Wesley So beating Alexei Shirov to catch Leinier Dominguez in the Pool D lead was the one change among the leaders after Round 3 of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix. Levon Aronian pulled a full point clear in Pool C after winning a model positional game against Vincent Keymer while Daniil Dubov lost to Vidit. Andrei Esipenko bounced back to beat Etienne Bacrot and get within a point of Hikaru Nakamura, who drew a thriller against Alexander Grischuk, with Oparin-Rapport and Fedoseev-Wojtaszek also edge-of-your-seat draws.
Levon Aronian is closest to securing a place in the semi-finals after defeating Vincent Keymer | photo: World Chess
You can replay all the games from the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from WIM Raluca Sgircea and GM Arturs Neiksans.
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The winner-takes-all format of the group stages of the Grand Prix continues to generate mayhem, with four decisive games in Round 3 and just one draw that was relatively quiet, though still hard-fought. It left the groups looking as follows at the mid-way stage.
Let’s again take the groups one-by-one.
There have been two types of post-game interviews for the players in Berlin, with Michael Rahal asking about the chess while Dina Belenkaya has been aiming for entertainment by asking assorted and much more random questions. The results have been mixed, but by far the most entertaining interview after Round 3 was when Alexander Grischuk decided to reveal what had been going through his mind at the critical moment of his hair-raising game against Hikaru Nakamura.
It’s a truth you soon discover after spending time around top chess players that they don’t require a demonstration board to analyse their games. They move the pieces more clearly on the Platonic ideal of a chessboard in their head, and often when they talk about a game afterwards they speed up their English while listing the moves to match the speed in their heads. Thankfully Alexander didn’t do that, and the variations he gave were crystal clear and, it seems, almost completely correct.
Hikaru described Grischuk’s choice near the end of the game as, “a little bit insane, because you go from maybe a slight advantage with White to something where one wrong move and you lose the rook and you lose the game”. Alexander agreed, pointing out the game had been “very logical” up until move 18, which the Russian played with six and a half minutes on his clock.
Any move of the d2-bishop keeps a safe advantage for White, but Grischuk went for 18.Nxb7?! Bxb7 19.Rc7 and here confessed, as you saw above, that he’d gone into deep calculation of 19…Be4!?. The impracticality of his whole decision to go for the line can be seen in the fact that even there he’d correctly calculated 20.Rxe7 Bc2 21.Rc1 Rxd2 22.Bf3 Bxe3! and Black is slightly better.
The hope was perhaps that Hikaru would play 22…Rd8, when Alexander showed he would end up with an advantage, but instead in the game the US star went for 19…Bc6! 20.Rxe7 Bb6! and Grischuk realised he was in trouble, since the bishop moves he wanted to play would lose the rook. For instance, 21.Bc3? Rxd1+ 22.Bxd1 Bd8!
After 21.Kf1 Alexander was then surprised by 21…a5! and admitted he was “quite lucky” to have 22.Rc1! and he was able to survive by the skin of his teeth. He’d planned 22.Bf3?, but spotted in time that 22…Bxf3! 23.gxf3 Rab8! again wins the rook.
Whatever White does, Kf8 next would pick up the rook on e7.
In the game, however, after 22…Be4 23.Rc4 Kf8 Grischuk was in time to pick up the e4-bishop in exchange for the rook, and in the end Hikaru decided it was in his best interests to give back the exchange to eliminate White’s bishop pair and force a draw.
The full interview is worth watching for Hikaru at the end saying that “all of us are going to be probably going after one player in this group in the rest of our games”, while Grischuk had some other strategic considerations in mind: “Also there are three more PCR tests, so everything is ahead!”
The player Hikaru was referring to as the weak link was presumably Etienne Bacrot, the Frenchman who played the French Defence against Andrey Esipenko in Round 3.
Andrey Esipenko bounced back from the loss to Nakamura to beat Bacrot | photo: World Chess
Etienne is not to be underestimated, however, and despite having doubts about his own aggressive play he was actually doing well all the way until move 28.
The computer’s suggested line here is pure brilliance, sacrificing both Black's central pawns to give the bishop an attacking avenue along the a2-g8 diagonal: 28…Rc8! 29.Qe3 c3 30.Rb3 d4! 31.Nxd4 e5!!.
That’s hard to spot or play, however, and after 28…Bg6 29.b5 a couple of inaccurate moves were all that were needed for Esipenko to plant a knight on c6 and suddenly have total control. Desperate measures didn’t save Etienne.
That left 19-year-old Esipenko level with Grischuk just half a point behind Nakamura — not a bad result, considering he hadn’t gone into the game with high hopes.
Actually I just wanted not to lose today, because I don’t think I’m in good shape and I just wanted to play solid, but somehow I won and I’m very happy.
Radek Wojtaszek retained the lead in Pool B after both games were drawn in Round 3, but they were both fantastic fights. Wojtaszek went for a move in the opening that at first glance looked like a transmission error.
It was very much deliberate, however, and had even been played before, while Fedoseev’s 10.g3 was a new move. The Russian knew he should be doing fine, but he forgot or mixed things up, and after 15.Rd2?! (15.Nh3!) 15…0-0-0 Radek was suddenly on top, with everything flowing perfectly until 21.h3.
21…e4! 22.Bg4 Bg7! and Fedoseev felt he was losing, but short on time Radek tried to find clarity with 21…exf4 22.gxf4 d3, but though Black did retain an advantage, Vladimir showed great resourcefulness on the way to holding an ending a pawn down.
Oparin-Rapport was a thriller and the longest game of the day | photo: World Chess
It looked as though Richard Rapport might catch Wojtaszek in the lead after surprising Grigoriy Oparin with the rare 7…Qb6 in a Sicilian. What looked like being a classic case of Black attacking on the queenside and White on the kingside instead liquidated into an ending where it was White pushing on the queenside and Black on the kingside.
Richard explained:
I think it just should be winning for Black. I went for this ending with this kind of race. I’m trying to promote four pawns, he’s trying to promote two, but I’m down an exchange, so it’s kind of a handicap. Then I managed not to promote a single one, which basically was very hard to accomplish! I feel like if I had more time I would have played a different move at some point, it should be just winning, but I couldn’t figure it out.
The computer suggests that here 32…g4!? was rushed, but nevertheless, despite the b-pawn costing Black a piece and leaving him almost a whole rook down, Rapport always retained some advantage. He did in fact queen two pawns, though it’s true that in neither case was it at the moment he would have wanted.
Levon Aronian is up to world no. 5 and a win away from overtaking Fabiano Caruana as the US no. 1 | photo: World Chess
The stand-out player in Berlin so far has been Levon Aronian, who now leads Pool C by a full point after defeating 17-year-old Vincent Keymer. It wasn’t so much the result as the way he did it, catching his opponent out in the opening and then playing the powerful 12.cxd3!
After the much more harmonious looking 12.Qxd3 Black could attack the queen with 12…Bf5, with the e4-square potentially open to the black pieces. Levon commented:
I felt what I wanted to get out of the opening more or less I got — a playable position with some strategic contours.
The game simplified but the white advantage only grew, with 27.Ne5! a key move.
It’s hard to allow the knight to remain on that square, but after 27…Bxe5 28.dxe5 Rc8 29.d4! Vincent admitted afterwards that he was getting crushed.
Levon made the rest look very, very easy and finished with a flourish with the move 42.f5!, making it clear that there would be no fortress.
42…exf5 and 43.e6! wins, 42…gxf5 and 43.g6! does the job, while otherwise White will capture on g6 and promote that pawn anyway.
Vidit had tamed Dubov for a 2nd game in a row | photo: World Chess
The fact that Aronian was so clearly winning so early on had an impact on the other game in the pool, with Daniil Dubov commenting of his game against Vidit.
In general I overestimated this whole Na5 thing. I thought, also taking into account Levon in the lead, I should try, and I thought I’m probably not even worse, but yeah, somehow two moves later I realised I actually am.
Here Dubov played 23…Na5!?, with Vidit agreeing:
The critical moment was when I played Nb4 and I tried to exchange his knight on c6, and always it leads to some slightly worse endgames for Black. But he went for something active, which turned out not so good because then his pieces were not so coordinated.
After 24.Rab1 Bf8 25.Rc7 it turns out, however, that 25…e6! should be roughly equal. Dubov instead played 25…Be6?! and saw his bishop kicked around with 26.d5! Bg4 27.h3 Bf5 28.e4 until 28…Bxh3 became an exchange sacrifice after 29.Bc1!, leaving the rook no squares on the 3rd rank.
The suggestion to Dubov that 25…Be6 was a blunder provoked a strong response.
I thought it’s just unpleasant — somehow we have to play moves. Somehow people nowadays use the word blunder in a wrong way. Blunder is not a bad move, it’s exactly when you miss an exact reply and you have to resign. When you play bad moves it’s bad moves, Be6 is just a bad move, probably.
There was perhaps one last chance for Dubov to save himself, with 31…f5! instead of 31…Bf5, but in the end Vidit went on to score an impressive win, his second in a row against Dubov.
The Indian commented:
It was much-needed, because in the last six games I had scored I think 1, or 1.5 points, something like this, so I really needed this win.
Vidit is a point behind Aronian, but can catch the leader if he beats him in Round 4 | photo: World Chess
Levon Aronian was perhaps the greatest beneficiary, however, since he now leads Vidit by a point and Dubov and Keymer by a huge 1.5-point margin. Nothing is decided yet, however, since the players all have to play each other one more time.
The one relatively quiet draw of Round 3 was Dominguez-Harikrishna, though both players burnt up most of their time and were engaged in a fierce strategic battle until a logical repetition of moves.
Wesley So feels he's over jet lag now, which may be bad news for his rivals | photo: World Chess
That left the door open for the group’s top seed Wesley So, who did seize his chance, though he confessed it had been anything but a great game for him against Alexei Shirov.
I think I was playing for equality for most of the game, but then I think Alexei tried to force the issue too much.
Wesley thought for 28 minutes on move 10, regretted his choice, and admitted he had absolutely nothing in the endgame despite an extra pawn. In fact he was considering grovelling for a draw with 24.Ke2!? but instead tried 24.Ne2.
The computer suggests Black is completely fine after 24…Nxc1 and maybe even better after 24…g5!, but instead Alexei went astray with 24…Ne5?! 25.Rxd8 Rxd8 26.Nd4 Bc5, when he felt he had everything under control, only to be surprised by the simple 27.Nb3.
That was the tempo Wesley needed to completely consolidate his position. Alexei commented:
I was actually going for the whole variation completely missing this Nb3, and ok, if you miss this, then things turn a bad way… I thought it was just equal and I didn’t see any reason to play for a win myself, but I thought ok, it was kind of a forced draw, and then Nb3 and suddenly I’m a pawn down without that much compensation.
Wesley was in his element and went on to win smoothly and join Leinier Dominguez at the top of Pool D, with Harikrishna half a point behind.
After Round 4 the players will get a well-earned rest day | photo: World Chess
The rest day is only on Tuesday after Round 4, so the second half of the group stages begins on Monday with the 1st and 2nd placed players meeting in three of the groups: Rapport-Wojtaszek, Vidit-Aronian and Dominguez-So, while Grischuk-Esipenko and Nakamura-Bacrot could be critical in Pool A.
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