The Grand Prix

Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Feb. 17-28, 2017 Final Standings

1-3. Alexander Grischuk RUS 2742, Maxime Vachier- Lagrave FRA 2796, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2766, 5.5/9

4-8. Ding Liren CHN 2760, Michael Adams ENG 2751, Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2709, Hikaru Nakamura USA 2785, Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2749, 5.0/9

9-12. Richard Rapport HUN 2692, Pavel Eljanov UKR 2759, Li Chao CHN 2720, Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2709, 4.5/9

13-14. Levon Aronian ARM 2785, Hou Yifan CHN 2651, 4.0/9

15-17. Salem AR Saleh UAE, Jon Ludvig Hammer NOR 2628, Evgeny Tomashevsky RUS 2711, 3.5/9

18. Alexander Riazantsev RUS 2671, 3.0/9

This is a 9-round swiss system tournament.

Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves followed by 15 minutes play- to- finish with 30 seconds added to time after every move starting move 1.

GM Alexander Grischuk won the 2017 Sharjah international chess tournament, the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix. He tied for first with Maxime Vachier- Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov but, by virtue of the winner-over-the-other rule (Grischuk beat Mamedyarov in the 8th round and all other games between the top three finishers were drawn), got the nod as overall victor.

The FIDE Grand Prix 2017 is a series of four chess tournaments that form part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2018. The top two finishers will qualify for the 2018 Candidates Tournament. Sharjah (Feb. 17-28) is the first leg, Moscow (May 12-21) the second leg, Geneva (July 6-15) the third, and Palma Majorca (Nov. 1625) the final one. All players will take part in three of the four legs.

The Grand Prix had some problems, one of the biggest of which was that top players like Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Sergey Karjakin and Veselin Topalov all declined participation. They all have their reasons but I believe foremost among them is that if you sign up for the Grand Prix you guarantee your participation in the three legs assigned to you. The Grand Prix had seen multiple calendar changes in the past years and the top players were afraid that it might clash with their other commitments.

Anyway, when the first leg in Sharjah started last month it had the participation of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi and Richard Rapport which seemed to guarantee an exciting and lively tournament. I don’t know what went wrong, but 60 out of 81 total games ( 74%) ended in draws with more than half of the draws agreed before move 30 ( 18 ended in 23 moves or less). Hou Yifan and Levon Aronian drew eight of their nine games and Paco Vallejo drew nine out of nine.

Whatever the reason for this drawfest, corrective measures must be taken as it is a serious breach of conduct — players are always complaining about the lack of good prize funds but if we cannot have good fighting chess in tournaments then how can we entice more organizers to put their money into chess?

My favorite game from the event is the following.

For the longest time Li Chao had been a Sicilian player but starting 2016 adopted the Petroff regularly especially when playing superGM opposition. Here in Sharjah he played it every chance he got and came away with 2 losses and a draw. Frankly, I do not think the Defence fits his aggressive style.

[6...Nc6 is one of the main lines; 6... Be7 is another main option.]

A bit of a rarity. I think the idea is that after the main line 11...Bg4 White has an attack starting 12.Qd3 Nd7 13.Ng5 Nf6 14.h3 Bh5 15.f4 so he puts the bishop on f5 right away to prevent Qd3. 12.Bg5! Judging from the speed with which Nepom played Bg5 this move is part of his preparation. What’s the idea? Doesn’t it force the Black queen to go to a square where it wants to go to anyway? We will see the point later.

POSITION 15.Bxh6! AFTER 14...BH7 Nepomto be just obvious blitzed that this this out. was It preparedappears 15...Bxh2+at home.

After 15... gxh6 16. Qg4+ Kh8 17. Nf5 Bxf5 18.Qxf5 — with the strong threat of 19.Qf6+ Kg8 20.Qg6+ Kh8 21.Qxh6+ Kg8 22.Bd3 Bxh2+ 23.Kh1 f5 24.Bc4+ with mate coming up. 16.Kh1 Bf4

Better was 16... gxh6 17. Qg4+ Kh8 18.Nf5 Bxf5 19.Qxf5 Qf4 20.Qh5 White will be gaining back the sacrificed piece and is obviously better, but Black is still fighting. 17.Bxg7!

Nepom took 16 minutes here, so I think he found this over the board. 17...Kxg7 18.Qg4+ Kh8 19.Nf5 Bxf5

[19...Rg8 20.Re8!]

20.Qxf5 Qd6 21.g3 Bh6 22.Kg2 b5 23.Bb3 Qg6 24.Qxg6 fxg6 25.Re7 g5 26.Re6 Kg7 27.Rh1 Rh8 28.Re7+ Kg6 29.Bc2+ 1–0

Black resigns. 29.Bc2+ Kf6 30.Rhe1 g4 31.R1e6+ Kg5 32.Rg6+ Kh5 33.Re5+ Bg5 34.Rexg5# is mate.

This reminds me of a tournament that the Philippine Chess Society sponsored in 2000, called the Millenium Grand Prix. For the first time in our country the winner’s purse was a cool million pesos. Entrance fee was P10,000 with a starting field of 64 players. The tournament followed a similar format as the FIDE World Cup. First, the 64 players were matched against each other based on their rating ( no. 1 seed vs no. 33, no. 2 vs no. 34, etc. etc.). Then they played a series of two- game knockout matches against each other, plus a tie- break if necessary, until one player is left standing, and he becomes the Philippine National Champion.

GM Antonio quickly qualified for the finals but his opponent was a big surprise — IM Enrique Paciencia upset both GM Bong Villamayor and Mark Paragua in separate matches to set up the finals date.

Here is the decisive game.

The Russian, or Petroff, Defense. Not a surprise, since it is known that Paciencia plays this when meeting a particularly strong opponent. What Black might not have known is that Alexander Kozak, GM Joey’s first round opponent in the 1999 Las Vegas World Championships, also plays the Petroff. So, this defense was put under intensive study during our training. [13.Rxb7? Nb6 followed by ...Bc8 is awkward to meet]

This is “book,” but a strong move nevertheless.

[15...dxc4? 16.Bxh7+ Kxh7 17.Rxh5+ etc.; 15... Nxc4 16. Rxd5 Bh2+ 17. Nxh2 Qxd5 18.Bxc4 Qxc4 19.Qxh5 Black’s position is terrible]

GM Alexander Beliavsky recommends that Black should put his queen on c7. After 17...Qc7 18.a4 a6 19.Rh5 g6 20. Bh6 Rfe8 21. Qf6 Bf8 22. Bxf8 Rxf8 23.Rc5 Qd8 24.Qxd8 Raxd8 25.Rb1 Rd6 26.a5 Nd7 27.Rxc4 b5 28.axb6 Nxb6 The ending is equal. By putting his queen on e7 on the 17th move, he is giving White the tempo to put in Bg5, which would then attack the queen.

This is the position I was talking about. If 19...Qd7 then 20.Bf6! (this look familiar?). The sacrifice is sound in all variations:

20...Qe6 21.Rg5 g6 22.d5 Qd7 23.Qh5! and now Black cannot prevent the thematic mate Qxh7+, Kxh7, Rh5+, Kg8, Rh8 checkmate;

20...gxf6? 21.Qh5 Rfe8 22.Qh6 either mates or wins the queen;

20...Rfe8? 21.Bxh7+! Kf8 (21...Kxh7 22. Qh5+ Kg8 23. Rg5) 22. Bxg7+ Kxg7 23.Rg5+ Kf8 24.Qf6 followed by mate;

20...g6 21.Qh5 Bf4 22.Qh4 Qd6 23.g3 Black has a lot of problems.

Black is intent on holding on to his pawn plus because otherwise he would have no compensation for his passive position. Besides, once the b7 pawn falls all the other queenside minions will follow.

At first blush 23... Nc8 followed by ... Nd6 would seem to be a better defense, but it fails to a tactic: 24.Qh5! g6 (24...h6 25.Bg6) 25.Bxg6 hxg6 26.Qxg6+ Kf8 (Note that the rook cannot interpolate 26...Rg7 because then the queen is hanging — a consequence of moving the knight to c8) 27.Bh6+ Ke7 28.Re1+ This fusion of positional pressure with sudden attacks is characteristic of GM Antonio’s style.

24.Rxb7 Nf8 25.Rxb8 Bxb8 26.Qa8 1–0

IM Paciencia is just one of the nicest people around. Immediately after the match ended the press gathered to get his comments on why he lost. His answer was “I think GM Joey is just a superior player.”