Clutch Chess Day 2: Levon takes late-night lead

Fabiano Caruana beat Leinier Dominguez 12:3 just a week ago in the US version of Clutch Chess and although Leinier won the first game of the international version it seems his fortunes haven’t changed. A blunder in Game 3 saw Fabi win 3 in a row and take a 5.5:2.5 lead in the match. The match between Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian was too close to call until a rollercoaster 133-move final clutch game saw Levon snatch a two-point lead at what for him was 2:40 am.

All 4 matches are now at the halfway point

You can replay all the Clutch Chess International games using the selector below:

And here’s the Day 2 commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade and Maurice Ashley:

It was lively as ever!

Fabiano Caruana 5.5:2.5 Leinier Dominguez

Leinier Dominguez lost 8 games and won just one when the same players met in the semi-finals of Clutch Chess USA. Had anything changed in a week? Well, Fabiano Caruana’s hair was given a chance to grow…

…but in Game 1 it seemed Leinier’s luck might also have turned. Fabiano played the Caro-Kann and “corrected” his first move with 10…c5, but that was walking into trouble:

11.d5! exd5 (Fabi spent almost 2 minutes here, but this is strictly an only move – you can’t allow d6) 12.e6! fxe6 13.Qg6+ Kf8 14.Qxe6 and although there was no knockout blow, and Caruana fought on until move 49, Leinier opened with a win.

Caruana looked to have good chances of hitting straight back, but allowed his opponent to reach the theoretically drawn Rook vs. Rook + Bishop ending. The side with the extra piece has excellent practical chances of winning that ending, but not if you blunder on the very first move of your attempt!

Things were still going well for Dominguez when the players reached a drawn ending in Game 3, but then disaster struck as he played 42.dxe5+??

Fabiano had set up a trap but didn’t expect the bait to be taken and described his “incredible relief” as he was able to play 42…Rxe5+ 43.Kf2 Rxe2+! 44.Kxe2 Bg4+ 45.Kd2 Bxd1 and Leinier resigned, since after 46.Kxd1 dxc4 Black has a trivial win in the pawn endgame.

That levelled the score in the match, but had a much bigger impact than that. Fabiano commented:

Then the momentum shifted - it looked like I started to get his number a bit.

Leinier admitted:

It was a bit sad to lose that game but on the other hand, these things can easily happen in this format, so I should have adjusted better. Clearly I was a bit upset about this game and it was reflected in the next two or three games.

Fabiano went on to win the next two games with some ease, with the second game a crushing clutch win (worth 2 points and $2,000) with the black pieces:

The good news for Leinier was that he managed to stop the bleeding in the final game of the day, while the clutch format, with 3 points for a win in the last two games of the match, means that Fabiano’s 3-point lead is anything but insurmountable.

Levon Aronian 5:3 Alexander Grischuk

This match was deliberately started only after the first two games of the other match had been played, which made a lot of sense from the point of view of commentary, but was puzzling considering the players are based in Moscow (Grischuk) and Yerevan (Aronian). It was 1:40 am in Moscow by the end, and even later for Levon, who was asked about the blunders in the match:

I think it’s difficult to explain. The only explanation I have is that it’s 2:40 am! I’m not used to playing chess at this hour because I normally go to sleep around 11-12.

Assuming Leinier and Fabi are both based in the US (the games start at 1pm in Saint Louis) it would have seemed obvious to delay that match instead. In any case, Aronian-Grischuk was every bit as close as the seeding numbers (no. 4 vs. no. 5) suggested. The match could be summarised by saying that White gained an advantage in every game, but far from always won. In Game 1 Levon had a crushing advantage:

35.Rf4! looks like game-over, since 35…f6 runs into 36.Ne4, hitting f6 and the knight on c5, but after the immediate 35.Ne4 Ra5 Grischuk eventually won the passed d-pawn and ended up with 3 pawns for an exchange, an advantage he comfortably went on to convert.

Only some last-ditch defence by Levon prevented his going 2:0 behind in the second game, before he hit back in Game 3, going in for the kill after Grischuk got down to under 5 seconds on his clock:

That meant the scores were level and remained so before the clutch games, after Grischuk failed to convert an advantage in Game 4.

The first clutch game was also drawn, but really should have been a win for Levon:

44.Rf4! was the move, but Levon went for 44.Rf3 and after 44…Rb8 completed the mistake with 45.Rb3? (there was a last chance to get back on the right path with 45.Rf4!) and the position was a draw. He later commented:

Then I played Rb3 like a complete idiot instead of Rf4 and just bring the king… Why the rook to b3? I went berserk.

There was one more chance for Levon to win later in the game, but it was a fleeting study-like win that was available for only one move.

And that brings us to the final clutch game, which a shell-shocked Alexander Grischuk described as follows when asked how his day had gone:

It was ok before the last game. The last game is just terrible all around. I had a slightly better position, then I got worse, then lost and then it was a dead draw again.

Grischuk played an early e6-break against Aronian’s Berlin Wall and was playing for a win until things went wrong. That can happen against the Berlin, but what made the game so painful was that everything was later fine again until move 80:

I don’t know why I played 80.g8=Q?. I understood that 80.Rc8 is a complete draw, but I thought g8 is even easier.

After 80…Rxg8 81.Kxg8 c4 82.Rc8 c3!, the move Grischuk admitted he blundered (83.Rxc3 Kb2), Levon was winning again, but there was still time for another twist later after the Armenian went the wrong way with his king. Grischuk had a draw again until 91…Kf2:

He played 92.Rh1? but could have saved the day with 92.Ra1!, when Black has no way to win. If the black king comes to d2 White can take on a2, while if it comes to b2 there’s a nice stalemating trick:

96.Kd2! and 96…Kxa1 is stalemate after 97.Kc1 (or 97.Kxc2). “Oh my god, how can somebody be so stupid?” was Levon’s verdict on allowing that escape.

The drama wasn’t quite over as even when we got down to a Queen vs. Rook ending the tension remained. If Grischuk could hold on until move 145 he’d be able to claim a draw by the 50-move rule, and he got to within a dozen moves of the target, but seeing he was finally going to have to part with his rook he chose to fall on his sword and allow mate-in-1:

So the score is 5:3 to Aronian, but there’s still everything to play for in the second half of the match, which will take place on Tuesday. Today we switch back to Carlsen 4.5:3.5 Xiong and So 5.5:2.5 MVL, where we’ll get to know the first two semifinalists. Tune in to all the action from 20:00 CEST.

See also:

• Official website
• All the Clutch Chess International games with computer analysis here on chess24
• Carlsen tops Clutch Chess International field
• Clutch Chess Day 1: Xiong hits back against Carlsen