Carlsen's leadership, Nepomniachtchi's mistake and Gunina's uncompromisingness: how the World Rapid Championship started in Alma-Ata

Fedoseev one step away from Carlsen

The calendar year traditionally ends with the World Rapid Chess Championship.

This time the strongest representatives of this sport gathered in Alma-Ata.

In the first three days, the best in rapid will be determined here, and then in blitz.

The favorite of the competition for men, of course, is Magnus Carlsen.

The Norwegian knows how to play not only classical chess, but has also become a winner in fast formats more than once, and in 2014 and 2019

took two trophies at once.

He also started the competition in Alma-Ata confidently and after nine rounds he leads the standings with 7.5 points.

On the first day, he took four games out of five.

And only once he agreed to part ways with Arjun Erigaisi from India.

On the second day of the competition, the Norwegian was challenged by two Russians - Daniil Dubov and Vladimir Fedoseev.

Both managed to put up a worthy resistance to the grandmaster, ending the confrontation in a draw.

Moreover, the meeting with Dubov, where Carlsen acted with white pieces, lasted only 35 moves, and the Norwegian had a slight advantage only at the very beginning.

However, this is not surprising, after all, Daniel won the title in 2018.

In addition, he knows Magnus' style of play like no one else, since he was part of the Norwegian team in preparation for the match for the world chess crown with Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Then the grandmaster was seriously criticized by his compatriots.

Nevertheless, he gained tremendous experience, which he is now actively using.

Daniel after nine rounds is fifth in the standings (6.5 points).

Like the Norwegian, he has not yet suffered a single defeat: he won in four games and ended in a draw in five.

Among his rivals were the reigning world champion in rapid speed, Nodirbek Abdusattorov from Uzbekistan and a young child prodigy from India, Nihal Sarin.

At the same time, Dubov has not yet sat down at the chess table with the Russians.

The former vice-world champion in rapid Fedoseev also had an excellent start.

So far, he is in second place, 0.5 points behind Carlsen.

Their head-to-head confrontation, where Vladimir played with white pieces, lasted 47 moves.

Both were very attentive and did not allow the opponent to get the slightest advantage.

According to the vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation Sergey Smagin, the gap between Russian athletes and Magnus is not so critical and they still have a chance to compete for victory.

“Today was a difficult day, you can’t say that they performed brilliantly, but in general they played well.

Many have pulled themselves up and hang on the tail of the leaders.

Despite the fact that Carlsen has the best chances, luck can turn to face any of our chess players, ”TASS quotes him as saying.

In the company with Fedoseev and Dubov, Ian Nepomniachtchi could have been at the top of the standings, if not for the insulting defeat from Abdusattorov.

The Russian played with white pieces and had a huge advantage until the 33rd move, on which he made a key mistake: he moved the pawn from the advantageous position A4 to A5, although the situation did not require this.

Moreover, he spent only ten seconds contemplating this decision.

“Ian looks great somewhere, professionally, and then with one move from the master’s shoulder he can give everything to his opponent,” grandmaster Sergey Shipov commented on the situation in the game.

Such a decision of the Russian allowed Nodirbek to move from defense to attack and quickly bring the matter to victory.

Interestingly, Nepomniachtchi may face Carlsen on Wednesday, and the result of this confrontation will be interesting in the light of the upcoming fight for the world chess crown, since the Norwegian had previously refused to play Jan for the second time.

Vladislav Artemyev is quite high on the results of two days.

He is in seventh place with 6.5 points.

The Russian lost only one match to the Dutch Jorden van Forest.

In this confrontation, where the domestic grandmaster acted with black pieces, the 20th move became a turning point, when the athlete decided to transfer the knight from B4 to A6 and gave the opponent room to attack.

So far, Alexei Sarana and Alexander Grischuk have no defeats, who, like Nepomniachtchi, scored six points after nine rounds and have good chances to rise higher on the last day of the tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura started not in the best way in Alma-Ata.

The American loves to play rapid chess and was considered one of the favorites of the tournament.

He has never lost yet, but he managed to win in only two games out of nine.

As a result - an intermediate 33rd place.

Goryachkina in the top three

Women have played eight rounds at the World Rapid Championship, and an even more stubborn struggle is unfolding here than among men.

At the same time, there are two representatives of Russia among the leaders at once.

The first day of the competition was left to Valentina Gunina, who won all four games and single-handedly topped the tournament table.

However, it is quite difficult to maintain concentration throughout the week, so two defeats in a row followed.

Yes, she got serious rivals - the 16th world champion Tan Zhongyi and the Georgian Bela Khotenashvili, but the mistakes of the Russian woman herself turned out to be fatal.

In the confrontation with the Chinese, it was Gunina's move, which operated with white pieces, after which the opponent's insignificant advantage turned into a huge advantage, and it was no longer possible to correct the situation.

Valentina made an even more obvious miss in the next match.

The move of the pawn to F5 on the 38th move simply canceled out all the efforts of the grandmaster, who was playing with black pieces.

The failure was temporary.

After that, Valentina won two games in a row and became one of the few chess players who has not yet had a single draw in the tournament.

With six points, she shares fourth place with a group of rivals.

So far, Alexandra Goryachkina is undefeated, who shares the first line with Savita Shri from India and Tan Zhongyi.

Moreover, the Russian woman has not yet met with both rivals.

She will play against the Chinese in the ninth round.

Until the grandmaster sat down at the same table with her compatriot Gunina.

Therefore, the denouement of the tournament promises to be interesting.

However, there are no guarantees that any of these three will keep the first line: only half a point is inferior to them at once by six athletes, and rapid chess is a very unpredictable sport.