The Week in Chess

And Then There Were Three... The eleventh round of the FIDE Candidates in Yekaterinburg really clarified the situation at the top of the standings. Ian Nepomniachtchi played the very solid Four Knights as white against his key rival Fabiano Caruana. Nepomniachtchi had the better side of the draw but the margin of error for Caruana was very high and the game was drawn in 40 moves. As things stand three draws will very likely be enough for Nepomniachtchi to become Magnus Carlsen's challenger. Anish Giri moved within half a point of the lead with a win over Ding Liren but he has already lost the mini-match against the leader 1.5-0.5 and that's the first tie-break. Caruana didn't seem ready to go all in today but he probably was disappointed at the zero chances he was granted to make things interesting. Caruana and Giri still have chances to win the event but they're running out of rounds to make things happen - really I think they're relying on Nepomniachtchi to become nervous, they also meet tomorrow, a draw will suit neither. Although theoretically Alexander Grischuk and his opponent Maxime Vachier-Lagrave whom he defeated could still win the event their chances seem vanishingly small with just three rounds to go.

Anish Giri beat Ding Liren to move within half a point of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Giri chose the very rare Ruy Lopez Exchange variation doubly deferred (DERLD). The main point of the opening was surprise, white really can't hope for an advantage. Ding played very forcefully getting a quite decent edge himself in a position with opposite sides castling. Ding must have felt he was moving in for the kill with 19....g5 but he had 19...fxe4 to guarantee him a very easy edge, the real mistake was the follow up 20...g4? (20...Qxf5 maintained the advantage) when 21.Ng4! Qxf5 22.h4 gave Giri a very large advantage. Giri described his 23.Ne4 sacrificing a piece as a pretty easy move to make as Ding's King was obviously in severe danger, Ding should have refused the offer with 23...g3, instead after 23...bxc5 his position collapsed in just five more moves.

Alexander Grischuk and MVL played a wild Sicilian with opposite sides castling. This was a game that could have gone either way and I'm sure MVL was pleased with that but after 19.g5 Nh5 Grischuk had a winning advantage but it was not at all easy. Grischuk missed 31...Rd4 after which the game was about equal but in time trouble there were further swings in fortune the key one was 36...Rxg5?! missing 37.Qxb7 was possible and MVL said that in retrospect he didn't recover from this blow. After first time control Grischuk said that he normally goes for a cigarette but he deliberately stayed at the board to hustle MVL into a mistake, 41...Rxc2 42.Qxc2 Rxc2? was just that error, 42...Ba3+ wins a vital tempo in the endgame allowing black to hold it, instead there was nothing for MVL to do after that and he resigned on move 48. A sad end to MVL's challenge but if he qualifies again I've no doubt he'll learn from this experience.

Kirill Alekseenko and Wang Hao were already out of contention for first place but it didn't stop them playing a very lively draw.

Round 11 (of 14) Standings: 1st Nepomniachtchi 7pts 2nd Giri 6.5pts 3rd Caruana 6pts 4th Grischuk 5.5pts 5th MVL 5.5pts 6th Wang Hao 5pts 7th Alekseenko 4.5pts 8th Ding 4pts

Round 12 Saturday 24th April 2021 12pm BST Caruana-Giri, Ding Liren-Grischuk, MVL-Alekseenko, Wang Hao-Nepomniachtchi