SG Vogtareuth-Prutting » » »
SG Vogtareuth-Prutting » » »
The key result of the day was Rameshbabu Vaishali's fourth win in a row, a streak that followed four losses in a row and which started with a game she probably should have lost also. Today she took down Lei Tingjie and practically ruined her chances of winning the event. This was a 3.Bb5+ Sicilian 12...Bf8? (12...Be7=) was too passive and white was better for some time, some inaccuracies from Vaishali meant that black was back in it by move 25 and after first time control black had equality. The game was decided by a single move blunder, 61...Kf7? (61...h6 was equal) when 62.g5! meant all king an pawn endgames were winning for white, and there really was no escaping that.
Nurgyul Salimova had a lucky escape against Kateryna Lagno who was busy converting a huge advantage before the inaccurate 42...Rc8? (42...Qd7!) undid all her good work and a draw was soon agreed. Two of the pre-event favourites Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk played out a 45 move draw but I think both will just want this to be over.
Round 13 Standings: 1 Tan Zhongyi 8.5pts, 2 Lei Tingjie 7.5pts, 3 Koneru, Lagno, Goryachkina, Vaishali 6.5pts 7 Salimova, Muzychuk 5pts.
Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Vaishali, Lei-Koneru, Muzychuk-Tan, Goryachkina-Salimova.
Gukesh beat 20-year-old Alireza Firouzja whose entire campaign has been undone by his highly emotional approach to chess. Unless Firouzja learns to calm down I don't see how he can move forward. This was a double edged Berlin Defence where Firouzja was at least equal, 32...g5 was a misguided attempt to play for a win I guess but it rebounded and left Firouzja on the defensive. 43...Kh8?! (43.Qg6+!=) was a step in the wrong direction 44...Rg8? (44...Qg6 again) 45.Qg5?! (45.Qh6!) 45...Qg6? ( 45...Ne6! last chance to fight really) after which white didn't make any mistake in converting. Gukesh probably will play solidly against Nakamura and see where that takes him.
Hikaru Nakamura surprised Ian Nepomniachtchi with 4...Bc5 in the Ruy Lopez and was clearly well prepared. It does seem like he mixed up that preparation as 14...d5?! (14...d6 is fine) gave white chances if he'd found 17.d5! As it was 17.Bc2 roughly equal and they drew by repetition on move 27. Nepomniachtchi was really the one who could play on and given the size of his task in the final round perhaps he should have.
Fabiano Caruana continued to be in must-win territory in this round and he delivered beating Praggnanandhaa with the black pieces in a gruelling grind. In such a long game it's hard to pick things out but 15.Qh3?! (15.Rb1!) handed Caruana a nice initiative and he was quite soon hugely better. 25...Nxe1 grabbing the exchange was entirely natural but it left Caruana with a difficult task of breaking through but perhaps he thought he was fine with that. 40.f3 was forced opening the position a bit but the position was still about equal there. Once Queen's came off Caruana could slowly activate his Queenside pawn majority and although the engines quibble about his choices 67.c3? was the start of collapse from Praggnanandhaa and after 69.Ba1? the game was soon over.
Santosh Vidit tried a little bit against Nijat Abasov's Petroff but after great preparation and equality both players had no real motivation to continue and drew.
Round 13 Standings: 1st Gukesh 8.5pts, 2nd= Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura, Caruana 8pts, 5th Praggnanandhaa 6pts, 6th Vidit 5.5pts, 7th Firouzja 4.5pts, 8th Abasov 3.5pts,
Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Nakamura-Gukesh, Firouzja-Vidit, Abasov-Praggnanandhaa, Caruana-Nepomniachtchi.
Tan Zhongyi was losing against Nurgyul Salimova. By move 25 Tan was in a very uncomfortable position and tried to break out tactically with 25...b6? but this made things worse. Salimova's 43.f6?! (43.g6!) was a step in the wrong direction but she restored her winning position only to play 50.Bxf7? (50.Nxb4, 50.Rh4+ or 50.Bc6) which basically threw away the entire advantage and the game was drawn.
Whilst Tan was losing Lei Tingjie seemed poised to overtake her with a win against Kateryna Lagno. Lei defended the French Defence Advanced variation and after 13.Bg3? was better and seemingly within sight of the winning line played 26.Nf3? (26.Qb6! was the only winner) when the position became equal again and drawn on move 40.
Aleksandra Goryachkina got nothing in the Catalan against Humpy Koneru, pieces came off and a draw was agreed on move 25. The only decisive game was a resurgent Rameshbabu Vaishali who beat Anna Muzychuk. Things started to go wrong for Muzychuk after 24.e6 and by move 40 Vaishali had traded into a completely winning endgame which she converted.
Round 12 Standings: 1st Tan Zhongyi 8pts, 2nd Lei Tingjie 7.5pts, 3rd= Lagno, Koneru, Goryachkina 6pts, 6th Vaishali 5.5pts, 7th= Salimova, Muzychuk 4.5pts.
Rest Day 19th April 2024
Round 13 20th April at 19:30BST: Salimova-Lagno, Tan-Goryachkina, Koneru-Muzychuk, Vaishali-Lei.
Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Vaishali, Lei-Koneru, Muzychuk-Tan, Goryachkina-Salimova.