IM Michael Rahal – Berlin, February 12th – Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura, both playing with Black, scored safe draws in their games today against Leinier Dominguez and Richard Rapport and advanced to the final of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Berlin.
In his game against Dominguez, Aronian decided to play very solidly, developing his bishop on e7 instead of his usual Bc5. Although Dominguez got a small edge from the opening, it was clearly not much. Once again better prepared, Aronian was blitzing out his moves while Dominguez was finding it hard to hang on to any kind of initiative. The game fizzled out to a rook ending with three pawns apiece, and a draw agreed on move 31.
Aronian’s preparation for this line was excellent. In conversation with Press Office Michael Rahal, he said: “I have analysed this position a bit from White and Black, of course. It’s slightly worse for Black, he keeps a small advantage and presses, but it’s a solid type of position. If White doesn’t play the most precise moves, it gets into a drawish type of position. I thought that playing solidly would be a good idea in a game in which I needed a draw”.
Leinier was definitely not expecting this line today: “I was slightly surprised by Levon’s opening choice as he normally plays Bc5. I was hoping to get some pressure, but after b4, which looks natural, it gets very concrete, and I am not even better. It’s a bit sad for a must-win situation, as I am not even close. Black is doing very well here; I couldn’t do much more”.
When questioned about his excellent result here and his focus on the Candidates spot, Aronian dodged the issue: “Generally, I just want to work on my chess and improve as a player, and continue doing what I love. It’s not directed especially towards a goal. Of course, some of the work I did pays off, but this is an ongoing process in which you work but try not to think of what you are working for”.
Although eliminated, Dominguez was pleased with his result: “The result is objectively not bad at all as I keep decent chances for the last event. I think that I have to work more on my physical shape: my level tends to drop a bit towards the end of the tournament. I get a bit tired, especially when you have tense games, which is the case in these top events”.
You can watch a postgame interview with both players on the World Chess Youtube channel
The second semifinal game was certainly more exciting. With White, Rapport opened with the King’s Indian Attack, which he had employed a couple of years ago in a Bundesliga game. Nakamura reacted in a principled manner, occupying the center and establishing strong outposts for his knights on e4 and c4.
Even though most of the pieces were still on the board, Rapport couldn’t find the way to get things going and soon had to adopt a passive approach. Sensing that the initiative was on his side, Nakamura offered a draw on move 30, which Rapport accepted.
“I was happy with the outcome of the opening, but I should have probably traded on e5 some pieces. I tried to do something smarter that didn’t work out” was Rapport’s first impression after the game.
Nakamura was surprised by Rapport’s opening choice: “I wasn’t expecting it. I vaguely looked at this Nc6 idea recently. My opponent in the final, Levon has actually played this a few times, so it was certainly familiar. But with my knight on e4 supported by my pawn on d5 his bishop on g2 is never active but the match situation – Rapport forced to play for a win – didn’t allow for much more”.
“I could have played on, but who wants to waste time. Who cares about rating points? Winning the match was the only important thing”, was Nakamura’s point of view when he was asked about continuing in the final position.
Speaking of his tournament performance, Rapport was very critical:” I think I played very poorly here, and I was very fortunate to qualify from the group stage. Also, I came here from playing Wijk aan Zee, an extremely long event, and here I played long games and ran out of stamina. I will play the next event in Belgrade, which is actually like home turf for me as I have been living there for a while”.
As there are no tiebreaks, the players will enjoy a free day tomorrow. The first game of the final will be played on Tuesday, February 15th. Hikaru Nakamura will have white pieces.
You can watch a postgame interview with both players on the World Chess Youtube channel
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
