Americans Abroad: May 14th

In this new periodic feature here at CLO, we’ll check in with top American players as they compete in important international events. This week we look at three just-completed tournaments to see how five of our best Grandmasters fared! Grand Chess Tour: Côte d’Ivoire Magnus Carlsen continued his tremendous post-Caruana match hot streak, winning the Grand Chess Tour event in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire with a combined score of 26.5 points. (Rapid results are worth twice as much as blitz results in the GCT schema.) Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied for second place, while Wesley So finished in fourth. This win, as Norwegian journalist Tarjei Svensen notes, represents his fifth consecutive tournament victory. https://twitter.com/TarjeiJS/status/1127623929428889600 Carlsen dominated the Rapid portion (May 8-10) of the competition, taking first by 1.5 points (7.5/9) over second place finisher Hikaru Nakamura (6/9). The result pushed Carlsen’s rapid rating over 2900. Wesley So shared third / fourth place in the Rapid with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at 5.5/9. Vachier-Lagrave took the Côte d’Ivoire Blitz (May 11-12) ahead of Carlsen with a 12/18 score. Carlsen, who lost to MVL in both blitz games, finished a half-point back at 11.5/18, while Hikaru Nakamura was in third place and Wesley So in sixth. The next stop on the Grand Chess Tour will take place from June 26 – July 8 in Zagreb, Croatia. Capablanca Memorial 18 year old Sam Sevian followed up on his solid showing in the US Championship by taking shared second place in the 2019 Capablanca Memorial, which ran from May 3-13 in Havana, Cuba. Vassily Ivanchuk was the tournament winner. Sevian started well in Havana, winning two of his first three games. A Round 6 loss against GM Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera – his only defeat in the event – proved a costly setback, but Sevian finished strong with two wins in Rounds 9 and 10. His penultimate victory over Ivanchuk is particularly attractive.

[pgn]

[Event "54th Capablanca Mem Elite"]
[Site "Havana CUB"]
[Date "2019.05.12"]
[Round "9.2"]
[White "Sevian, Samuel"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "2666"]
[BlackElo "2677"]
[PlyCount "95"]
[EventDate "2019.05.03"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd5 8.
Ne4 Qc7 9. f4 Qa5+ 10. Bd2 Qb6 11. Bd3 Rb8 12. Qe2 Nb4 13. Be3 Nxd3+ 14. Qxd3
Qa5+ 15. Bd2 Qd5 16. b3 Qxd3 17. cxd3 Be7 18. Be3 f5 19. Nd2 Ba6 20. Ke2 Rb7
21. Rac1 Kf7 22. Bc5 Rb5 23. Bxe7 Kxe7 24. h4 Rd5 25. Rc3 Rb8 26. Ke3 c5 27.
Nc4 Bxc4 28. bxc4 Rd4 29. Rb3 Rxb3 30. axb3 d6 31. Ra1 dxe5 32. fxe5 Rd7 33.
Ra6 Rc7 34. Kd2 g6 35. Kc3 h6 36. b4 cxb4+ 37. Kxb4 Rd7 38. Kc3 g5 39. hxg5
hxg5 40. d4 f4 41. c5 Rb7 42. Kc4 Rb2 43. Rxa7+ Kd8 44. c6 Rxg2 45. d5 Rd2 46.
c7+ Kc8 47. d6 Rc2+ 48. Kd3 1-0

[/pgn]

Like his fellow junior Jeffery Xiong, Sevian is steadily moving up the world rankings, but with so many elite American players right now – Caruana, Nakamura, So, Dominguez, and Shankland, just to name a few – it does feel (as ex-pat GM Jon Tisdall writes) that somehow Sevian and Xiong are not getting the recognition they deserve. https://twitter.com/GMjtis/status/1128323516439367680 Looking at the May 2019 rating list, Xiong is third among world U21 players, while Sevian is fifth. Other Americans in the top 100 include Awonder Liang (16th place), John Burke (25th), Ruifeng Li (34th), Akshat Chandra (50th), Nicolas Checa (66th), Brandon Jacobson (70th), Andrew Tang (73rd), and Advait Patel (98th). It’s an impressive showing for the Americans, and a sign of just how strong junior chess has become in the United States. Russian Team Championships Leinier Dominguez and Gata Kamsky made the trip to Sochi, Russia, to take part in the 2019 Russian Team Championships, perhaps the strongest team championship in the world outside of the Bundesliga. Dominguez played second board for the eventual winner “Bronze Rider” from St. Petersburg, scoring an outstanding 6/7 and boosting his world ranking to 12th in the unofficial live ratings. Kamsky took his traditional spot on the Ladya team from Kazan, which is captained by former US Olympian GM Ildar Ibragimov. Playing second board, Kamsky played in all nine rounds, scoring a strong 6.5/9. Dominguez and Kamsky met in the fourth round, with Dominguez prevailing in an instructive positional game.

[pgn]

[Event "TCh-RUS Premier 2019"]
[Site "Sochi RUS"]
[Date "2019.05.04"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Black "Dominguez Perez, Leinier"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2664"]
[BlackElo "2750"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2019.05.01"]
[WhiteTeam "Ladia (Republic of Tatarstan)"]
[BlackTeam "Mednyi vsadnik (St. Petersburg)"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 e6 4. Nbd2 Bd6 5. Bg3 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. c3 Qc7 8. a4
Nbd7 9. Bb5 b6 10. O-O Bxg3 11. hxg3 Bb7 12. a5 Bc6 13. axb6 axb6 14. Qb3 Rfb8
15. Be2 Ra7 16. Rfc1 Rba8 17. Qd1 h6 18. Rxa7 Qxa7 19. c4 Qa5 20. b3 Qb4 21.
Qc2 Ra3 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. dxc5 Nxc5 24. Bc4 Bxc4 25. Qxc4 Qxc4 26. Nxc4 Nxb3
27. Rb1 Ra2 28. Nfe5 b5 29. Rxb3 bxc4 30. Rb8+ Kh7 31. f3 c3 32. Rc8 c2 33. Nd3
Nd5 34. Nc1 Ra1 35. Rxc2 Nb4 36. Rc7 Nd3 37. Kh2 Rxc1 38. Rxf7 0-1

[/pgn]

What’s Next? Nakamura and So are set to compete in the 2019 Moscow Grand Prix that runs from May 17-30th. This is part of FIDE’s qualification system to determine two spots in the 2020 Candidates Tournament. Dominguez and Kamsky are currently in Hengshui, China for the 2019 IMSA World Masters Championships. Dominguez is competing in the Men’s Rapid and Blitz, while Kamsky is doing live commentary with IM Jovanka Houska for the event. They are joined by GM Irina Krush, who is playing in the Women’s Rapid and Blitz events. Together the two tournaments run through May 18th.