It was one of the shortest rounds at the FIDE Grand Prix in Jerusalem, organized by World Chess. Very much in the spirit of Shabbat in this holy city, all the second-round games were over within 90 minutes after the start. Tomorrow, on December 15, the grandmasters will face each other again with colors reversed.
Sergey Karjakin went for a quick draw that he gave to two reasons for this decision: he was tired after the longest tie-break match, and also felt uncomfortable to play the opening without any preparation after rare move 6…g5 by Wei Yi. “My opponent was very well prepared for a side line which is not very popular and I realized it only over the board. It was tested by Anish Giri a few times before and since Wei Yi just played the match with him, he knew this variation and obviously looked though it” explained Sergei in the post-game interview.
An interesting theoretical discussion in Gruenfeld Defence took place in the game Wesley So vs Ian Nepomniachtchi. Ian has played all correct moves of his home preparation to equalize the position but according to him, he had to make some decisions over the board as he was not sure if he remembered the line correctly. Wesley So preparation was interrupted as his computer went dead on the previous day and the internet was slow. Recalling their previous match against Ian in Fisher Random, he noted it would not be a problem to prepare without a computer in Norway, while here it was a different story.
David Navara chose a line in the Italian Game, where black spends an extra tempo for playing a6-a5. Dmitry Jakovenko didn’t manage to get any advantage out of the opening, traded a few pieces and the draw was agreed on move 18.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had some hopes of getting a slight advantage in the Exchange French thanks to his pair of bishops versus bishop and knight, but Dmitry Andreikin ruined them with 18… Ne4. Maxim was about to play 19.Rad1 when he noticed 19…Rf2! with unnecessary complications for white. After a precise 19.Be4 and subsequent exchanges the opponents shook hands.
Round 2, game 2 pairings:
Andreikin – Vachier-Lagrave
Nepomniachtchi – So
Wei – Karjakin
Navara – Jakovenko
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Text: Anastasiya Karlovich
Photos: Niki Riga
World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com
Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox.
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