Vishy misses his ticket to London, the biggest ever event on Indian soil comes to an end
The penultimate event of the Grand Chess Tour 2019 - Tata Steel Chess India came to an end with Magnus Carlsen showing his best ever GCT performance, scoring 27 points out of a total 36. The World Champion dominated right from the start, reclaimed his world no. 1 position in rapid ratings and has moved to number two in blitz. Levon Aronian finished last at the event, but it was good enough to qualify for the GCT finals in London starting from 2nd of December. Bitter heartbreak awaited Vishy Anand and his fans where Vishy was close to qualifying for the finals, but a score of just one point out of the last five rounds, pushed him out of the top four. MVL gets the fourth spot. We bring you the detailed report of the action on the final day from Kolkata.
The final day of the Tata Steel Chess India was going to witness nine rounds of blitz chess. This is how things stood:
Magnus Carlsen with a lead of five points looked untouchable. As Wesley So's chances of winning the tournament were close to nil, Levon Aronian had already confirmed his spot for the Grand Chess Tour finals in London! Ding Liren had also booked his spot to London. The most exciting part of the day was whether Vishy Anand could make it to the finals or not. Vishy needed to finish minimum sixth in order to be the fourth qualifier. If he finished lower than sixth, then MVL would go through.
The game Magnus vs Vidit went 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Ng5!? As he moved his knight to g5. Magnus offered a draw. Vidit was confused, smiled, and accepted the draw. Later it was revealed that the World Champion was suffering from stomach issues and hence couldn't continue the game.
Trying to better what Carlsen did against Vidit, Anish offered a draw to Magnus after just four moves in the game! Well, Magnus was perhaps already feeling better and he declined the draw offer. The game eventually ended in a draw.
Vishy Anand's narrow miss
For Anand the start to day two of blitz wasn't the best. He lost his game to Nepomniachtchi, and then drew the next one against Levon Aronian. But very quickly found his stride when he scored two wins in two games against Harikrishna and Wesley So.
Things were looking bright for Vishy and a couple of more wins would have cemented his qualification to the GCT finals. However, he simply overlooked a move against Vidit.
Vishy Anand vs Vidit Gujrathi
Vishy Anand has just blundered with Nd2. @viditchess knows that he has a winning move and plays it- Qc5! Anand is annoyed with himself. Due to this loss Vishy's chances of qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour finals reduced in a big way!#chess #chessbaseindia @GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/BkQzJ6mlrf
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) November 27, 2019
Even this loss didn't dampen Vishy's spirits. He came out fighting hard in the next game against Anish Giri. Very soon he built up a winning position! This is when Vishy began to lose the thread of time in the game. He started to consume a lot of time for his moves, and even in the final position where he was winning, he had run out of time!
A loss to Carlsen was the final nail in the coffin for Anand's qualification to the finals.
Although this performance was not good enough to fight for the first place and Hikaru had to settled for the second, it was good enough to retain the number one spot in blitz ratings.
Final crosstable of rapid and blitz
Rk. | Name | FED | 1.Rd | 2.Rd | 3.Rd | 4.Rd | 5.Rd | 6.Rd | 7.Rd | 8.Rd | 9.Rd | 10.Rd | Pts. | |
1 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | NOR | *** | 2 ½ ½ | 1 ½ ½ | 2 ½ ½ | 2 0 0 | 2 1 ½ | 2 1 1 | 1 1 1 | 1 1 ½ | 2 1 1 | 27 |
2 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 0 ½ ½ | *** | 2 ½ ½ | 2 ½ ½ | 1 ½ ½ | 1 ½ 1 | 1 ½ ½ | 2 1 1 | 1 ½ 1 | 1 1 1 | 23 |
3 | GM | So Wesley | USA | 1 ½ ½ | 0 ½ ½ | *** | 1 1 ½ | 2 ½ ½ | 1 ½ ½ | 0 0 0 | 1 ½ 1 | 2 ½ ½ | 1 ½ 1 | 18½ |
GM | Giri Anish | NED | 0 ½ ½ | 0 ½ ½ | 1 0 ½ | *** | 1 ½ ½ | 2 0 ½ | 2 ½ 1 | 1 ½ ½ | 1 ½ 1 | 1 1 ½ | 18½ | |
5 | GM | Ding Liren | CHN | 0 1 1 | 1 ½ ½ | 0 ½ ½ | 1 ½ ½ | *** | 2 ½ 1 | 1 ½ ½ | 1 1 0 | 1 0 ½ | 1 0 1 | 18 |
6 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 0 0 ½ | 1 ½ 0 | 1 ½ ½ | 0 1 ½ | 0 ½ 0 | *** | 2 1 1 | 0 0 1 | 2 1 ½ | 1 1 ½ | 17 |
7 | GM | Anand Viswanathan | IND | 0 0 0 | 1 ½ ½ | 2 1 1 | 0 ½ 0 | 1 ½ ½ | 0 0 0 | *** | 1 ½ 1 | 1 ½ 0 | 2 1 ½ | 16 |
8 | GM | Harikrishna Pentala | IND | 1 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 1 ½ 0 | 1 ½ ½ | 1 0 1 | 2 1 0 | 1 ½ 0 | *** | 1 ½ ½ | 0 1 ½ | 14½ |
GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 1 0 ½ | 1 ½ 0 | 0 ½ ½ | 1 ½ 0 | 1 1 ½ | 0 0 ½ | 1 ½ 1 | 1 ½ ½ | *** | 0 ½ 1 | 14½ | |
10 | GM | Aronian Levon | ARM | 0 0 0 | 1 0 0 | 1 ½ 0 | 1 0 ½ | 1 1 0 | 1 0 ½ | 0 0 ½ | 2 0 ½ | 2 ½ 0 | *** | 13 |
Magnus Carlsen was able to beat two opponents in all the encounters (one rapid and two blitz) They were Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian. Nakamura managed to score three wins against Harikrishna. Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Vishy Anand in all three games, and Vishy was ruthless against Wesley So.
Closing ceremony:
The Grand Chess Tour finals will be held from the 2nd of December 2019 onwards in London. The total prize fund for that event alone is a whopping US$ 3,50,000. For more information on the event, check here.
We leave you with this very special video that was recorded by Sagar Shah after the event ended with Vishy Anand. The legend will turn 50 years old on the 11th of December 2019.