Levon Aronian and Anish Giri share the final two qualification spots going into the last day of the FTX Road to Miami Prelims, just two points clear of Wei Yi. Up top Sam Sevian remains the sole leader, though second placed Arjun Erigaisi top scored for the day after beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hans Niemann and Ju Wenjun despite losing a wild first game to Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The Polish no. 1 is, like Sam, unbeaten, and has already wrapped up qualification to the knockout.
Sam Sevian vs. Richard Rapport — no-one said it was going to be easy!
You can replay all the games from the FTX Road to Miami Prelims using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Kaja Snare, Jovanka Houska, Simon Williams and David Howell…
…and from Peter Leko and Lawrence Trent.
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With just three rounds to go, Levon Aronian and Anish Giri in particular have to look over their shoulder as they attempt to remain in the Top 8 qualification spots.
At first it didn’t look as though it was going to be 18-year-old Arjun Erigaisi’s day. He was playing a great game and on course to inflict the first defeat of the FTX Road to Miami on Jan-Krzysztof Duda, when he went for an idea suggested in our commentary by Lawrence Trent: 46.Ra3?! (simply 46.Nf3! and White is completely on top)
Jan-Krzysztof was able to escape with 46…Qxg5+ 47.Rg3 Kh6! And after 48.Rxg5 Bxg5 49.Qf3 Rb2! Black was right back in the game.
In fact Duda even managed to go on to win.
The Polish no. 1 is absolutely cruising after winning two games and drawing two on each of the first three days of the event.
Arjun Erigaisi didn’t let that get him down, however, and went on to win the next three games to top score for the day. There was some good fortune on his side, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seemed to be making a brilliant draw in the next round before he decided to play for more… and fell to defeat.
Then Hans Niemann self-destructed in the next round.
Just e.g. 41…Kg5 and there’s nothing Arjun could do, but instead after 41…Ke4? 42.Kxg4 Kd3 43.f4 Kc2 44.Na3+! Kb3 45.f5! the f-pawn was unstoppable and Black’s a-pawn was too slow.
Arjun wrapped up the day with a win over Ju Wenjun, who suffered internet connection issues and scored zero points after her brilliant previous day.
That looked as though it might be enough to take over in the lead, but Sam Sevian continued to impress by winning his last two games of the day. It wasn’t easy!
Today was a really stressful day. The first game I was probably worse with White and then the second game was also an unclear position. The 3rd and 4th games were completely insane. Both of us had no time, against Wei Yi and Shankland, but I managed to outplay them in the time scrambles.
Wei Yi in particular had chances in the final game, but perhaps the 138-move draw he’d had to fight for against Aryan Tari the round before took its toll, as the Chinese star ran into some crushing tactics.
That loss meant that Wei Yi had picked up just three points, for three draws, on Tuesday, leaving him outside the qualification spots.
The FTX Road to Miami has been tough for many of the players. It was only on Day 3, for instance, that there were first wins for Leinier Dominguez and Sam Shankland, 40% of what is expected to be the all-conquering US Olympiad team.
Aryan Tari has lost 7 games, Radek Wojtaszek has suffered on his debut, but perhaps the player most upset with his fate has been the hugely ambitious US 19-year-old Hans Niemann.
After winning three of his first five games he went on to lose five of the next seven, with the only win in that sequence a forfeit win over Teimour Radjabov. When he was called to an interview at the end of Day 3 he wasn’t in the highest of spirits!
It feels like everything that could go wrong has been going wrong. Perhaps it’s a bit of fatigue but I had a great start, as I always have in these tournaments, and then I just got a bit tilted and obviously it’s very strong opponents, but I cannot explain the way that I’m playing. I don’t even know why you asked me for an interview. I’m very embarrassed myself and there’s no words to explain how ridiculously bad at chess I am.
Is just trying not to think about chess for a while the solution?
When I have such bad results it sort of consumes my entire day, my brain, every single waking thought, until I recover. It’s all just misery and pain, disappointment and just disgust with myself, so I think it’s impossible for me to not think about chess when my display is just not my best chess, not even close to it, so I don’t think that I can not think about chess. I probably will have nightmares about the chess that I’m playing…
Is it that bad?
Chess is just a game that sucks all the life out of you — just look what happened to Fischer! Chess is a very bad game and it is just terrible, and it just sucks the life out of you. So we’ll see how long I last in the chess world.
What’s been going wrong exactly?
I think the most painful thing is when you know that you’re better than something and you make the exact same mistake over and over and over again. For example, the reason I lost those games is because I’m playing way too quickly and I’m making insane blunders for no reason. I’ve lost like five games consecutively for the exact same reason, and you’d think that I would learn actually. That is just the tilting part, and in chess generally when you lose or things go badly, very much it happens in the exact same pattern, the exact same way, so I think that’s personally the most tilting.
Does Hans have any words for his fans?
All my fans, please find someone else to follow who’s better at chess! I recommend this Magnus guy, he’s pretty good. If you’re a fan of chess you should follow a winner. I’ll try to get there, but I don’t think I deserve any fans as of now.
We already saw Hans’ unnecessary endgame loss to Arjun Erigaisi, but the game that was the last straw was his loss to Richard Rapport in the final round. It was a dramatic, fighting game, featuring a nice blow by Richard: 16…Ne2+!
The point was 17.Rxe2 exd4! 18.Bg5 d3!, but the curiosity about the game was that Richard was almost as downbeat afterwards as Hans!
Out of the opening I thought I tricked him with this Ne2+, and then a few moves later again I wasn’t slightly worse, but sort of I was, so I didn’t feel like I played well.
Later on Richard looked on the verge of victory.
Rcc1 and Rh1+ is a tough plan to meet, but in fact after 33.Rd4! there was no killer blow and Richard had to win the game all over again in a tricky endgame. He managed, but when he was told his victory put him in an excellent position to qualify for the knockout he had mixed feelings. He explained:
It’s a win-win for me! One way the tournament is finishing, the other way I will make it to the knockouts, so there is nothing to lose.
Richard has played the Candidates (finishing last), then the Chess Bundesliga (where he was instrumental in giving his team victory) and now the FTX Road to Miami. Is he tired?
Yeah, I’m kind of sick of chess at this point! Playing every day almost for a month straight is a bit too much.
Richard has a buffer when it comes to finishing in the Top 8 and qualifying for the quarterfinals, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and particularly Levon Aronian and Anish Giri, are in much more danger.
A good day for Levon was spoilt somewhat by a loss when he overpushed against Sam Shankland in the final round of the day, while Anish Giri showed great opening preparation against both Wei Yi and Leinier Dominguez, but was unable to get more than four draws, and hence four points, out of Day 3.
Wei Yi-Aronian will be a big game in Round 13, especially as Wei Yi will get a forfeit 3 points in the next round as he was supposed to play Teimour Radjabov. Giri begins the day with White against Erigaisi, while Giri-Niemann in the final round could be a thriller, especially if Hans has won his previous two games to get back into contention himself.
Watch all the FTX Road to Miami action live from 18:00 CEST (12:00 ET | 21:30 IST) each day!
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