The contest resumed after a day off at the Ugra Chess Academy on September 20. Curiously, all victories of the day were achieved with White.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Peter Svidler. White got a comfortable game in the opening and won a pawn in the middlegame. Approaching the control move, Black, being in a difficult position, sacrificed a piece but did not manage to get any compensation, as Vachier-Lagrave found the most accurate defensive moves. The Russian GM resigned on the 42nd move.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda had White against Jeffrey Xiong. Soon after the opening, the Pole captured a poisoned pawn, missing a strong reply from his opponent, and ended up an exchange down. However, in the subsequent play, the American first allowed White to achieve dynamic equality and then tripped up on the 34th move. Duda capitalized on it with an impressive pawn thrust 35.e5, got an overwhelming advantage and won the game.
“Obviously, I am playing very good here. So far, I have 100% with White pieces. Usually, I play with White in the first game and then manage a draw or an even better result in the second,” commented Jan-Krzysztof after the game.
Nikita Vitiugov outplayed Welsey So in an attractive positional style. The Russian GM was slowly increasing the pressure and ended up with a dangerous passed pawn on b7. Black managed to block the pawn, but it cost him two of his own. So defended tenaciously, but on the 58th move his king got caught into a mating net. Black resigned on the 60th move.
In the longest game of the day, Alexander Grischuk defeated Lenier Dominguez. The Russian GM gained the upper hand in a dry ending with rooks and opposite-colored bishops and won a pawn. Black retained good drawing chances after the rooks were exchanged, however, being under the strong time pressure, Dominguez committed a fatal mistake and lost the battle.
Four encounters – Le Quang Liem – Aronian, Mamedyarov – Radjabov, Nepomniachtchi – Yu Yangyi, and Ding Liren – Alekseenko – ended peacefully.
The return games with the colors reversed will be played on Saturday, September 21.
Results:
Ding Liren – Alekseenko: 1/2
Duda – Xiong: 1-0
Vachier-Lagrave – Svidler: 1-0
Vitiugov – So: 1-0
Nepomniachtchi – Yu Yangyi: 1/2
Le Quang Liem – Aronian: 1/2
Mamedyarov – Radjabov: 1/2
Grischuk – Dominguez: 1-0
The competition is organized by the Government of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra, International Chess Federation (FIDE), Ugra Chess Federation, and Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation.
Official website: https://khantymansiysk2019.fide.com/en/
General partner – Gazpromneft-Khantos LCC.
Official airline – Utair.
Official partners of the competition: OJSC Rostelecom, Ugra Chess Academy, Russian Chess Federation, AB InBev Efes and PJSC Rosneft.
FIDE official partner – JSCo “RZD”.
General media partner – News Agency TASS.
Media partners – Match TV, World of Chess social network, OTRC “Ugra”, Ugra-news.ru News of Ugra regional newspaper, AIF-Ugra newspaper.
