Wesley So up 3–1 against Nihal Sarin, undefeated.
Chess.com Global Championship FINALS Day 1
Wesley So has taken a very convincing 3–1 lead in the first half of his matchup against Nihal Sarin. Nihal has been an underdog for the majority of the tournament, and no less for his matchup against world rapid #4. Many people thought he’d be out of the tournament before even the quarterfinals, so it’s natural that he’d be struggling against the “final boss” of the tournament.
GAME 1:
In game one, Wesley was with the white pieces. He started the game with 1.e4, looking for a fight, but Nihal Sarin responded with a very tame and stable Petrov’s defense (seen below) in hopes to equalize.
But Wesley So wasn’t going to allow that to happen. The players rattled off about 15 moves of opening theory, eventually reaching a middlegame that was relatively balanced but with more activity for Wesley.
However, the game quickly began to spiral out of control as Wesley pushed h4 and h5, and also developed a dominant space advantage on the queenside. Then he sacrificed those queenside pawns, but developed a completely crushing attack on the kingside using that pesky h-pawn and his incredibly active pieces. It culminated in a beautiful knight sacrifice on g6 shown below, shortly after which Nihal Sarin resigned the game.
GAME 2:
Nihal Sarin had the white pieces in game 2, looking to bounce back. He began the game with d4. Now, let me explain something to you: Nihal Sarin does not play 1.d4. I suppose he was trying to shock Wesley, but I thought this decision was slightly dubious due to Nihal’s serious lack of experience in d4 positions.
Nevertheless, the game continued, and Nihal played a Catalan System:
Wesley took the pawn on c4 and played an ultra main line with c5 and Nc6. At this point in the live broadcast, both players had very stressed and somewhat confused looks on their faces. While it’s best not to look to deeply into body language in chess, if we’re to take it at face value, it didn’t look like either player had a great plan. The rest of the game would go on to support that conclusion.
Queens were shortly traded, bringing Nihal’s winning chances down significantly. Wesley sacrificed the extra pawn back to split up Nihal’s pawn structure, another sign of an impending draw. A pair of knights were then traded, simplifying the game even further. Wesley actually started to get the upper hand, with the computer at one point declaring him a -1.5 advantage.
Out of concern for his position which seemed to be getting infiltrated, it was in fact Nihal who offered a draw to Wesley, who accepted. Now we head into game 3 where Nihal will have the black pieces hoping to hold.
GAME 3:
Wesley started the third game with 1.e4 once again, hoping to extend his lead by another point. Remember when I said Nihal would be hoping to hold? Well I was wrong. Nihal played a modern defense with 1.g6 making his winning intentions very clear.
Wesley went on to play in a very conventional manner. He took the center with d4, developed his pieces, castled queenside, and even sacrificed a rook for a knight in an attempt to demolish Nihal’s kingside. But his play was inaccurate and the computer gave black a -1.9 advantage, which is nearly winning in computer terms. Is Nihal’s plan paying off?
By move 20, it was in fact black whose pawns dominated the center of the board. Wesley continued trying to attack but the position continued to simplify and Nihal’s advantage climbed all the way up to -2.4, fully winning in computer terms.
But in the position below, Nihal blundered by allowing Wesley’s queen onto his back rank, and he lost his advantage.
Wesley continued to harass the black king, and successfully poked and prodded Nihal until he blundered. In the position shown below Nihal should’ve blocked the check with his rook, allowing the bishop to take it so that his king would have breathing room.
Instead, he played Kd6 with a mere 3 seconds left on his clock, and allowed a forced checkmate to occur. With that, Wesley So won the game and took a 2 point lead.
GAME 4:
Nihal Sarin now has the white pieces and decides to play the Nimzo-Larsen with Nf3 and b3, continuing the curse of very weird openings in this event. But by move 15 all the pieces except the queens and rooks were traded in a very uneventful affair. Shortly thereafter, Nihal agreed to a draw on only move 22.
I like to call this a tourniquet game, just trying to stop the bleeding. Nihal will now enter day 2 with a 2 point deficit and will have to win at least 2 games to stand a chance at winning the event. I’m rooting for him! He’s an even bigger underdog now and seeing these sorts of comebacks is always thrilling.
If you’ve made it this far in the article, please do consider following, clapping, and commenting! I’m here every day with chess recaps and other chess content. If you’ve got any suggestions or requests, let me know!
