Sinquefield Cup: Five draws, Gukesh puts Nepo under pressure
Firouzja remains sole leader
In the only decisive game of the Sinquefield Cup so far, Alireza Firouzja achieved a decisive victory over Fabiano Caruana on Monday. If the young man ultimately wins the tournament, he could repeat his success from 2022, when he won two tournament victories in a row in Saint Louis and thus also secured first place in the overall Grand Chess Tour rankings.
In the second round, Firouzja played the Berlin Defense against the ever-dangerous Nodirbek Abdusattorov and held his young colleague safely to a draw after 46 moves. In round 3, Firouzja will play with White against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in an all-French confrontation.
As MVL noted in his interview with Cristian Chirila, he will try to finally end his streak of draws in classical chess. He has drawn his last 21 games, his last decisive result being on March 24, when MVL defeated Felix Blohberger with the white pieces.
MVL played the Italian against Praggnanandhaa on Tuesday, similar to Anish Giri’s game against World Champion Ding Liren. For the second day in a row, Ding found a beautiful way to force a draw in the early middlegame – this time he had the black pieces.
17…Qxh4 pulls with force, because after 18.Nxh4 Nxf2 (attacks the queen) 19.Qf3 White cannot escape the double checks with knight and bishop on a7.
19…Nh3+ 20.Kh1 Nf2+ 21.Kg1 Nh3+ Pull.
Anish Giri laughs with Ding Liren right after the draw for their Round 2 encounter was signed | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The final position in Giri versus Ding with the kings in the middle | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The game that came closest to a decisive finish was the hard-fought battle between D Gukesh and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
This position was reached immediately after the queen exchange on d4. White’s superiority on the kingside certainly looks more dangerous than Black’s superiority on the queenside – at least for the moment.
Later, Gukesh managed to convert his positional advantage into a material advantage by winning a pawn on move 38.
After 38.Nxf7+ Black cannot play 38…Kxf7, since 39.Rxd7+ Kf8 40.f5 is clearly a win for White. Therefore, Nepo decided to 38…Nc5 and it followed 39.Nd6 a4 40.Ke3 b3 41.axb3 axb3
As it turned out, the passer on the b-file offered Black enough counterplay to hold the draw. It was a strong demonstration of defensive technique from Nepo – who finished the game with a 40-minute lead on the clock over his opponent!
Fully concentrated – Dommaraju Gukesh | Photo: Lennart Ootes
