Anish Giri scores an all-important win in the 9th round against Wang Hao, keeping chances to fight for the victory in the tournament alive. Alexander Grischuk “plays roulette”, takes some risks but can not beat the tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi. As a result, Ian preserves his pole position in the Candidates Tournament a half-point ahead of three competitors. 

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave miraculously saves an extremely tough position against Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana fights to the bare kings, but his game with Kirill Alekseenko also ends in a draw. Three players: Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Anish Giri share second place after the nine games, ready to chase the leader in the next rounds. 

Alexander Grischuk – Ian Nepomniachtchi (½ – ½) 

In the Russian derby between Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the leader used his main weapon, the Grunfeld Defense, in response to 1.d4. Alexander has prepared a surprise – a seemingly modest but poisonous continuation 9.h3!?, which has never been seen at a high level. On the next move, White sacrificed a pawn, giving his opponent a wide range of options. It was clear that Grischuk analyzed the emerging complications at home, while Ian had to sort them out over the board. Ian accepted the sacrifice but immediately offered to restore material balance at the cost of simplifying the position. Alexander did not like this scenario – after yesterday’s defeat, he was eager to complicate matters. 

However, Ian played solidly and soon a roughly equal ending emerged on the board. Grischuk tried to use a small space advantage and was in no hurry to win back the sacrificed pawn. Nepomniachtchi, in his turn, completed his development and even attempted to grab the initiative. Grischuk could have reached equality in different ways, but, as Alexander said at a press conference, he decided that it was a moment to “play roulette” and went for an exchange sacrifice. Ian thought for a long time and refused to accept this “gift”. A series of exchanges followed and after White’s 41st move the grandmasters agreed to a draw. According to the FIDE Candidates regulations, players have no right to start peace negotiations before the 40th move. 

Anish Giri – Wang Hao (1-0) 

In the game between Anish Giri and Wang Hao saw a classic version of the Catalan. White put some pressure on the opponent’s position, but Wang Hao was defending creatively sending his queen to the a8-square. Nevertheless, Black did not manage to engineer a real counterplay. At a press conference right after the game, it became clear that the grandmasters differed in their evaluation of the position that emerged after the opening: Giri believed that he had only a minimal advantage, while Wang Hao did not see good continuations for himself. 

According to chess engines, the truth was somewhere in between, but pessimism played a cruel joke on the Chinese grandmaster. He carelessly weakened his kingside and soon found himself under an extremely unpleasant pin on the long diagonal. In the final portion of the game, the Dutch grandmaster made a series of precise moves, shattered Black’s defence, and scored a full point on move 39.

“A very, very good game. He managed to showcase all his strengths here, both in terms of planning and a little idea in the opening with h3”, said the world champion Magnus Carlsen, who is doing live commentary of the games on his own online platform. 

Kirill Alekseenko – Fabiano Caruana (½ – ½) 

Young Russian Grandmaster Kirill Alekseenko started the second part of the Candidates Tournament having white pieces in two straight games. As in the victorious game versus Grischuk, he opened with the same move e4. Soon a calm position, typical for the Italian, appeared on the board. In the old days, this variation was called Giuoco Piano, meaning a “calm play”. However, Alekseenko did not agree with such an assessment of the situation and introduced an interesting idea, ready the sacrifice of two pawns. 

The 2018 world championship challenger proceeded with reasonable caution as he took only one of the pawns, and even returned it two moves later. Later at the press conference, Kirill admitted that he underestimated the move 14…c2. Fabiano was not even considering the capture on b2 – the position that arises in this case, similar to the Northern Gambit, seemed too dangerous for him. “I tried to stabilize the position; it looked dangerous for black, but white also had his own problems,” Fabiano noted. 

Alekseenko rushed to restore material balance but overlooked some tactics, which helped Caruana to successfully regroup his pieces. The American seized the initiative, but Kirill once again proved that he has a perfect feeling of dynamical resources of the position. He gave up both pawns on the queenside while activating his pieces. Caruana refused to repeat the moves first but eventually went for an equal rook endgame. The grandmasters played almost to bare kings and agreed to a draw on move 59.

Ding Liren – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (½ – ½) 

The most exciting opening duel happened in the game between Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The French Grandmaster had to play two games with Black at the start of the second half of the event, and in both of them, he faced powerful home preparation of his opponents. 

Maxim is known for his love for the Grunfeld Defense in response to 1.d4, but it didn’t come to that this time – as soon as Black played g6, White’s h-pawn darted to an assault: 3.h2-h4!? This opening does not have an official name yet, but it has become quite trendy in recent years, influenced by AlphaZero neural network. 

Vachier-Lagrave chose a rather ambitious plan: he exchanged his g7-bishop bishop for the c3-knight and placed his pawns on the dark squares, creating a powerful outpost for his knights on the central e5-square. Judging by the speed Ding Liren made his opening moves, it did not surprise him. He spent only two minutes before sacrificing a knight, placing it under a direct attack of the enemy’s pawn.

Maxim accepted the sacrifice and immediately returned the extra material, trying to avoid a crushing attack. Still, Black ended up in a strategically tough position, since his king was exposed, while White had two bishops and a space advantage. After another inaccuracy by Vachier-Lagrave, his position was on a brink of total collapse but then it came the Chinese grandmaster’s turn to make mistakes. He rushed to advance his protected passed pawn and eventually lost it. Although Black’s position remained dangerous, Maxim created adequate counterplay and saved half a point.

“I got into lots of trouble. At some point, I was sure the position would just collapse in two moves. In the end, I managed to save this game but it won’t go into the collection of my best games for sure. I hope my brain will click at some point and I will play a game I am proud of from the beginning to the end.” Maxime said right after the game. 

Naturally, Ding Liren was not particularly happy about the outcome: “I think I played a good game until I blundered 37… Re6 and then lost my passed pawn. Instead of 37.d6? I should have played, for example, 37.Rd2 and continued the fight for the victory.”

Standings after Round 9: 

Pairings for Round 10: 

Fabiano Caruana – Ding Liren
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Anish Giri
Wang Hao – Alexander Grischuk
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Kirill Alekseenko

Media accreditation for the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg is carried out on the official website of the tournament: https://candidates-2020.com/accreditation and tel. +7 962 385-05-61. Contact: press@fide.com 

Photo: Lennart Ootes
 

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