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Grand Swiss R10: Who will qualify for the Candidates 2020?

by Satanick Mukhuty - 21/10/2019

The winner of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man will be decided in the eleventh and final round of the event which starts at 6 pm IST today. It is Fabiano Caruana who is in the sole lead with 7.5/10 points at the moment and he has been paired up against Hikaru Nakamura in the last round. There are seven players led by Wang Hao of China who follow the leader just half a point behind with 7.0/10 each. The question is not only who will be the champion of the tournament and take back home the first prize of 70,000 US Dollars but also who will secure that coveted spot in the Candidates 2020 which is scheduled to take place in the first half of next year. In this illustrated report we bring you the happenings from the previous round and also give you the pairings for the final day of the event. 

A tough day for the Indian contingent

Vishy Anand unexpectedly lost his game against Evgeniy Najer in round one of the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man, but made an emphatic comeback thereafter to revive his chances to qualify for Candidates 2020. But unfortunately, the event's penultimate round proved to be a colossal disaster for the Indian maestro as he went down against Wang Hao of China from an endgamish position which looked perfectly equal. The encounter opened with the petroff defense and quickly simplified into equality after a series of heavy exchanges. However, just when things seemed to be meandering towards a draw, Vishy - who had the white pieces - suffered a shocking lapse. He made a couple of inexplicable mistakes just after the 20th move and found the tables completely turned on him. The game was wound up in just 28 moves when Vishy resigned in a position where he had to give up a full piece to avoid getting checkmated.

Vishy missed his last chance to make it to the Candidates this year | Photo: John Saunders

Vishy Anand - Wang Hao, Round 10

Position after 23.f5

Vishy looked a bit wobbly with his move 23.f5 in the above which immediately weakened his pawns on e5 and f5 and allowed Black to counter with 23...Rd5. At this point 24.Bf4 could have been a logical response but 24.e6 proved to be even more damaging. The game followed 24...Rxf5 25.Ra3 Bc4 26.exf7+ Bxf7 27.c3 a5 next and here came the decisive blunder 28.Rxe4

Can you find the move Wang Hao (Black) played here that made Vishy resign?

Of course, it was the simple 28...Rcf6 that sealed the deal. The threat is the obvious 29.Rf1# and if White wants to prevent it then he must give up his bishop on c1. A tough loss for White!

Apart from Vishy's loss it was an overall sad day for the Indian contingent. Raunak Sadhwani and S.L.Narayanan who have been performing extremely well in the event had to suffer defeats in the hands of Amin Bassem and Hrant Melkumyan respectively. For Narayanan, it was in fact his first loss in the event. Soumya Swaminathan went down against Vasif Durarbayli; while in the encounter between compatriots Adhiban Baskaran and Harikrishna Pentala, the latter emerged victorious showing some impeccable endgame skills. The best victory for Indians was perhaps fetched by Sethuraman SP who won a fine game against Alexei Shirov.

 

In the top boards Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen won their respective games against David Guijarro and Maxim Matlakov respectively, while Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura split the point between themselves.

Photo Gallery

Magnus Carlsen can never be ruled out as a championship contender. He has had a shaky start but now is just half a point behind Fabiano Caruana. In round ten he defeated Maxim Matlakov to achieve his 100th game without losing! | Photo: John Saunders

Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian started quite slowly in the event but they have both recovered well to emerge as strong contenders of the title. They drew their penultimate round encounter against each other | Photo: John Saunders

Raunak was outplayed by Amin Bassem in just 25 moves in the penultimate round of the event. The 13-year-old youngster has already become the 65th Grandmaster of the country and has scored 5.0/10 points so far | Photo: John Saunders

Harika Dronavalli is looking forward to winning the best woman performer prize and take back home a cash prize of 10,000 US Dollars. She drew her game against Alexander Riazantsev | Photo: John Saunders

Soumya Swaminathan lost her second consecutive game against Vasif Durarbayli | Photo: John Saunders

Nihal Sarin hasn't quite been in his element in the event. He has scored 4.5/10 so far and drew his last round encounter against Gawain Jones | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 10)

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
1044
GMAnand Viswanathan 27656 0 - 16 GMWang Hao 2726
15
101276
GMNguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2638 ½ - ½ GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 2718
17
101773
GMAdhiban B. 2639 0 - 15 GMHarikrishna Pentala 2748
9
102482
GMMareco Sandro 26345 ½ - ½5 GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675
37
102994
GMSethuraman S.P. 26245 1 - 05 GMShirov Alexei 2664
49
1031119
GMGukesh D 25205 ½ - ½5 GMDreev Aleksey 2662
51
1034104
GMNarayanan.S.L 26115 0 - 15 GMMelkumyan Hrant 2650
63
103522
GMAmin Bassem 2699 1 - 05 IMSadhwani Raunak 2479
129
104254
GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658 ½ - ½ GMErdos Viktor 2604
108
1047114
GMPuranik Abhimanyu 2571 ½ - ½ GMPapaioannou Ioannis 2645
66
1048122
GMHarika Dronavalli 2495 ½ - ½ GMRiazantsev Alexander 2645
67
105329
GMJones Gawain C B 26884 ½ - ½4 GMNihal Sarin 2610
105
1059100
GMDurarbayli Vasif 26174 1 - 04 WGMSoumya Swaminathan 2365
149
1069146
IMMunguntuul Batkhuyag 2421 1 - 03 GMPrithu Gupta 2493
124

Pairings of all Indian players for the last round

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
11843
GMRobson Ray 26706 6 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
11129
GMHarikrishna Pentala 27486 6 GMLeko Peter 2670
42
111517
GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 27186 6 GMDeac Bogdan-Daniel 2613
102
111827
GMGrandelius Nils 26916 6 GMSethuraman S.P. 2624
94
112125
GMVallejo Pons Francisco 2694 GMAdhiban B. 2639
73
112637
GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675 GMHess Robert 2581
113
113411
GMArtemiev Vladislav 27465 GMGukesh D 2520
119
1140109
GMLu Shanglei 26025 5 GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658
54
114155
GMNabaty Tamir 26585 5 GMNarayanan.S.L 2611
104
114767
GMRiazantsev Alexander 26455 5 GMPuranik Abhimanyu 2571
114
1148129
IMSadhwani Raunak 24795 5 GMChigaev Maksim 2644
68
114970
GMBluebaum Matthias 26435 5 GMHarika Dronavalli 2495
122
115669
GMZvjaginsev Vadim 2644 GMNihal Sarin 2610
105
1165149
WGMSoumya Swaminathan 23654 4 GMStefanova Antoaneta 2479
128

Results of top ten boards (Round 10)

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
12
GMCaruana Fabiano 2812 1 - 0 GMAnton Guijarro David 2674
39
212
GMNakamura Hikaru 2745 ½ - ½ GMAronian Levon 2758
8
31
GMCarlsen Magnus 28766 1 - 06 GMMatlakov Maxim 2716
18
44
GMAnand Viswanathan 27656 0 - 16 GMWang Hao 2726
15
56
GMKarjakin Sergey 27606 0 - 16 GMAlekseenko Kirill 2674
38
624
GMHowell David W L 26946 1 - 06 GMGrischuk Alexander 2759
7
713
GMVitiugov Nikita 27326 1 - 06 GMRakhmanov Aleksandr 2621
95
819
GMLe Quang Liem 2708 1 - 06 GMMaghsoodloo Parham 2664
48
93
GMSo Wesley 2767 ½ - ½ GMRobson Ray 2670
43
105
GMYu Yangyi 2763 ½ - ½ GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 2669
44

Top ten pairings for the last round

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
112
GMNakamura Hikaru 27457 GMCaruana Fabiano 2812
2
28
GMAronian Levon 27587 7 GMCarlsen Magnus 2876
1
338
GMAlekseenko Kirill 26747 7 GMVitiugov Nikita 2732
13
415
GMWang Hao 27267 7 GMHowell David W L 2694
24
5110
GMParavyan David 2602 GMLe Quang Liem 2708
19
639
GMAnton Guijarro David 2674 GMHovhannisyan Robert 2639
74
744
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 26696 6 GMSo Wesley 2767
3
843
GMRobson Ray 26706 6 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
961
GMSevian Samuel 26546 6 GMYu Yangyi 2763
5
1053
GMKovalev Vladislav 26616 6 GMKarjakin Sergey 2760
6

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