Hikaru Rips off Headphones and Storms out of Playing Hall
Lei Tingjie Wins Women’s Candidates Pool A, Chess.com Global Championship Finalists Announced
Lei Tingjie Moves onto Women’s Candidates Finals!!
Lei Tingjie has defeated Anna Muzychuk in the last classical game of their match to win Pool A of the Women’s Candidates Tournament and advance to the final. Anna Muzychuk is an exceptionally strong player as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, and this surely was no easy fight for Lei, so props to Anna as well. But only one player may prevail, after all.
The first three games of their match were drawn, meaning that the fate of the match rested on the outcome of game 4. With the white pieces, Lei played d4, and Anna met her with a Grunfeld defense. The two played about 12 moves of theory, and the position was slightly better for white and very imbalanced. Lei proceeded to create far superior situations for her pieces, with more coordination and activity than Anna’s. Lei also cultivated a dominant space advantage, won a pawn, and got down into an endgame which was completely winning. In the position below, Anna Muzychuk resigned. Absolutely cold-blooded game by Lei.
Chess.com Global Championship
Hikaru vs. Wesley
Wesley So!!! In what many consider to be a shocking turn of events, Wesley So won games 7 and 8 to defeat the consensus favorite Hikaru Nakamura. I predicted pretty mindlessly that Hikaru would win the match, hands down. But this is just a lesson never to underestimate Wesley So. This man is an absolute machine.
Games 5 and 6, the first two games for today, were draws. In game 7, Hikaru was with white, and played a Four Knights Spanish variation (seen below). This was a big surprise, because this opening has generally been known to be easy to play from the black side. Maybe Hikaru was vying for a psychological edge? Who knows. I personally think the decision was slightly reckless.
The players went on to play 14(!) moves of theory in a pretty offbeat opening, and both players wound up castling queenside. Hikaru did enter the middlegame with a slight advantage though, but the position was muted. The players maneuvered carefully in a balanced position for around 15 moves, and then unprompted, Hikaru sacrificed a rook for a bishop, immediately giving Wesley the advantage. Wesley went on to convert the following endgame into a win with relative ease. As much as I love Hikaru, I’m not sure what he was thinking in this game.
In game 8, Wesley So had the white pieces and a one point advantage. Because this was a must-win game for Hikaru, he decided to play a Modern defense with 1.e4 1.g6. But he quickly went very far astray in the opening by playing the move below, completely undeveloping the knight for no legitimate reason.
As you can see, Wesley’s space advantage is completely overwhelming and Hikaru has zero development or activity. The computer evaluation here is plus 3(!!) for white, on only the 9th move. Wesley’s play through the following middlegame was imprecise, but Hikaru was even more imprecise, and gave up his queen for a rook and a knight in a situation where it was uncalled for. Regardless, the players found themselves in a drawn position.
But Hikaru, with a mere 3 seconds left on his clock, blundered a two move combination which lost him his rook. When Hikaru saw that, he threw his headphones off his head, shook hands with Wesley, and stormed out of the playing hall. Jeez, man. With that, Wesley So took the match and became the first chess.com Global Championship finalist.
Nihal Sarin vs. Anish Giri
This time, another underdog came out on top, but seemingly one whose odds to win were far smaller. Nihal Sarin was seen by many to be quite clearly the weakest player in the semi-finals, but he silenced the doubters by taking Anish to a tiebreaking Armageddon game and defeating him.
Anish Giri actually won the first game they played today. The game started out with a freaking Nimzowitch Defense by Nihal Sarin. What the hell is with these openings today??
Anish obviously took the center and went on to have a completely dominant space advantage. Eventually, as the players trod through a very complex middlegame, Anish uncorked a series of brilliant tactical moves that secured him Nihal’s queen, in exchange for both of his own rooks. Nihal was up 2 points of material, but Anish correctly realized that the position was still close to winning for him, and he went on to prove it.
The next game Nihal had the white pieces, and with them, an opportunity to redeem himself. Once again, we saw a very weird opening. Where it looked like we may have gotten a Catalan or Nimzo-Indian, we got.. 3.Bf4? I’m not sure if this even has a name.
The players went on to expand in the center to create a very weird and imbalanced pawn structure, but one which was advantageous to Nihal. The players ended up castling on opposite sides: a development which favored Nihal, and fatally disfavored Anish. Nihal pushed for g4 and h4, and eventually played this very pretty Bh6 move.
If black captures the bishop, white’s queen recaptures with check, forcing the king to e8, after which white’s rook from g1 would arrive on g8, bringing checkmate with it. Just two moves after Nihal uncorked this sexy move, Anish Giri resigned the game.
The next two games were draws, meaning the score was evened out at 2–2. That brings us to an Armageddon game, meaning that black will start out with considerably less time than white, but if black can draw the game it will count as a win.
It was another weird opening, and the game was relatively uneventful. So uneventful that 79 freaking moves of it were played in a dead drawn rook endgame in which Nihal was up a pawn, a pawn he desperately wanted to queen. But he was eventually able to get Anish to blunder on move 99, and went on to win a few moves later. Props to Nihal for having the endurance to accurately push the game for so long, and for converting the game as soon as he was given the opportunity. Very Magnus-esque.
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