
Leading companies supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include:
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
FIDE Online Arena as the official Partner
For further questions, please contact: media@worldchess.com
Text: IM Michael Rahal
