FIDE Candidates 2024 Round 2
Chess fans ate good today.
Hikaru Nakamura - Vidit Gujrathi
Naka and Vidit got into a very strategic and slow-playing Berlin Spanish with 4.d3, and on move 8 Vidit sprung an interesting novelty.
8…c6!?
Naka had already taken a bit of time 8 moves in, but after 9.Bd3 Bb6, he spent twenty minutes on 10.dxe5. Vidit responded with 10…dxe5 11.Nxe5. It appears that White won a pawn except for…
11.Bxh3!!
Another bishop sacrifice! Up to this point Vidit had spent less than five minutes, while Naka had poured in 40 minutes of his own time. Clearly Vidit was sitting comfortably on some home-grown preparation and Naka started to go wrong with 12.Nc4!?
Later in the game Naka offered a trade of bishops in a difficult position, but Vidit refused to budge.
After 18.Be2, Qd6 looks reasonable, and is pretty strong. But Vidit went for broke with 18…f5! and the position continued to snowball in Black’s favor: 19.f4 Bb6! Vidit sacrificed a piece again, and won in very beautiful fashion 10 moves later as Nakamura resigned. The whole attack was wonderful, and it is particularly impressive how disruptive Vidit’s play was in an opening known for its strategic features — Nakamura’s queenside pieces barely moved the entire game.
Fabiano Caruana - Nijat Abasov
Caruana faced another Sicilian this time, but this time a Nc6 variation, so we got to see him play the Rossolimo, and we got another rare continuation featuring an early e5 push. An exchange on c6 led to a game that may have resembled the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez: Slow, maneuvering middlegame with queens on the board and a closed center. Fabi nursed a slight edge the entire game, and went for the tried-and-true strategy of slowly outplaying his weaker opponent, until Abasov blundered under a bit of time pressure and Fabi was able to quickly force his resignation:
Here Abasov can possibly hold up the pressure with a slow move like 34…Qe6, showing up the c5-bishop which helps prevent White from infiltrating on the f-file. However, Abasov swapped it for the knight on b3: 34...Bxb3?? 35.Qxb3 Rxa5 35.Raf1! (showing why it was important to keep the bishop). White has absolute control over the f2 square now, and after 36.Kh8 37.Rf7, Abasov resigned, as the Black King has no defenders and White’s control over the seventh rank is absolute. I found Fabi’s conversion of this game instructive.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu - Gukesh Dommaraju
The Indian compatriots went for an Open Catalan, and it was very clear from the beginning that Gukesh was facing some extremely deep prep by Pragg, who sacrificed two pawns and offered a third in a striking position:
Objectively Black is better here, but Gukesh had a clock deficit of over an hour by the time he responded with 15…f5?!, allowing White to equalize. Pragg continued to push on the clock, but by move 18, his time advantage had dwindled to 20 minutes, and his position worsened a little bit as Gukesh continued to hold and defend well.
The position appeared incredibly difficult for both players, and both of them were starting to feel the pressure of the clock, though Pragg’s time had finally begun to dip under Gukesh’s as he struggled to find a viable continuation. Pragg threw away a lot of material to try to make something work, but Gukesh’s handling of the position was clinical and cool, and in the end he walked away with a full point for his troubles:
Here Gukesh convincingly counterattacked with 31…Bc5 32.Qg5?! Bxe6 33.h6 Rxf2! 1-0
A wonderful way to finish Round 2 for Gukesh!
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alireza Firouzja
Another d3 Berlin, Firouzja went for the equalizing 6…d5 variation, and Nepo chose an interesting sideline:
9.Nbd2 is the normal move here, but 9.b4!? was Nepo’s choice. Technically this scores a bit better for Black than White in the lichess master’s database, but Nepo and Alireza both played rather quickly here, implying that they were still in their prep. Again we got a scene with doubled f-pawns:
Ian chose an interesting move:
19.h4!?
This pawn cannot be taken because the open h-file is too much trouble for Black’s kingside to handle. Alireza had some difficulty figuring out what to do but started off strong with 19…Nc8. Ian went into the tank for a while, and then continued 20.h5 Kh8 21.h6 g5! At this point, Ian looked really displeased with the position — it seemed like things were not going according to plan at all. His coolness was still extremely admirable, and after a 25 minute think, he played 22.Qd2!? and Alireza began to go wrong with 23…Nf5
Here is where it felt like the trend started to change, and several moves later, Firouzja appeared to lose the entire plot:
29…Qg6?? And Nepo was in the driver’s seat for the rest of the game, as Alireza’s attack on the king is premature and not worth returning the piece for one final pawn and a short-lived assault on the White monarch. Nepo continued to build a material advantage as Firouzja tried to push for a continued attack, and eventually Firouzja had to resign:
44.Ke3 Nd4 45.Bxd4 1-0
Chess fans ate good today, with four decisive games out of four played. Gukesh and Vidit are looking great, and Fabi picked up a point against Abasov; Nepo managed to beat Firouzja after coming back from a slightly difficult position. Overall, this is an exciting start to the tournament with lots of cool novelties and sacrifices, as well as instructive conversions of slight positional edges and defensive play to pick up material and counterattack to win. Cannot wait for round 3!