Wesley So’s hopes of reaching the 2022 Candidates Tournament suffered a heavy blow as he lost his tiebreak against Leinier Dominguez, who now plays Levon Aronian in the semi-finals of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix. Leinier had lost to Wesley in their classical game, and it was the same story in the other tiebreak. Richard Rapport lost to Radek Wojtaszek in the first round but bounced back to win the tiebreak and set up a semi-final clash against Hikaru Nakamura. Richard is the only non-US player remaining in the tournament.
The comeback of Leinier Dominguez has left Wesley So a mountain to climb if he wants to reach the Candidates Tournament | photo: World Chess
You can replay all the games from the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix 1st leg pools using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from WFM Ellen Nilssen and GM Arturs Neiksans.
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Both tiebreaks lasted just two 15 + 10 rapid games.
Richard Rapport had the feeling he shouldn’t have had the chance he got to play the tiebreak.
Radek should probably have won the tournament with a round to spare or something. Also the last game he was winning, and if he wins that game I’ve got nothing to say. But also the game before I was losing to Oparin at some point, so altogether I got here somehow.
Richard had lost to Ding Liren’s late replacement Radek Wojtaszek in Round 1, but since then he’d drawn three games and beaten Vladimir Fedoseev twice, so that the momentum was on his side. It carried through into the tiebreaks, though with some help from Radek.
He commented of this position:
At first I probably didn’t have to go for this endgame. I just go 21.dxc5 instead of 21.Rac1!?, but Rc1 I thought is playing for more, which was probably not necessary.
After 21.dxc5 Bxb2 22.Qxb2 Rxc5 23.Rac1 if anyone has a tiny advantage it’s White, while in the game after 21.Rac1 Qf3 22.Ba1 h5! it was clear Black was also playing for more. Richard summed it up well.
I felt at one point that we are both playing for more than was in the position, objectively. It should just be equal after 18…c5, but then Radek was making very ambitious moves, and I also tried to create something, and then this resulted in a rook endgame which probably is fine for White, but it just seems extremely uncomfortable because I’m literally not risking anything and he has to watch out every time for checks. And at the end, when he was low on time, he just blundered a mate, which obviously was extremely lucky.
The position had already become very tricky for White by move 40.
The white king had to voluntarily head for cover on the kingside with e.g. 40.Ke3, since after 40.Ra2? Rd5+! the black rooks get to switch to attacking the king with tempo. It’s already lost, according to the computer, but after 41.Ke3 Re8+ 42.Kf2 Rd2+ 43.Kg3 Ree2 44.f4+ Kf5 (44…Kh5! was the move) Radek had some chances to survive.
45.Kf3! was strictly the only move, while 45.Rb2? walked into checkmate. After 45…Rd3+ 46.Kh4 g5+! Radek resigned.
47.fxg5 Re4+ 48.Kh5 Rxh3# is checkmate. It’s easy to point out what Radek might have done differently, but as he pointed out:
I had like 30 seconds, so now of course it’s easy to say where I should improve, but when you’re sitting there with seconds you don’t really know if you should spend those seconds exactly now, or it will be needed in some other moves, so I should probably defend better, but obviously it’s not what happened.
After Richard Rapport won with the black pieces he gave his opponent no chance | photo: World Chess
That left Radek needing to win the second game on demand with the black pieces, one of the hardest places you can be in chess. He felt he went astray even before the game began.
What I played was probably not so smart, because I saw that this line might happen, and also Richard went to his room when we had this small break, so probably I should go for something else than I did because it’s probably what he might see in this break, and then we very fast went for the endgame, which was obviously just a draw.
Radek played the Sicilian, but Richard went for the 3.Bb5+ line and then set up the infamously solid Maroczy Bind structure with pawns on c4 and e4. Queens were exchanged by move 14 and, although Radek could lay claim to a tiny edge, it was never enough to get the win he needed. That means it’s Richard Rapport who goes forward to take on Hikaru Nakamura in Saturday’s semi-final. What does he expect?
I haven’t played him too many times, but they were quite painful. I think I have a -2 score or something. I don’t really have expectations. Like I said, I lost the first game to Radek here and afterwards also my play was, let’s say, shaky at best, if it’s an appropriate word to use, and Hikaru was playing very strong and very stable. Yesterday I think he was kind of shaky as well, let’s put it this way, but ok, it happens, and Esipenko is also a very strong opponent. So yeah, I don’t know, I am really tired from this tiebreak and also yesterday I had a must-win game to win, so it takes a toll, but I guess there is no rest for the wicked, so I have to keep on going!
Hikaru could afford to relax on his rest day!
Wesley So was unbeaten in classical chess, but one loss in rapid cost him a place in the semi-finals photo: World Chess
The blow to Radek Wojtaszek must have been lessened by the fact he was “playing with house money”, as a late replacement for Ding Liren. Radek is, at least for now, only expected to play in one Grand Prix, and hence had no realistic chances of qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. For US Champion Wesley So, however, the stakes were high, and although his tiebreak loss hasn’t knocked him out completely — his 2nd place in the group + a win in the 2nd Berlin Grand Prix might still be enough — it must have been hard to take.
As he explained, he’d done almost everything right before then, scoring an unbeaten +2 and only really regretting his Round 6 game against Harikrishna.
I think I played very decently in this tournament, other than against Harikrishna. I really didn’t miss any chances… I’m quite pleased with my play in the classical games, but obviously that missed chance, now I have to go home, which is not ideal, but that’s what chess is. You train so hard and then everything really depends on that crucial few seconds of decision-making that determines what will happen in your tournament. That’s why you’ve got to keep training and try to keep getting better, because you know that accidents are going to happen sooner or later, blunders are going to happen, so what you do is to try and minimise them as much as possible.
Leinier Dominguez had suffered a heavy defeat to Wesley So in Round 4, but he bounced straight back to beat Harikrishna and Shirov so that, like Rapport, he went in to the tiebreaks with momentum on his side. It didn’t show in the first game, however, where the players played a line with queens exchanged on move 8 that they’d had a few times in the past. The game stretched to move 42, but with no real incidents.
The 2nd rapid game was very different, with Wesley suddenly doubting his prepared 14…c6 and 16…f6 when he played them at the board. 17…Kh8?! instead of 17…d5! may have been a significant inaccuracy, with Leinier taking the chance to play 18.dxe5!
After 18…fxe5 Leinier immediately made use of the now unprotected g5-square with 19.Ng5! and it was clear Black was hanging on.
An ill-judged h5 only weakened Black’s position, until Wesley admitted he was playing for tricks. The last one he tried almost worked.
Here Leinier confessed that he was very close to playing 32.Re2?, when 32…Ne1+! would have won on the spot for Wesley, who commented:
Leinier had 10 seconds and you were almost touching the rook, and I was praying!
With 8 seconds to go, however, Leinier spotted the winning 32.Kh1! and reflected, “after finding this Kh1 I think I deserved to qualify, because it’s such a difficult move!”
Wesley had gone for this line with the plan of playing 32…Rf3, but by now had seen that the move loses to 33.Re8+ and mate on h7 next move. He thought for almost two minutes trying to find an alternative, but there was nothing, with the game ending 32…Nh4 33.Rxh4! g6 34.Rxh5+! and, once again, it’s mate next move.
It’s Leinier Dominguez who goes forward to a semi-final against his fellow Saint Louis resident Levon Aronian.
He said of the prospect:
Levon is a very strong player, very interesting and it’s very challenging to play him always, but as you say, I first have to calm down a bit, because it feels a bit surreal after losing the classical game against Wesley. I felt that I’ll go home by Saturday and I was able to make a comeback, so it took a lot of energy, so I’ll try to get some rest and let that settle and then I’ll think about the next match.
Leinier Dominguez now takes on Levon Aronian in a 2-game semi-final match | photo: World Chess
Aronian has a 2:1 lead in classical chess against Dominguez, but they’ve only played 7 classical games since they first met in the 2005 World Team Championship, when Levon was playing for Armenia and Leinier for Cuba. A quick draw helped Armenia secure bronze medals.
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