Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz
Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2018 Saint Louis Chess Center Saint Louis USA. August 11-16, 2018 Final Rapid Standings
1-2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2754, Hikaru Nakamura USA 2824, 6.0/9
3. Fabiano Caruana USA 2738, 5.5/9 4-6. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2793, Levon Aronian ARM 2806, Leinier Dominguez CUB 2826, 4.5/9
7-8. Wesley So USA 2852, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2798, 4.0/9
9-10. Viswanathan Anand IND 2758, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2751, 3.0/9
Time Control: 25 minutes for the entire game with 10 second time delay every move starting move 1.
Final Blitz Standings
1. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2878, 13.5/18
2. Hikaru Nakamura
USA 2913, 10.5/18
3. Alexander Grischuk
RUS 281, 9.5/18
4-6. Levon Aronian
ARM 2871, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2795, Fabiano Caruana USA 2709, 9.0/18
7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2898, 8.0/18
8. Viswanathan Anand IND 2812, 7.5/18 9-10. Wesley So USA 2800, Leinier Dominguez CUB 2687, 7.0/18
Time Control: Five minutes for the entire game with three second time delay every move starting move 1.
Final Combined Standings
(Rapid counts double)
1. Hikaru Nakamura, 22.5/36 ($37,500)
2. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 21.5/36 ($25,000)
3. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 21.0/36 ($20,000)
4. Fabiano Caruana, 20.0/36 ($15,000)
5. Levon Aronian, 18.0/36 ($12,500)
6. Sergey Karjakin, 17.0/36 ($10,000)
7. Leinier Dominguez, 16.0/36 ($7,500)
8. Alexander Grischuk, 15.5/36 ($7,500)
9. Wesley So, 15.0/36 ($7,500)
10. Viswanathan Anand, 13.5/36 ($ 7,500)
As per the usual formula of the Rapid/ Blitz events in this Grand Chess Tour, the first three days of the event featured three Rapid Games a day for each participant and the last two days called for nine Blitz games a day. At the end of the event your Rapid Score multiplied by two is added to your Blitz score to come up with your final cumulative point total.
All eyes were on Caruana at the beginning of the tournament as he will be playing a match for the world championship with Magnus Carlsen this November in London and, unlike the reigning world champion who tops the rating list in Classic (2835.5), Rapid (2880) and Blitz (2939), Fabi’s results in rapid and blitz chess have not been consistent.
Many years ago blitz chess was discouraged among the elite chessplayers as, allegedly, it leads to shallow thinking. Bobby Fischer said that blitz chess kills your ideas, but perhaps he meant that under some specific circumstances, for Fischer himself was among the top blitz players in the world and even won the 1st World Blitz Championship ever held in Herzeg Novi 1970.
Nowadays it is pointless arguing whether quickplay chess is good or bad for your “real” or “classical” chess because the new formats of chess competition demand that you be equally good in all time controls.
Take a look at the rules for world championship play. It is played over 12 games with a time control of 100 minutes for the 1st 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 move, followed by 15 minutes play-tofinish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1.
However, if the game is tied after 12 games the players have to play four (4) tie-break games at rapid time controls, i.e. 25 minutes for each player and an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
If the scores are still level then a match of two games shall be played under blitz time controls, i.e. five minutes plus three seconds increment after each move. In case of a level score, another two-game match will be played to determine a winner. If still there is no winner after five such matches (total 10 games), one sudden-death game will be played where the White player gets five minutes for the entire game and Black receives only four minutes, but in case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.
These tie-break rules are not trivial – you only need to go back two years to the 2016 title match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin. The match ended 6-6 and went into rapid tie-breaks where Magnus Carlsen won two and drew two to retain his crown.
So of course in Fabiano Caruana’s theoretical and general preparation for his November title match had to include training in rapid and blitz play. And it seemed that whatever it is he is doing is working, for in the first day of competition Fabi jumped ahead with 3 straight wins, including this one.
Aronian, Levon (2794) Caruana, Fabiano (2785) [B13] Saint Louis GCT Rapid/Blitz Saint Louis (2.1), 11.08.2018 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.Nd2 e6 9.Ngf3 Bd6 10.Bxd6 Qxd6 11.Qxb7 Rb8 12.Qa6 0–0 13.Bb5 Rb6 14.Qa4 Ne7 15.Ne5 Ng6 16.Nxg4 Nxg4 17.h3 Nf6
Fabi briefly considered 17...Nxf2! 18.Kxf2 Rfb8 and while he does really get a strong attack for the piece it may not be necessary as the continuation he chooses also gets an attack.
18.Nb3 e5 19.0–0 e4 20.Rfe1 Nh5 21.Bf1 Nh4 22.Qa5 Qg6 23.Qxd5?
[23.Re3]
23...Nf3+ 24.Kh1 <D> [26.gxf3 Rg6 leads to mate] 26...Nxe5 27.dxe5 Qxe5 28.Rad1 f5 29.Rd7 Rd6 30.Rxa7 Qg3 31.Rb1 f4 32.Nc5 Qe3 33.b4 f3 34.Re7 fxg2+ 35.Bxg2 Rh6 0–1
In Day 2 whatever magic Caruana wielded in the previous day had apparently started to fade as he could only draw all his games. It was Mamedyarov and Nakamura who both scored +1 and started their move to the top.
Day 3 saw a Caruana meltdown against Leinier Dominguez and both Shakh and Nakamura took the chance to overtake the erstwhile leader and tie for 1st at the completion of the Rapids.
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2782) Karjakin, Sergey (2791) [A13] Saint Louis GCT Rapid/Blitz Saint Louis (7.2), 13.08.2018 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 Be7 4.Nc3 0–0 5.b3 b6 6.Bb2 Bb7 7.Qc2 c5 8.Ng5 h6 9.h4 Re8
Making space for his king on f8. It is not a good idea to take the knight: 9... hxg5? 10.hxg5 g6 11.Nb5 Nc6 12.Qe4 e5 13.gxf6 Bxf6 14.Nd6 White is clearly better at no material investment.
10.0–0–0 Nc6 11.a3 Kf8?!
This looks like one of those moves described by GM Alexander Kotov in “Think like a Grandmaster” – you calculate one move, then calculate another, not being completely satisfied with either one. You cannot choose between them, then you notice the clock ticking and that your time is getting dangerously low – so you just play a “safe” move, one that does not change anything. Something like a “pass.”
12.Nh7+ Kg8 13.Ng5 Kf8 14.f4! Rc8 15.Bd3 d5 16.Bg6! hxg5
[16...fxg6 17.Nxe6+ wins the Black queen]
17.hxg5 Ng8
[17...fxg6 18.Qxg6 followed by Rh8+]
18.Bh7 Nf6 19.gxf6 Bxf6 20.g4 Ke7 21.g5 Bxc3 22.dxc3 Rh8 23.cxd5 exd5 24.c4 d4 25.Qe4+ Kd6 26.exd4 Kc7 27.dxc5 Qe8 28.Bxg7 1–0
And here is Nakamura with his trademark power chess – he pushes you back all across the board and then some unexpected tactics, and then you resign. Nakamura, Hikaru (2812) Dominguez Perez, Leinier (2754) [C67] Saint Louis GCT Rapid/Blitz Saint Louis (9.1), 13.08.2018
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.Re1
This is supposed to be the boring version of the Berlin. I am not so sure about that. I will show you a game from the great attacker Rashid Nezhmetdinov in a while.
5...Nd6 6.Nxe5 Be7
Here is the game: 6...Nxe5 7.Rxe5+ Be7 8.Bd3 0–0 9.Nc3 Bf6 10.Re3 g6 (Believe it or not 10...b6? loses here, White will play 11.Bxh7+ Kxh7 12.Qh5+ Kg8 13.Rh3 Bh4 14.Rxh4 f5 15.d4 with a winning attack) 11.Qf3! (preventing the fianchetto once again) 11...Bg7 12.b3 Ne8 13.Ba3 d6 14.Rae1 Nf6 15.h3! Nd7 16.Nd5 f5 17.Nxc7! Qxc7 18.Qd5+ Kh8 19.Re8 Nf6 20.Rxf8+ Bxf8 21.Bb2 Bg7 22.Bc4 Bd7 23.Bxf6 Bxf6 24.Qf7 Qd8 25.Re8+! 1–0 Nezhmetdinov,R-Kotkov,Y RUS-ch Krasnodar 1957.
7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0–0 9.Nc3 Ne8 10.Nd5 Bd6 11.Re1 c6 12.Ne3 Be7 13.Nf5 Bg5 14.Qe2 d5 15.Ne7+ Kh8 16.Nxc8 Rxc8 17.b3 Nf6 18.Bb2 Ne4 19.d3 Bf6 20.c4 Bxb2 21.Qxb2 Nf6 22.Qa3 a5 23.Re7 Rb8 24.Rae1 Kg8 25.g3 Re8 26.Rxe8+ Nxe8 27.cxd5 Qxd5 28.Bg2 Qd8 29.Qc5 Nf6 30.Qa7
The threat is Re7, taking advantage of Black’s back rank weakness.
30...g6 31.d4 Qd6 32.Rd1 Qd8 33.h3 Kg7 34.Re1 Nd7 35.d5! cxd5 36.Bxd5 Nf6 37.Bf3 Qc7 38.Kg2 h5 39.h4 Qd8?
Black should have gone for active defense with 39...Rc8 40.Qxb7 Qxb7 41.Bxb7 Rc2 with an equal endgame.
40.Re5 Ng4 41.Rd5!
Dominguez was probably expecting 41.Rxa5 which is met by 41...b5! and, with the rook out of action, Black can counterattack with 42.-- Nxf2! 43.Kxf2 Qd2+ 44.Kg1 Re8.
41...Qc7 42.Qxa5 b6 43.Qd2 Nf6 44.Qd4 b5 45.Bxh5! Ra8
[45...gxh5 46.Rg5+]
46.Bf3 Rxa2 47.Rd6 Qe7 48.g4 1–0
The final two days of blitz chess saw Shakh and Nakamura alternate at the top until a penultimate round win over the Azeri GM gave Hikaru Nakamura sufficient buffer to clinch the tournament win with a round to spare.
I notice that none of Wesley’s wins were covered in the various web and online publications. I will redress that omission come next Tuesday.