After the mayhem of the previous two days, round 5, the last before the free day, was relatively calmer at the Sinquefield Cup — though not entirely bereft of excitement. Fabiano Caruana lost a game he didn’t really need to, and this left him half a point behind the lead, now rejoined by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Just when Fabiano Caruana had returned to world no. 2 and the 2800 club, Jeffery Xiong knocked him back down again | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
You can replay all the games from the Sinquefield Cup using the selector below.
And here’s the Round 5 live commentary from Alexander Grischuk, Simon Williams and Andras Toth.
After some days of tough fighting, long hours of preparation and nervous tension, one would imagine that the prospect of a free day would encourage players to give their all, thinking that they will have plenty of time to recuperate. Sports psychology doesn’t quite work this way, though, and rounds before free days tend to be dull, uninspiring affairs: players are often hesitant to take any risks, dreading the prospect of both losing the game and having one full extra day to lament it.
Wesley blamed the coffee | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
It should therefore come as no surprise that the round started with two early draws, one of them very early. Wesley So, playing against Richard Rapport, confessed to not feeling very well ("too much coffee"!) and was not in the mood for fighting chess, so he took the resolute approach of starting with the forcing 1.e4 ("to force the opponent to immediately declare his intentions") and then, upon encountering the Berlin, quickly curtailing the game ("it is best not to hesitate with these things"). Wesley was very honest and apologetic in his post-game interview.
Players often see a free day as a chance to stop a negative trend during a tournament, putting the first half behind them and starting afresh. This could well be the case for Peter Svidler; the 8-time Russian champion started the event with an uncharacteristic 0.5/4 score (“I’d like to think this isn’t my A-game”) and probably wasn’t the most confident player in the room. His chosen setup against the Najdorf didn’t seem to catch Sam Shankland by surprise (not much does), and the players soon reached a typical middlegame without clear ideas to improve their position.
Sam Shankland had no objection to the draw | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
As soon as a reasonable opportunity turned up, moves were repeated and scoresheets were signed, in a position where both sides had ways to avoid the repetition but nothing that would disturb the equilibrium.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has a trademark method of meeting the Queen’s Gambit Accepted: head towards a typical IQP position and then simply give up the pawn for piece activity and open lines, as evidenced by games like Mamedyarov-Navara, European Team Championship 2017.
Leinier Dominguez seemed aware of this tendency and instantly met 11.Ne5!? with 11...Nxd4, but spent a whopping 40 minutes on his 13th move, extending an invitation to a repetition that was declined. Shakh, despite nominally being a pawn down, tried various ways of developing an initiative in the face of solid and controlled play by Leinier, but by the 24th move all his resources had been exhausted.
White here went for the simplifying combination 25.Bxg7 Kxg7 26.Bxg6 hxg6 27.Qe5+ Kg8 28.Rxd7 and, after some more moves, the opponents had exchanged down to a completely drawn position. This draw allowed Dominguez to head to the free day in a tie for first.
Jeffery picked a dramatic moment to score his first win of the event | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
There were also two decisive games in Round 5, both won by White ‘of course’, but at least in one of them it had seemed very likely that this trend would be broken. Fabiano Caruana’s ambitious opening play against Jeffery Xiong (6...a5), combined with some unfortunate decisions by the latter (11.f4 in particular was rather over-optimistic) paid off very nicely, leaving him with an evident advantage in the middlegame.
In a position resembling a reversed King’s Indian, but one that hasn’t gone very well for its adherent, both players made some debatable decisions (in particular, 12...Ng4! seemed strong, threatening to invade on e3), but Fabiano maintained his superiority and could look to the future with confidence.
The plan of ...Ne7 and ...Rc8, combined with castling, would allow Black to increase the pressure on the c-file and keep White on the defensive. Instead, Fabi played the double-edged 22...g5?!, overextending his position and providing White with a hook for counterplay with h2-h4.
Fabiano seemed to be losing the thread of the game around this point, and this impression was strengthened by his next move, 23...Nd8?, allowing White’s wandering knight to jump to b4 and into d5. Soon 26.h4 came as well, and Black’s position was on the verge of collapse — one that could have been brought about by a nice tactical shot in this position.
The spectacular 29.Nh4!, threatening Rf6-g6+ and Qh5, would have forced Black to scramble with some move like 29...Nh6, but even this would not have solved his problems; one possible line was 30.Raf1 Rxf2 31.Rxf2, with continuing threats, and if 31...gxh4 then 32.Nf6+ Kf7 33.Nd7+ Ke7 34.Nxb8 would leave Black lost. Jeffery spotted the general idea but focussed on 29.Nxd4 instead, when 29...exd4 30.Rf6 fails to 30...Qh3!, stopping the decisive Qh5 move — the point of 29.Nh4! being that after ...gxh4 this defence does not work.
In serious mutual time pressure, Jeffery went for the obvious 29.Qxb5, but erred on the next move: after 29...Nxd5, 30.exd5! Rxb5 31.dxe6 would have been very strong, disrupting the coordination of Black’s pieces and retaining a healthy advantage. Xiong’s 30.Qxd5 Qxd5 31.exd5 axb3 32.axb3 was less incisive and gave Fabi the chance to drum up counterplay with the nice 32...d3! 33.cxd3 Rxb3. Jeffery hit back with the treacherous move 34.Ra6!, intending Rg6+ and Rf6 (trying to pin down the Nf7).
The engine immediately spots that 34...Rxd3 35.Rg6+ Kh7 36.Rf6 e4! saves Black, who takes all of White’s pawns after the subsequent 37.Ne5 Nxe5 38.Rxf8 Rxg3+ 39.Kf1 Rd3 and ...Rxd5, when the game should end in a draw.
Fabi, despite spending most of his remaining 5 minutes, missed this saving chance and went instead for the natural-looking 34...Rd8, unpinning the knight, only to realise after 35.Rg6+ Kh7 36.Rf6 that he can’t really save it, as the white pieces surround his king and give mate.
A big win for 20-year-old Jeffery Xiong | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
This win for Jeffery Xiong, his first in the tournament, brought him back to 50%.
The most exciting game of the day was the clash between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Dariusz Swiercz. The latter is not a household name, as he doesn’t play that often, but he is a very strong grandmaster, as well as a serious analyst and theoretician, with a highly regarded two-volume work on the Ruy Lopez to his name. In this game he came armed with an unexpected and apparently quite powerful idea, in a critical line of the usually quiet Italian that has been considered unpleasant for Black ever since Jorden Van Foreest introduced it in top-level play.
Several games have been played here with 11...Qxd3 12.Nxe5 Qf5 13.Nef3, with White exerting slight but persistent pressure. But Dariusz went for the blatantly direct 11...Kh8!? (intending a later ...f5), followed by 12.Ne4 Nd7!?, a concept that would hardly enter someone’s mind but one that is ultimately approved by the computer.
Maxime, spending time on every move, played 13.Bd5 Bb6 and now the less incisive 14.Ng3, when after 14...Bxf3 15.Qxf3 f5 Black had nice, dynamic counterplay. In response to the critical 14.b4, it is safe to assume that Dariusz intended the no-holds-barred approach of 14...f5! 15.Neg5 h6! 16.Ne6 Qf6 17.Nxf8 Rxf8, with excellent compensation for the exchange and good attacking chances while the white queenside pieces are napping.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave hit straight back after his mishap against Dominguez | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website
The game became very unclear, but Maxime proved better in feeling his way through the jungle. One moment where Dariusz could have played better was perhaps after 19.Nc4.
Instead of 19...Rad8, the product of a 30-minute think, 19...dxc3 would have probably been more efficient: 20.bxc3 Qg3! is a nice idea, as the exchange of queens will relieve any pressure Black may be experiencing, while it is hard to believe that 20.Nxb6 axb6 21.Qxc3 would pose any problems, for example after 21...Rad8.
As it happened, Maxime’s activity kept growing and his advantage, despite material equality, was very evident around move 28.
With Ree7 coming, it’s hard to defend Black’s position and indeed, not much later, Maxime won a pawn – and then a second one, and wrapped up the rook ending with good technique.
The players return to the board on Monday, rested and ready for more action, with the Caruana vs Vachier-Lagrave clash particularly mouth-watering.
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