Nepomniachtchi catches Firouzja in the lead, Firouzja escapes against Vachier-Lagrave
After three rounds, two players are in the lead at the 2024 Sinquefield Cup: GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and GM Alireza Firouzja. On this stormy day, five decisive outcomes were possible, but we saw two.
Nepomniachtchi’s risky opening paid off against GM Anish Giri, while Firouzja came out of a lost position with a draw against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. GM Fabiano Caruana defeated GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and finished with a 50 percent record. The three draws included winning positions for one side in each game.
The Sinquefield Cup will continue with the fourth round on Thursday, August 22, 2:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. CEST / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Table after round 3
We’ll start with the decisive games and then move on to the three draws. In the last three, Vachier-Lagrave agreed to a triple replay in a winning position against Firouzja, GM Ding Liren lost his entire advantage in two moves against GM Wesley So, and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu spoiled a (surprisingly) winning rook endgame against GM Gukesh Dommaraju.
Nepomniachtchi against Giri 1-0
Nepomniachtchi took a big risk in a variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense, in which he stressed he was no expert, and it paid off. This kind of preparation “wouldn’t have worked against every opponent,” he said, but “Anish is a slightly better player when it comes to classical structures, so maybe it was a good idea to bluff him a little bit.”
Anish is a slightly better player when it comes to classic structures, so maybe it was a good idea to bluff him a little.
—Ian Nepomniachtchi
It was an entertaining “rule-breaker” game, with almost all of White’s army remaining on the first rank, except for a rook on a2. Svidler explained the logic: “The bishop on c1 actually participates in the attack from the starting square in some ways, the knight on g1 probably goes to h3, but it’s too early for that, the bishop on f1 is going to be exchanged to c4 in three seconds, so the only piece we could have improved is the rook on a1, and we improve that. It will be on g2 in three moves.”
Nepomniachtchi sacrificed the c4-pawn and started an attack that is not so dangerous for a machine, but not child’s play for a human. Had Giri taken the queen-pawn on move 24, Nepomniachtchi might have been forced to demonstrate a difficult winning line ending with 26.Qa4!! (he was planning 26.Qe3), but as it was, Black collapsed after 24…Nxe4?GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full game of the day below.
Below you can listen to GM Hikaru Nakamura’s summary of the game.
Caruana vs Abdusattorov 1-0
It was a close call for Caruana, who lost in the first round with the white pieces and could have lost again with white in this round. “It was a lucky game,” Caruana said of the game. “I thought I was going to lose at some point during the game.”
For a long time it was the quietest game of the round with shuffling in an Italian game. Caruana had planned 28.g5?, but realized that it did not work, and after 28.Qg3 h5!one move he missed, he was already on the defensive. He not only escaped, but left the tournament hall with a score of 50 percent.
This is a bad result for Abdusattorov, who put pressure on and lost the whole point. He shares the last place with Giri with one point. Now for the three draws, which we can in no way call “peaceful results”.
Firouzja against Vachier-Lagrave ½-½
Vachier-Lagrave was a hair’s breadth away from beating the tournament leader, but agreed to a three-way repetition of moves in what the engine said was a winning position. After the game, when Vachier-Lagrave discovered the winning line, he lamented: “That was particularly painful because even though my calculations were a bit fuzzy, I had done practically everything right except for one move.”
Basically, I did more or less everything right except for one move.
—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
In the variation that begins with 36…Bxd4 37.Nxd5 Be6, he missed the move 43…Qf7! at the end of the variation, after which White has no more moves in check and Black wins with the extra piece. Instead, Vachier-Lagrave continues his streak of draws in classical chess – now at 22 games.
Ding against So ½-½
Ding explained the result after the game succinctly: “I created some chances with the white pieces, but I couldn’t capitalize on them.”
The world champion tried the aggressive 7.Bg5 in Italian and explained that he had noticed that his opponent had lost to Firouzja “many times in this variation.” In fact, he managed to reach a winning position after 23.f4but one move later it took a slip to let it go. He played the positionally oriented 24.gxf3?repaired the pawn structure and overlooked his opponent’s defense, while the dynamic 24.Nxf3 would probably have won the game.
Praggnanandhaa vs Gukesh ½-½
To say that Gukesh was prepared for the opening, which was a Catalan, would be an understatement. By move 18, he had an hour more on the clock, having spent only four minutes of his time.
But as far as the position goes, it was always relatively dry. However, Praggnanandhaa had a glimmer of hope in the rook endgame after Gukesh had the game-deciding 34…Kd7?The old adage “all rook endgames end in a draw” proved true once again, and one can hardly blame Praggnanandhaa for choosing the wrong king move in the following position with one minute left on the clock.
Even the two Grandmasters and the International Master who commented on the game had difficulty understanding the differences for a while. The author has taken the main points from their excellent commentary to compile the following brief explanation.
On Thursday we will see the two tournament leaders defending with the black pieces. Nepomniachtchi has black against So, while Firouzja plays against Gukesh. The world champion has white against Caruana, Giri against Praggnanandhaa and Vachier-Lagrave against Abdusattorov.
The 2024 Sinquefield Cup is the final leg and final classical event of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour. Ten players will compete in a classical single round robin tournament for their share of $350,000 in prize money.
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