In the last round So chose the the most reliable of all weapons, the Berlin, to draw against Vachier. This draw secured him at least a tie break, had one (or more) of his immediate followers won. Vachier went for the endgame and in spite of his optimism during the game So was never really in any danger. In a tournament where wins were at a premium the dry pragmatic approach was by far the best strategy.

Of the immediate followers only Topalov had a chance to catch him, and he had a big one. He applied pressure on Aronian, who was uncharacteristically wobbly in defence. Topalov missed several winning chances and eventually had to concede the draw. I already wrote about Topalov’s algorithm for finding and playing moves and as I predicted this cannot get you far against the elite – you need to be precise, direct and forceful to win a winning position. Unfortunately for Topalov this happened in the most important game of the tournament for him. But he seemed well aware of all this, as he admitted that he missed tournament victory not only in this game, but also in some previous games. This is all result of his approach not to try to play the best move at all times, so being a conscious decision he cannot really blame anyone but himself.

Nakamura seemed to overcome his illness quickly as he dispatched of Ding Liren in a spectacular fashion. A sweet ending of the tournament for him, although finishing on 50% is nothing to write home about. Worth noting though is his mental toughness as he managed to score wins immediately after his losses.

As for the Chinese, finishing on -1 probably means that he won’t be invited again. Wei Yi is the exciting new prospect and I expect to see him to become the regular Chinese guy at these supertournaments.

Anish Giri. Second last place in a row. The guy talks too much and even though I enjoy his nonsense immensely I think that perhaps he should be reminded that silence is golden. He was trolling Caruana for making 8 draws in a row, but the 9th game was between them and guess what – Caruana beat Giri, shutting him up both literally and figuratively. Giri won’t suffer the fate of the Chinese, he will still get a lot of invitations to elite events (the advantage of being a western star), so I expect him to be back, sooner or later. As for Caruana, he’s been inconspicuous lately, but always near the top, never a disastrous tournament (like Giri, for example), always keeping at least the minimum level. That is a sign of true class and I expect him to come to a new level in the near future.

Svidler and Anand drew a Spanish with d3 (Svidler has never been too fond of the Berlin endgame) to mutual satisfaction. Anand finished on shared second, another great result for him, while Svidler finished his mission in this tournament in the previous round, when he finally won a game.

To conclude I can only say what I already wrote about in my post on Round 5 – the players are incredibly strong and the elite is tightly packed with no one a clear favourite when Carlsen isn’t playing. In such events wins are very hard to get so people play conservatively, first and foremost trying to avoid a loss. Hence a lot of draws and solid play. When a player is out of form, like Giri and Svidler in this tournament, the other players try to pounce and take advantage of that. Before the tournament starts we have 10 favourites and the race being “slow and steady” the winner is usually decided in the last round (or a tie break). At least that is a positive for the spectators, keeping the intrigue until the end. Although, to be honest, I prefer a tournament where Carlsen is playing and wins with 2 rounds to spare!

Svidler learned from his loss to Ding Liren in Round 6 and in the same position after move 3 he went for the more solid 3…c6. In the comments to the game with Ding I also recommended a more solid approach when things don’t go well, and Svidler seems to have come to the same conlcusion. However, it was Giri who decided to be bold and, as expected and seen from Svidler’s example, it backfired. This is just another proof of what I was saying earlier – when in bad form optimism and confidence are not your best friends. Here’s the first half of the game:

Another player who won was Aronian. And guess what his opponent, Nakamura, said after the game – the he got sick the previous night!!! Excuses again, sickness, food poisoning, laptops, cats, preparation… Tartakower always comes to mind when I hear excuses (“I have never defeated a healthy opponent.”) Be that as it may, I am 100% certain that these excuses are 100% valid and true, just making them public looks a bit lame. Anyway, Nakamura at least tried to play solid when not feeling too well, but when things go against you, there’s nothing you can do. I admit this sounds fatalistic, but my own experience and the experience of the players we are following now in Saint Louis point to that conclusion.

The derby of the round So-Caruana ended with an uneventful draw, the players repeating several games played in the same way before them, the drawing line first introduced in the game Svidler-Topalov from the Candidates in Moscow.

The old rivals Anand and Topalov played a very exciting Berlin endgame. Like I have said before, it is not the opening, it is the players who make it interesting or dull. I cannot recall a dull game between these two, so it is no surprise they found ways to stir it up yet again.

Ding Liren played it safe against Vachier, didn’t take a sacrificed pawn in the opening, rightfully fearing the Frenchman’s preparation, and calmly steered the game towards a draw. It is tough for newcomers in these elite events – in order to be invited again (and remain in the elite) they need two things: a good result and exciting play. But this combination is almost impossible to achieve, so usually they limit themselves to the first part of the equation. You can’t blame them.

The last round is under way and So secured himself a share of first. Now all hangs on Topalov, if he can catch him by beating Aronian (good chances for the Bulgarian as I write this). I’ll look into the final round tomorrow!

And a reminder of the still unsolved monthly puzzle at Goldchess, worth $200 (see the site for detailed instructions).

The longest game of the day was Caruana’s attempt to get the better of Ding Liren, but the Chinese are resilient folk. Ding never faltered and managed to survive after 95 moves.

Round 8 is underway with some results already known, but I’ll deal with that tomorrow. It’s time for bed in Europe!

The youth tournament is organised by the Kasparov Chess Foundation Adriatic and you can find all the details at the official page. There will be rapid and blitz tournaments and the age categories are U10, U12, U16 and U20. The Chess Festival promotes the Chess In Schools Project, which in my opinion is a very important project for every country.

I am happy to share this information of what seems to be a well-organised event and I hope it is a great success with many participants from all over the world.

The only decisive game of Round 5 is an excellent example of this. Topalov was a pawn up on move 16 against Ding Liren after the latter decided to jettison a pawn for some vague compensation. Vague soon become no and he was just lost, on move 34 he was two pawns down. But here comes the problematic part – he was not lost by force. And from that moment onwards he started to put up resistance and not allow white easy progress. It paid off – on move 47 he got one pawn back as Topalov decided to switch to a direct attack, but this was obviously not the best solution because the position transformed to a 3 vs 2 on the kingside, Topalov having a knight against Ding’s bishop and two pairs of rooks each. Objectively a draw, practically, still difficult for black. And the game went on and the players started missing things. You see, only when their level of resistance drops, due to fatigue in the later stages, can a game be won. But the pressing player also drops his level, so he may not take his chance! Hence missed chances for both sides. See for yourself:

Anand and So drew a correct game that started with the Giuoco Piano, with black precisely neutralising white’s material advantage, something akin to the Marshall Attack. Aronian could have tried for more against Giri’s English Opening, but decided to play it safe and draw.

Caruana’s problems in the Najdorf are well documented, so against the Najdorf-inclined Vachier he went 5 f3. Not the scariest option, but it seemed to take the Frenchman by surprise. What we got was a position very similar to the Najdorf, even if somewhat more pleasant for white, and here the preferences showed again – Caruana not feeling completely at ease, as opposed to the Frenchman who swims in these waters like a French salmon in the Seine. Eventually Caruana’s advantage was neutralised.

Nakamura probably surprised Svidler with the KID (OK, in the not-so-scary Fianchetto version) and was worse at some point, but Nakamura being the toughest of nuts to crack, managed to draw.

There are four rounds remaining and it’s a very open tournament. These types of overtly solid and grinding tournaments have become the norm when Carlsen isn’t playing. This implies that the playing field is so even that the winner can be anyone really – it depends on the form the player is in at the given moment. So we have different winners and situations when Topalov wins one tournament but ends with a big minus in the next one. All this shows just how much Carlsen is ahead of the others! 

However, the main reason for me was Aronian. I remember a conversation between Aronian and Caruana some time ago, at the Candidates. Caruana played the Benoni against Aronian and the latter was thrilled to meet the opening. The game was exciting and Aronian was probably lost as he overpressed in the complications, but in time trouble Caruana agreed a draw. So after the game Aronian complained how nobody played the Benoni against him. That was in March.

Now in August, in St. Louis, Caruana essayed the Benoni again against Aronian! You would expect Aronian to be jumping up and down, full of joy and excited to crush the infidel who dared to repeat that dubious opening against him! Instead what we got was this:

This game was the major disappointment for me, after seeing the first 3 moves. Alas, at least I can hope Caruana continues to use the Benoni on future occasions as well.

An interesting creative moment was Topalov positional queen sacrifice in the opening against Nakamura. In a well-know position, theoretically good for black, he went for a sharp sacrifice instead of a calm pawn recapture.

The remaining games were tranquil affairs. Giri did try to get something more after So treated the position somewhat too passively, but he didn’t manage it. Anand chose an old favourite of his, a line that can be played both against the English (like in this game) and the Catalan.

The recent match opponents Vachier and Svidler drew a theoretical Spanish. The Frenchman destroyed Svidler in the match, but he couldn’t do much this time.

Next round today (in Europe) hopefully brings more bloodshed. Who doesn’t love bloodshed?

The surprise of the round was Anand’s black win over the Frenchman from a very dubious position. The last time Vachier lost a classical game before this one was on 25 September 2015 against Giri in FIDE World Cup in Baku. After that loss he went on for 65 classical games undefeated. Then it is no surprise he climbed to the stratospheric rating of 2819 and number 2 spot on the rating list. But all good things come to an end and against Anand he wasn’t his usual tactically alert self:

It’s worth noting that Anand chose the Caro-Kann for this game instead of his usual choice of the Berlin. But let’s not jump to conclusion that there is a change of fashion in the elite circles – after all Kramnik is is not playing and we know that what Kramnik does in the openings, everybody follows.

Giri’s freefall continues and now he’s out of the Top 10 on the live list. He lost to Nakamura in a game when he was fine after the opening, played passively and was strategically lost, pulled himself together and threw the kitchen sink at Nakamura, managed to confuse him and obtain excellent drawing chances, only to spoil them in 1 move after the time control. His troubles remind me of the old chess adage, that a long series of draws ends in a loss, only in his case a small modification is necessary: a long period of mostly drawn games ends with a period of mostly lost games.

And then we have Svidler again who like in the first round played well up to a point when he stopped to play well.

It’s difficult to explain these things, why they happen. They happen to me too, when I find it difficult to explain why I played horribly in an otherwise simple situations. I remember reading somewhere that when inexplicable things and bad games happen more often, when things are not getting better for prolonged periods of time, then it’s time to reconsider many things and adapt. And for every player this adaptation means a different thing.

Caruana was lucky not to lose to Topalov after blundering a nice tactic (too many blunders, don’t you think?):

I have read it before too, Topalov stating that he’s not trying to make the best moves all the time. This goes contrary to what Botvinnik (and others after him) used to say, that you must always try to find the most precise, the most direct, the most forcing, the sharpest move. Conformity leads to lowering of the playing strength and develops the habit of not straining yourself, but I am convinced Topalov knows all this – he no longer has any ambition and doesn’t really care about these changes. He prefers to sacrifice these things in the name of being practical, even if that means missing wins like the one above. But these things will happen more and more often to him – you cannot expect to beat the elite players playing “normal” moves.

Ding Liren improved on his first round game against Aronian in the QGD and had pressure against So, but he blundered (even the Chinese blunder!) an elementary combination that helped So draw.

Things calmed down in Round 3 at least result-wise. All drawn, but there was no lack of excitement. So and Aronian drew a strange game in the Giuoco Piano that was not even close to Piano – black sacrificed material on move 9 already! All preparation for the Armenian while So had to figure things out for himself. He spent masses of time but things weren’t easy. Then he made a very ugly-looking bad move and this saved him!

Topalov blundered against Vachier when the long theory of the Najdorf English Attack ended on move 27, just like Aronian failing to get the brain working immediately when it had to produce moves on its own. Luckily for him, he managed to save the game.

Svidler tortured Caruana in a 4 vs 3 on the kingside double-rook endgame, but with little success. Nakamura’s Najdorf against Anand after the initial flurry simplified to a drawn double-rook endgame with equal material. No torture there for either player.

Giri, with the reckless abandon of a parachute trooper whose parachute isn’t working, continued to play with fire against Ding Liren. In a dynamically balanced position he seemed to lose his nerves and sacrificed an exchange:

After smooth-sailing to the elite this is Giri’s first serious crisis. I will be curious to see how he deals with it.

I remember when I followed the NBA in the mid-90s I used to stay up all night just to watch the play-offs and root against the Bulls. But the time difference with America got more difficult as time passed – I learned to value sleep more. Which means that it’s high time I posted this and went to bed!

The tournament rooster underwent an unexpected change only days before it began. One of the main crowd-pullers, former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, had to withdraw due to problems with his back. Kramnik used to suffer from back problems during his crisis years of 2004-2005 but before his victory over Topalov in Elista in 2006 it seemed that he got it off his back. And now just a month before the Olympiad the back is backstabbing him again. Hopefully he recovers in time while the fellow Russian who got his (Kramnik’s) back covered in Saint Louis is Peter Svidler. Coming directly from his lost match to the Frenchman with two surnames in Biel he seemed to suffer from jet-lag (as suggested by his opponent Topalov):

Somewhat surprisingly the Frenchman didn’t suffer from the same jetlag even though he also came directly from Biel. There must be some secret hidden in the hyphen connecting his two surnames as he managed to escape from a dangerous position against the ever-combative Giri with a fine rook sacrifice:

Anand and Caruana drew an extremely complex Exchange French. Yes, I do know what I am talking about, it’s called an oxymoron. Probably surprised by Caruana’s choice of the Winawer (last time he did it was in 2012, while against Anand at the rapid in Dubai in 2014 he chose the Classical line with 3…Nf6) Anand went for 4 ed5. The game shows that if the players want to fight no opening is dull and no variation is a “drawing” variation. Keep this in mind the next time you curse the Berlin.

In the duel of the Americans So beat Nakamura in a Catalan. Gone seem to be the days (or perhaps So has gained the respect of his fellow colleagues) when Nakamura played the KID and mated So on move 39. It was only 2 years ago, but the final position is worth posting again:

So Nakamura went for the Catalan and So went slightly offbeat with his choice of lines on move 8. Perhaps the fact that Kramnik wasn’t around gave him courage not to follow the Catalan guru and go his own way:

Ding Liren and Aronian drew a rather unexciting game in the QGD.

To finish this post and go to bed I am showing again the Goldchess problem for August (worth $200 and still unsolved) with the detailed instructions: “victory on move 33, the last brilliant move by rook.”

Good night!